July 2017 Meeting Minutes

Snoqualmie Valley Radio Club

Meeting Minutes for July 6, 2017

 

Meeting called to order 7 p.m. Carnation City Hall Council Chambers by Rowland Brasch, K7KJB, substituting for Tom Needham, WA7TBP.

Fifteen Members Present: Robin Amundson, Kathy Brasch, Rowland Brasch, Paul Butzi, Joe Carpenter, Nancy Carpenter, Dick Freiheit, , Ken Kosters, Ralph Lease, Irvina Mizell, Jim Myers, Dan Pflugrath, Shawn Somers, Ben Thompson, Jessie Brasch.

Ne Member: We welcomed new member and new ham, Jessie Brasch, KI7NXA.

Secretary Report by Robin Amundson, WA7CPA. Robin asked for motion to accept June minutes as published for review prior to the meeting in club Yahoo newsgroup. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the minutes.

Treasurer Report by Robin Amundson, WA7CPA, for Lindy Friedlander, KG7IFA. Robin reported the current bank balance is approximately $1,614.24, not yet approved by CDCCC Board. In addition, Lindy reported in her published Agenda there are currently 41 members as of June 30, 2017, including 9 newly licensed. This compares to 37 paid a year ago at the same time.

 Committee and Task Force Reports

 Repeater task force-Shawn (K7ATA)

There was lengthy discussion about IRLP DTMF being “really flaky” per Ken, W7ECK. Due to Tom’s absence there was no discussion on agenda item regarding other agencies operating on our 145.590 link frequency.

Emergency planning and mobilization-Ralph, KC7QXD. There was no report.

Education & community outreach-Larry, N7ART. Submitted by Larry Backstrom, N7ART, by e-mail for inclusion in Minutes: Larry cleaned up the Join section on the website, uploaded the new membership form with the waived fee for new licensees and made spelling corrections. He then updated the links to the form. There was a query wondering how long Larry will want to head this task force after moving to Wenatchee.

Carnation space-Paul, KG7STV. The Carnation space has been tidied and is ready for visitors to get on the air.


Old Business

 June 4: We had a booth during Duvall Days.

June 10: We had a walk-about training in Carnation led by Tom, WA7TBP.

June 23-25: We held a successful Field Day on a beautiful hill at Carnation Farms. It was noted an ARRL official brought his two children to our Field Day event and stated we had the most desirable location he visited. Rowland asked Ken to thank his boss, the Field Day site owner with a hand-delivered certificate of appreciation.

July 4: Kathy, K7KJB, thanked the ham and CERT participants for their traffic management services in Carnation for the July 4 festivities.


New Business

 CDCCC board meeting updates and upcoming events-Kathy, K7KJB

Kathy announced the following:

September 11: Next CERT class series, instructor to be Nancy Carpenter beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Carnation Fire Station 85.

September 16: Kathy announced a sheltering class on September 16. September 30: City of Duvall will take the lead on the area wide major emergency preparation event.

 

Next Year Field Day Suggestions

1.Rowland suggested a playbook be created documenting the planning steps and dates to complete each step. The book would include an equipment list and be a guide for any successor planning Field Day.

  1. Rowland suggested socializing and operating be physically separated to aid operators listening for signals. Operators should use headphones.
  2. There was discussion about the antennas. Ken suggested we consider selling the A3S for $600 because it is too large, heavy, and difficult to transport and erect. He suggested proceeds could purchase a portable hex beam. Bengt, K7ADD, lent his hex beam for Field Day and putting it up was easy and it worked well.
  3. Ken, W7ECK, said we were short on coaxial cable and connectors. He said having 100-200 feet would be helpful.
  4. Shawn, K7ATA, suggested we put together a tool kit for Field Day and to have in emergency for interoperability. Discussion for items to include are crimpers, power poles, PL 259, barrel connectors, and a good multi-meter, not a cheap, inaccurate Harbor Freight one.


Recognition

Ralph wanted to recognize Larry, N7ART, for promoting amateur radio by mailing his technician licensing manual to someone across country when he learned Ralph had inspired the individual to study for the exam while on a business trip in Washington, D.C.

 

Future Programs

The August program will be presented by Dan, KA7GPP, about SOTA (Summits on the Air). Rowland raised three possibilities for the September program. The group consensus was to invite John Petrich, K7FU, Radio Club of Redmond member to speak about SDR. Robin knows him and offered to ask him. (Robin subsequently emailed John, who accepted the invitation to speak at the September meeting).

 

Grant Application

Rowland volunteered to write a grant, learning from a previous grant writing experience. Paul, KG7STV, suggested 100 Women Who Care in Snoqualmie Valley. It was decided the grant application would go to that organization as well as the Snoqualmie Valley Tribe. Different amounts for grant requests were discussed.

 

Yahoo! Newsgroup and Successor

Shawn enlightened us about how Yahoo!’s days are numbered and all Yahoo! Email will one day go away without notice, as will the Groups feature. He suggested a migration to a new company Groups I/O. (After the meeting Shawn set up the new account for us at Group I/O. It will serve as our new private chat room for club business and document sharing).

 

Map Library

Ben, KG7BTU, is interested in creating a map library in case of deployment in an emergency or catastrophe. The purpose will be mapping signals throughout the valley in reference to Carnation City Hall. Someone noted Ken, K7ADD, has propagation map software that could aid in this project.

 

Net Control Schedule

Because the weekly Thursday night nets have been without the originally assigned net control or backups and because some people are moving away, it was discussed we need to re-do the schedule to ensure it is reliably covered. A sheet was passed around for those who can commit to take a turn at net control.

 

Distracted Driving Bill Discussion

There was brief discussion about the legal status of ham operators transmitting while driving. A one-button touch rule was mentioned. Ben, KG7BTU provided a legal reference to Sub. Senate Bill 5289 considering amendment of RCW 46.25010.

 

Upcoming Elmer Presentations after business meeting

August 3: Dan Pflugrath, KA7GPP, about SOTA (Summits on the Air).

September 7: John Petrich, W7FU of Radio Club of Redmond on SDR

October 5: Planning for 2018

November 2: TBD

December 7: Annual dinner out

 

Minutes respectfully submitted by Robin Amundson, WA7CPA