September 2022 Meeting Minutes
Snoqualmie Valley Radio Club
Monthly Meeting Minutes
September 1st, 2022
I. Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. at Duvall Fire Station 66.
Members in attendance were:
Tom (WA7TBP) – President, Kirt (K7KDW) – Vice President, Lindy (KG7IFA) – Treasurer, Shawn (K7ATA), Mike (KJ7JNG) — Secretary, Ralph (KC7QXD), Bob (KI7RMO), Robin (WACPA), Konstantin (KK7GCN), Paul (W7PEZ), Colin (W2COL).
II. Approval of Board Meeting Minutes
The meeting minutes from the meeting that occurred on August 4th 2022 were approved.
III. Treasury Report and Financials
Lindy presented the August 2022 financials to the members in attendance. Currently there is $8,096.37 in the treasury and SNOVARC has 37 paying members.
IV. Committee and Task Force Reports
Repeater Task Force:
Cougar Mountain Repeater – Ports 1 and 2 are mysteriously getting “turned-off”. Several times Shawn has discovered that the ports were non-operational and he was able to “turn-on” both ports easily with the access security code. If it continues to happen, Shawn recommends that the security code is changed and only shared between a few members of the club.
Myers Repeater – The Myers repeater continues to work well and a significant increase in propagation coverage area has been realized after the repeater was moved to the new location. Shawn estimates that the antenna is about 15 feet higher than the original height and this is probably the reason why coverage has improved.
Carnation Repeater – The Carnation repeater is still operating from Paul’s home. SNOVARC has been granted permission to move the Carnation Repeater into the Sheriff’s office and share space within the Sheriff’s Department room in Carnation City Hall.
Ralph proposed that when the club begins the removal of the old, and installation of the new Cougar Mt. repeater equipment, that it is done in phases i.e., start with the amplifier first and allow it to operate w/o any problems. After a trouble-free period, install the next piece of equipment and allow that equipment to be observed before moving forward to the next piece of equipment. Also, Ralph suggested that at the Carnation repeater site that the club separate the IRLP port and ECHOLINK ports. The members present voted to move forward with both of Ralph’s proposals. The second proposal (separation of IRLP and ECHOLINK) will finally be decided upon when the final cost of separating IRLP and ECHOLINK is established. Ralph estimated the cost to be in the neighborhood of $500.
Emergency Planning and Mobilization:
Tom and Rowland have been working on new forms to be used in case of an emergency.
Education and Community Outreach:
Tom mentioned that the club has been waiting for the summer to end and then reach-out to the Issaquah club. The joint venture will provide information to the new hams from classes in Issaquah and North Bend. The goals of the classes are to get the new hams on the air and be comfortable with operating their equipment.
Carnation Space:
SNOVARC was granted permission to add a weather head so a new antenna line can be run from the new space within the Sheriff’s room to the roof. The rearrangement of space inside City Hall has helped Ana, the City Manager and her staff. The equipment that was retrieved from the Carnation City Hall space will be tagged with identification numbers for equipment tracking purposes.
V. Old Business
King County Badging – Rowland has started distributing the new badges.
Marketing – Tom has a plan to utilize FCC HAM databases to alert local Hams’ that SNOVARC exists and would like them to participate in club activities.
Mini Drill – The 9/15 mini drill will be a 75-meter tune-up exercise.
VI. New Business
Tom discussed pumping adrenaline into the club with things like evening and weekend events. A suggestion was made to go to Farmer’s Market and set-up a table and operate on HF and VHF and UHF channels. Members of the public could be invited to talk on the radio and maybe generate some interest in ham radio. Some additional ideas were to have a session to build measure tape antennas and maybe a class on soldering. Shawn recommended an evening event with free pizza and have the event in Preston and invite Issaquah and Carnation members.
Ralph has moved to Arizona and has several antenna projects going on so he can communicate with the SNOVARC repeater over IRLP. He will ask the local Arizona Ham club (E.A.R.S.) for permission to use their Mount Lemon repeater in Tucson, that has an IRLP port to connect to the SNOVARC repeater IRLP port.
Tom talked about a mistake he made while working with his antenna analyzer. He tried to get others to fess-up to their mistakes so we can all learn from each other. Since Tom is the only person who admits his mistakes, no one else fessed-up.
Upcoming Events:
September 12: CERT Class begins, Duvall Fire Station(?), 6:00-9:00PM Monday nights (7 sessions) + Final on Saturday 11/5/2022
September 17-18: 8AM-5PM NW Citizen Corps EXPO (Yakima Valley Community College) FREE ADMISSION! Registration Required: https://servewashington.wa.gov/registration-open-2022-citizen-corps-expo-yakima
September 24: 11AM-1PM Carnation “Be Dam Ready” Evacuation Drill (walking to site using both the evac trail and Tolt Highlands Rd NE) – Need Hams, CERTs, etc.
October 1: CDCCC Annual Drill for a Windstorm Disaster — More details to follow
October 6: SNOVARC Meeting, 7PM Duvall FS & via Zoom (Business Meeting at 6:15, Elmer session 7PM: Topic TBD)
Tonight’s SNOVARC face-to-face monthly meeting ELMER Session – Hosted by Robin – WA7CPA – Topic: Planning to activate 160-6 meter in Palau during a DXpedition.
Meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.m. The event will be at the evac site between 11a-1p and participants will be walking, not driving, to the site up both the evac trail and Tolt Highlands Road NE.
