SnoVARC

Snoqualmie Valley Amateur Radio Club

June 2024 Meeting Minutes

by · June 12, 2024

Snoqualmie Valley Radio Club

Monthly Meeting Minutes

June 4th, 2024

I.  Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order by Tom at 7:00 pm on Zoom.

Members in attendance were:

Tom (WA7TBP), Kirt (K7KDW) – Vice President, Mike (KJ7JNG) – Secretary, Rowland (K7RWB), Colin (W2COL), Ken (W7ECK), Shawn (K7ATA), Henry (AI7WN), Ralph (KC7QXD), Larry (AFTRW), Bob (K7RMO), Ben (AD7JI)

II. Approval of Board Meeting Minutes

The meeting minutes from the meeting that occurred on May 7th, 2024 were approved.

III. Treasury Report and Financials

As of 6/2/24 there was $8,751 in the treasury and SNOVARC had 37 dues paying members for 2024. One large expense since our last meeting was for $200 for the ARRL liability insurance. Thank you very much to Kirt for your Microsoft matching funds OF $919.00

IV. Committee and Task Force Reports

Repeater Task Force:

Cougar Mountain Repeater – Lost UPS during the wind storm. It could have been the cycling of the back-up generator that caused the issue or an incorrect voltage feed during start-up. The UPS is one year old, so the UPS should not be the problem. DTMF tone issue still exists.

Myers Repeater – Ready to activate IRLP/EchoLink when members have time to install equipment. Repeater does not handle that much traffic. Mike said that Trilogy will use it more often when EchoLink has been connected.

Carnation Repeater – Tom has the new ARCOM controller. Tom has the gator box that is ready to be deployed.

Emergency Planning and Mobilization:

EYEWARN – Clark County is very impressed and happy that Sno VARC utilized their system as the template for the EYEWARN notification system to be implemented in the Snoqualmie Valley.

Education and Community Outreach:

Ham Radio Tech Class – Topic to be removed – no interest from Duvall/Carnation residents.

Rowland reported that there are 7 SNOVARC members that indicated they are willing to Elmer newly licensed hams.

Thursday Night Roundtable/Ham Development – KBARA is not interested in the roundtable. Question: Should the club cut-back on the IRLP scheduling times that allows KBARA and SnoVARC repeaters to link together?

Carnation Space – Rowland said that several Carnation City Hall positions will be reassigned new responsibilities within the City. After those changes take place, Rowland will be able to determine if and where we need to relocate the club’s equipment.

Equipment Inventory Status: Tom has tagged much of the equipment and we do not have any new equipment that needs to be tagged.

V. Old Business

Status of Club Shirts – Sandy’s Duvall Dazzling Designs has not returned Tom’s calls.

VI. New Business

Meshtastic networks:

  1. Not like the old mesh radio. Not LoRaWAN
  2. Uses encryption
  3. No license required
  4. Runs on 902 to 928MHz
  5. Each meshtastic LoRa radio acts as a repeater
  6. Potential uses: File sharing, text messaging
  7. Can it be used on HAM frequencies? No…but in some cases encryption can be used…based on interpretation of FCC guidelines. 

Meeting adjourned at 8:11 p.m

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