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MAARS Club Meeting — April 2018
Meeting Commenced: 6:33 pm
Meeting Concluded: 7:00 pm
Attending: Ashley Benteman – KEOIQV
Officer Reports:
President
– Away in London
VP Report
– Nothing new to report
Treasurer
– Incoming funds of $60 in dues
– Expenses of $82 for one year rental of the club’s USPS PO Box
– Current Total $1,046.55
Committee Reports:
Wildcat Warrior 5K – April 14th
– Meet at 6:45 at 4th street McDonalds for breakfast
– Need to be at the location of the race at 7:30
– Event is scheduled for 9:00-10:30
– Anyone is welcome to join! They plan to use digital mode for this event but they will use voice as back up
– Since it will be so cold, you can transmit from your vehicle if needed Fox Hunt
– April 25 & 27 (Wed & Fri) in the Library auditorium at 6:30, there will be a fox hunt antenna build day
– Come and go as you please
– We will be building tape measure, 2m beam antennas
– Tools will be available
– Can provide materials if needed
– Annuators, see email about kits sent out to group or discuss with Ryan
– Please email Ryan if you are planning on attending
Field Day – June 23rd
– We will be transmitting from the Riley County Shops on Tuttle Creek Blvd. This will be an indoor location with a restroom
– Planning on running three transmitting stations, one of those being a digital station because of recent club interest
– Two stations with wire antennas like G5RB or something similar
– Digital Station will use a vertical antenna to reduce interference
– GOTA (Get On The Air) Station
– Field day is a great opportunity to get used to using a radio and make lots of contacts. It is a great time with food, radios and friends.
– Do not plan to operate 24 hours due to past experiences of low participation in the early morning hours
– We will have the one by one call like previous years
– To volunteer, please see Jon or Ryan
– They will have a sign up sheet created for time slots of radio operation by the next meeting as well as an idea on practicing set up date before the event
Old Business:
Test Session
– May 12th at 9am in the Manhattan Library Auditorium
– Six people have shown interest
– We also have new VEs that can help
New Business:
– PO Box
– The price has increased to $41 for 6 months and we hardly ever use it. We only get bank statements, and some junk mail and so we are paying almost $16 per piece of mail.
– Our PO Box is printed on our checks. We are also on our last book of checks that will probably last for quite a while.
– We can also change to online banking.
– Some questions to consider:
– We are paid for the next year but is this something that we would like to continue?
– Do we need a physical address for the FCC?
– Pattie will look into if there is a Private Mailbox Company in Manhattan and how much they would be for the next meeting.
– Motion to table this for 6 months where we will then start to consider options before our PO Box needs to be renewed again. Motion passes.
– 80 Meters Simplex Test
– People have met after the Tuesday night net to try it out. They have had pretty good luck with it.
– Moving forward, they will plan on doing it after the Tuesday night net and they will announce on the repeater which frequency is free that they will be using that evening.
– RTTY Contesting
– Bill, Ray & Ryan took part in the National Contest Journal North American QSO Party RTTY as Team Zombie Land. Their preliminary combined score was 21,714 and so they should place well in Kansas as a team.
– Bill also took part in a contest in November with CQ Worldwide RTTY DX Contest and placed fourth in zero land.
– Ray & Farren are competing in FT8 Grid Squares.
– There will be another QSO Party RTTY in July that is only 12 hours if anyone is interested. They would welcome more team members. There are only 5 members for a team but they can have multiple teams. Please let Bill know if you are interested in participating!