BOD minutes of 12 Jan 12 Meeting

Members attending: Bob-WL7GK, Sterling-WL7TV, Christine-KL3HP, Billy-KC8MVW, Steve-KL7XO, John-KL1AZ, Jerry- KL7EDK, Mac-KL2GS, Bill-KE4ITP, Linda-AD4BL, Myles-KL1NU. (AL7FG-Dianne) A quorum existed. Meeting started at 7:05pm

John brought up the item regarding the Badger Road Baptist Church and the KJNP radio interference. After some discussion Billy indicated he would contact someone at the church and get more info regarding the exact nature and what had been tried in the past to clear up the interference.

Expenses to be approved were the Post Office Box rental and the year fees for Manley Repeater Space and Power. Billy made a motion to approve both expenses and make sure Benny got reimbursed for them. Benny’s note indicated he paid $100 for the 2011 Space and Power and now has a bill for 2012 as well as the $140 for the PO box rent.
Both expenses are part of doing business.

Club Meeting program for February would be final prep work for the Yukon Quest. Linda may or may not be at the meeting depending on her surgery status. Her ankle is still not mending and she may require additional surgery. A definite answer will be known in a couple weeks.

The March meeting would be a “hands on” class using EZNEC by Jim Movius. Jim will take us through a basic model of a dipole antenna to get some exposure to the club members interested in using EZNEC. The meeting will start earlier
than normal in order to give enough time to cover the material.

Jerry talked about APRS. At the January meeting there were some questions brought up about APRS that we didn’t have answers for. It was suggested that maybe we have 3 or 4 APRS guru’s put together a program for one of the meetings in either April, May or June. Jerry will contact a few APRS experts and see what can be done.

Linda mentioned that Carol DeVoe had called and asked if the club needed a new map for use at the Quest HQ. Our old map had disappeared a couple years ago. This was a welcome bit of news. She also indicated that her daughter could make maps for use at the check points as well. Anything that Carol and her daughter could provide would be greatly appreciated. Linda also mentioned that our contact for the Quest would be Josh Horst. He was head of Logistics and communications falls under that category. So far we don’t have a ham yet for covering the Circle checkpoint.

Neal will be back the 1st of Feb and is in-charge of setting up the Log Cabin for the Communications. We suspect the setup date will be around the 3rd (Friday) just before the race starts on the 4th. In the past we have set up almost a week early and with improvements we’ve made over the years it really only takes about 3 hours if enough people show up.

Linda gave short update on the up coming Ak Shield Exercise in February. The exercise is set to run for the whole week of February 5th thru the 11th but we might only be asked to help out for a 2-3 day segment...maybe 8th 9th and 10th area. Still not sure what our involvement would be on the part of the Borough. The UAF has asked that we set up some means for them to contact hams at rural campus and have them pass traffic. The traffic is expected to be just short updates on rural campus status. UAF needs to hear from Nome, Bethel, Dillingham and Kotzebue. The UAA will be doing the same with several other places as will also UAS. Exact nature for the rest of the state is still not firmed up yet.

John indicated we need to set up a schedule for our weekly Interior Net that involves the use of other bands and techniques. He suggested that we have the regular net on the Ester Dome repeater and then switch to alternate bands or modes. One week we would QSY to 6 meters and maybe the next to 146.520 , etc. Maybe even a digital net on PSK31 or some other mode to get a handle on what modes we might have available in time of emergency. He will try to take a survey and see who has what available. He also indicated that on nights when all the net control operators were tied up at the BOD meeting there would be no scheduled net unless he can find a non-BOD person to take the net control.

John mentioned he has not made a lot of progress on the CFC funding. Finding information about how to get enrolled and what is required is taking lots of time and information does not present it self easy. He has some queries into ARRL about it. Also funding might be available through the PFD Pick and Click program. We would need to jump through a bunch of hoops and verify our 501(C)3 status. General belief is that our status has expired and if we need to re-activate it may require more forms and paperwork.

Mac indicated that there is another lodge in Central now and he has moved his check point ham station closer to that location. The amount of exhaust from cars and trucks presented a serious problem last year and he does not want to get gassed out of the shack again this year. The new location is about 1/4 mile closer to Fairbanks and has some trees that Mac can use for a G5RV instead of a mobile vertical. The place is called Far North Market and is a local venue. All hopes are that it will endure.

Meeting end at 8:30p