Martin County Amateur Radio Association

http://www.mcaraweb.com

Meeting Minutes

June 24, 2010

1. Call to order

Doug W4DAS Shields, President, called to order the regular meeting of the Martin County Amateur Radio Association at 7:04PM in the meeting room at 777 SE Salerno Road, Stuart, FL.

2. Roll call

A sign-up sheet was passed around and indicated about 22 attendees.

3. Approval of minutes from last meeting

Minutes from the last meeting were posted on the club website with hard copies available at the meeting. Minutes were approved.

4. Treasurer Report -No report given but we are in pretty good shape.
5. Old business

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  1. Week #1 Monday Night’s Net Control. (NCS) will be conducted by Mike KJ4TQA.
  2. June continues to be a very busy club month with the ARRL Annual Field Day scheduled for the weekend of June 26 & 27th at Sandsprit Park, at the Manatee Pocket, Stuart, Shelter #6. The event is co-hosted by the MCARA and ARES/RACES clubs in town. This is advertised as a public event and will allow everyone to get on the air and test out any new or old equipment, or learn a new skill during a very popular practice event. Logging of contacts and points earned will be calculated. Bring a friend. A motion was made by Lee and seconded by Jan (and Bill S.) to spend up to $250 for food. Judy N4TFVand Jan KJ4FHT circulated a sign-up sheet and will coordinate the goodies. Iron Chef Mike KJ4TQA offered to grill.
  3. Everyone was invited and reminded of the July1st Skywarn Wingdings social at 5:00PM at Perkins, US1 in Stuart. The purpose is to have some fun and to discuss weather related topics. The event is held monthly (1st Thurs) and all are welcome.
  4. A reminder was sent out about the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course (AREC-101) training date is now scheduled for July 10th and July 17th at the Martin County (EOC) Safety Complex in Stuart starting at 9AM to 3PM. Course books should be ordered in advance with John KE4JB for $19 and the testing fee ($15?) will be covered by the Russ AI7Q/SK Ackerman Training Fund. 
  5. A reminder was also relayed that the Martin County ARES/RACES holds its monthly meeting on the second Thursday of the each month at the EOC with regularly scheduled nets each Thursday night (except for their 2nd Thursday of the month meeting nights). Next meeting is July8th at 7:30PM. See the WX4MC website for details.
  6. On June 8th at 9:00AM a reading of the Proclamation that June is Amateur Radio Month in Martin County was held. The reading and certificate presentation was televised on community TV and presented at the Martin Co. Board of County Commissioners meeting on Monterey Road. The Commissioners recognized the value of Amateur Radio and how we educate and train for emergency situations. The Commissioners were invited to Field Day by Bill N4BKT. About 6 club members attended.
  7. All were encouraged to visit the ARRL website to see the numerous events going on in the area and around the globe. It was suggested that you visit neighboring clubs in the Palm Beach, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie Counties if you are ready for a license upgrade or VE test. Please support the many Hamfests during the year.  For example these Hamfests are currently scheduled: Aug-Fort Pierce & Huntsville, Oct-Melbourne, Nov-Boca/Delray Club & Okeechobee, Dec-Tampa/Palmetto, and Ft. Meyers. Next year 2011 starts out in Feb-Orlando and our own MCARA BIG HAMFEST in March. When you visit other clubs or attend Hamfests please take notes for new ideas we could incorporate into our Hamfest and please promote our event to others. We also will need club members to promote MCARA prize tickets at the Orlando Hamfest event. 

6. New Business

1. A Club QSL Card design contest was announced. The special event station set up at Camp Murphy (Jonathan Dickinson State Park) was a success and QSL cards are rolling in so we need to send out QSL cards and certificates. We are offering a club member $50 for the winning best design of a new MCARA QSL card. Motion to approve the prize money was made by Bill S. and seconded by Joe S. and Bill N4BKT will announce the details and guidelines on the MCARA website. Card designs may be:

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  1. Single or double sided.
  2. Preferably contain reference to some aspect of unique county of Florida (Martin)     and/or amateur radio in general.
  3. Single color, 4 colors, or full color.
  4. The Call sign should be easily readable from a distance of several feet.
  5. Should contain normal amount of contact exchange information and room for a short note. E.G. RST, frequency, etc.
  6. Should have the following contact info: Martin County Amateur Radio Association, PO Box 1901, Stuart FL, 34995. http://www.mcaraweb.com

2. The next opportunity to become “basic” level trained or recertified as a Nation Weather Service (NWS) Skywarn Spotter will be on August 21th at the MC EOC (weather permitting). A current ID card would show your county and a number (MAR001) and certification is for 24 months. There have been significant changes in what weather conditions now need to be reported to the NWS so this is a good time to join this important group, learn the changes, what to report, as well as what not to report, and get a new Spotter number. You are encouraged to attend even if you are current as the class material is constantly updated for our area. You do not need sophisticated equipment to be a certified Spotter, in fact your eyes and ears are the most important things. Spotters are encouraged to monitor the local repeaters and their severe weather alert radios but do not need to report “trivial or clear” weather events. After checking in we should try to keep transmissions short and keep the repeaters free for any emergency traffic if a formal net is announced. Please see NWS.Gov Melbourne website for Skywarn Spotters or see the Martin County Skywarn website.  Contact David KE4UEI or Ron KD4PQQ for details.

3. Arlene N7ALA requested some assistance in moving some desks and radio equipment around. Please contact her directly and let’s give her a hand.

4. Anyone interested in hosting a Monday Night “rag chewers and traders” Net to act as “Net Control” is encouraged to contact Ray J KI4RHL. It is actually fun and all that is needed is a 2M radio that can hit the MCARA repeater to be a NCS. Newly licensed, visitors including mobile or marine operator’s, and club members are encouraged to check in every Monday night at 1900 hrs. (8PM) on the 147.060 repeater.

5. A quartermaster committee was set up to develop a "wish list" of items that the club might consider building and/or purchasing. It was suggested that the list should include basic things like antennas (vertical & dipoles), push up poles, tree launcher, radio power supply, power pole for distribution, possible basic solar panel, etc. The goal is to better our chances of making contacts and to have this basic equipment on-hand for club events since this seemed to be a weak area of concern. The team will consist of Steve M., Bill L. Charlie Koch, and Jeff Beals-WA4AW. Ron T. seconded the initial motion made by Steve M.  

7. Agenda/Presentations- None

8. Adjournment

Doug W4DAS adjourned the meeting at 8:45PM.

Next meeting is scheduled for July 22nd at 7:00PM with a mini swap shop set up at 6:30 to buy, sell, or trade ham radio related items. (4th Thursday of the month)

Minutes respectfully submitted by: Ray KI4RHL Jaworski, Secretary

Minutes approved on ________________by _____________and ____________