Board of Directors Meeting, January 12, 2018
By Steve Townes, Matt Bennett, Jonathan Cameron, Rob Smith, and Judy Greenberg
Present: Steve Townes WB4ILW, David Seidel KC6NRL, Bob Cesarone WA9JIB, Elias Barbinis KM6JEF, Jonathan Cameron KF6RTA, Rob Smith W6GRV, Chris Gaylord W6YTB, Matt Bennett KF6RTB, and by phone: Kathleen Harmon KM6GBY, Jim Marr AA6QI, and Chuck Sarture KG6NF. With five club officers and six regular members present, we had a quorum.
Meeting Notes
The incoming president, Steve Townes WB4ILW, appointed Chris Gaylord W6YTB as the Emergency Communications Manager and Joshua Miller KB3UUS as the Director at Large.
Steve Townes welcomed everyone to a new year and outlined some of his plans for the year. He listed the incoming officers:
- President: Steve Towns WB4ILW
- Vice-President: Jonathan Cameron KF6RTA
- Secretary: Matt Bennettt KF6RTB
- Treasurer: Chuck Sarture KG6NF
- Emergency Communications Manager: Chris Gaylord W6YTB
- Director At Large: Joshua Miller KB3UUS
Steve thanked the 2017 officers for their service and reflected that the current officers are the same, just shuffled a bit.
Steve mentioned that he plans to limit the Board of Director’s meetings to nuts-and-bolts of running the club and focus the General Meetings on presentations of interest club members.
The treasurer reported that current account balance is $4,507.75. The secretary reported that the current membership is 43 including 37 voting members. The ARRL participation is 68%.
Steve encouraged everyone to renew ARRL membership using the information info on the website to maintain ARRL club status.
Jim Marr AA6QI asked about the status of moving the repeater antenna up on the telephone pole in the repeater yard. Jonathan Cameron responded that the equipment is ready but we have not been able to arrange for a cherry picker to work on the top of the telephone pole in the Mesa repeater yard.
Jim Marr also asked about the status of the new (as of 3-4 years ago) 70cm Kenwood repeater and if there there plans to use it. We agree to look into this.
2018 Budget
Steve Townes presented a proposed budget for 2018 as shown here:
The primary features of this budget are:
- Assumes approximately $1000 of income for club dues
- Includes $1500 expenditure to buy a new radio
- Funding for the Mt. Wilson linking project was deferred until we could clarify several issues about it.
The reasons for a new radio were discussed in the meeting. Matt Bennett felt that the HF beam antenna on the Mesa should be priority over new radio. After some discussion, we felt that we will need some help from the Emergency & Continuity Management Section for this. We will defer any action (and funding) on the Mesa HF beam antennas until we can put together a concrete proposal to the Emergency & Continuity Management Section and see how much support we can get there. Rob Smith felt that we would likely expense these things into next year. In the meantime, we do have a working HF antenna on the Mesa. Steve agreed that the approved funds could be reallocated if needed—with approval of Club if it is a large sum. We need to prioritize a meeting with Will Michael to discuss big-ticket items, money left over that we can use for our proposed activities, and let him know what work we’ve done to date give him an update on work done to date, planned activities, and discuss future of HF rigs and Mesa antennas on tower.
A motion was made to accept budget as proposed and was unanimously approved. Next step is to send out for vote of membership.
Now that we have a working HF antenna on the Mesa, we need to participate in the weekly SHARES net on Wednesday mornings. We need to set up a schedule.
NASA On The Air (NOTA)
The Amateur Radio clubs at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) centers around the US have invited the Amateur Radio community to join the NASA On The Air (NOTA) special event. NOTA gets under way in December 2017 and continues through December 2018. In addition to being the agency’s 60th anniversary, 2018 will mark 50 years since NASA orbited the first human around the moon, and 20 years since the first elements of the International Space Station (ISS) were launched into low-Earth orbit.
Starting on Monday, December 11, 2017 (UTC), Amateur Radio club stations at various NASA centers and facilities will be on the air with special event operations to celebrate these monumental achievements, as well as current milestones. Some clubs will offer commemorative QSL cards, and a special certificate will be available indicating the number of NASA club stations worked on various bands and modes.
The JPL Amateur Radio Club will participate. Rob Smith W6GRV is leading the planning and organization for our participation.
Rob Smith said he has some software from W1AW that can be used for scheduling NOTA operating activities. We can do over email for now. Jim Marr suggested we can use SignUp Genius as an alternative.
We need a logging computer in B329. Josh Miller may have a computer to donate.
Rob Smith will plan on briefing everyone on process for NOTA at next General Meeting
Jim Marr suggested that it would be useful to ask all NASA on the air contesters read the latest version of the ethics on the air document. It contains a lot of good pointers for contest operators (as well as all other operators): http://www.hamradio-operating-ethics.org/
go to “Versions” and select the latest. The IARU-R3 looks to be the latest. A direct link to the IARU-R3 version is:
Rob Smith noted that the October 1977 W6VIO Calling issue described where the W6VIO callsign came from: It was the callsign of one of the early club members, Jack Blindbury.