Steve Townes WB4ILW (President) presented the usual club updates. We discussed and approved a budget to be sent out to the membership for a vote. Various other topics were discussed. For more details, see below and in the presentation (at the end of this post).
Attending: Steve Townes WB4ILW (President), Alexandra Holloway AE6IN (Vice-president), Jonathan Cameron KF6RTA (Secretary), Christ Gaylord W6YTB (Emergency Communications Manager), Costin Radulescu KI6OML, Florin Tudor KM6PTR, David Seidel KC6NRL, Rob Smith W6GRV, and Bob Dengler NO6B. Attending by phone: Chris Carson KE6ABQ, Mike Gauthier KC6ICS, David Hodges KI6PMB, Walt Mushagian K6DNS, and Chuck Sarture KG6NF (Treasurer). We had a quorum.
Updates
Steve Townes presented several updates. These include membership updates by Jonathan Cameron, and NASA on the air update from Rob Smith. To see the presentation, see the link at the end of this post.
Alexandra Holloway reported that this meeting was posted on the JPL Announcements forum. We also usually announce meetings via the email list and via the Slack #amateur-radio channel. We encourage members to join the Slack amateur radio channel to get quick updates and participate in chats about Amateur Radio topics.
We discussed upcoming meetings. Steve had a list of potential topics but we are always looking for speakers.
The proposed budget was reviewed and discussed:
The Board of Directors voted to accept the proposed budgit so it could be sent to the membership for a vote. The club Secretary, Jonathan Cameron, will send it out to members for a vote.
Participation in the WPX Contest was proposed by Jim Marr AA6QIO. He is considering this for training in doing voice QSOs for field day. At minimum we agreed to supply the club IC-7300, if needed. More details on this are at the end of the presentation (see the end of this post).
Steve Townes reported that we have FT8 working in the B329 shack with our new club IC-7300.
The club Secretary requested advance approval for a guest membership for Nancee Darling K8NBD who is a member of the Altadena ALERT radio team and regularly assists JPL during the Great Shakeout emergency preparedness exercise. We also discussed advance approval an honorary membership for Randy Hammock KC6HUR, a former JPLer who did a lot to support the JPL ARC. The Board of Directors voted to approve both memberships when they apply. The club Secretary will alert both Nancee and Randy that they may send in applications.
There was some discussion of the old antenna mast and HF antennas on the top of building 171. These have been abandoned for many years after one of the early club “shacks” in building 171 was closed. Club members may take a look at the mast, antenna, and rotator to see if anything can be salvaged for use on the Mesa.
The Presentation
To see the a PDF of the material presented by President Steve Townes in the meeting, please click on this link:
2019-02-08 JPL ARC Board of Directors Meeting Presentation
Action items:
- Secretary: Send budget to the membership
- Secretary: Add Steve Townes to email list management