The meeting was called to order November 24, at 7:15 PM.
Attending: Raul KE5QIT, Roger K0YY, Jim AB5JK, Jason KS5TX, David W5DUH, Dave WA6YJW and Erik K5WW.
We have received a really great-looking charter from the ARRL, to proudly display our affiliation with the League. It needs a frame!
A list of active members/shack users has been created, with mug shots and phone numbers and addresses, to (among other reasons) help hospital security identify us.
Raul KE5QIT mentioned that the hospital was recently audited by the Department of Homeland Security and the state emergency management group; and that both agencies were wowed by the club’s organization and involvement in the community!
Raul asked if we had participated in any county competition. The answer from the President was “no”; but he’s going to contact Charlie at the EOC to discuss that. Also, after attending a meeting at the EOC last week Jason is going to have a follow-up meeting with Charlie to see what we, as the CARC, can do to help them out with their equipment needs.
Raul also asked if we could frequently test and keep a log of the performance of the big diesel generator right outside the shack. Jason mentioned that he recently charged the batteries and ran that generator for several hours, powering all equipment inside the shack; and that it performed good. Jason said that, if the hospital were to require us to keep such a log, it would be good if they would either sign the generator over to the club, or at least put it “on loan” on our paperwork.
Jason brought up the National Parks On The Air event again; and suggested a location nearby; and – since the event runs all year in 2016 – also had several other activations in mind.
Another “Parks” event Jason brought up again is the Texas State Park On The Air event, held earlier this year. We had a lot of fun participating this year; but after many months passed the results have not been published yet; worse: the TSPOTA website has now vanished! So Jason emailed the President of the contest’s sponsor (Northwest Amateur Radio Society) Mr.Brad Nelson WD5GNI, who in turn emailed back and said “Tom King WK5DX single-handedly took care of this for a number of years; but has recently passed away, and nobody has stepped up to take over yet”. That, of course, is very unfortunate; and we sincerely hope they can work it out, so that this fun event can be held again in 2016 and beyond.
The Treasurer reports current assets at $926, thanks to Roger paying his and his XYL’s dues very (ie. way too!) early and adding a donation to it, and another generous gift from James WW5XX. Thanks to all! Some of that money will go towards insuring the club’s equipment, through the ARRL sponsored insurance plan.
We discussed the meeting date for December. Because the 4th Tuesday of the month is horribly close to Christmas Eve it was decided to reschedule December’s meeting to the 15th.
With Raul present at the meeting the President and K5WW were able to describe the RFI problems we have been experiencing at the shack for several months; RFI that originates from the hospital building to our South. After listening to our description of the issue and how we tracked down the source Raul immediately suggested to investigate it on Wednesday, with Jason’s and Jim’s assistance, to try and fix it. Thanks!
The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 PM, after which Roger forced all of us to eat cookies.