Coyote Amateur Radio Club

The meeting was called to order at 19:17.

Attending: Dave WA6YJW, Jim AB5JK, Richard N5YPJ, Jason KF5EJX, James WB5AIG and Erik K5WW.

The treasurer’s report: we’re broke. Well, almost. After the purchase of the Spiderbeam, the Yaesu rotator and the control cable we have $84.45 available. Yikes…

Speaking of which: work installing the beam is ongoing. Lots of measuring and cutting has happened (while YOU were not there), and the rotator and trust bearing have been installed. More work to be done; so far we have worked close to 16 hours on it.

The balun is almost done, the shack’s a mess because of all of the work; but we’re all looking forward to the final result. We’re trying our best to get the new beam (and the VHF repeater antenna) installed and working on the tower before the CQ WW RTTY contest and Texas QSO Party at the end of September. So … if you have nothing better to do on Saturdays/Sundays then please join us!

Other news: Jason brought up the possibility of getting insurance for the equipment, now that we have accumulated a good $10,000 of it. It would be about $140 annually. This will be discussed again later; cuz we’re almost broke, remember?

The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 CDT.

To the August 2014 club meeting on the 26th!

Well, they did it again. Texas Jay, Louisiana Jay and Imported Jay did a little bit of contesting this past weekend. And it was BIG fun. Sorry to see you guys didn’t make it…

We participated in the North American QSO Party (SSB) and the SARTG RTTY contest. Two radios, two wire antennas, a couple of hot dogs and lots of Coke Zero later they made several hundreds of contacts!

Louisiana Jay (L) and Texas Jay (R)

The end result, other than it being just plain old good entertainment, is a few new DXCC entities in the KN5S log book, some of which have already been confirmed via the LoTW.

Many more new ones will be coming after next week; when we get the new antenna installed! Oh, wait, that was top secret info there. Never mind! 😉

Ladies, gents,

Apart from a few minor foolish things (like the pending RM-11708…) the ARRL has done a lot of good – even great – things for our hobby. Without them our hobby would no longer exist. I know that, and that is why I support them and have been a member of it for a few decades now.

Once again, with our help, the ARRL can do great things, for all of us. Earlier this year, with the help of a fellow amateur radio operator (who happens to be a Congressman) they introduced House Bill 4969, know as the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2014. It aims to expand on what is currently known as PRB-1, and would, if approved and written into law “direct the FCC to extend the “reasonable accommodation” provisions for Amateur Radio antennas to include all types of land-use regulation, including deed restrictions and restrictive covenants.” That includes silly “historic districts”, like the one I live in now.

They have tried to do this a few years ago; after which the FCC basically said “well, if you can get Congress to order us to put it into law then we will get it done.”

The time is now. You may not live in a CC&R infested area right now; but there’s no telling what will happen if/when you move. This bill, when voted on and approved, will take care of our ever-growing antenna restrictions now and forever – for everyone.

Please go to http://www.arrl.org/hr-4969 and read it all. It’s really not that much! But it will require you to email or write your Congressman/woman, to let him/her know that you support this bill. And you should.

Please!

After the July club meeting Mr. Alfredo Cortez took and  passed the Technician license test.

7 days later he was assigned KG5DHT by the FCC.

Welcome, and start studying for the General test! 🙂

The meeting was called to order July 22 at 7:25 PM.

Attending: Jason KF5EJX, Jim AB5JK, Erik K5WW and Alfredo Cortez. Where was everybody else???

The June minutes were read and approved.

The treasurer’s report reads $318 in dues, and $847 in the equipment fund.

Now that the tower has been installed we still need an antenna and a rotor! Input from all members is needed.

Jason mentioned we should mail a thank you letter to Jim’s dad for the use of his property at Field Day.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:29 PM, in order to give Mr. Cortez enough time to take the Technician test. And he passed!

Alfredo Cortez of Uvalde passed the Technician test on July 22nd. Congratulations!

But thanks to the kind folks at the Kettle in Uvalde we can still have really cool meetings!

Come join us for the July meeting on the 22nd at 7 PM. You will be sorry and melt if you don’t…

Come see him in action! 🙂

According to some people – and I’m only reading between the lines here – it sucked. Big time.

Hardware problems, personnel problems, and mosquito problems! Hardware problems because Jason’s radio finally quit, personnel problems (maybe?) because there was no free food; and mosquito problems because…. well, they’re always around, aren’t they?

And yet: I had my little bit of fun. We made a little over 100 QSOs, and given the time, hardware, and personnel we had available, that isn’t too bad!

Here’s a little bit of video of what you missed:

http://youtu.be/W0UO12riCYs

Yeah, it was getting dark 😉