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11/21/2023 UPDATE
!!!CHRISTMAS PARTY-CHRISTMAS PARTY-CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! – The Club Christmas party is set for Friday, December 8, 2023. It will be at 6pm at Magel’s Grill (3805 NE Loop 286, Paris, TX 75460). Magel’s is on the loop, just west of Walgreen’s. Rumors abound that one or more Club members may be getting some sort of award at the party. We look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it.
George Haneke (NV7Z) – Our good friend and Club Treasurer George Haneke (NV7Z) is still recuperating at Birchwood Nursing & Rehabilitation in Cooper (110 FM 64, Cooper, TX 75432). He has made great strides and enjoys visits. The Bixby app has apparently hijacked his Android phone as it mutes all inbound calls. Go ahead and try calling him to see if that has been remedied by one of the people helping him try and figure it out, but if it goes straight to voicemail the Bixby problem has not been solved. Please go see him in person if you are in the area and if you are an Android phone type, maybe you can figure out the Bixby issue.
RRVARC Board of Directors (BOD) meeting – The Club BOD met on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 0900. The agenda items were:
April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse – The board discussed how Club members might participate during the event and the days leading up to the event. Even the City of Paris and Lamar County are still refining much of their plan. For now schools in the area will be closed on Friday prior and Monday of the event. The current plan is for the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to be staffed up from 7am-7pm, Saturday-Monday, with consideration being given to more hours and an earlier start in the week. Perhaps as early as Wednesday. When more details are firmed up we will pass the information along.
Possible Constitution & Bylaws (C&B) changes – After discussion the board agreed they would recommend two C&B changes to membership. At the January Club meeting the board is going to advance two resolutions recommending the change. One will be to lower the number of members at a meeting to make such changes. With 52 members and the current 2/3 requirement, we have to have 34 members at a meeting. Only once in recent history have we had that many at a meeting, the spring 2023 50th Anniversary meeting. While keeping the number high enough to discourage frivolous or hostile changes, the board will recommend changing the number to 50%+1. That would drop the number to 27. Average meeting attendance is around 20 and we believe we could get 27 to come in order to help facilitate a C&B change. The other suggested change will be to change BOD meeting requirements from a hard four to two times a year. The president or four members can call for extra meetings at any time and the hard requirement for one per quarter creates some scheduling difficulties.
Atlas Site Upgrades – The current VHF repeater (146.76) is an older Yaesu DR-1X. They were not designed to be used with a repeater controller which creates some issues in administration and limits optional features. Remote control is also extremely limited. The board evaluated upgrade options to include a Yaesu DR-2X with a WAN port which allows multiple repeaters to be linked, a repeater controller and some other optional equipment. As this migration will require funding, further discussion was tabled until the 1Q2024 board meeting.
C&B Review – The board did a brief review of what the current C&B calls for if a Club officer is unable to complete their term of office.
REMINDER: There will be an election for new executive officer’s (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) at the March 2024 meeting. The current executive officer’s terms expire on April 1 and the newly elected officers from the March meeting take over on that date.
Club Awards – The board discussed possible awards to be granted to members that have done meritorious service to the Club.
Annual participation award – The board discussed a possible option to encourage people to participate in information nets, Field Day, Tour de Paris, short-notice call ups such as the recent Autumn in Bonham bike rally, etc. The possible action item was tabled.
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Review – The board had a brief discussion of all matters related to EOC: How personnel are granted access, who is currently granted access, guidelines for when personnel are dispatched to EOC, exactly what equipment is there, operational status of all equipment, inventory list, planned website update of all details and development of a comprehensive proposal for new Lamar County EOC outfitting for Club. This discussion lead up to a visit to the City of Paris EOC. Takeaways from our EOC review will be detailed later, but Lamar County has just contracted to buy a $1,000,000 400’ tower and put it at the 20,000 square foot County EOC being designed, right now. The county is planning to make us a spot there as the city as done at the PD.
Website Updates/Changes – This week we continued to evolve the Club website. Right now the Club repeater control operators are on the Leadership web page. Very soon we will be creating two new separate pages, one for Repeaters with details of the equipment located at the Atlas site, the Trustee function, Control Operators and what they do and a comprehensive list of all of them. We will also be adding an EOC page where we will detail the equipment located at the current City of Paris police department facility and the County facility that is being developed right now. Further website changes, already up and running but not on the menu – An Honor Roll page to list out all of the recipients of the Club awards mentioned above and, long-overdue Silent Key page to honor our members who have passed away. With the recent passing of Vicki Ross (KG5YWO) the time was right to get that done. Final website comment – Few would guess that we run an average of nearly 500 hits on our site every week. We try to keep the content fresh, we have more design improvements planned and try to be responsive to input from Club members. Some of site is in better shape than others, the payments page needs a complete rebuild, but we believe the effort invested so far is yielding traffic results that validate the investment we are making in it.
“Unofficial” Call sign list updated – The list is updated to v8 and is available under Library from the home page. It can be opened from this link if you wish. It is a PDF that can be printed out or you can capture it as a screen capture to your phone. It is not exclusively Club members, but it does have the most active participants on our repeaters listed. Whether you are new to ham radio and don’t know anyone’s call sign, or you listen in on our nets and don’t know some of the non-Club member call signs; nearly everyone seems to find the list to be helpful. As always, if you see errors or omissions, please drop Phillip Beall (W5EBC) an email and he will get it addressed.
Fannin County ARC (K5FRC) – The RRVARC leadership is attempting to further develop a relationship with the Fannin County club. There are lots of benefits to this. With Fannin County directly adjacent and west of Lamar Count,y inclement weather frequently comes from that direction. The tower climber that did our work at the Atlas site, James Hunt (KI5DQ), is the vice president of their club. We have the ability to seek mutual assistance from each other, like when they recently reached out to us asking for help with their Autumn in Bonham bike rally. We will likely do the same thing for Tour de Paris next year. We have discovered that the migration path for our VHF repeater matches the configuration the FCARC uses so there is the ability to share knowledge on that topic. There are just lots of reasons to develop relationships with their club and club members. This link is to their most recent news letter, which is much like our Club News page. Our Club Secretary Phillip (W5EBC) and his wife Kathy (W5WON) Beall are neighbors with Mike Durbin (K5MJD), PhD, who is the Trustee of the FCARC (K5FRC). Phillip asked Dr. Durbin if he was willing to do a presentation for our Club and he said he would. He is planned for the February meeting and the subject matter will be “Adventures with research ships around the world.” Dr. Durbin is a radar and microwave expert who has been on a number of voyages as the onboard expert for all things radio. Please make sure and plan to come to the February meeting and enjoy the presentation.
73
RRVARC Officers
11/13/2023
Board of Directors Meeting: There will be a Club Board of Directors meeting Tuesday, November 14, 2023, at 0900 at High Cotton Kitchen (1260 Clarksville St, Paris, TX 75460). Agenda Items are:
- April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse
- Recommend C&B Changes to Membership
- Atlas Site Upgrade Options
- C&B Review
- Club Awards
- Annual participation award
- EOC Review
ARRL News: Club member and ARRL NTX Section Manager Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) recently gave the George Hart Distinguished Communicator Service Award to Jo Ann Keith (KA5AZK). She is the long-time 7290 Traffic Net Manager and we know many of you have participated on that net.
ARRL News: ARRL NTX 2023 Ham of The Year Nominations Due – While we are mentioning the work that Steven is doing with ARRL he wants us to remind the Club membership that he is still accepting nominations for the ARRL NTX 2023 Ham of The Year award. If you know a ham that you think is worthy of that award please click this link and go read up on how to nominate someone. We have a lot of hams in our Club, some with years and some pretty new to the hobby, that are doing great service. Please pick one and nominate them.
George Haneke (NV7Z) Update – George was admitted to Paris Regional Medical Center with sepsis a few weeks back. If undiagnosed it is often-times fatal. They got him on track with drip IV antibiotics and he is making a slow, very slow, recovery. He was transferred to Birchwood Nursing & Rehabilitation in Cooper, room 20 (110 FM 64, Cooper, TX 75432). He welcomes visitors, so if you are in the area please drop by for a few minutes.
Fox Hunt poll results – The results are in and with 53 eligible to vote, 14 total voters participated. Eleven said they DID want to continue doing Fox Hunts. Three said they DID NOT want to do them. Those that wanted to do them were evenly split on weekend versus weekday and the weekday group favored Monday and Tuesday.
Vicki Ross (KG5YWO) – The Club officers have coordinated a brief celebration of life to follow the Club meeting next Saturday. Fellow employees from Harbor Freight, family and neighbors have been invited.
Meeting Date Change – As a reminder, the November meeting was moved to the third Saturday of the month to deconflict from Thanksgiving. The Club meeting will be this coming Saturday, November 18 at 10am. Many of us will meet for breakfast prior to the meeting. If you wish breakfast please be there by 9am so that waitstaff can be dismissed form the room prior to the meeting starting.
10/27/2023 Update
Fox Hunt Poll – Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) has been running some local transmitter hunts – Fox Hunts – and he has asked us to poll the Club. Please click here, take the poll and help us to help you. The poll will close at 1700 today (Friday, October 27, 2023). You are offered the choice of YES or NO as to whether you are interested in or not. You taking the few seconds it will take to provide an answer helps us to validate the functioning of our poll. Please take it – thank you.
Board of Directors meeting – The board has set a meeting at High Cotton Kitchen on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 0900. Members are welcome to come and observe if they wish.
“Unofficial” Call Sign list updated to v7 – The popularity of this list continues to amaze us. We added a couple of names and the page is just about filled up. You can download it to your phone, print it out and throw it on the desk in your ham shack or on the seat in your vehicle. Know who is making a call when you answer them. As always, if you see any errors or omissions, please let us know. Please click here for the latest version (v7).
Club Meeting October 28, 2023 – Tomorrow we will have our monthly meeting at High Cotton Kitchen (1260 Clarksville St, Paris, TX 75460). Many meet for breakfast prior to the meeting, we just ask that you please be there by 0900 if you plan breakfast. The meeting will start at 1000 sharp and we want the waitstaff cleared from the room before the meeting starts. Remember, gratuity is not included with your check. Please don’t forget to tip the great staff that helps us to pull these meetings off.
Free Stuff! – At the meeting a gentleman from Greenville (Allen Shutt (KE5VOH)) will be giving out 36 cases that we think would perform well as a “Go-Bag/Box”. For more information on them please see this forum post – Radio Go-Bag/Box Event. The event references the Fannin County ARC event at Coffee Mill Lake last weekend, but it was updated following the event. There are lots of pictures of these high-quality cases.
George Haneke (NV7Z) – George is being discharged from PRMC today. He is being transferred to Birchwood Rehab in Cooper (110 FM 64, Cooper, TX 75432). George appreciates calls and visitors.
Kim Ledbetter (KI5VLH) – After a bunch of tests to confirm his candidacy Kim started a clinical study on the efficacy of a new cancer treatment. He endures a two-hour infusion and then is observed for four hours before being sent home. These treatments are planned for every three weeks and with as many as fourteen treatments. Kim enjoys calls and texts. Both gentlemen’s contact information is available in the Member Directory.
10/22/2023 UPDATE
There has been a lot of Club activity in the last few weeks. Following is a recap:
Fox Hunt Poll – Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) has been running some local transmitter hunts – Fox Hunts – and he has asked us to poll the Club to see what level of interest there is and what days of the week might interest people. So far only ten people have shared their thoughts with us. If you have not yet taken it please click here and take it now. Doing the poll does at least two things for us: 1) It informs us of interest or lack of interest in a particular subject, and; 2) It gives you a chance to let us know if the polling tool works OK. Please help us to help you and take the poll. The poll will be open until Friday evening prior to the next Club meeting.
Fannin County ARC “Radio Go-Bag/Box” event – On Saturday, October 21st, the Fannin County Amateur Radio Club (FCARC) hosted a “Radio Go-Bag/Box” event at Coffee Mill Lake recreation area. Our own Randy Holland (N5DDS) went, participated, took notes and pictures and sent them back to us. Please click here and check those details out. Added: Here is a goose egg for everyone – Some free stuff was given away and we may – may – get a load of it to distribute at our upcoming Saturday, October 28th, Club meeting.
Fannin County ARC “Autumn in Bonham” bike rally – The Fannin County Amateur Radio Club (FCARC) reached out to the RRVARC officers and asked if we could help them out with some additional radio operators for the Saturday, October 7, Bonham Area Chamber of Commerce Autumn in Bonham bike rally. They suspended the rally in maybe 2019 and this was to be the first rally in resumption of what will hopefully be an annual event. It was short notice, but we scrambled and got five people to go and help them. Please click this link and go read the debriefs of the event.
Map Build Assistance Request – We are trying to get a Google Maps project launched. You can customize layers in Google Maps and we have the ambition to use multiple layers combined with weather radar to provide everyone the ability to look at multiple layers of things like roads, APRS beacons, emergency providers (hospitals, fire stations, etc.). This is doable, we just need some help with it. Like everything with our Club, there are seemingly more tasks than people willing to help with the tasks. If this piques your curiosity please click Google My Maps – Assistance with Red River Valley ARC Area of Operations Map, give it a read and sign up to help out.
Call Sign List Updated – The “Unofficial Call Sign” list was recently updated. The latest is v6 dated October 3. As always, humans make mistakes. Please look it over and if you see any errors, drop a note to secretary@wb5rdd.org. You can now go to the website and from any page hover over the “Library” button and then click the link “Unofficial” Call Sign List from the drop down menu. The latest copy can be obtained right now by clicking here.
Club email list maintenance – If you are reading this and have not received any email from the Club recently, please drop a note to secretary@wb5rdd.org. We have recently done some work on our email list and want to make sure that nobody’s address was inadvertently purged.
November & December Club meeting Dates Changed – At the last Club meeting the members present decided to deconflict the November and December Club meeting dates to get them away from the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The new dates are Saturday, November 18 Club meeting and Friday, December 8 (6PM) Christmas Party.
December 2 Testing – The last scheduled testing session of the year will be on Saturday, December 2. For details please click here.
December Christmas party – Friday, December 8 (6PM) at Magel’s Grill (3805 NE Loop 286, Paris, TX 75460). A deposit has been made and we hope to see a bunch of you join with us for the festivities. We dare you! Wear your most horrible Christmas sweaters and/or finest Festivus regalia!
10/03/2023 UPDATE:
All,
We just did some email list maintenance. This involved exporting our email list from the site to our group mail host Mailchimp. This send is to ensure that we have the most current list possible. If we get any email bounces we will investigate and try to remedy the email. If you do not get one, well, we have a hard time knowing that so a forum post and Club News mention will both be made. If you did not get an email from the officers on the afternoon of 10/03/2023 please email admin@wb5rdd.org.
73
RRVARC Officers
09/20/2023 UPDATE:
W1AW Event – On Friday, September 22 (0845) Club members and others interested in ham radio are gathering at the home of Club member and ARRL North TX Section Manager Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) and his wife Zogail Smith (KB5KBE). They will be operating HF and making contact with Club member Gary Sorensen (K9AIA) who is on a consulting contract in Connecticut. Gary is 30 minutes away from ARRL headquarters and the historic W1AW museum. If you have not been getting the email invitations and want more detail, please contact rsvp@wb5rdd.org and tell us what you need. We want to encourage all of you to attend if able.
Upcoming solar eclipse – On Tuesday, September 19, the City of Paris conducted a seminar on the total solar eclipse that will occur on April 8, 2024. The seminar was at Love Civic Center and was about 45 minutes of presentation and then Q&A. The presentation discussed the experiences of those that were in the last big one nearly two decades ago. Think tens of thousands of people pouring into the area to experience it. Paris is going to be right in the center of the path so community leaders are expecting a days-long onslaught of curiosity seekers. The Club leadership is in preliminary discussions with Lamar County emergency preparedness personnel and will keep the group updated as the plan firms up. For updates please go to this forum post – Solar Eclipse 2024 – RRVARC Planning & Preparation.
Kim Ledbetter (KI5VLH) – Kim is home and continues to improve. He is a walking, talking, living and breathing miracle and an inspiration to all of us. He is meeting with his cancer doctor soon to map a strategy for beating his cancer once and for all. Please email or call him. He enjoys the contact.
“Unofficial” Call Sign List – This list started off as a one-off, but it has proven very popular. We moved it, it is now right under the library menu on the website. Please go look for it, v5 is the most recent one, and if you are not on it, your name or call sign is misspelled; anything that is wrong, please email and we will get it updated promptly.
Cindy Penry (KD5CCB) apron – Club Secretary Phillip Beall (W5EBC) recently stopped into Home Depot and noticed a very – very – festively “ham radio” decorated smock being worn by our own Cindy Penry. Way to go Cindy!
Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) – Jerry has run a couple of “fox hunts” in the last couple of weeks. He has asked everyone to come to the meeting Saturday prepared to tell him what you want to see in a fox hunt. With the arrival of cooler weather there is a nice opportunity to do some of these and have it be fun all the way around.
Vicki Ross (KG5YWO) – Can collecting for the Club – Vicki asked us to let everyone know that she is going to once again miss the Club meeting because she will be working at Harbor Freight 0745-1315 Saturday. She knows some of us are overflowing, so she offered that she will drive her truck to Harbor Freight and anyone that takes their cans to the meeting can swing in there and drop them in her truck bed. Her truck is a blue 2011 Ford Ranger and she always parks on the left facing the building when you pull into the lot.
Johnny Thomas (WB5JT) – At the Club meeting on Saturday, September 23, Johnny is going to do a presentation on the NanoVNA-H4. It is one of the newest latest and greatest devices for tuning antennas, “sweeping” cables and all manner of other testing.
Charles Bouton (AD5PG) – Charles is our latest ham, an Extra, to join the Club. We got an application, letter and check for $24 from a guy that lives in El Paso, Texas. It turns out he has relatives and his deceased wife is interred in the Paris area. He is coming here for about a month and had hoped to make our September 23 Club meeting, but a doctor appointment was changed and he will not be here until the following week. While in the area he hopes to make contact with some of us via the repeater and as he put it, he doesn’t believe in “repeater fairies”. Repeaters take money to build and maintain and hence his $24 in dues money. When Mr. Bouton shows up on the repeater, everyone please give him a warm welcome.
Member discipline – Some of you have maybe heard that there was a member disciplinary matter before the Club leadership. We can confirm it and can tell you that facing likely expulsion the member tendered their resignation.
100th Birthday – This one has zero, absolutely nothing to do with ham radio. But there was recently a Stars and Stripes article about U.S. Army Veteran Ethelyn Szad Bell, a resident of the Clyde W. Cosper Texas State Veterans Home in nearby Bonham, asking to get 100 birthday cards for her 100th birthday. For more details please click this link to a forum post on the topic. A card will be circulated at the Club meeting on Saturday.
Repectful Radio Behavior – We have a Club member who ran the Monday evening information net a while back. The next day he interpreted some conversation between a couple of people on the repeater to be…critical of how he had performed. This member has not been to a Club meeting since. Missing him a couple of officers reached out, discovered what had happened and have talked with him a number of times. We have reassured him that this was not his fault, that we value him and that we want him to continue to be a member of the Club. Honestly, he is on the fence and may not be back. The conduct that lead to this situation is, in a word, unacceptable. We want to take the time to remind everyone:
- We want to encourage people to do net control.
- There are no FCC hard and fast rules for conduct of information nets beyond call sign announcement.
- There are technical suggestions, recommended “best practices”, but those are recommendations only.
- If you hear someone participating on the net and they depart from those recommendations and you have a question or comment, keep it to yourself until later. You can later pick the telephone up and call the person and ask them about it or get in touch with a Club officer. If it is as simple as “That isn’t how I would do it.” OK, that is your opinion. Others may not share your opinion and we are not going to have members feeling criticized because they do not conform to another persons personal preferences.
- The officers are not going to tolerate people trying to police our repeaters, scolding people on operating technique or talking unkindly about someone. If you wonder if this is directed at you, then it probably is. Correct yourself before we have to get in touch about it.
The Club officers work very hard on member recruitment and retention. When we lose members because of the tacky or cliquish behavior of others, they can anticipate a telephone call from one or more officers calling their behavior out. We simply are not going to tolerate it.
That is a lot of info for you to absorb. As always, if you have any questions please call, text or drop the officers an email. We work for you and we want to make the RRVARC the best club you could ever want to be a member of.
73
RRVARC Officers
08/09/2023 UPDATE
Here is a quick update on the latest administrative happenings.
BOD Meeting Agenda (August 15, 2023)
The current agenda items are:
Guest – Quincy Blount (Lamar County Emergency Management Coordinator)
- Solar eclipse 2024
- Field Day and Field Day location 2024
- Member Awards
- Possible member discipline
- Club Policy – member vehicle insurance (and Club liability “Hired and Non Owned Auto Coverage” – see below)
Mailbox Renewal
On August 8 our mailbox was renewed. The price increased from $150 a year to $180 a year. We have considered a less expensive option, changing to a PO Box, but the reason that we have the Club address with Postal Options is because some of the regulatory agencies that we have to file with prohibit PO Box usage.
Club Liability Insurance Renewal
On August 9 our ARRL Club Liability Insurance policy was renewed it. A copy is at this link. It is a $2,000,000 policy. Our liability insurance expires on August 14 each year. During this years renewal we noted that they also offer another rider that might be prudent for the Club to obtain reference automobile liability for the Club. The board will discuss this at the August 15 BOD meeting.
Keeping It All Current
We maintain a comprehensive list of all of our obligations, from reports to insurance to reservations; please click this link to Reports and Recurring Obligations and look at the list. In fact, please check it monthly and if you see something that appears to be about to need attention and it has not been updated, get in touch and ask about it.
73
RRVARC Officers
07/29/2023 UPDATE
All,
Since the May Club meeting and 50th Anniversary celebration there has been a number of events that may be of interest to you. We will do a brief writeup of each item below.
Field Day 2023: Charles Penry (WA5VHU) coordinated the event and we all appreciate his hard work. Thank you Charles! Mel Toye (K5KEY) loaned Phillip Beall (W5EBC) a heavy-duty trailer, Phillip fabricated some ramps to facilitate loading and he and Kathy Beall (W5WON) loaded their scissor lift onto it. A few days before FD2023 Johnny Thomas (WB5JT) with T. Wayne Moore (KC5KOH) and Haskell Maroney (KI5VGQ) went to the Beall’s and picked the lift up and took it back to Johnny’s house. On FD Johnny trailered the lift to the Love Civic Center Pavilion where Charles used the lift to attach halyards to facilitate pulling up a long-wire antenna this year and in the future. Sound like a project? Lots of people involved just to make that one thing happen. For more details and picture please go to this link in our forums – Field Day 2023. That will jump you to page 4 of 5 on the forum.
Tour de Paris 2023: Club VP Mark Johnson (W5PTX) coordinated our TDP2023 effort and he did a great job. Thank you Mark! The Club had a good showing and the TDP2023 had somewhere north of 900 riders. Our operators made a big difference in supporting this important annual community undertaking. The other participants treat us like rock stars and everyone had a good time. If you don’t know what we do at TDP and have never participated, standby. We are planning a short training session following a Club meeting very soon. 20-30 minutes going over what we do and how we do it in order to demystify things. Some things like Field Day are a real marathon. TDP is a lot of fun and lots of people appreciate our participation, so expect more soon. If you have any TDP2023 pictures please text or email them to Mark.
UPDATE: Several people have asked how you can use something like the Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Portable High Pressure Inflator with Digital Gauge to air up a tire with the Presta type instead of a conventional Shrader valve (Differences explained at this link.)?
The solution is a Presta adapter. They can be bought at lots of places, but here is a link to four for $5.97 from Amazon. You temporarily install it onto the tire, inflate it with your inflator and then remove the adapter. If you have one of these inflators or something similar, you can just drop an adapter into your toolbox or toolboxes and give one or two away to friends that might could press one into use.
Fox Hunt: Johnny Thomas (WB5JT) hosted several hams at his home a couple of times, once to build antennas and once to hook those antennas up and then do a fox hunt. Johnny drove off and parked with an emitter while Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA), Haskell Maroney (KI5VGQ), Chuck Knight (KD6UMU), George Haneke (NV7Z) and Phillip Beall (W5EBC) participated. More such events are planned for the cooler weather of the fall. Thank you Johnny!
Solar Eclipse 2024: Club member Jesse Hembree (KI5BNE) recently mentioned to a RRVARC officer that Hopkins County and others were actively working with their Emergency Management Coordinators reference a big solar eclipse set to occur on April 8, 2024. He was inquiring if RRVARC was looking into the matter. We were not at the time, but things are ramping up fast. More material will be coming forth soon, but RRVARC and Lamar County Emergency Management Coordinator Quincy Blount are in active discussions. You might find yourself wondering why this event is even a thing? Hotels in the affected area are all sold out and have been for quite some time. Anecdotal examples of the last one offer us that in rural areas of the US – very isolated areas – Interstate highways completely ground to a stop as people parked and literally got out of their vehicles to look. Cell towers were overloaded to the point of failure. There were lots of issues that none had anticipated previously. In order to get ahead of the tens of thousands of people who will be streaming into the area and the resultant unintended infrastructure consequences, it is only prudent to start planning for it. If you are interested in some details reference the eclipse please click this link.
UPDATE: We wanted to add the depiction below so that everyone can see just how we are centered in the affected area. If you want to zoom in or out for more detail, or move along the path of the eclipse, please click this link to the Total Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024 website and check out its tools.
Club Meeting: We conducted the most recent Club meeting on Saturday, July 22, at High Cotton Kitchen. At that meeting we covered the material above, Club member Chuck Knight (KD6UMU) was elected to fill the vacancy on our board for its unexpired term, we welcomed Cliff Leath (KI5OPP) back into the Club and new member Charles Ferguson (KJ5BLH) was introduced. We also fielded some requests for a newly updated “unofficial call sign list”. We have updated that and it is available at this link as the Unofficial Call Sign List v5.
BOD Meeting: There is a Club BOD meeting set for Tuesday, August 15th at 0900 at High Cotton Kitchen. Members are always welcome to observe, but unless recognized by the chair they may not participate.
Finally, with the two recent additions we are up to fifty-three Full members and one Associate member. There will always be people that join and people that depart, but the slow steady growth of our membership, to a Club high for many years, is something we should all be proud of.
73
RRVARC Officers
05/21/2023 UPDATE
All,
In a quick recap of our meeting yesterday, we had thirty-six full Club members and fifteen visitors present. We started off with a video tribute from WFAA-TV Dallas/Fort Worth Jesse Hawila (click here to view it), acted on the tabled resolution Board of Directors Recommended Quorum Definition Change – Resolution #4 – 04/22/2023 from the April meeting (lowering the number of officers required for a forum from 5 to 4 – passed) and then heard from:
Brandon Bell, Lamar County Judge
Scott Cass, Lamar County Sheriff
Quincy Blount, Lamar County Emergency Management Coordinator
Randy Tuttle, Assistant Chief of Police, Paris
Steve Walker (WB5EJV) (Grandson of founding members Alvin and Bertie Todd.)
Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) – He also presented Club President T. Wayne Moore (KC5KOH) a plaque from ARRL for the Club Anniversary.
Richard Lenoir (KI5DX)
The speakers all did a terrific job and were quite effusive in their compliments of ham radio operators in general and the Club specifically.
We raffled off a bunch of stuff – Phillip Beall (W5EBC) called out the items, Richard Lenoir drew tickets from a box that Kim Ledbetter (KI5VLH) held.
Steven Lott Smith provided a 100 Year ARRL coffee table book which was won by Leo Salas (N5JEP). Richard Lenoir and Main Trading brought a $50 gift certificate from Yaesu which was won by guest Nancy Russell and certificates for a BUNCH of ICOM radios were handed out. Because we had fewer than one hundred hams in attendance (forty-six total) EVERYBODY WAS A WINNER! Just before wrapping up, Richard handed Phillip a business card and on the back of that card he had written “Good for one Yaesu FTM-500 radio, retail price $549.99.” It too was raffled off and Rick Leonhardt (NN7ET) won that item.
Kelly Collins (W5KJC) and his wife Shirly made up great punch to go along with the bottled water and cake. Everyone had a big time and there were a lot of comments about how much fun that it was. We will post three pictures below. If you took some pictures or videos please click this link and upload them to Dropbox at this link. We will move as many to the Club website as we can. Eventually it will be made easier for Club members to post pictures themselves, but it requires purchase of a website update we will budget for in the future. Thank you in advance for anything you upload.
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05/17/2023 UPDATE (updated 05/18/2023 @ 1530)
Confirmed Speakers:
Lamar County Judge Brandon Bell – Presentation of Proclamation from Lamar County
Lamar County Sheriff Scott Cass
Lamar County Emergency Coordinator Quincy Blount
Paris Police Department Assistant Chief Randy Tuttle
Steven Walker (WB5EJB) – Grandson of founding Club members Alvin and Bertie Todd
Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) – American Radio Relay League North Texas Section Manager and RRVARC member – ARRL 50th Anniversary presentation
Steven Lott Smith is also bringing a door prize from ARRL, a Handbook 100 | The 100th edition of The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications Hardcover Collector’s Edition
PLEASE CLICK HERE AND RSVP IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY!
05/15/2023 UPDATE
WHO WANTS A FREE RADIO?
HOW ABOUT EVERY HAM OPERATOR PRESENT AT THE
RED RIVER VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO (RRVARC)
50TH ANNIVERSARY CLUB MEETING,
SATURDAY, MAY 20TH, GETS A CERTIFICATE FOR A NEW ICOM![1]
SPONSOR PROVIDED GOODIES: Club members Richard (KI5DX) and Christine (N5RDJ) Lenoir, owners of our local ham radio shop Main Trading Company (MTC), have been in discussions reference sponsoring our upcoming 50th Anniversary Club meeting on May 20th. Today we are announcing the details.
They first secured fifty ball caps and a $50 gift certificate from Yaesu, but then they really upped their game. Richard and Christine are going to donate certificates, redeemable at MTC, for UP TO ONE HUNDRED (100) NEW ICOM RADIOS![2] Here is the breakdown on distribution:
- The first fifty (50) people in the door will get a Yaesu ball cap. Richard has asked us to please pose for a group photo wearing the hats.
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- Free ICOM radios:
- Every Full Club member, currently listed in our Club records on May 13, 2023, who comes to the meeting – You will receive a certificate good for a new ICOM radio!
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- We will give out tickets to every person coming through the door. There will be drawings for the remaining free ICOM certificates. Non-RRVARC member ham radio operators will be eligible to win the remaining radios.
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- Every Full Club member, currently listed in our Club records on May 13, 2023, who comes to the meeting – You will receive a certificate good for a new ICOM radio!
- $50 Yaesu gift certificate – There will be a drawing for the $50 Yaesu gift certificate from the tickets given to people when they walk in the door.
RSVP: We really need an idea of how many people will be at the meeting. Right now, between the RSVP’s and guests we are at forty (40) plus people. If you have not already done so, please click this link and tell us if you will attend or not. We have intentionally made that poll an open poll, so even if you are not an RRVARC member, please click the link and let us know your intentions.
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VENUE CHANGE: The officers will be going to High Cotton Kitchen for breakfast Saturday morning, showing up 0830, but with forty (40) plus people already known to be going and with the back room at High Cotton rated for a maximum occupancy of forty (40) people, we are changing the meeting location to the Paris Junior College ballroom. We will provide more on this in a follow up so please watch your email. Please join us for breakfast and then we will caravan to the new venue so the meeting can start at 1000. Please spread the word and we look forward to seeing you there.
There will be cake and bottled water served. Please bring your smart phones and cameras and take some pictures. We look forward to seeing all of you there.
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[1] Up to one hundred (100) maximum.
[2] Only licensed ham radio operators with voice privileges are eligible. One certificate/radio per person. To receive the certificate the person must be present at the May 20th 50th Anniversary Club meeting, their call sign must be in the QRZ database and they must have photo ID that matches the name of the ham radio license holder. Must redeem within thirty (30) days.
05/06/2023 UPDATE
All,
This will be a pretty giant update as there is a lot of material to cover, so here we go:
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Club 50th Anniversary:
- As a reminder, the May Club meeting was going to be on Memorial Day weekend. We polled the membership and then changed it, moving the date up a week to Saturday, May 20th.
. - The “presentation” will be remarks by Lamar County Judge Brandon Bell, who will present the Club with a proclamation from the Lamar County Commissioners Court, remarks by Paris PD Assistant Chief Randy Tuttle and remarks by descendants of Alvin and Bertie Todd, two original Club members. Their grandson and granddaughter are hams and respectively have Alvin and Bertie Todd’s legacy vanity call signs.
. - A resolution to modify the Club Constitution and Bylaws (C&B) – as is required – was tabled at the last Club meeting. The resolution is one from the board of directors seeking to reduce the number of officers for a quorum from five (5) to four (4). The process spelled out by the C&B is to introduce it at a meeting, table it until the next meeting, advise the membership of the resolution details and then vote on it at a subsequent meeting. The minimum required percentage of voters is 2/3rds and that means a hard number of thirty-two (32), so we need a big showing.
. - For the latest on the upcoming Club meeting and 50th Anniversary celebration please click this link and take a look at the forum post started by Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) – 50 years of RRVARC. There is some good stuff on that page, including a nice 50th Anniversary video done for the Club by WFAA-TV out of Dallas/Fort Worth.
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Club “store”:
- We were going to send out a general update, but as that was being put together, we learned that the Screen Graphics micro-store had gone live for apparel. You can now order shirts, a hoodie and hats from our local source. Orders placed today show to be available for pickup on Friday, May 19, the day before our May 20 50th Anniversary meeting. Seeing that, we launched a standalone email to the group. We are concerned that if you do not order today, you will not get your new shirt prior to that meeting. Most probably will not care, but if you do care, we wanted you to know. Our sincere apologies for the short notice, but it has just taken awhile to get the store operational.
. - The Club website now has a page where you can peruse approved merchandise. On a mobile device touch the “hamburger” in the top left and look for “Shop”. On a laptop or desktop computer look along the menu items at the top, the second row down, again “Shop” is the label. Locally, Screen Graphics is ready to take your order online or in person. It will take them about two weeks to get shirts and hats done. Orders placed today indicate the item will be ready for pickup between 3-5pm on Friday, May 19th, so you should order as quickly as possible if you want it for the Club meeting. One of the two vendors offering the coffee mugs is still working out how to process orders and as soon as we get that information from them, we will take their item(s) “live” on our “Shop” page. The store can be accessed by the menus as described above or by clicking this link.
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ARRL Survey: Club member and ARRL NTX Section Manager Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) is asking for people to take an ARRL survey. Please click this link, read his forum post and then go take the survey.
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Manuals: Is anybody looking for a manual? Have you looked at our growing library? Please click this link and take a look around. Do you want us to add something? If so, please email us here and we will see if we can do it.
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Meeting Minutes:
- April 15 Board of Directors (BOD) meeting minutes are available at this link. Notable actions taken by the board are: 1) Immediate dues reduction of $1, dues expire on January 1 each year, dues for newly joining members will be prorated and late payers still pay for the entire year and expire on January 1 (no free riders/late payers) – effective immediately. 2) Established policies that provide multi-path redundancy for required reports and forms. 3) Recommend the Club membership approve a BOD resolution calling for reduction of BOD members required for a quorum from five (5) to four (4).
. - April 22 Club Meeting Minutes, the president’s remarks, secretary report and Charles Penry’s Summer Field Day 2023 and Repeater Upgrades presentations are all available at this link.
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Cross-band Repeating: During the last week of April someone used their radio to cross-band connect the Club’s two repeaters for a period of time. This is poor practice, it was exceptionally rude to everyone trying to use either of the repeaters and it was disruptive of the NCTC network and our National Weather Service (NWS) link. Everyone is to be reminded in the strongest of terms – The Club repeaters are not to be connected to each other via cross-band repeating. People make mistakes, accidents happen, if you do not know what you are doing with regard to cross-band repeating and need some help figuring it out, please ask for assistance.
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Reminder: We will be testing June 3rd at 10am at the Ramseur Baptist Church (3400 Lamar Avenue).
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04/19/2023 Update
Hits: 39
Monday Evening Net – The net control operator for our Monday evening nets for all of May are open. If you are willing to conduct the net, please email (click here) Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA).
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Club Meeting – This coming Saturday (April 22nd) is our monthly meeting. So far, the only real complaint we have on High Cotton Kitchen as the meeting venue is the distraction of food service. The meeting starts at 1000. We are asking for everyone that wishes to have breakfast, please get there between 0830-0900 so that we can have all dishes and waitstaff out of the room by meeting start.
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Constitution & Bylaws Modification – Flowing out of the Saturday, April 15th Board of Directors (BOD) meeting, there will be a resolution for the membership to vote on. The board is recommending adoption of a change to lower the quorum number of officers required for a board meeting from 5 to 4. There are 7 total officers and so 4 is still greater than half and the reduction will ease scheduling. The process will be to introduce it at this meeting, “lay it on the table” or postpone it to the next meeting, advertise it to the membership and then at the May 20th meeting we will vote on it. Passage requires a 2/3rd approval by the membership and so we hope the 50th Anniversary celebration at that meeting will help us to get the 32 members present that is needed for adoption.
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Presentation – Field Day is June 24-25. Field Day Coordinator Charles Penry (WA5VHU) will be doing a presentation in preparation for that. We only have the May meeting and then the June meeting is on the same date as the Field Day kickoff, so this meeting is the only real opportunity to discuss the matter as a group. For the latest on Field Day 2023 info please click here and go to the forum posts on the topic.
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Beall Camera – The Beall Canon camera epically failed at some point. Pictures taken for profiles at the last meeting? None was found on the memory card following the meeting. This is an opportunity for anyone who had their picture made last month to get it retaken at this meeting. Please come prepared!
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Control Operators – At the most recent BOD meeting the officers produced a comprehensive Control Operator plan. It includes personnel, training, certification and a discussion of how to make the information available to repeater users. The primary point is this – The Club has an obligation to not just operate the repeaters per FCC regulations and good operating practices, but we also must have the ability to turn one off 24/7/365 if it is causing interference, is stuck open mike or otherwise misbehaving. You as a user would be most likely to know when there is a problem. We plan to have a contact list up on the Club website shortly and that contact list will include information about how to notify Kelly Collins (W5KJC), Station Trustee and the six (6) additional Control Operators, so that quick and appropriate action may be taken. The seven total Control Operators will be Kelly Collins, Charles Penry (WA5VHU), George Haneke (NV7Z), Mark Johnson (W5PTX), Dan Beard (KB7JZI), Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) and Haskell Maroney (KI5VGQ).
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Repeater Tones – One element of the Control Operators discussion was to educate the broader group. The tones used to turn the NCTC link on and off have been discovered to be distributed far further than good operating practices would indicate is acceptable. We publish that the link will be up “continuously” and we need to make sure that people are not turning it off for personal reasons. Flowing from that discussion was something the Club leadership wanted to make unequivocal – Unless a person is a listed Control Operator, they are not authorized to enable/disable the NCTC link. We will continue emphasizing that point because everyone needs to know there are rules for enabling/disabling the NCTC link. Only those trained and listed as a Control Operator are authorized to perform that task.
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Presentations – One of the things the Club leadership has struggled with is getting presentations and presenters scheduled for our meetings. We actually even solicited for someone to volunteer to be our “Program Coordinator”, thinking if we had a person in the Club, motivated to get interesting programs scheduled up, we could start publishing it. With two solicitations to the group and nobody volunteering we went ahead and put together a schedule out to December. If you were considering volunteering but the uncertainty of just what you would be expected to produce kept you from signing up, the table below is what we were looking for. Going forward we will figure out a way to place a table like this on the site, perhaps even making it an interactive signup form. If after reviewing this information, knowing the job is in the bag until December; if one of you would be willing to help us with this task going forward, please click here and email the officers and let us know.
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Forum Post Notices – We have enabled global email notification for forum posts. We hope you will want to be notified, click the link and go see what someone has posted. You may get multiple notices until we get the system refined. If you do not wish to get them, please click here and email me. Until I can work out the kinks for an unsubscribe button, I will do them manually. – Phillip
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As always, thank you for your support!
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04/10/2023 Update
Hits: 40
All,
This update covers a host of material that we hope you will find informative.
New Officers – At the last Club meeting (Saturday, March 25), three new officers were elected. With the adoption of the Club constitution in 2022, and with the clear membership direction to get as much administrative business accomplished away from Club meetings as can be done, a board of directors system was put into place. To promote continuity there will be an election at each March Club meeting, but in alternating years executive (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) and non-executive/general officers will be elected. The body as a whole serves as a board of directors. This year the election was to fill the three non-executive/general officer positions. The term of office began on April 1 and the term of office is two years. All three members serving (Mel Toye (K5KEY), Dan Beard (KB7JZI) and Kelly Collins (W5KJC)) opted to not run for a subsequent term and so three new members were elected to fill their very large shoes. Elected were Haskell Maroney (KI5VGQ), Vicki Ross (KG5YWO) and Mark Perrine (KI5KNX). We all owe Mel, Dan and Kelly a huge thank you for their service. We also thank Haskell, Vicki and Mark for their willingness to step up and help with this important task. Kelly Collins continues in his capacity as Club station trustee.
This coming Saturday, April 15, we will conduct a board of directors meeting. The agenda items reflect a mix of discussion points covering myriad topics. The tentative agenda items are:
Dues – Cut dues ($25 to $24 and $37 to $36), expire everyone in January and prorate mid-year joiners. Club Treasurer George Haneke (NV7Z) has advocated for this to ease the administrative effort required to manage and monitor dues for the Club as it continues to evolve and grow. With nearly 50 members the challenges are getting pretty big and so he believes this approach would simplify things.
Hardware Insurance – Increase our insurance to better cover Atlas or hold what we have until next year?
Business Development Plan – Briefing to fully bring the new officers up to speed and develop details for how to move forward.
444.500 Operation – A comprehensive discussion of how the UHF repeater is operated, the NCTC link specifically and a more general discussion reference the upcoming Club station license renewal, control operators and their training adequate to the task of ensuring FCC compliance, and other administrative details.
WB5RDD versus RRVARC – A comprehensive discussion about how to best market the Club going forward, particularly with the business development plan.
Band Plan Printouts – ARRL has put out band plan documents that we have all seen in training books, online and occasionally as a handout. These can be printed out on your home computer. RRVARC is hosting these plans as a PDF to ease people finding them. If you want to take a look at the various offerings, please click this link.
50th Anniversary Speakers – We have invited a number of people to come to the 50th Anniversary Club meeting on Saturday, May 20. Family of Alvin and Bertie Todd, original Club members, plan to attend as our guest and their grandson (and ham) Steven Walker (WB5EJV) agreed to share some comments with the group. We also reached out to Pete Delkus (Chief Meteorologist, WFAA-TV Channel 8 Dallas/Fort Worth) and Steve LaNore (KB5DEY) (Chief Meteorologist, KXII-TV Channel 12 Sherman) and invited them to come and speak to the group, but both graciously declined. Storm chaser Reed Timmer was a recommendation, but looking into inviting him we discovered that he uses a booking agency and seeks $10,000-20,000 per speaking engagement. We have two other invitees pending replies and will update you on them once we know. In the meantime, if anyone in the Club has a personal connection to LaNore or Timmer and would not mind reaching out to them, we would all appreciate the effort.
We also wanted to emphasize that we are still looking for:
1) Two volunteers to review available ARRL awards and determine and nominate to the board anyone in our Club worthy of something ARRL gives someone for their efforts in amateur radio.
2) One volunteer to help coordinate programs to be presented at Club meetings.
3) High resolution pictures of weather, ham shacks and you or another ham operating.
To volunteer, please click this link and send an email to the Club officers. To submit pictures please click this link and send them to the admins.
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03-23-2023 Current Events Briefing
Hits: 31
Club meeting – We will be having a Club meeting on Saturday, March 25th, at High Cotton Kitchen. So far having our meetings there is getting good reviews. If you want breakfast, please plan to be there by 9am in order to having dining completed by the 10am meeting start.
Field Day poll – As of this posting the Field Day poll has a little bit over 24-hours until it closes. There has been a lot of traffic to that page, a lot, but so far only twelve people have voted. We generally get 30-40 people at Field Day, even if only for short visits. We currently have 46 members. Each of you has an opinion, we genuinely want to know your opinion and so we ask you to please go make your choice and inform us. The poll is 100% anonymous, we have no idea how anyone votes, but to vote you must be signed in. That is how we keep people from voting more than once. Please click here and go vote.
Officer elections at the Club meeting day after tomorrow (March 25th) – When the new Club Constitution was adopted and we had our subsequent officers election, which created the first RRVARC Board of Directors (BOD), we started a new process. The President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer were elected to a full two-year term. The three General Officers/BOD Members were elected to serve only one-year so as to stagger the subsequent elections. This gives us an election every year, but not 100% turnover so as to retain institutional memory and to facilitate mentoring new officers. At the meeting on March 25th we will be electing three General Officers/BOD Members for the full two-year term. All three current General Officers/BOD Members may stand for reelection or not, at their option. Any member in good standing can nominate themselves or another member in good standing. The three candidates who get the most votes will win the election. Please plan to attend so you can participate in this important function.
RRVARC Presentation – The presentation at the March 25th Club meeting will be on the topic of storm spotting and observing by Leo Salas (N5JEP).
USA Radio Orienteering Championships Set for April 19 – 23, 2023 at Cooper Lake State Park – Club member and ARRL North Texas Section Manager Steven Lott Smith (KG5VK) reached out to the officers asking that we advise the membership about this event. The White Rock Lake Amateur Radio Club (WA5WRL) is providing support and coordinating the radio communications for the event. Steve wanted us to encourage RRVARC personnel to sign up to take a slot. The signup page is here.
Annual Emory Tailgate Hamfest – The Rains Amateur Radio Association is having their Annual Emory Tailgate Hamfest on Saturday, April 22, from 7am-4:30pm. That is the same day as the RRVARC meeting, but we can try and wrap up early and then maybe a bunch of us can carpool or caravan down. Emory is a one-hour drive straight south from Paris. Details here.
Banners – A new feature was added to the website, banners that are updated with each screen refresh and which show solar-terrestrial data. With a glance you can see what HF bands are doing. One is on the home page, about 2/3rd way down the page and the other is on the Forums page. Here is an example:
Help Wanted – We have some unfilled committee positions and are looking for volunteers. They are Club Meeting Program Coordinator and Awards Nominating Committee. The Club Meeting Program Coordinator will be responsible for either lining up speakers/presenters to do presentations or to do the presentations themselves at our future meetings. The other is an Awards Nominating Committee which will consist of 2-3 members and who will review award criteria from ARRL and other entities and if we have anyone in our Club who meets the criteria they will bring a package to the officers for consideration. Further details on the Club Meeting Program Coordinator and Awards Nominating Committee will be developed once we get some people to sign up to take care of these needed items. Please email your willingness to the Club officers.
Brochures – A printer is currently producing a tri-fold handout for use when meeting with businesses and seeking their financial sponsorship of the Club. If you would like to view a PDF of the brochure, please click here.
Hardware insurance – We have now secured $19,500 in insurance for our Atlas site. We picked that number based on a rough tally for all of the larger components. Then, after a site survey was done and everything there was itemized, we determined that a total loss would actually be more like $24,500 plus $2,000 for tower climber support. The officers are contemplating two options: 1) Wait until next year and up the coverage, or; 2) Purchase additional insurance to cover the shortfall. That will be decided soon. As a side note we only know of two previous years in Club history when our hardware was insured at all, so this is an important accomplishment for our group. It is also going to be a permanent budget item.
Really good ham radio operating pictures – Our Club website has a scrolling series of pictures on the home page. To keep from having to buy stock pictures we want anyone who has taken pictures that are particularly good, we are looking for quality over quantity, please drop our website admins a note and coordinate sharing them. Best would be a picture of a ham storm spotting from a vehicle so you captured the vehicle, operator with mic up to their mouth and weather in the distance. Other pictures with just those individual components (operator with mic to their mouth or distant weather) and things like a great shack picture will also be considered for use. Please click here to email the admins.
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