MINUTES FOR APRIL 8, 2010     

                                                By Bob, KT4KS

 

At 7:42PM the Club’s meeting was called to order by Vice President Pat WJ0T.  VP Pat greeted the 19 in attendance, and then led group in the Pledge of Allegiance.  VP Pat then initiated introductions, which introductions included Russ KF1K whom to date had only been a voice on the club’s repeater.  (NOTE: President Howell KG4CKJ did subsequently arrive at the meeting.)

 

MOTION TO PASS THE MINUTES: Debra KG4URO made a motion to pass the Minutes for the March meeting, and the motion was approved.

 

FIELD DAY: Carol WA4GFW has reserved 4 spots at the Pohick Bay Regional Park for that event.  The cost of the reservation was about $100, much less than in passed years due to the reduced number of lots reserved.  It is anticipated that the 4 lots will provide sufficient space to permit for as many as 5 antennas.  Carol mentioned that he might like to purchase software for contest logging, and speculated a cost of only $30.  It was at this time that VP Pat volunteered to “look at” the club’s FT990, which was last seen emitting smoke from the back of the unit.  (NOTE: Bob KT4KS delivered the FT990 to VP Pat the very next day.)  Field Day is in June, the HF rigs can be used by anyone, and there will be food.

 

TEST SESSION: It was mentioned that MVARC VE Leader John WZ4A sent out a second e-mail requesting VEs volunteers for the Saturday (April 10) test session due to a perceived shortage.  All VEs at the meeting were encouraged to help at the Saturday event.

 

WEB SITE: The web site is working, and working quite well.  At this time, it was reported that MVARC is now on face book, complements of Maki K4RQZ.  

 

REPEATER: Net control operator Steve K3IZ expressed that the repeater has been working well during the Tuesday evening nets.  Steve also mentioned that last Tuesday’s net included 8 check-ins.  

 

SHOW AND TELL:  The meeting’s Show and Tell was exceptional, and possibly the best ever.  First of all, VP Pat provided some article from CQ about setting up antennas on-the-sneak in covenant restricted areas.  (At least Greg AJ4QZ has a personal interest in the topic, and took some of the articles.)  VP Pat then proceeded to show some equipment (antenna, home window mount, switches) that he employs from his home.  VP Pat concluded with photos of his home station.  Secondly, John WQ4L provided a talk about a form of beacon system where stations transmit 1 watt (or less) on at least 20,30,40,80 and 160M.  The units transmit 2 out of every 10 minutes, and software determines when to transmit in a frequency shift manner in upper side band mode (about 1.5 kHz above what is displayed on the rig’s dial).  The transmissions send call sign, coordinates and power.  This allows one to get on a web site, click on a band, and observe a map which displays all the communications which took place in the last hour.  There are 3 types of maps, including at least state boarders and all green.  The displayed map includes lines connecting the stations which have reached one another.  Using the display at the meeting site, John brought up the program and displayed his own results, which indicated that he has reached many countries (Africa and New Zealand?) with his rig set to ˝ watts.  Anyone can receive, and upload reports as a guest station as he is not transmitting.  The site may be employed to simply provide an indication of levels/direction of propagation.  The system is called “Amateur Radio WSPR “whisper” software”, and came out in April 2008.  A simple search on the Internet can provide demonstrations on You Tube for those of you who were not at the meeting.  WSPR stands for weak signal propagation report.  John’s report was quite fascinating, well appreciated, and left the membership wanting more.  Third, Steve K3IZ showed his Camp Wilson badge from 1964, where MVARC once had its Field Day.  Fourth, Pat KG4URP discussed open source hardware kits that are software programmable, and showed off his GPS, which both records and is told what to do.  The unit involves minimal soldering.  In addition, Pat also displayed a microprocessor based device that flashes LEDs which shut off all TVs within (50 feet) range.  Two members expressed that the device has exceptional utility at Best Buy and sports pubs.  Finally, Maki K4RQZ showed 2 books, one of which was about batteries (“Batteries in Portable World”), and the second was a CQ magazine written in Japanese.  John WQ4L seemed especially interested in the batteries, and Bob KT4KS asked Maki about Japanese writing.

 

TREASURER: Mike KE4ER stated that dues are due, and proceeded to collect $100 within 60 seconds.  Mike mentioned that the club paid out $100 for the Field Day sites,        

 

COOKIE MONSTER: Carol served as the April Cookie Monster, and VP Pat was good enough to volunteer to be the May Cookie Monster.

 

CLOSE: Pat WJ0T closed then closed the meeting, and the membership retired.