McHenry County Wireless Association - Minutes

Subject: McHenry County Wireless Association
Regular Meeting minutes – October 4, 2011

The October meeting of the Mcwa was called to order at 7:31 pm on October 4, 2011

Our new president is Jim Mcdonald, N7US. This was his first time this year conducting the meeting. He began by reviewing the new officers vice president is Dave Cooper ka9ozp, Secretary is Marc marino, wa9yvl, Treasurer is, Barry Nelson, K9yvt

Jim and Marty related if you are a new member and you pay dues after September you do not have to pay again until the following year,
so you get a bit of a bonus.
A sign in sheet was passed around which was like a club roster.
Jim stated if any info on it is incorrect please advise.
Introductions were given and the members were asked to give their favorite ham radio activity.
Wendell brought a viewing screen so we could see the program overheads better.
Among notable introductions:
Two new members were introduced as Mike w8bzk and Wayne Kc9uak
I couldn't catch what city they were from.
Jerry n9avy is newsletter editor, dx-er and secretary of the 1010 international group.
Vallerie, NV9L, was able to upgrade her antenna and won first place in the yl category in the california qso party contest.

Reports/announcements:
The meeting minutes are posted on the website.
Jim also said about programs that next month's program would be given by Dave, NT9E on the topic of sound systems for large backyard electric trains.
A motion was made and seconded that the minutes from the September meeting be approved. The motion passed, then a treasurer's report was given by The new treasurer Barry. He reported the next six months of rent had been paid for our room at the Nunda township building and that our current balance was $3,315.
President Mcdonald also noted that kb9old offers VE license exams for those wanting to upgrade.

Public Service:
Wendell reminded us about the Settler's day parade on Sunday October 9 in Marango.
we are offering communications support mainly to help those involved set up the parade. Wendell asked hams to be there around 12:30 and the even would begin at 1pm and last for a couple of hours. the location was right near the Marango police station.
the northeast corner of the route 20 and 23 intersection.
A lounge chair and an ht and something to drink is about all you need to bring.
Please visit mcraces.org to sign up.
AL then spoke about the races/ares event held at the government center last Saturday.
They were able to successfully demonstrate their uses for Windmore, in internet connection via radio.
He said the windmore software could be downloaded from winlink and it was free.
I believe he stated they were attempting to contact the downstate Illinois State emergency station on vhf but on that day they were unsuccessful.

Repeater news:
Cornel says they are still trying to catch the jammer.
My recorder didn't pick up the speciffic details.

Activity report:
IN dx, Dave ka9ozp is on assignment in Vietnam. They didn't say whether or not anyone was able to reach him via ham radio. Another gentleman gave some calls I could not catch, I think they might be beacons of some kind and he said that ten meters was pretty good lately and that there had been some solar storms but at this point the storms were subsiding.
IN the rtty contest this man said he worked 7 countries on 10 meters and 89 countries on 15 meters.
He also asked us to mark our calendar for January when the island of Malpelo would be in our dx reach.
the prefixes are hke and hp0-M.
Someone else reported he talked to an SU1 station from Egypt on 10 meter cw then there was a brief discussion about the advantages of using the on line service, loqw for dx-ing and qsl-ing.
The reflector:
Our club reflector is the k9rn reflector at yahoo.com.
You need to have a Yahoo.com id to subscribe to it.
Jim further noted that you can have a yahoo id but elect not to receive emails from the reflector, you can just go up to the web site when you want to look at the latest updates.
Other members said you can use a different email address to sign up for the reflector but then you cannot send emails unless you have a yahoo id.
But then Cornell said you could do so if you check off alternate email address.
Jim said he'd double-check all of that.

Jim and Marty also informed me I was not on the reflector.
About half of the club members are not signed up for the reflector and several have not given the club their email addresses.
Jim stated that was their choice and the club would respect their preference.
Under Old business:
It was brought to our attention during the last board meeting of the need for some kind of sound system for our meetings.
They were going to test a used PA system or a sound re-inforcement system to see if it would improve the presentation.

Jim welcome's our suggestions for future club programs, either via email or otherwise.
Then, a brief summary of the last board meeting was given.
Among topics covered were, annual budget, liability insurance for the club.
And we did purchase liability insurance for the club from the ARRL at the cost of $200.
Other topics discussed, a sound system, a wall screen, field day,
The ppossibility of adding aditional board members.
Officers duties, membership roster, news status, and a conflict regarding language about officers between the constitution and the by-laws.

Jim, n7us, expressed concern that some of the people who are signed up on our reflector, we are not sure of their identity.
finally, Jim mentioned the pizza social after the club meeting was over held at the village squire in Crystal lake.
the business part of the meeting was adjourned at 8:22pm.