General
TARC HF
Council Meeting
December
1, 2003
The meeting was
called to order at 7:30pm.
24 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
The November
meeting minutes were distributed for all. The reading of the
minutes was waived. Wes, K4NQ moved the minutes be approved.
Motion
carried.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Kathy stated the
council started the month with $1666.26 in the account. $50.00
was received in donations, and $150.00 was received from the
soda fund.. Ending balance in the HF account checking account
was $1869.26
Hugh, KG4ETI
made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. It was seconded
and Approved.
Tampa Bay
Hamfest
The club will be
hosting an un-manned table with the club banner and literature.
Dan, KC2TOC will bring his camper as a hospitality location for
all (Mr. Bunny will be on his perch overseeing the tailgate
area).
Barry will be
selling Dayton tickets at the table for those who still need
them.
The club will be
using 147.105 SIMPLEX at the Hamfest.
Tickets for the
Hamfest are still available for $7 in advance, and $8 at the
door, get them early.
Keating will be
doing an antenna building class (2m yagi) for those who missed
his last session
Digital
Committee – Keating, KC4HSI:
No report was
available
ARES/RACES –
Gary – KC5QCN:
Gary informed
the club there were a number of activities planned by ARES/Races
for the month of November. They include:
12/4 - ICOM
representative will be at the EOC from 7-9pm. Free food and
drinks will be available, and giveaways are available. They
will be showcasing the D-Star Digital product line.
2/28 -
Skywarn training will be held at the EOC from 9-12.
New Business
None
Announcements:
VA Hospital
Station being built – Mike Byrd:
Mike noted the
VA is building an HF/VHF station for use in EmComm. It has the
equipment and emergency power, and has contracted with Motorola
to perform the antenna installation. They are looking for a
training program for use of the equipment, and are interested in
offering testing on employee time. (potential repeater site,
hint … hint)
They have
acquired a Kenwood Ts-570 and TM-V7A as radio gear.
BSA Council
Camporee – Bill, N4WEB
The club, in
cooperation with LARC, held a special event station at the
Council’s tri-annual camporee. Over 350 QSOs were held, and
over 2900 boys were in attendance. About 700 came through the
station. CW demonstrations along with Ham operations were
showcased. Thanks Polk EOC and Fl DoF for loaning their
equipment, and all who could make it.
TARCnet:
The weekly club
Net is held on Tuesday nights @ 8:00p, followed by the
ARES/RACES/Skywarn net.
QRM
Newsletter:
The latest
installment of the QRM newsletter is on the home page. If you
have any submissions, please send them to
QRM@hamclub.org.
Logging at the Clubhouse
Please be aware
the club has gone electronic on all logging. Be sure to use
LOGic 6 when making QSOs. We need volunteers to start keying
our existing logs into LOGic. Please help out. Please be sure
to write in the log book next to the PRO II when you sign-on and
sign-off the station.
Sundays at the Clubhouse
The Sunday at
the clubhouse program has been suspended due to poor
participation till after football season.
Club owned
Gin Pole
No new progress.
Last report was
Biff is looking into buying a Gin pole/tower jack for the club
to own and make available to club members on a load basis. The
liability of such a program is being looked into before
proceeding with a purchase.
ARRL Phone
Sweepstakes
Lou, Keating and
Dan participated. WriteLog was used. It is windows based, and
has better operator ergonomics then TR. Club is inclined to use
it going forward for all contest logging.
XMAS Party
The club
Christmas party is again at BuddyFreddy’s on 12/8 in place of a
regular club meeting .. The location is in
Brandon. Dayton ticket drawing will be help at the
Christmas party. Please be sure to attend and buy a ticket.
Testing –
Mike, NI4M
Due to the
holidays, no testing will be held at the clubhouse for the month
of December. Testing will be available at the Hamfest for those
who want to upgrade or get their first ticket.
Wednesday pm
Cleanup 12/3
Please come out
and help straighten up the clubhouse for the Icom
representatives who will be visiting the club on 12/4. We want
to show off our ‘All Icom’ setup.
A motion was
made to adjourn, and motion so carried. The meeting closed at
8:15pm
TARC HF
Council Meeting
November
3, 2003
Jim, WA3DIT,
called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.
19 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
No minutes were
available from the October meeting. The reading of the minutes
was waived.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Kathy stated the
council started the month with $1636.26 in the account. $30.00
was received in dues. Ending balance in the HF account checking
account was $1666.26
A motion was
made to accept the treasurer’s report. It was seconded and
Approved.
FGARC –
Keating, KC4HSI:
December 6-7 is
again the Tampa Bay Hamfest in Palmetto. Ed Weir, Mr .APRS will
be in attendance. There will also be an antenna seminar, the
Big “3” radio manufacturers will also be there, Keating said
advance tickets are available for sale at the club house at all
meetings in November. The SE division vice director will be in
attendance for first Wednesday.
The Tampa Bay
Challenge is in full swing. $1 from every ticket sold to the
hamfest will be donated to the ARRL BPL fund, and other clubs
are being asked to meet that challenge.
A call was made
for volunteers to help with parking and the tailgating area.
See Ron, KC4HAY if you are interested
Digital
Committee – Keating, KC4HSI:
A new
workstation is at Keating’s being worked on. Keating stated he
is waiting on TRX-Manager to install. The club has decided to
standardize on Write-Log as its Window’s based contest logger,a
nd will be having it setup for the Phone Sweepstakes contest on
11/15. Logic6 will be general day-to-day logger, and is located
on the PC next to the IC-756-PRO-II. It is requested that
everyone please record a sign-on, sign-off in the log book to
track the use of the 756 ProII.
ARES/RACES – Gary – KC5QCN:
Gary
informed the club there were a number of activities planned by
ARES/Races for the month of November. They include:
11/8 - MS
Walk signups available. The walk is from 8-12pm at Al Lopez
park, and covered under ARES
11/14 - HAZMAT
exercise at the port from 8-1p under Races
11/15 - MAC
training will be held at Sun N’ Fun in
Lakeland as part
of Boy Scout Camporee.
11/22 - ARECC
Level 2 will be held at EOC from 8-5p. Course cost is ˝ normal
price, and will be $20.00.
12/4 - ICOM
representative will be at the EOC from 7-9pm. Free food and
drinks will be available, and a IC-207H will be given away as a
door prize
Field Day – Warren, W1GUD
The results of
Field day were posted to the ARRL website, and we came in 2nd
overall in 2A. The San Diego club came in first place. Some
discussion of Biff challenging the score, and some inquiries are
being made. Some discussion revolved around them probably being
an all-CW entrant.
New Business
New Tower –
Jim, WA3DIT-
Bill is getting
the equipment to begin work on the new tower. Keep a lookout
for requests for help.
Announcements:
BSA Council
Camporee:
The club, in
cooperation with LARC, will be putting on a HAM station event
similar to the Cubscout station on November 15, at the Lakeland Sun ‘n Fun. Please plan on helping out
get our youth exposed to Ham radio.
TARCNet:
The weekly club
Net is held on Tuesday nights @ 8:00p, followed by the
ARES/RACES/Skywarn net.
QRM
Newsletter:
The latest
installment of the QRM newsletter is on the home page. If you
have any submissions, please send them to
QRM@hamclub.org.
Logging at the Clubhouse
Please be aware
the club has gone electronic on all logging. Be sure to use
LOGic 6 when making QSOs. We need volunteers to start keying
our existing logs into LOGic. Please help out. Please be sure
to write in the log book next to the PRO II when you sign-on and
sign-off the station.
Sundays at the Clubhouse
Jim noted that
attendance on Sundays has been dropping off, and he would be
evaluating the program to see if Sundays at the clubhouse should
continue. He was not sure if football was the issue.
Club owned
Gin Pole
Biff is looking
into buying a Gin pole/tower jack for the club to own and make
available to club members on a load basis. The liability of
such a program is being looked into before proceeding with a
purchase.
ARRL Phone
Sweepstakes – Jim, WA3DIT
Signup sheets
are available at the clubhouse for those interested in
participating. The club will be using the new WriteLog program
to help members get familiar with the program. The contest runs
from 11/15 to 11/17.
XMAS Party
The club
Christmas party is again at BuddyFreddy’s on 12/8 in place of a
regular club meeting .. The location is in
Brandon. The Dayton raffle will be help at the Christmas
party. Please be sure to attend and buy a ticket.
Bart , AF4TK
Bart is in the
hospital currently because of chest pains. He is in room 339B
in St. Josephs Hospital for a
stress test.
Red
Red had a
medical scare a few weeks ago and wants to be sure he has all
his affairs in order, just in case. He will be selling most of
his Ham gear. More to follow as it becomes available.
Veterans
Hospital
Ham Station
The VA is
planning on establishing a ham station to support its mission,
and is seeking volunteers to help set it up. See Michael Byrd
for additional information.
A motion was
made to adjourn, and motion so carried. The meeting closed at
8:20pm
TARC HF
Council Meeting
August
4, 2003
Jim, WA3DIT,
called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.
28 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
Jim handed out
the minutes from the July HF Council meeting for review. A
proposal to approve the minutes was made by Jim, seconded by
Wes, K4NQ, and Approved.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Kathy stated the
council started the month with $1586.72 in the account. $80.00
was received in dues, $134.25 was raised for Linda’s Memorial
fund, and $68.00 was spent on the PO box renewal. Ending
balance in the HF account checking account was 1733.01
A motion was
made by Bart, AF4TK to accept the treasurer’s report. It was
seconded and Approved.
Digital
Committee – Pico:
A daft form of
the network plan will be ready to present at the upcoming Board
of Directors meeting on Thursday, August 7. Keating was not in
attendance and no information was available to report.
ARES/RACES – Gary – KC5QCN:
The clubhouse
will again be the site for SkyWarn Basic and Advanced training
on 8/16. Please be sure to sign up. The course starts around
10:00a.
The Hillsborough
County Hurricane Preparedness exercise will be held August 26th
in the morning. All available members were encouraged to
attend.
ARRL ARECC level
I course was held in
Pinellas County on July 27th, and will be held in
Highlands
County on August 9th.
Level II will be
help near the end of September, and Level III is tentatively
planned for December.
The Florida
DMAT-3 group representative was not in attendance to give an
update. Jim gave a brief description of the organization and
how TARC is affiliated with the group.
Larry, KR4X
stated the club house needed a first aid kit, and he would
provide one. He also noted the sign on the front of the club
house needed a contact phone # and our address.
TARCfest X –
Biff, K4LAW -
Biff noted there
would be ARRL-VE testing at the clubhouse immediately after
TARCfest. Come out and get upgraded.
The Florida
Bloodmobile will be on site for those who want to give blood.
Preperations for
TARCfest will be on Thursday, August 21st at 6:30p.
All were encouraged to come out.
Warren
would be doing the talk-in as in past events.
Larry, KR4X will
update the repeater id’er to include an ad on the event.
The Dayton give-away tickets will be available for
sale. See Barry, or Biff. Tickets are $5, 3 for $10, 8 for
$25, and 25 for $50. Drawing at the Christmas party. At
TARCfest, buy a ticket and get a free field day picture CD free.
As usual, this
is an ARRL sanctioned event, so ARRL goodies will be available
as door prizes.
Same admission
prices as in the past. $2 per person, $3 for tail gating.
Practical
Electronics will be here this year.
Larry, KR4X will
provide colored vests for all working the event so club members
will be easy to spot.
Jim, WA3DIT
noted that the Sunday before TARCfest will be used to clean out
the clubhouse and Conex of un-needed gear to put up for sale on
the club table.
Field Day –
N4TP Satelitte,
and Doc, AA4MD, took first place in the 2003 Field Day Satelitte
competition. Great Going Doc!
New Business
Linda, KB3DYO
Memorial Fund – Jim, WA3DIT-
Jim instructed
the treasurer to send the money collected for Linda’s memorial
func to the American Heart Association. There has been no
contact with the family.
Announcements:
JOTA:
Jota display
will be held at the BSA Council Extraveganza this Saturday.
Warren
will be attending.
BSA Council
Camporee:
The club, in
cooperation with LARC, will be putting on a HAM station event
similar to the Cubscout station on November 15, at the Lakeland Sun ‘n Fun. Please plan on helping out
get our youth exposed to Ham radio.
TARCNet:
The weekly club
Net is held on Tuesday nights @ 8:00p, followed by the
ARES/RACES/Skywarn net.
QRM
Newsletter:
The latest
installment of the QRM newsletter is on the home page. If you
have any submissions, please send them to
QRM@hamclub.org.
Logging at the Clubhouse
Please be aware
the club has gone electronic on all logging. Be sure to use
LOGic 6 when making QSOs. We need volunteers to start keying
our existing logs into LOGic. Please help out.
F12s
The club
corporation has acquired another F12 C3, and is negotiating for
a C4 as well. More to follow as it happens.
A motion was
made to adjourn, and motion so carried. The meeting closed at
8:35pm
TARC HF
Council Meeting
July 7,
2003
Jim, WA3DIT,
called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.
23 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
Jim handed out
the minutes from the June 2nd HF Council meeting for
review. A proposal to approve the minutes was made by Jim,
seconded and Approved.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Kathy stated the
council started the month with $1649.26 in the account. We had
3 new members join and 1 family pay their dues, bringing the
account to $1586.76.
A motion was
made to accept the treasurer’s report. It was seconded by Wes,
K4NQ and Approved.
Digital
Committee – Keating – KC4HSI:
Keating was not
in attendance and no information was available to report.
ARES/RACES – Gary – KC5QCN:
Gary
informed the membership the Hurricane Preparedness exercise had
been postponed till issues with the new software tracking
program could be worked out. A new date has not been set, but
it is anticipated the exercise will be held later in the year.
Gary
reminded everyone of the ICS-100 and ICS-200 training being held
at the clubhouse, July 12 from 8:30a till 4:30p. Andy Murray,
from the Dept. of Forestry will be the instructor.
The clubhouse
will again be the site for SkyWarn Basic and Advanced training
on 8/16. Please be sure to sign up.
The club
repeater hosts the Hillsborough SkyWarn Net on Tuesdays,
immediately after TarcNet.
Field Day –
Warrem. W1GUD:
Warren
announced our claimed FD score is about 12521 points, and it was
very likely a competitive score nationally.
He praised the
club for the group effort it took to make this years FD the best
ever. Warren
noted how he felt he was at a nationally recognized contest
operation; things worked so well.
Biff commented
(please don’t jinx us ;-) that we placed #1 in the 2A
classification nationally..
Jim stated he
would like to see the club and those interested to begin
participating in other contests in the Fall. The club will
begin announcing other contests as Fall approaches.
Warren
stated there are a few kinks to work out, but he feels next
year, we should be able to be fully deployed and ready to
operate before dark on Friday, in 2004.
Field Day
iron-ons were available on a table in the meeting room for those
who wanted to make their own FD t-shirts.. Bruce commented he
would make the graphic available on the website for download.
One final
comment … If Jim, AA4MD wins in the AMSAT competition, the
plaque will be awarded in Toronto, and he would be
unable to make it. Any takers (SARS …?)
New Business
Special
Service Club – Marjie, KB1BCO:
The club has
received its certificate acknowledging TARC as a ARRL Special
Service Club. The certification is good for 2 years.
Only 2 other
clubs in the section have been so designated [out of 30, Bill].
The benefits,
beside the return to the community, are we receive more
information from the League on membership data, and we are
authorized to use the special SSC logo. Biff to look at what
other benefits the club gains from this new designation.
Jim commented
the club plans to keep a running record of all public
involvements as part of this new designation.
Announcements:
Eugene
Hayberts – SK
Biff informed
the club of the sad news of the passing of Eugene recently. His wife, Irene, donated a
number of pieces of equipment to the club for disposal,
including the following:
IC-718 and
accessories
TS-520 – Danny,
KD5UJ will repair and sell for the club
Assorted other
small items were auctioned off in the meeting, courtesy of Mike
Fletcher Auctions, Inc? A total of $37 was collected from the
sales.
Club Raffle –
Biff, K4LAW:
The club is
holding a raffle for an opportunity to go to Dayton, 2004 on the club (air fare, ticket to
the show, and $100 spending money. Room and board are your
responsiblity). The proceeds will go to TARC Corporate for
improvements, radio goodies, etc. Tickets will be available all
year, with the winner being drawn at the Christmas Banquet in
December.
TARCNet:
The weekly club
Net is held on Tuesday nights @ 8:00p, followed by the
ARES/RACES/Skywarn net.
QRM
Newsletter:
The latest
installment of the QRM newsletter is on the home page. If you
have any submissions, please send them to
QRM@hamclub.org.
A motion was
made to adjourn, and motion so carried. The meeting closed at
8:35pm
Equipment
auction results:
$4.00 2m Radio Robert
$5.00 3A power supply Larry
$3.00 Speaker enclosure Connie
Panasonic CB Radio
$1.00 Headphones, cable, coax Barry
fuses
$1.00 Mag mount antenna Connie
$5.00 Multi-meter w/leads Wes
$2.00 Box of parts – CW kit Don
$3.00 MFJ Dual clock /w box Bruce
$5.00 Power meter w/jumper Connie
$6.00 1990 ARRL Handbook, Bart
Hardbound
TARC HF
Council Meeting
June 2,
2003
Jim, WA3DIT,
called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.
31 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
Jim read the
minutes from the May 5th HF Council meeting. A
proposal to approve the minutes was made by Jim, seconded and
Approved.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Kathy stated the
council had $1641.76 in the account, and received $7.50 in
deposits, leaving a balance of $1649.26.
A motion was
made to accept the treasurer’s report. It was seconded and
Approved.
Digital
Committee – Keating – KC4HSI:
The server is up
and running fine now.
The Internet
connection to the radio room is functioning properly, but
requires manual intervention to connect, and currently still a
dialup. No status was provided on the desired RoadRunner
connection in the radio room.
LOGic6 is
installed on 3 of the computers in the radio room. DX Atlas is
being investigated as an addition to systems with LOGic6.
A install
‘image’ is being built, that will allow a quick restoral, or
replication of the configurations on the PCs in the radio room.
This will also allow standardization of the configuration of the
PCs.
TR is being
setup in the radio room for PCs that will be used for
contesting.
Warren
explained how LOGic6, TRX-Manager, DX Atlas functioned together
to create a ‘point and shoot’ radio system.
ARES/RACES – Gary – KC5QCN:
Gary
commented that Hurricane season has started, and to be sure to
prepare.
A number of
activities are happening in the coming months, including:
6/9 – 6/13 –
Governor’s Hurricane Conference at the Tampa Convention Center
6/10 – Free
session at the Hurricane Conference for Ameatur Radio Operators
6/14 –
Introduction to Packet Radio Course at the TARC Clubhouse
6/28 – MAC 1000
training at the TARC Clubhouse
7/8 – Hurricane
Emergency Exercise
The packet
station at the club house is operational. Please be sure to
leave the packet station on when you leave the club house, as it
is meant to operate as a beacon.
The new VHF/UHF
antennas have been temporarily installed on the roof the
clubhouse, till the new side-mount antenna brackets are
installed on the tower.
Equipment –
Jim – WA3DIT:
Jim commented
that Hank is working again. He will be unavailable for a while,
so we will need to prepare and the pour the concrete for the new
tower poles and slab next to the club house. Work on siting the
preparing the second tower will have to wait for now.
Biff acquired a
number if ICE (band filters) for Field Day and the clubhouse.
These should help reduce the interference and de-sensing amongst
multiple transmitters operating at the same time.
Biff stated he
will be disposing the excess Gateway PCs in the clubhouse
New Business
Field Day –
Warren, W1GUD:
Warren
gave a status of Field Day preparations. Doc, AA4MD will be
bringing his satellite station again.
Most of the
perperations are complete.
We have rotor
cables built with connectiors,
the C3E is
assembled (to be disassembled after Cub Scout Day).
We have 4
equipment boxes packed and ready to go.
Warren
explained how the FD operation will be setup, using a CW, SSB,
GOTA, VHF, and satellite stations.
Biff, K4LAW,
explained the GOTA operation, and made a call for operators.
Warren
discussed the 6m station and made an offer to teach weak signal
work techniques to those interested.
Announcements:
Cub Scout
Day:
The club will be
providing radio operators, an HF station, CW training and VHF
handheld experiences again this year at
Plant
Park. The event starts at
8:00a. Equipment checkout and setup is planned for Sunday, 6/8
at the clubhouse, then Plant Park
100/100:
The 100 DX
entities in 100 hours event was a well attended over Memorial
Day weekend. We operated for approximately 20 hours and logged
62 DX entities. QSLs are pending!
Computerized
Logging:
Please be sure
to log all contacts at the clubhouse into the computers located
at each operating position. LOGic6 is on each computer and is
the program to use for this.
The club will be
looking to key all the log data from the various logbooks we
have accumulated over the years into LOGic6.
TARCNet:
The weekly club
Net is held on Tuesday nights @ 8:00p, followed by the
ARES/RACES/Skywarn net.
QRM
Newsletter:
The latest
installment of the QRM newsletter is on the home page. If you
have any submissions, please send them to
QRM@hamclub.org.
A motion was
made to adjourn, and motion so carried. The meeting closed at
8:30pm
TARC HF
Council Meeting
May 5,
2003
Jim, WA3DIT,
called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.
30 members were
in attendance.
Old Business
Jim read the
minutes from the April 7 HF Council meeting. A proposal to
approve the minutes was made by Jim, seconded and Approved.
Committee
Reports:
Treasurer –
Cathy:
Cathy stated
since the April meeting, there was $2400.06 in the HF council
checking account. Expenditures of $858.30 were made for the
following:
·
Icom Accessories for the radio room
·
Membership cards
·
Shipping of the Kenwood TS-870
·
Reimbursement for Heinz’s going away dinner
Leaving a
balance of $1641.76
TARC Fest IX – Jim and Biff
TF IX was the
best TARC Fest to date
Over 350 people
passed through the gate
56 sellers were
in attendance
The inside of
the fenced area was full by 7:00a and the remaining tailgaters
(18) were parked outside the fence
The corporate
council cleared ~ $1400 for the event
And finally, the
Icom IC-271 all-mode 2m rig was sold during the event.
Including the
great turnout of buyers and sellers, ARRL testing was held at
1:00p in the clubhouse, and 5 applicants attended. There were 2
new licenses earned, and 3 license upgrades completed.
The club held a
special raffle towards the end of the event just for new and
existing members who renewed their membership at TARCFest IX.
This helped bring the total paid club members to 107.
Digital
Committee – Pico and Keating:
Pico and Keating
were not in attendance, so Wes, K4NQ provided an update
The Server is
running and the workstations are OK. They functioned fine for
the Florida QSO Party.
Logic6 is not
installed on all computers yet, but will be soon.
ARES/RACES – Gary:
Gary
is currently updating the ARES/RACES roster and verifying the
data. He requests that everyone who is a member please confirm
and update their information.
The Mass
Casualty Drill was held on 4/20 and operated from several
locations, and 26 hams from the area participated. Net control
for the event ran from the clubhouse, and all information flowed
from the clubhouse by either telephone line, or a private
simplex channel to the EOC.
Garry commented
about one of the lessons learned from last years Mass Casualty
Drill was the lack of VHF antennas (one) and no UHF antennas at
the clubhouse, and noted the situation has not changed this
year. He noted the antennas had been acquired, but not
installed.
An ARRL EmComm,
Level I course will be held at the clubhouse, Saturday, May 10
from 8a to 5p. He re-emphasized the need for ARRL trained
communicators.
On August 16, a
Basic and Advanced SkyWarn Spotter course will be held at the
clubhouse for those who are not trained, or need a refresher.
Hurricane season starts the first of June, but typically is most
active in August and September.
Joe, made
glowing comments about the club’s participation in the Mass
Casualty Drill from on-the-air observations.
Gary
commented on the Hillsborough ARES/RACES/Skywarn, relationship
email with the WCF Skywarn Group that was sent last week:
Gary
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