Post date: May 21, 2017 9:38:52 PM
President Ronnie Head called the meeting to order at 7:03 and led the pledges to the US and Texas flags. Ronnie offered the prayer.
Rose Head read the March minutes. They were approved as read.
Rose gave the treasurer’s report that was emailed by Henry McKinney. The last reported balance was $966.30. There was a deposit of $68.00 from dues. The April electric bill for the repeater was $18.82. The membership fee for the Chamber of Commerce was paid at $25.00. The ending balance is $990.48. The report was approved as read.
Old Business:
The annual Goat Cook-off will be this Saturday. We will need everyone to bring lawn chairs. Members will gather at 6:00 p.m. Friday at the park to do preliminary setup. Rondel Stevens agreed to bring the “Go Box” Friday and his Yaesu 857 and power supply on Saturday. He also will be supplying 2 tables. Ronnie agreed to bring his 2 meter radio and mag-mount antenna and his Yaesu 450 and 35A power supply. Web Mays agreed to supply the shade canopy. Walt Kovar supplied DQ gift certificates for youths who get on the air. Mike Pansini planned to bring a computer and digital display. We could use handheld radios to talk with as “fishing lures”.
There was a discussion of problems using simplex within the county.
New business:
Derek Pausewang presented his notes on improving field day participation: poster for placement around town, volunteer sign-up sheet, commitment signup for equipment, pot-luck meal Saturday night, more shade canopies, more chairs for guests, a second banner, a sign on the courthouse lawn, announcement on San Saba and Hamilton radios. His family now has a cargo trailer with air conditioning that can be used as one of the stations. He will bring a solar panel and battery.
Rondel volunteered to do a program on Field Day rule changes at next month’s meeting.
Derek also presented his battery charging system for Baofeng handheld radios. It would also recharge cell phones. He built it inside a tackle box case.
The program was presented by Mike Pansini on digital modes. Digital mode radio is useable with low signals of 1 watt to 30 watts. Mike presented images of the signal display of the various modes. He recommended JT65 as a type of digital mode that was very easy to use.
Some useful internet links were solarham.com and qrz.com for the daily solar index report. http://thinkman.com/dimension4/index.htm has a downloadable application to keep the computer time in sync. This is critical in digital mode communication because contacts are made in very tiny time slots across the world.
The meeting adjourned at 8:25 pm.