Post date: May 21, 2017 9:37:31 PM
President Ronnie Head called the meeting to order at 7:00 and led the pledges to the US and Texas flags. Royce Lubke offered the prayer.
There were 19 members in attendance. We took turns introducing ourselves.
Rose Head read the February minutes. They were approved as read.
Henry McKinney gave the treasurer’s report. The last reported balance was $960.24. There was a deposit of $22.00 from dues. The March electric bill for the repeater was $15.94. The ending balance is $966.30. The report was approved as read.
Old Business:
Walt Kovar brought in a $25.00 bill from the Chamber of Commerce. Rose moved and Jack Garner seconded that we continue our membership. The motion passed.
The annual Goat Cook-off will be 2 days after our next meeting. We will need everyone to bring lawn chairs. We need 2 sun shelters, radios, antennae and coax.
Field Day is coming up. We need to do better this year towards our goal to educate and train new hams.
New business:
Walt reported that the new ARRL book “Get on the Air with HF Digital” was now available in our Ham Club library.
Walt reported that the International Crystal Manufacturing Company in Oklahoma is going out of business.
The Scout Jamboree on the Air is celebrating its 60th year October 20th through the 27th.
This is the 100th anniversary of the USA’s entry into WWI.
Jim Hamm’s program was a discussion of progress on the emergency operating station in the Law Enforcement Center. They have installed a mag mount antenna and run coax. Jim has joined RACES which allows him to plug into their net. Other lines of 2 meter communication are the 147.100 repeater, the 146.790 repeater, and simplex. Commercial radio can also do health and welfare messaging in an emergency. The club discussed using the sheriff’s simplex frequency car to car. That requires modification to most radios. It can be done by the dealer or by the ham himself.
Jack Garner had a short program that followed Jim that updated the lessons learned from the 147.520 simplex net. Jack tried adding a 19.5 inch counterpoise wire to his handheld radio. It improved transmission and particularly reception. Bennie Owens explained that the additional wire made the ¼ wave antenna into a dipole. The handheld radio has a practical range of 1 mile except at extreme height.
The meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.