Lake Amateur Radio Association s1

General Meeting Minutes of Lake Amateur Radio Association December 9, 2017

Meeting was called to order by President N4KXO at 10:00 AM

Club recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Introduction of members and guests:

Monthly Service Honor Roll: As always Dean KM4QMB for being our yard bird. Teresa, KN4CFJ and Chris KM4RHR for the office chairs.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS: 1st reading: Stephen W4SDC. 2nd reading: Darrell, N3BIO and Joseph, KF4OYF where both voted in as members. . TREASURER’S REPORT: Was posted on the wall. Motion submitted for acceptance of the report, seconded and accepted. The following balances were reported for November 2017. Sun Trust checking, $2,634.58; Sun Trust Savings, $1001.32; SKFund, $2,657.94; Investment Account, $17,863.82; Petty Cash, $50.00; PayPal, $282.08.

SECRETARY’S REPORT: Was posted on the wall as well as emailed to all members; Motion submitted for acceptance of the report, seconded and accepted.

ENGINEERS REPORT: See attached.

ARES: W4ALR- The net operates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on N4FLA, 147.255 at 7:00 PM, and Packet on 145.01. All are welcome to join us. Beginning January 1, 2018 - Frank KK4MBX will become the ARES net manager. After 4 1/2 years or so it’s time for a change. Frank can bring new a new vision to the net. I will continue as a backup NCS when needed. A thank you for Jay N4KXO was given. Help for shelters are always needed. There is a request for some vetted operators to be trained on the radios in The Lake County Fire Department Forward Operations Unit for communications. The Lake County Sherriff office will be upgrading the mobile radios in the ARES trailer to the Motorola XTL series.

QCWA: Uses 147.000 for their Tuesday night net. A lot of their members use Echolink to check into the QCWA net Tuesday at 7:30 PM with an average of about a dozen check-ins. Also you will find the QCWA on Friday mornings on 443.150 at 10:00 AM. The QCWA luncheon is now the third Saturday 11:30 AM at the Olive Garden. There is also a net on 14.347 MHz 4 PM Sunday and Saturday on 3.940 MHz 9:00am EST.

SK COMMITTEE: - SK sales will be selling in February at Hamcation. Stickers are available for to put on your equipment in case you become a silent key.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: Don K3DRS. Don reports that 406 service hours were recorded for November 2017. 3986 hours have been recorded for the year 2017. Only those members that have taken the required Incident Command System courses and have been vetted by Lake County, and receives a badge have their volunteer service hours recorded. See John WB4HV for an application. Sometime in the future we will have a class on the ICS100 200 and 700 tests. DX and CONTESTING:

You can find the current contests by looking at the ARRL website/contests This clubs facility can be made available for members to participate in contests.

Does anyone have any recent DX contacts of interest?

OLD BUSINESS:

The LARA Monthly Lunch is set for the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 11:00 AM time in the meeting room of the Golden Corral Highway 441, Eustis, 16 were present at the last lunch.

CLUB APPAREL - Any questions please see Frank KK4MBX - we now also have a T-shirt vendor separate from Striking Effects. Frank will take orders for new T-shirts.

NEW BUSINESS:

Go Kits - Gordon W9KC would like to plan an after action session and what do we need to make the "go kits" a better operation since their use during Hurricane IRMA. He'd be open to having a Q & A session and more here at the clubhouse in the near future. He needs to know what worked well and what didn't so changes can be made.

Field Day 2017 - Team LARA once again did very well during the 2017 Field Day operation. LARA (K4FC) was in the top 20 overall and placed 2nd in the 5A category. I believe there were around 3000 5A stations. 1st place was a team in Loudon VA.

Grid Square Contest - The ARRL grid square contest begins January 1, 2018. All grid square totals will be kept by LOTW. (Yes you would have to use LOTW). If you as a club member participate, the club winner will win a lifetime membership to LARA. 2nd place will get paid dues for a year.

STORAGE CONTAINER - Fred couldn't be here today but he's still looking into pricing for the project.

Technician class - We have a tentative date of, March 10th 2018, to do another Technician Class and test session at the Institute Of Public Safety in Tavares.

LARA Board - is looking into several ideas as a fund raiser. Your input would be appreciated. Contact Dave NP2MR or any board member with your ideas.

Christmas Dinner - The LARA annual Christmas dinner was last night. We had a great dinner. This year's Presidents award went to Lenny, KD4MBN for his long service to the club.

LARA Election - You must be current with your LARA dues to vote.

Steve KK4FVO was nominated for a board director position. Don K3DRS was nominated for a board director position. All other incumbents are running unopposed.

Ballots for the five board positions were distributed and results reported as: John WB4HV, Fred NF2F, Frank KK4MBX, Mike K9SSL and Don K3DRS as being elected for the 2018 calendar year. A motion was made and seconded that the ballots be destroyed and so moved.

A motion was made and seconded that the Secretary cast one vote for all the incumbent officers (President Jay N4KXO, Vice President Al W4ALR, Treasurer Dave NP2MR, and Secretary Emil WA2UPK) to be duly elected and so moved.

WEBSITE - Ed N4ZIV our webmaster and I are re-vamping and updating the K4FC website. It's very time consuming and slow process but we are making progress.

SUNSHINE REPORT: Gene, AD4UB is recuperating at home.

Does anyone have anything for the good of the order? For D-Star users there is a net on Monday at 8:00pm on the KA4TJD D-Strar repeater on reflector 7C, also on Wednesday the Florida ARES Net at 9:00am on 46C.

21 members and visitors present.

50/50 drawing won by AC2KW and $11.00 donated back to the club.

Meeting adjourned at 10:37am

Submitted by Emil, WA2UPK Secretary.

Engineer’s Report December 9, 2017 De NF2F

Royal Harbor UHF – Up and running on analog.

N4FLA/147.255 Up and running on backup repeater.

K4FC/147.000 – Up and running. Echo Link being worked on by K3NON, Analog and P25. Engineer will work with Paul to resolve technical issues. (One way audio)

K4FC/442.900 – The repeater in service with IRLP.

Camera System – Board members trained by Gordon Williamson in camera viewing and operation. The system is currently running with four active cameras. Wiring in the repeater building has been cleaned up and secured. The club house generator has been re-programmed to run twice monthly instead of the four time it previously ran.

Repeater Control - Engineer and Gordon are planning to make the IP power strip operational for the first repeater on Sunday 12/10. Once completed the second IP device will be ordered. This will allow the repeaters to be controlled over the internet from a smart phone or computer as opposed to over the air. Respectfully Submitted, NF2F Frederick E. Fitte