Lake Amateur Radio Association

General Meeting Minutes of Lake Amateur Radio Association April 16, 2016

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

Club recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

Introduction of members and guests: KN4VG and WA1WJJ

Monthly Service Honor Roll: Our yard bird - Carl K8BBT -

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS: 1st reading: Mike KN4VG, Dan WA1WJJ, John KE4D and Libby KB4FFO 2nd reading: Curt WB0HUJ, Carol KA0AJD and George W4GFG

TREASURER’S REPORT was posted on the wall. Motion submitted for acceptance of the report, seconded and accepted. The following balances were reported for March, 2016. Sun Trust checking $4,614.31; Sun Trust Savings $2,001.10; SKFund $809.14; Investment Account $17,130.56 The treasurer was given approval to destroy receipts and membership cards that were not picked up in 2015.

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: NF2F -Lenny KD8MBN will be the Club's Engineer until October. He primarily will be maintaining the clubhouse repeaters. Fred will be in town from time to time and work with Lenny on the Royal harbor setup and the IRLP setup.

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. Other neighboring counties also have nets which you are welcome to check in with them. Lake County Emergency Management is planning a hurricane exercise for June 1st. This will include an actual call up and EOC operation and include shelter operations. You will need a badge issued by the county to enter the school shelters. WB4HV went over the assignments to the schools and made adjustments where needed.

QCWA: Using 147.000. 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 Taki’s restaurant on 27 in Leesburg. Also looking for another place to meet closer to the clubhouse. There is also a net on D-Star reflector 30 on Friday nights at 8 or 9pm.

SK COMMITTEE: Status report: There has been some new donation of equipment. Stickers are available to put on your equipment. $625 worth of SK equipment was sold this month.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: Don K3DRS. Don reports that 234 service hours were recorded for February 2016. 808 hours have been recorded for the year. 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

DX and CONTESTING:

Michigan QSO party Nebraska QSO party North Dakota QSO party Ontario QSO party ARRL Rookie Roundup Starts Sunday All provinces of China DX contest Florida QSO Party is April 30-May 1

You can find the current contests by looking at the ARRL website/contests

Does anyone have any recent DX contacts of interest?: India on 15 meters by KT4Q, Estonia by K8BBT.

OLD BUSINESS:

A reminder again was to read the messages on the reflector and if requested to reply to the e- mail address in the message and not to the reflector. There might also be cases where the answer would be of interest to everyone and then it is OK to reply to the reflector.

The LARA Monthly Lunch is set for the 2nd Wednesday of each month now at 11:00 AM time in the meeting room of the Golden Corral Highway 441, Eustis, 15 were present at the last lunch.

CLUB APPAREL - Order form was sent via the reflector - Any questions please see Frank KK4MBX - we now also have a T-shirt vendor separate from Striking Effects. Good price's see Frank (KK4MBX) for ordering. Frank also had some suggestions for T-shirts for our Field Day event at $10 for regular sizes and $12 of extra large sizes. Further info will be sent out on the reflector.

TAILGATE -The November tailgate date has been secured. The event this year will be held at the Institute of Public Safety.

NEW BUSINESS:

After this meeting, Paul K3NON will answer your APRS questions and do a demonstration.

ADDITIONAL UHF STATION: - The Royal Harbor UHF station will have a new repeater soon and become a LARA station. Frequency to be determined. Call will remain WX4RH.

WEBSITE - Ed, KI4ZIV, and Frank KK4MBX are developing our new LARA-ARES website. I anticipate the new redesigned LARA website will go live this month.

MARCH of DIMES - Event will be in Clermont May 7 at the National Training Center by South Lake Hospital. We'll set up a tent shelter rather than take the trailer. Frequency used will be 442.600 with 103.5 PL. Event should run from about 7:00am to 11:00am. Will be mostly walkways and bike paths. Will need monitors at various car entrances. FIELD DAY - Last weekend in June - may not be a 7A for us this year. Need a chairman to co- ordinate, contact Steve KT4Q if interested. Food will be catered and paid for by the club.

MT. DORA BIKE FEST - Will be October 7, 8, and 9. APRS will be

VE SESSION - At Mt Dora High School May 26th. The science teacher has arranged for students to take the Technician test for a final test. We will need around 12 VE’s to administer the test. Dress code to be long black or blue pants and LARA shirt if available.

SUNSHINE REPORT: Don Schreiner K3DRS - recovering well from his recent surgery. KA4OPM is now confined to a wheelchair.

Does anyone have anything for the good of the order? There are 2 pictures in QST page 20 this month taken at the 41st Mt.Dora Bicycle Festival by Ted K1AYZ our PIO.

27 .members and visitors present

50/50 drawing won by KA6NZU for $12 and donated back to the club

Meeting adjourned at 11:15am

Submitted by Emil WA2UPK