June meeting of GNARC was called to order at 7:33 pm
There were 19 members in attendance.
Motion made by Toy at 7:34 to accept the meeting minutes from the May GNARC meeting. The minutes were accepted.
Communications/Emails: We got a Facebook message from a local man with a 40M tower and TV antennas that he wants to give away. He offered to pay someone to take it down. If anyone is interested in more information or in helping, email Tom. We got a donation of a station from WA1Q? He wanted to know if we had anyone who wanted a station, so Tom offered to take it off his hands. The radio is a Kenwood 570-D. Dee needs to fix it up a bit, as it needs a couple of new knobs, but it’s in great condition otherwise.
Treasurer’s report: We’re doing fine in terms of money, although we did take a little loss this month due to lack of new members. We also bought shelving supplies for the trailer, and we bought some new tables and chairs for Field Day.
Tech committee: The beam seems to be working, as we ordered the parts, got up on the roof and fixed it with the city’s ladder truck. We put in spacers to fix antenna, replaced the balun, and found two additional bolts that were not secured properly through the driven elements, so we fixed those two. We also changed the coax cable. So it’s operational once again!
OCF was giving us a number of iffy readings on SWR, so we replaced the connector which had oxidized, but it’s still giving the same readings, which makes us think that the box is full of water since there aren’t any drain holes for water to come out of the box. We’re waiting on permission to go back up there and check on that, so for the time being it’s out of commission.
A few members showed up to check out the tower on the trailer. We replaced the pulley, since the rotator motors were stuck from being horizontal for three years which isn’t good for it, so we took it apart and took it inside. It’s bounced back, which is good. The purchase of 150 ft of brand new 7 conductor cable for the rotor was approved as well.
The club trailer now has shelves and things are more organized, so that’s really good. Thanks to Lisa, Paul-PPL, Paul-JVB, and Dee for helping out with that.
Education committee: nothing to report.
VE class: Next test is being held on July 1st if anyone wants to upgrade their license.
Special Events: There may be an upcoming event at Bear Mountain. Details will become available on the reflector. Paul, Paul, and Lisa went up to the tri-point on Saturday where CT, MA, and RI all meet. They hiked up the mountain, got about 50 contacts in 90 minutes, from far away as Alaska and California on 20M. They used a very lightweight battery (bio-eno battery) and ran 100W. The battery held up really well. MS Ride was last Sunday, and it went too pretty well (despite only having one sag wagon).
Bylaws: We got some feedback from the Board and some club members about the proposed bylaws (which are on the website); they are now in Draft 2. We will vote on them at July’s meeting so please be present at the meeting if you would like to vote on the new bylaws! We encourage everyone to read it, and if you have feedback, then send it to Paul and he’ll make sure that the board sees it.
No old business.
Motion to adjourn made by Jim (KC1FB) at 8:03. Seconded by Paul (WB2JVB).
