Meeting of February 11, 2014

The meeting was attended by 14 members and guests:

Angie    N5MVV  Fort Davis
Rusty    KB5R   Alpine
Bill     W5ATO  Alpine
Steve    NF5FF  Alpine
Barb     KM5VM  Alpine
Julianne KF5RDN Terlinqua
Phil            Terlinqua
Rob      KE5KNQ Alpine
Dave     N5DO   Alpine
Fran     K5FRN  Fort Davis
Richard  W5DWI  Alpine
Lora     W5JUW  Alpine
Bob      W5RHN  Fort Davis
Bob      WA5ROE Alpine
Bill     W5NPR  Alpine

The meeting was called to order by President Bob Ward, WA5ROE at 7:30 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report: Angie, N5MVV reported a $5,580.85 balance in the Club’s checking account, with $540.00 to be paid for the Annual Banquet.

Minutes of the January 14, 2014 meeting were read and accepted.

Old Business:

The discussion continued for further repairs and adjustments to the Cibolo Repeater 147.12. Also discussed was the rebuilding of the Emergency Repeater to include the installation of a link radio, which was not installed for use at the Big Bend Ultra Run.

It was discussed that club dues for 2014 were up for payment, starting in January, and all members who had not already paid were encouraged to make payment as soon as possible.

Dave N5DO gave a reminder that a new Technician Class would be presented on Saturday April 5th and Saturday April 12th.

New Business:

The need to update the Club Calling Tree was discussed. A copy of the tree was circulated for additions and/or corrections. It was also discussed that a review of the Club membership list should be made, with those no longer members removed from the list.

Bob WA5ROE reported that the SKYWARN session presented annually by the National Weather Service through West Texas was upcoming, with the session in Fort Davis scheduled for April 16th and for Alpine April 17th at the Science building at Sul Ross, Room 201.

It was reported that the Elephant Mountain 147.02 link system was in need of repairs, and that telephone service to the new building location had not been hooked up. Telephone is used for the phone patch operations.

Bill W5NPR reported that this was the week for the School Club Amateur Radio Roundup, but that he had talked to Cary KF5ZBW and that Wink High School would not be participating due to Six Weeks exams.

Program:

Bill W5ATO presented a program on Google Earth, a free software package featuring mapping using sallelite photo imagery. His program included an introduction to Google Earth, tool bar capabilities, searches by latitude and longitude coordinates (emphasizing that latitude was positive numbers and longitude negative numbers), searches by business names and object names, elevation profiles and street views. His presentation ended with a computer tour of the BBARC repeater sites. The program was well presented and well received.

The meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM.
Bill W5NPR, Secretary