Meeting of February 9, 2016

The meeting was attended by 14 members and 4 recently licensed guests:

WA5ROE Bob           Alpine
KE5KNQ Rob           Alpine
N5DO   Dave          Alpine
W5DWI  Dick          Alpine
W5JUW  Lora          Alpine
KA5PVB Chuck         Alpine
KI5ZQ  Ken           Fort Davis
W5ATO  Bill          Alpine 
N5MVV  Angie         Fort Davis
KB5R   Rusty         Alpine
W4PDB  Jim Vest      Alpine
KG5AAW Brain Hartman Alpine
N5NYM  Allen         Alpine
KF5LZT Ted Smith     Alpine
       Marvin Voiers Fort Davis
       Cindy Davis   Fort Davis
       Sue Smith     Fort Davis
       Chuck Smith   Fort Davis

The meeting was moved to the American Legion due to no key available for the West Texas National Bank meeting room. Rusty KB5R made arrangements.

The meeting was called to order by Chuck KA5PVB at 7:35 PM.

The minutes of the January meeting were read and approved.

Angie N5MVV presented the Treasurers Report, reporting a balance of $3,542.07.

Old Business:
Dave N5DO discussed the details of the Banquet on February 5th. He also discussed the success of the classes held at the fire station at DMR and introduced the 4 newly licensed hams from that testing session who were present at the meeting. He stated that there were 8 individuals from the Alpine class scheduled to be tested the following day, and 2 others from Terlingua to be tested at the home of Chuck KG5BMK and Cathy KG5CGR.

New Business:
Bob WA5ROE reported that the club’s Communication Van needed a new windshield at a cost of about $350.00. Rusty KB5R moved that the replacement be done, seconded by Bill W5ATO, motion approved. Bob will make the necessary arrangements.

Dave N5DO discussed the upcoming Field Day at the end of June, reporting 2 new bonus point categories.. The first is promotion of the club Field Day participation using Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The second is the appointment of a Safety Officer, who must be on-site from setup to tear-down and must certify in writing that all safety categories were strictly enforced.

Program:
Bill W5ATO presented the program on ”all we need to know about controlling our repeater system”. He discussed the codes needed to control the system. Printco will prepare cards with the repeater system codes and info for future handouts. He also discussed the on-going efforts to repair the Pierce Mountain 146.72 repeater. He stated that our repeater system could be improved with the addition of another repeater in the Big Bend Ranch State Park vicinity.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM.

Prepared by Chuck KB5PVB