Minutes of meeting
September 12, 2017
The meeting was attended by 11 members and guests:
KA5PVB CHUCK ALPINE K5WSA BILL FORT DAVIS JUDY FORT DAVIS KB5R RUSTY ALPINE N5NYM ALLEN ALPINE KE5WCP STEPHEN FORT DAVIS KG5LMG MARVIN FORT DAVIS WB5YFG J.P. FORT DAVIS KD5KBU JIM FORT DAVIS WA5ROE BOB ALPINE KE5KNQ ROB ALPINE
Meeting was called to order at 7:31 PM by President Allen Moore – N5NYM.
Minutes of the July meeting were read and approved, motion to accept by Rusty – KB5R, and seconded by Stephen – KE5WCP.
No Treasurer’s report as Angie was absent.
Old Business –
BIG THANKS to Jim – KD5KBU for the August meeting held at the Mc Donald Observatory
16 Spectographs are now on – line and total of 18 installed by the end of October.
Also, in October they are expecting the delivery of the “Habitable Planet Finder” equipment.
Purging the club’s storage unit could possibly take place September 30th, with club elders needed
to identify the older items and someone to take what’s left and store it for the club.
Repeater Report-
146.82 – Christmas Mountain – Charge Controller was destroyed by lightning and some of the solar panel diodes also destroyed. Possible helicopter lift of new and old batteries in near future to re-power the repeater.
146.92 – Glass Mountains – West Texas Connection Hospital Net used Echo-Link last week to communicate with the net control station in Midland. Past problems with the Net appear to be “on their end”as all our equipment seems to be working properly.
New Business –
Cyclefest is this weekend (Sept. 16-17) KD5KBU coordinating event for the club. The loop ride has 5 water/food stops and radio ops needed to support the riders. Meet Saturday morning at 7:00 AM at Mad Dog Cantina in Fort Davis. A minimum of the ops needed, race starts at 8:00AM should end about 4:00PM and is 75 miles long. Sunday is the hill climb from Fort Davis to the Observatory.
Jim – KD5KBU made a presentation on Radio Astronomy including:
Projects for amateurs –
Meteor Scatter Communications on 2 meters with FSK441 mode or EME JT65 mode.
FSK441 mode is high speed CW (1600 WPM) and 100 watt transmitter, with a Yagi @ 40 FT.
Sudden Ionispheric Disturbance – Solar flare impact on our D-layer causing VLF ducting.
Simple receiver @ 15-40 KHZ needed to monitor the submarine communications stations.
Monitor RF Emissions from Jupiter. Best heard in 18-28 MHZ. region on quite nights (electrically).
More info at http://radiojove.gsfe.nasa.gov?
Radio-astronomy.org
WWW.aavso.org
Meeting adjourned at 8:37PM
Respectfully submitted
Chuck Dobbins – KA5PVB
filling in for Secretary – Bill Roberts – W5NPR