Minutes of the August 2014 meeting of the Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club
Minutes of the FSAARC Club meeting 8-18-14
The August meeting of the Ft. Smith Area Amateur Radio Club came to order at 7:00 p.m. with all current officers present. The meeting minutes for the July 2014 meeting were accepted and approved without additions or corrections. Mark Clayton,N5AZQ motioned that the minutes were accepted as is and the motion was seconded by Art Sellers, W3TZ. Chuck Johnson, N5JUD read the treasurer’s report and indicated that the club had a balance of $5,921.80. We are still due for a few Hamfest rebates. A check had been sent out for the Spectrum Defense Fund by our club to the ARRL. A motion to accept the treasurer’s report was made by John Samuels W5ATW and the motion was seconded by Dennis Burton, N5DRB. The motion carried by unanimous vote. A committee report was made by Wayne Johnson, W5OFN. Wayne suspects the PA is out on the 146.940 repeater or it could be an antenna issue. Kelsey Mikel, K5PWR was going to check this out for us and let us know what the problem is. Nothing needing to be done at the 146.640 repeater at this time. We suspected some QRM on the 146.640 repeater is coming from the Poteau, OK area. Activity Chairman Mike Cole, W5TMC indicated the net still runs on Thursday nights. In September we will have some events we can do with the AR-OK State Fair. W5ATW reminded all of the Joplin, MO hamfest upcoming. Accolades were made to those who worked the recent W1AW/5 OK stations for the ARRL Centennial QSO Party. Mike advised he had made about 1,000 contacts at his home QTH and Rick Deaton, K5RRD indicated that as of the club meeting he has 1,079 contacts on digital mode. Randy Baggett, KG5NE advised the club that the Mena Hamfest will be 2 weeks after the Joplin, MO hamfest. This will be September 5th and 6th 2014. Both tents will be up at Mena. Charles Floyd, W5JE will be checking QSL cards at Mena. N5AZQ reminded the club that the Texarkana Hamfest will be upcoming. Jimmy Lowrey, W5JNL confirmed with W3TZ that we had Columbus Acres booked for the 1st weekend in April 2015 for the Hanging Judge hamfest. There was no Old Business. New business N5JUD brought up that Al, WB5JNC of the old defunct Crawford County Radio Club had contacted him about a donation of the remainder of their club’s funds to our club. The amount is about $47.00. Will suggest they write a check to our account. There was no objection to taking “free†money. W3TZ indicated a nursing home in Alma, AR wanted to get a ham station at their facility. They wanted someone who could get there to operate during storms and emergency situations. All attendees introduced themselves. The Sebastian Co. EOC is available for use for Field Day 2015 according to W5OFN. Jeff Ricketts, K5KDX reminded the club that the Arkansas QSO Party is the week after the Mena hamfest on Saturday September 13, 2014. They really appreciated W5ANR being a dedicated station last year. Hopefully we can do that again this year. Contest is 12 hours. N5DRB and Jay Bromley, W5JAY brought up the use of W5ANR as a contest club and W5JAY made a motion that all use of the call W5ANR be channeled thru KG5NE as club trustee who would be in charge of assigning the usage of the club call for events/contests. Preference would be given to Multi over Single ops. The assignee must be a club member. Roger Martin, W5LW seconded the motion and the motioned carried. W5JAY advised anyone who needed software or LoTW help to call him. No other new business. Mike Bell, K5JMB moved for adjournment seconded by W5OFN all were in favor. Meeting adjourned.
Submitted by: Jeff Ricketts, K5KDX F.S.A.A.R.C. Secretary