Minutes of the August 2015 meeting of the Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club
Minutes of the FSAARC August Meeting 2015
The monthly meeting of the FSAARC was called to order by President, Jimmie Lowrey, W5JNL. A motion to accept last month’s minutes as posted on the internet was made by David Overton,
K5DFO and seconded by Art Sellers, W3TZ. Motion passed unanimously. Kathy, KF5UTC our treasurer, read the treasurer’s report and the report was motioned to be accepted by Rory
Bowers K6CKS to accept the minutes as read. The motion was seconded by Joel Goldstein, W5GOL. The motion passed. Wayne Johnson, W5OFN had nothing new from the repeater
committee. Discussion was made about the purchase of the new club Yaesu repeater, which has not been obtained yet. The repeater will be $500.00 shipped to us. W5OFN has the 146.940
repeater in his garage and 2 others. Need to have a work party at the 146.640 repeater site before it gets too cold. Will announce. The potential site for the 146.940 repeater in Van Buren,
AR fell through according to W3TZ. We can try to set it up at Hackett, AR at W5JNL’s place once a tower gets set up there. Local ground test can be done first to check signal strength from that
location. K6CKS advises that the Sycamore link system is working OK. Tulsa link system is controlled by them. The van is history as in we do not own it any more. Queen Wilhelmina
Hamfest is coming up September 11‐12. Randy Baggett, KG5NE advised interested persons to go to Menahamfest.net for information. The Arkansas QSO Party is the same weekend as Mena
Hamfest. Mike Cole W5TMC brought it to the floor to see if the club even wanted to be a W5ANR station in the ARQP. We had no takers for this. Let W5TMC know. ARRL VHF contest
will also be this same weekend. September 20th will be a Foxhunt. Will have 2 foxes. 1 may be a rover. This will be the 2nd of 3 planned fox hunts this year. The band operated on will be 2
meters. CQ WW RTTY is Sept. 26‐27. Can work as W5ANR as well if anyone would like. 10‐10 International contest CW comes up 10‐11‐ 10‐12 The club does not have a 10‐10 number at this
time but can still participate. Can also work as W5ANR. Rick Allison of HealthSouth has been asked to allow us to use the meeting room for our picnic meeting in October. Will see what he
has to say. W5TMC will let us all know. Families are welcome to this event. Stew Perry Top Band 160m contest on 9‐17 and 9‐18. We can work on this as W5ANR and may be able to get some
more WAS awards for the club. David Norris, K5UZ Delta Director is recommending that the Hanging Judge Hamfest be the Delta Division Convention in April 2016. Just needs to be
confirmed. Hamfest details were discussed. Need to maximize the space available for all activities. W5TMC discussed the ongoing technician/general class. Is hoping to test on 8‐29‐15
for these folks. Jim Roughly indicated that he has 2 Motorola 2m radios that he can donate to folks passing the exam and needing a radio. The attendees of the meeting then introduced
themselves. W5TMC asked that some folks go visit Jim Dickinson KE5INX as he is in the hospital in Rm. 207. John Samuels, W5ATW, advises that a Technician class was held in Leflore Co. OK
and all passed and several upgraded from there. Trying to form a VE group in the Poteau area.Having some success. Will help out the Ft. Smith VEs and Leflore Co. potential hams. Club
member James Woods, jr., W5EMP is listed in the current QST magazine as an ARRL scholarship winner and will be attending OU in Norman this year. He will study Chemical
Engineering. Mike Bell, K5JMB motioned to adjourn the meeting. A tour of the ARRL headquarters video was shown to those interested in staying.
Submitted by Jeff Ricketts, K5KDX
FSAARC member