Minutes of the July 2011 meeting of the Fort Smith Area Amateur Radio Club
Repeater Update
The 444.5 is not working and the 444.3 machine is working. The Tulsa repeater that is in this area is off the air. Our repeater committee has offered support to the Tulsa ham club and is waiting to hear about their plans to fix the machine.
Club Van
The van was very useful during both the trolley museum and field day events. The van budget of $1500 has been used to purchase a number of items including machines, coax, latter line, antenna, lighting, outriggers and signage. (please note: this is not intended to be a complete list of expenses.) The budget has been expended. A weak breaker in the generator was discovered during field day which will cost approximately $69 plus shipping. Mark Platt made a motion to appropriate $1000 for the van. The motion was seconded, voted on and passed.
Activities
Field Day, June 25 & 26 – Mike Cole reported that field day this year was very hot but the –event went well. Dr. Charles Floyd mentioned that we received 7120 points from ARRL for our various activities. There were four people that were not able to finish tasks due to the heat. Set up and tear down was especially brutal. It was briefly discussed that we should possibly scale back the use of antennas and towers next year.
Technician Class – Mike Cole reported that the club’s technician class started Saturday July 9. The location is at the Fort Smith Police Department and several people have attended. There was mention of possibly providing class members with an ARRL technician license manual. No action was taken. There may be another class in the fall held at the public library.
Shirts
Steve Rutherford has samples for the polo shirts and t-shirts. They will be vinyl printed since embroidery is not an option with such detail on part of the logo. The vinyl print is very durable and is very popular among local businesses and ball teams. Prices are $25 for a full color polo and $13 for a 2 color t-shirt. He is taking orders and payment is not needed right now.
Delta Division Convention 2013
President Royce Rainwater created a committee to look into the possibility of our club hosting the Delta Division Convention at our hamfest in 2013. The committee is Jay Bromley, chair, Keith Newman, Jimmie Lowery, David Overton, John Samuels and Rick Deaton. There were mentions of the opportunity a couple years ago and the committee is looking into possible developments.
Art Sellers mentioned that the Octoberfest event is the second weekend in October and asked if the club would like to direct parking and possibly bring out the van for public relations purposes. There will be an Octoberfest meeting before we have our next monthly meeting. It was agreed upon that we will discuss it in August.
Mike Bell made a motion to adjourn the meeting. It was seconded, voted on and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.