Prior to the meeting, the Continental School, Robotics Team, put on a demonstration for the forty-one visitors and members present. It highlighted not only the skill necessary for the construction but also for the operation of the robot. The achievements of these young people are impressive.
Jack McGowan AD7NK called the meeting to order at 20:20 and thanked the Robotics Team for their demonstration.
Bob also acknowledged two new members, Stan Raskauskas KF7GNJ and Justin Isley KF7GVQ.
Ron reported that our ten-year–old UHF repeater is broken and will be replaced as the cost of repairs approach the price of a new repeater. He will try to repair the old one if he can find inexpensive parts on eBay and keep it as a spare. The new repeater will cost about $700.
The Continental School Radio Club has the largest beginning class ever.
Twenty-five kids are building FM/AM radios.
All of our first-year radio club students attend a 40-minute class on electronics each week as well as their time soldering and kit building.
This year, Ted Zazeski, N7SX, is the instructor and he is doing an excellent job.
Ted prepares a lesson for each week related to the parts they are installing during their soldering time.
Working with ten- to twelve- year old boys and girls is a real challenge.
Ted does lots of hands on demonstrations to keep their attention and interest.
You really never know what influence you are having on the future careers of these students, but Ted is making sure they have early exposure to electronics.
Lloyd N7GV
We had eleven people show up to take their license exams.
Six people earned their Tech license and four upgraded to Extra, including one who took all three license class exams.
Carolyn AB7KC
The GVARC home webpage has been fixed so that the repeater sub-tones are visible. Also, the locations and addresses for Wednesday morning breakfasts and for the Ice Cream Net have been added. During the past month, the club’s website has had 660 hits by 421 different people from ten countries. The most common visitor’s locations are: U.S. (604), Brazil (8), U.K. (6) and Canada (5).
Gene W0KAD reported on the Transmitter Hunt ad hoc Committee. A consensus of members present favored the suggestion of a combined geocache-transmitter hunt. There was a discussion of dates but no decision. The Sunday before or after the Spring Picnic was mentioned. The committee will provide a date at the next meeting. There will be an antenna/ attenuator building “party” before the hunt. Lloyd estimates the cost of materials at about $16 to $18 each.
President Jack AD7NK announced that the Newcommers Guide is almost ready. It should be very helpful to both our new and present members. He also, brought up the subject of committees as an effort to spread the work that keeps the club viable. Committees that need volunteers include:
An upcoming special event is the 24th anniversary of the Titan Missile Museum which will occur on May 8, 2010. We have notified ARRL of our intent to participate in this celebration on May 8, 2010 from 08:00 to 16:00 and Lloyd Miller, Gene Schouweiler, Jon Otto, and Don Doehring volunteered to work on organizing our efforts.
Gene W0KAD, conducted a silent auction for an IC-2350 dual band radio, Aston R-20 power supply, and an antenna tuner.
The meeting was adjourned at 20:10. The next meeting will be March 10th.
We need to review and update the obligations we, as a club, have to our main benefactors the Titan Museum, the SAV, and the local community. We need to find volunteers dedicated to support the local community during local emergencies.
Since the meeting, the committee set the following dates for the picnic and antenna/attenuator build for the Radio Direction Finding (RDF) hunt. Friday March 12th will be the antenna building party. Friday March 19th will be the attenuator building party. Thursday March 25th will be the spring picnic (before the snow birds leave). And Saturday March 27th will be the RFD/GEO cache hunt. Times and locations will be announced at the next meeting on Wednesday, March 10th.
73’s
Jack McGowan, President
GVARC