Meeting Minutes - July 29, 2006

Nixa Amateur Radio Club, Inc. Meeting Minutes July 29, 2006
I.	Call to Order
	Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, called to order the regular meeting of the Nixa Amateur Radio Club, Inc. at 18:05 on July 29, 2006 in Nixa Fire Station.
II.	Roll Call
	Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC, conducted a roll call via a sign-up sheet. The following persons were present:
	Member Present - 16:
	James Adkins, KB0NHX		Jim Adkins, KC0IYI
	Kim Adkins, KC0		David Bowman, WB0QIR
	Chris Cochran, KB0WZC		Matt Ellif, KC0QJJ
	Dean Gaines, KC0SQD		Al Gallo, W0ERE
	Bob Hessee, N0XJJ		Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC
	Jeff Morrissey, KB0WVT		John Perkins, W6OQS
	Chris Raymond, KC0TLE		Doug Schumpert, K0DPS
	Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ		Rich Vogt, KB9YZE
	Guest Present - 6:
	Ralph Baldi, KF6AHT		Ray Cadmus, W0PFO
	Pat Conway, WA6JGM		John Kreymer, N5LKM
	Terry Shoemaker, KE4LQW		Richard Spurlock, N0UBX
	New Members Joined - 3:
	Ralph Baldi, KF6AHT		Ray Cadmus, W0PFO
	John Kreymer, N5LKM
III.	Approval of minutes from last meeting
	Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC, provided a copy of the minutes to the president for posting to the club website.
IV.	Open Issues
	A.	Repeater Linking:
		It was discussed as to how the 2-meter and 6-meter repeaters should be linked, and if it should be linked full time or not. It was decided that the 6-meter and 2-meter repeaters would be linked for the Thursday net, now dubbed the N.A.R.C. Network, into the evening and on weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
	B.	6 Meter Repeater PL Tone:
		The 6-meter repeater PL tone has been turned on for the 6-meter repeater. This has been done to try to eliminate some interference that has happened late in the evenings and early in the mornings. These occurrences have been rare, but now that the repeaters are linked it would be good to try to eliminate any possibilities of this happening in the future and affecting both repeaters.
	C.	Club Garage Sale:
		Jeff Morrissey, KB0WVT, brought up the idea of having a club garage sale as a possible fundraiser. This would not be limited to ham radio items but any and all items that could be sold. Any leftover items from the garage sale would be donated to an organization like the Council of the Blind. This event is being targeted for the October time frame. Details on the event are to be discussed further at a future meetings.
	D.	Club Sponsored Golf Tournament:
		This would be the second annual "Communications Classic" club fundraiser. It was felt that much was learned in running the tournament last year and that we could be more successful with another tournament this year.
	E.	Treasurer's Report:
		Jeff Morrissey, KB0WVT, presented the treasurer's report.
	F.	Christian County ARES Presentation:
		Terry Shoemaker, KE4LQW, and Pat Conway, WA6JGM, presented. It was brought to the groups attention that the IS-700 class is going to be required for anyone that is going to be involved as a responder in any civil emergency. It was also brought to the groups attention that any and all licensed amateurs are welcome to join Christian County ARES regardless of any past or present affiliations with any other club or organization. Christian County ARES is actively seeking new members to help fill their ranks as to better respond to city and county emergencies when called upon to do so. Pat Conway gave a detailed description of harmful interference that is being caused on the 145.230 repeater by a nearby wireless Internet service provider. The wireless provider is cooperating with Christian County ARES to resolve the interference issue. Right now the interference is overloading the front end of the repeater resulting in poor receive performance.
	G.	Allstate Foundation Grant:
		Patty and Chloe Dixon from Allstate Insurance in Nixa presented a check to Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, on behalf of the Allstate Foundation in the amount of $500.00. The club gave a whole-hearted "thank-you" and applause to Patty and the Allstate Foundation for the generous contribution to our organization in recognition of the Club's commitment to public service and emergency preparedness. Patty Dixon's Allstate Insurance office is located on highway 14 (Mount Vernon) between Sonic and Nixa Convenience Center.
	H.	Repeaters:
		James Adkins, KB0NHX, presented the following information on the club's repeaters: 6-Meter Repeater (53.270 MHz / PL 162.2) The 6-meter repeater continues to operate well. We've had a few isolated incidents of interference. Yesterday, James Adkins, KB0NHX, and Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ, went to the 6-meter site and installed fans on the UHF link radio and the backup 6-meter repeater making them both capable of 100% duty cycle. In addition, some minor re-programming was done to the controller and link audio was further adjusted. With the Allstate foundation grant of $500 and sale of a GE Rangr radio and the sale of the batteries we were going to use for the 145.270 backup battery that we ended up not needing, we have made enough to cover all charges associated with the 6-meter repeater. Thanks again to Chris Cochran for covering the bill until these items could be moved. All, I'd like to give a brief account of the install of the repeater and how it operates. The install went pretty well. The only snag we ran into was the fact that PDQ bid half as many coax cable hangers as we needed. On a normal tower, spacing is one hanger every 4 feet. On CU's tower, it's every 2 feet. The reason for this is that CU's tower has a higher standard they must live up to. More hangers = better windloading characteristics. We were 110 1-1/4" hangers short, and about 90 7/8" hangers short. Thanks to Jeremy and Alltel for coming up with the 90 7/8" hangers, saving us several hundred dollars. We did, however, have to purchase the 110 1-1/4” hangers at a price of $340, which put us over the top on the budget. They had to be drop shipped from Andrew overnight, and the shipping cost almost as much as the hangers! Here are some samples of the 6-meter coax. The smaller diameter coax is 7/8" heliax, and we have 400' of it running to our UHF link antenna, which also serves as remote control and will serve as the receive antenna for the remote receive audio when those go on the air. The larger coax is 1-1/4" diameter heliax and we have approximately 450' of it running up to our 6-bay DB-212-C-3 antenna system. I'm going to pass around some pictures now of the 6-meter antenna mounted on the tower and of the UHF antenna used for linking now, courtesy of Jim Adkins, KC0IYI. The climbers were on the tower almost 8 hours installing all this coax and the antennas. The big moment was the SWR test after the install. The UHF antenna was only specified to work up to 420 MHz, so going up to 425 MHz left me wondering how good it would be, even though the engineer at Andrew said it would be fine. SWR at the Link frequency ended up being a measly 1.3 to one, very acceptable. As for the 6-meter antenna, SWR there is 1.6 to 1. A little higher than I'd like, but due to the nature of the install which forced us to move bays closer together and farther apart at 2 points due to guy wires probably affected the SWR. When the antennas are mounted closer together, it causes the whole system to have a higher SWR. I'd like to see no higher than 1.5 to 1 on a repeater, but I feel 1.6 to one is acceptable on transmit. Way down on the receive frequency, we’re at 2 to 1. Better than I expected as the antennas only have a 1.2 MHz bandwidth for a 1.5 to 1 SWR reading. What helped us was the fact that the antenna was actually resonant at 53.000 MHz instead of the 53.270 MHz. This helped our receive SWR and hurt our transmit SWR. As of now, squelch opens at .15 uv with a good strong 20 db quieting signal at .25 uv and the CDM750 radios are using 50 watts to drive our Henry 300 watt PA to 250 watts out of the radio. We are getting 185 watts out to the antenna system, with virtually no loss in the 1-1/4" coax our ERP is near 750 watts. Now we'll show some of the pictures of the install. At the top, you'll see the Henry Amp, which gives us 250 watts out for 50 watts drive. Just below it we have two Astron RM-60M power supplies. One power supply is for the backup repeater radios. The second power supply is the main supply and provides power for the main Motorola CDM750 transmitter and receiver and associated fans, the CDM1250 link radio and the CAT-1000B controller. Below the second power supply is the main or primary 6-meter repeater. It consists of one CDM750 for transmit at 50 watts and a second CDM750 for receive. If these were to fail, the receive radio is programmed to where it can act as a transmit radio and the transmit radio can also be a receive radio. That in conjunction with the second set of CDM750 radios means we literally have 4 transmit radios and 4 receive radios that can be used in any configuration. So, we should have a repeater on the air even if one or two of the radios fail. Below the backup 6-meter CDM750's is the brains of the repeater. It's the CAT-1000B repeater controller. It provides all the audio handling between the transmit, receive and link radios and handles commands for remote control via UHF. Lastly, we have the UHF CDM1250 radio that provides 45 watt output and allows us to link to any other repeater that would like to link in via UHF. In my opinion, this works better than linking on VHF to other repeaters on the repeater pairs because of the special audio handling that can be done on the link port and also because it allows you to connect to many repeaters at once instead of one. To the right of the equipment you see the duplexers, 4 cans about 6' tall and 4" in diameter that allow for simultaneous transmit and receive. To the right of them you have the dual bandpass cavities, that measure 8" in diameter and 8' tall. These notch out all frequencies close to the receive frequency and are needed to help cut out close by interfering signals and the 250 watt transmitter. All this equipment, of course, has top of the line Polyphaser protection via the coax and AC lines and the cabinets of the equipment are tied into the MGB as well to minimize down time due to lightening strikes. UHF Link Radio System: The UHF link radio transmits and receives on 425.300 MHz. Right now, the 145.270 repeater is set to link into the 6-meter with the linking codes. The 145.270 site also utilizes a CDM1250 radio, running 20 watts and using a DB-436A yagi antenna with RG-213 coax and polyphaser connection to link to the 53.270 site. What is neat about this linking system is that ALL links will be able to be activated through the 6-meter repeater with this setup. In other words, all someone has to do is get into the 6-meter machine to bring up the link to the 145.270 repeater, or any other repeater on the link. That means you don't have to access the 145.270 on UHF or 2-meters, or be in range of either, to link the repeater. That is a big bonus to our mesh-style link. We hope to be able to link Joplin 147.210 in for weather as a backup at first then possibly as primary method of linking and also utilizing EchoLink as well when needed. As you can see, the possibilities are almost endless. Questions about the link setup? 2-Meter Repeater (145.270 Mhz / PL 162.2): James Adkins and Jeremy Tannehill installed a 19" rack mount shelf, courtesy of Alltel, at the 2-meter site. This shelf holds the CDM1250 Link radio and the Peet Brothers UT-100 weather station. A fan was installed on the link radio as well for 100% continuous duty cycle if needed. While there, all the old switching network that switched us from AC to battery was removed and wiring was cleaned up as well making the site much more friendly to the eyes. The only thing reliant on 120 volts AC is the Peet Brothers weather station. In the future, James and Jeremy plan on running it directly to 12 volt DC as well once a DC cord can be fabricated. This will be at no cost to the club as we have parts on hand to make the cable. The link audio has been turned down from the 6-meter site as of this time. It sounded like it was a tad hot. Give us reports on what you think. 70-Centimeter Repeater (444.275 MHz/PL 162.2): In talking with Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ, the Alltel tower will be going up just south of Nixa in the coming months. Diddier Wireless Towers is going to do the building and install at the site and Jeremy thinks they may be able to install the antenna for us at no charge if we have all the parts. Basically, we lack the DB-420 antenna and the coax hangers, connectors, hoist grip and grounding equipment. About $1500 worth of equipment at new, full price. Jeremy suggest that we run the coax and purchase a cheaper fiberglass antenna just to get it ran. If going this route, we would need less than $500. Any comments on this project?
V.	New Business
	No new business was presented for club vote.
VI.	Adjournment
	Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, adjourned the meeting at 20:25.
Minutes submitted by: Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC Minutes approved by: Chris Cochran, KB0WZC

Meeting Minutes - March 25, 2006

Nixa Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
March 2006 Meeting Minutes

Members Present: (21 Members) James Adkins, KB0NHX; Jim Adkins, KC0IYI; Kim Adkins, KC0GKP; Bill Chambers, N0MBW; Chris Cochran, KB0WZC; J. R. Duncan, N0RLP; Dean Gaines, KC0SQD; Al Gallo, W0ERE; Joe Hargis, WS0E; Justin Harris, KC0VJJ; Dick Higinbotham, K0GL; Jerry Johnson, KE0KI; Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC; Rod Kittleman, K0ADI; Bill McNamee, KB0WHN; Jeff Morrissey, KB0WVT; Doug Schumpert, K0DPS; Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ; Rich Vogt, KB9YZE; David Williams, KE7ABH; Clint Wood, KC7TUE.

Visitors: (7 Visitors) Michael Blake, N0NQW; Tony Celeste, KC0THQ; Bob Hessee, N0XJJ; Barbara Higinbotham, WB0YDV; Todd Revell, N0VW; Alesia Vogt; Brant Sheppard, W0BFR.

Meeting commenced by President Chris Cochran at 6:04 p.m.

Fundraising:

Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, announced that we had a surprise guest, Doug Marrs, Mayor of Nixa and President of Great Southern Bank. Doug, on behalf of Great Southern Bank, presented the Nixa Amateur Radio Club with a check for $1,000 to go towards the 6-meter repeater project.

With the Midland radio fundraising project to date, the club has sold $4,820 in Midland high and low band radios. As of this morning, we have 6 low-band (6-meter radios) and 8 high-band (2-meter) radios left to sell. Out of the $4,820, we are still awaiting payment on some of the radios. We have $1,850 in radios sold that we have not received payment on yet, but most of these are from Government agencies, so it is just a matter of time before the money gets here. We are not handing out radios until payment has been received and if payment is made by personal check, the check must clear first.

On the tower sponsorship program, so far Dean Gaines, KC0SQD, Al Gallo, W0ERE, Randy Jordan, KC0UKB, Rod Kittleman, K0ADI, and Doug Schumpert, K0DPS, have raised funds. We have 53 members and so far 5 have received donations. If everyone in the group could just get one or two donations, no matter how small, that would go a long way. All tolled, this program has raised nearly $2,000 so far. This phase of the fundraising drive will end on April 16, 2006. Keep up the good work, guys! We are getting close.

Rod Kittleman was able to get a press release about our fundraising endeavors out to KTTS, KADI, and the Springfield News-Leader. Dean Gaines contacted the Nixa News-Enterprise and they will be running an article next week.

6-Meter Repeater (53.270 MHz / PL 162.2):

Lots of behind the scene work going on here. Don Kocian of City Utilities approved our move of the DB-408A UHF link antenna up from the 100 foot mark to the 400 foot mark. This should greatly enhance our range for any repeater that would want to link to the 6-meter repeater and also enhance signal strength coming from our remote receivers.

James Adkins, KB0NHX, talked to Wally at the City of Republic Development Department about the building permit. They decided a building permit was not necessary and are waiving the $100 fee. Therefore, that saved us the $100 we had budgeted for that expense.

The club officials decided late this week to go ahead and begin the process for the structural analysis. James sent information to Paul Taylor of Vertical Structures indicating we are ready to begin. The cost for the analysis is $1,500, but we have asked for a "donation" or discount of their services in exchange for a tax deduction for that amount. We expect a response next week. No time table on when the analysis will be complete.

Joye McElwee contacted James this week and advised that he is in the final process of the deed and the legal paperwork. He hopes to have that done this week and sent to us for our review. Assuming all looks favorable on our end, we will be ready to install pending funding.

Doug Schumpert plans on contacting PDQ Tower Services this week to get us on their schedule for the install. He may also try to work out more of a discount. They have already waived the $3,000 mobilization fee, otherwise installation cost would be $8,591.00. Good job Doug!

David Williams, KE7ABH, plans to come by after the meeting or sometime Sunday and turn off the time-out timer on the CDM-750 radios for the repeater. Once that is done, you will no longer need to let the repeater completely drop to reset the timer since the CAT-1000B will control that function and timer will be reset as long as the courtesy tone is heard.

2-Meter Repeater (145.270 Mhz / PL 162.2):

A problem was encountered this last month on the 145.270 repeater. The 25 amp ATC fuse that provides protection to the high-current, 13.8 volt line melted in the fuse holder. John Copelin, KC0QNM, loaned us his Fluke current meter. It turns out the repeater amplifier is drawing 26.8 amps. Therefore, the ATC fuse slowly burned in half. John also gave us a 30 amp cartridge holder and fuse. Since installing this fuse, there have been no more problems.

Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ, is going to team up with Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC, to try to get the EchoLink to work at the site. Jeff seems to believe it is a routing problem that should be able to be fixed. Once the internet is available at the site, we will move EchoLink there and interface directly to the controller. The EchoLink computer is ready to go at this time. We are currently running on an EchoLink backup computer as a test. That computer will be a backup to the EchoLink computer at the site and will function as an RF Link.

All other functions at the 145.270 site appear to be functioning normally. We have a couple upgrades to perform soon, however. We are going to replace the RG-214 interconnect cables on the receive side with the proper length. Since replacing the transmit side gained us an extra 11 watts output. We are hoping new cables on the receive side will help the receiver. Once replaced, David and James plan on heading to the site to fine tune the duplexers to see if we can get a few more watts output and a few more tenths of a microvolt out of the sensitivity.

Lastly, James plans on troubleshooting the Micor TPN-1110 Brute Force power supply, but it has not made it to the top of the priority list. We have been on battery 100% since November. That is why it has not been a top priority to get it fixed.

1.25-Meter Repeater (Proposed 224.280 MHz / PL 162.2):

We are looking into the possibility of using some Motorola CDM-750's for this project, but nothing further has been done. Motorola's web site indicates they make a 217-222 MHz model. Not sure on availability of these models yet, though.

70-Centimeter Repeater (444.275 MHz/PL 162.2):

All is well here. No problems or upgrades made. Still being hosted at Rich Vogt’s, KB9YZE, house. Thanks for letting us use your tower space, Rich!

EchoLink (Nixa Node #113667 / Joplin Node #244983):

The National Weather Service utilized our nodes extensively during our last severe weather outbreak and everything worked pretty much flawlessly on our end. They were impressed. One issue we had was timing. The Weather Service was using a 200 MHz PC with an 8 Mb connection. EchoLink could not provide enough PC buffering for that slow of a PC speed. John Rayfield, W0PM, and David Williams went out there and did two things to improve this problem. First, they re-aligned the wireless internet dish and directed it to a new node that is located much closer. This should help the internet connection. Second, they installed a 1 GHz PC that was donated to the National Weather Service. Between these two things, the Joplin EchoLink interface to National Weather should be much improved.

One improvement we see that is needed is battery backup for the EchoLink PC’s. We will start with the Nixa site and then take into consideration the Webb City link site. We are thinking that EchoLink will be delegated to backup service once the 6-meter repeater is up and going. We would like a UHF link to Joplin from Republic to link the 147.210 to the 53.270. The club will be donating one of the Midland 70-0520CWB's to the National Weather Service along with either an Arrow GP-52 ground plane or a J-Pole. This will give them access to the 6-meter repeater at no cost on their end.

Miscellaneous Discussion:

On Thursday, Justin Harris, KC0VJJ, e-mailed Chris and James advising that we received our letter of 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS. We have been granted full 501(c)(3) status. Better than just receiving approval, they made it retroactive to April 24, 2002, which was the initial inception date that James filed paperwork the first time! So, any donations made will be 100% tax deductible, including all past donations. This has already helped us secure the $1,000 donation from Great Southern Bank. Again, we would like to thank Doug Marrs of Great Southern for making this possible.

Thanks to everyone that has been prompt in paying dues this year. Right now, we have 53 members, and there may have been a couple more join today.

The large membership is a testament to our club's theory that if you want to be a member, you are welcome. Ham radio is not about exclusion, it is about inclusion. It is about a bunch of people with a common interest, ham radio, and putting the "service" into ham radio. In our case, we do what hams do best and that is provide means of communications for emergency situations. This includes the backup repeater provided to the fire department, the 145.270 repeater, EchoLink connection to Joplin, future 53.270 repeater in Republic, and the 444.275 repeater in Nixa. We are striving to provide a network of quality repeaters that will cover this area so that different bands and their propagation characteristics can be utilized effectively.

The key is to get as many people involved as possible. If you have not, take a few minutes to read over our "member and friend recognition" link on the website. Almost everyone on the roster has helped out with one thing or another. That is what makes this a great group of hams. Unlike most groups, we have not had too many issues with growing pains or disputes. Our group has not become divided and we continue to move forward striving to meet our goals.

It is motivating to hear stories from Al Gallo, Rich Vogt, and Justin Harris where over the last 2 weeks they have been recruiting people into ham radio. Whether it is friends that have developed an interest or persons met while out helping clean up at the tornado disaster areas, they have been talking up ham radio and the club. That is why we have grown and will continue to do so.

Chris called for any additional comments or discussion?

Jeff Kerr asked questions about remote receiver sites for the 6-meter repeater. He wanted to know how many receiver sites there would be and approximately how much money would be required to get a single site up and running. James and Chris addressed these questions. There are plans for five remote receiver sites. A worse case scenario for each site would be $7,000 to $10,000. We already have some of the equipment for the sites, but would anticipate this costing less. This initial fundraising is raising funds to get the repeater up on the Republic tower and running, but fundraising will need to continue to get the project fully completed.

Bob Hessee, N0XJJ, suggested that as a fundraiser we could create T-Shirts with some sort of a "I survived the March 12th 2006 Tornados" theme and the back could say something like "I was there". It was also suggested that the shirt could have the club "Hamster" logo on it.

Al Gallo suggested that donors that made large donations receive an individual plaque for their businesses. These plaques would be different than the "Club 100" plaque. There seemed to be agreement among the members on this. Rod Kittleman is going to research plaques and their purchase prices. Al also wanted to know where the "Club 100" plaque would be displayed. We would like this to be displayed for a while at a busy location like the Nixa Wal-Mart Supercenter and eventually at a permanent location like the fire station.

Al Gallo also suggested that we have some sort of thermal cup, coffee mug, etc. be purchased with the club "Hamster" logo on it. These could be provided to donors that give $25 or more. He has e-mailed the club officers some information on this, but they have not reviewed and discussed it at this time.

Chris asked Rod Kittleman if he has any more decal stickers. Rod said that there are a couple more sets. There currently are no T-Shirts, but more can be made.

We had 6 people take and pass their exams.

Meeting adjourned at 6:49 p.m. (45 minutes)

Meeting Minutes - February 25, 2006

Nixa Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
February 2006 Meeting Minutes

Members Present: (18 Members) Jim Adkins, KC0IYI; Shawn Baker, KA0RZE; David Bowman, WB0QIR; Allen Busiek, WF5U; Bill Chambers, N0MBW; Chris Cochran, KB0WZC; John Copelin, KC0QNM; Matthew Eliff, KC0QJJ; Dean Gaines, KC0SQD; Joe Hargis, WS0E; Dick Higinbotham, K0GL; Jerry Johnson, KE0KI; Randy Jordan, KC0UKB; Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC; Rod Kittleman, K0ADI; Chris Raymond, KC0TLE; Doug Schumpert, K0DPS; Clint Wood, KC7TUE.

Visitors: (0 Visitors)

Meeting commenced by President Chris Cochran at 6:04 p.m.

* Secretary James Adkins, KB0NHX, was unable to attend due to conflict with work schedule.

Fundraising:

Dean Gaines, KC0SQD, turned in $105.00 in Price Cutter Community Bucks. It has been about 3 weeks since he turned them in. We should receive that check soon. Jim Adkins, KC0IYI, asked if Community Bucks program was still active. Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, let everyone know that the program was still active and that the Community Bucks now have a June 30, 2006 expiration date. We want to remind everyone to keep collecting them

We are still waiting to hear back from Patty Dixon about the All State Foundation grants. James Adkins, KB0NHX, had attempted to contact with her to check about the status but did not receive a return phone call. Dean Gaines went to her office and inquired. He found that she does not know when she will hear anything, but she has not heard of any “large” donations being approved so far this year.

The sale of the Midland 70-0520CWB and Midland 70-3400B radios has turned out to be an outstanding fundraiser. We need around $7,500 to pay for installation and structural analysis at Republic C. U. site. Today, due to the sale of many Midland radios, we are proud to announce that we are nearly halfway there. Many of you have received your Midland radios and have seen how well they work on 6-meters and 2-meters. If anyone ask, the non-club member price is $125 for the 70-0520CWB 110 watt mobile with VHF cross band repeater, tuned up on 6-meters and programmed and ready to go, while the price of the 70-3400B 40 watt VHF mobile programmed and ready to go on 2-meters is $75.00. If we sell the rest of these radios at these prices, we will be able to pay for the 6-meter repeater installation! If you feel these are good radios, please get on the air and talk them up. We need to sell these ASAP so we can get the 6-meter repeater installed in time for the spring storm season. Chris Cochran inquired if anyone would want to give a testimonial on these radios. Doug Schumpert, K0DPS, just got his installed was very impressed with how well it got out. Chris advised that he will post the information on the website showing what is programmed in them soon and James Adkins plans to develop and post a short description of the functions and operations of the radios.

MIDLAND REMINDER: DO NOT EVER UNPLUG OR PLUG the control cable from the radio or the control head ANYTIME the DC power cable is plugged into the radio. This will blow an internal fuse that takes about 30 minutes to repair if you know how to do it. It is fixable, but will not be easy. Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC, confirmed that this is in fact what will happen. Anytime you need to detach the control cable from either the radio or the control head, REMOVE THE DC POWER CABLE FIRST.

We will be kicking off a new fundraising campaign. The idea, thought up by David Williams, KE7ABH, with marketing ideas by Al Gallo, W0ERE, is an excellent idea and follows along with our club motto of "Providing emergency communications interoperability by thinking outside the box."

Chris Cochran asked "How many people in this room know what a Yaesu FT-8900 is?" He let the few that did not know that it is Yaesu's 50w 10-meter, 6-meter, 2-meter, and 35w 440 MHz Quad-Band radio! As Jeff Kerr would say, "it is the cat's meow" in the VHF mobile market right now. The club member that brings in the most money for this fundraiser will be GIVEN one of these $425 Yaesu FT-8900's.

The Plan: We figure the Republic tower is 600 feet tall. In order to raise the money for installation, we are going to sell sponsorships for $10 for each foot of install. Chris Cochran will be working on two different flyers to be used, one for soliciting the general public and one for soliciting local businesses. Before we hit the streets, we are going to ask Rod Kittleman, K0ADI, to put out a press release announcing that we are going to be out there soliciting funds for this project. It may be too short a notice, but hopefully this coming week we can have something to send out for news crews to put on the air, in the Newspaper, and on the evening newscasts. It will likely include information about how ham operators assist the National Weather Service during severe weather and by indicating how this could help communications during an earthquake. We hope to get both printed and TV media on this to kick off the campaign. We would like for the campaign to “officially” begin on March 1 and end on March 31, but soft-selling the program on the streets can begin as soon as you want to hit the streets. On the personal level, donation levels will be $10, $25, or more. On the business level, donation levels will be $10, $25, $50, $100, or more. For those soliciting businesses and individuals, the goal will be to hand them the flyer with a brief presentation, something like this:

Emergencies happen spontaneously. The fact is we are not always prepared to deal with the magnitude of the need unless we plan and rehearse various scenarios. In Southwest Missouri, weather is our main concern for many emergency conditions. The Nixa Amateur Radio Club, with the support of the Greene and Christian County EMA and the Nixa Fire District, is preparing the very best in communication equipment and training capabilities to protect the public from weather and other disasters. Early warning communications (on site visual tracking and reporting of tornadoes) is the best way to save lives and protect our families and friends from disaster. We are preparing to help you and your friends remain safe during severe weather. We need your help!

Additional details might include information that we are providing training at our monthly meetings for club members and visitors alike and that the repeater system will allow almost seamless communications with the national weather service during severe weather by weather spotters in the field.

Donor Benefits: For individuals, knowing they are doing their part to help get this communications system installed to help protect themselves and their families. If they give at the $50 dollar mark or more, they will receive one of Rod Kittleman’s patented “Nixa Amateur Radio Club” T-shirts to sport about town. For those donating $100 or more, they will have their name engraved on the “100 Club” or “Club 100” plaque. More details on the plaque to follow. For a business giving $25 or more, we will issue a certificate on a parchment type paper for them to display at their place of business indicating that they are helping to do their part in providing a solid communications system for severe weather spotters in the area and for disaster workers from all fields. If they donate $100 or more, they will also have their business name engraved on the “100 Club” plaque. This plaque will be a professional designed plaque that will be displayed in a public place, like Wal-Mart, for a short time, and then displayed permanently at the Nixa Fire Department.

What the Club Will Provide You: The club will provide everyone with a designed flier that has a “coupon” on the bottom that donors can cut off and mail in with their donations, if they would prefer to do it that way. The coupon will have different check boxes for different levels of donations and indicate next to each donation what type of gift they will receive for their donation. It will also include how people can pay by PayPal on the Internet through our website. Al Gallo will take care of the publications of the flyers. And, of course, best of all, the club member raising the most funds will get that awesome Yaesu FT-8900 FREE and a sense of pride knowing they really helped get the 6-meter repeater up at it’s final resting spot on the 600’ tower in Republic. We will get some fliers printed up and handed out. Chris will also post the fliers on the Yahoo Group and NixaHams.

6-Meter Repeater: We received the DB-408A UHF remote receiver and link antenna, the DB-5012 side mount for the antenna and 500 ft of LDF5-50 7/8” Heliax donation from Andrew earlier this month. We are still waiting to hear back from Don Kocian at C. U. about moving the UHF remote receive antenna up from the proposed 100-foot mark to the 400-foot mark. Hope to hear about that soon. James Adkins spoke with Joye McElwee last week and asked if there was anything that needed to be done before he (Joye) retired in April. He advised it is all in writing, and the install should continue as planned. The equipment will not be deeded over to Greene County until after the installation is complete. At that time, the club will only need to spend money on the repeater for upgrades to the repeater as Greene County EMA will pay for any equipment and repair costs and the City Utilities Radio Shop will be maintaining the repeater for us. Luckily, club member Lonnie Peryer, KC0UAZ, works at the shop and will likely be taking care of it along with Bob Salvador, WX6X. As for the temporary location, the repeater appears to be functioning great. James Adkins has the controller audio levels set and needs to make a few other minor programming changes to it. The Motorola CDM-750 radios are performing flawlessly. After a nearly 1.5 hour QSO, they were barely warm to the touch. With the Cushcraft ARX-6 Ringo Ranger only up on a 20’ pole, we have had reports of people getting into it mobile from as far away as Hwy 248, just north of Branson. Currently, we have to purchase the 250 watt amplifier, pay Rayfield Communications for two of the 19” rack mount kits for the radios, pay Rayfield Communications for the programming and shipping charges, purchase a Polyphaser for the UHF link antenna, and purchase a UHF CDM-750 with a 19” rack mount for the UHF link. This single UHF radio will be the first in our proposed UHF “mesh” network to link the 6-meter with the 2-meter, 70-centimeter, and proposed 1.25-meter repeaters. It will also allow other repeaters outside the NARC network to link to the 6-meter repeater as well as EchoLink if desired.

2-Meter Repeater: The 145.270 is back up and in full power operation. David Williams, James Adkins, and Dean Gaines traversed to the site to try to troubleshoot the noise that was being induced into the receive audio. It turned out the T-connector at the input of the duplexers was touching the system ground and creating a ground loop. Once physical contact was removed from the T-connector and the rails, the noise went away. A few things were done to get the amplifier’s performance boosted. David did some research on the Micor and found that the low current 9.62 volts and 12.62 volts levels are key in providing full output to the amplifier. Once we changed the 9.62 volts side from 8.22 volts to 10.2 volts, the power on the exciter board went up to 500 mw, more than enough drive for the PA. Therefore, voltage to the PA was upped from 12.12 volts to 14.22 volts (within Micor Specs) and power out of the PA jumped up to 128 watts, with 84 watts out of the duplexers. This was still too much loss, so in discussing possible reasons for so much loss, they decided to change out the patch cables on the duplexers. The cables are not bad, just too short. Once the correct length of cable was inserted, we gained an extra 11 watts out of the duplexers, putting our output to 95 watts to the antenna! Before, our highest was 78 watts out of the duplexers. We have had good signal reports since this repair. David and James plan on fabricating a couple more RG-214 jumper cables and changing out the cables on the receive side as well in hopes of increasing receive sensitivity. Jeremy Tannehill continues to work on the technical issues involved in getting EchoLink at the 145.270 site. We still hope to get this working before storm season.

1.25-Meter Repeater: No work done on this project this month.

70-Centimeter Repeater: Since being installed at Rich Vogt’s house, it has worked flawlessly. No updates or changes to this repeater. No word on when the 220' tower will be built east of Nixa, the proposed final resting spot for the repeater.

EchoLink Joplin: James Adkins and David Williams traveled to Webb City and met with Stan Elmore, KB0UUB, to get the EchoLink node to Joplin working again. The entire station was swapped out for our flawlessly working EchoLink Nixa station. This includes a Yaesu FT-2500M, power supply, RIGblaster NoMic, and PC. The PC has been set up and is operational. Audio reports from Joplin area stations have been excellent. This station is now reliable and has had no problems since being installed. Thanks to Chris Cochran and David Williams also for testing audio levels and making PC adjustments. We now have remote control access of this PC via Internet so we can connect the node, troubleshoot, etc., from here without many miles of driving. We did not have this ability before. Chris is working on getting another computer ready for the Nixa site. David Williams received a PC donation from Computer Renaissance. Between it and the retired Joplin EchoLink PC, we should have a good PC for the 145.270 site with a spare computer ready to go if needed.

Miscellaneous Discussion: As a reminder, 2006 club dues are $12.00. Most everyone has renewed. If you have not and would like to, please see Treasurer Dean Gaines after the meeting. We need everyone to assist us in our record keeping as well. In order to make the 2006 roster as complete as possible, we are asking everyone to go to www.nixahams.net and click on the “JOIN N.A.R.C.” link, then click on the “Click Here to Join” link and fill out the form. This will help us compile a very accurate roster to distribute to club members.

The 501(c)(3) paperwork has been filed with the IRS. Justin Harris said he received the return receipt from the mailing last week. He anticipates six to eight weeks, or less, and we should hear something back from them. As soon as this is approved, we should be able to solicit funding for our projects more easily. Thanks to Justin for all his hard work on this endeavor!

Several people here have purchased Midland Radios. James has finished modifying and programming them. If you have not picked up your radios or paid for them yet, please see Dean Gaines. If you have ordered more from the second round of radios, James Adkins and David Williams plan to get together on Wednesday, March 1st and program/tune radios until their hands turn numb. These should be available by the following week.

It is never too early to talk about Field Day. We need volunteers for the Field Day committee and we are looking for at least three people. Last year we had Dean Gaines, Dave Beckler, and Fred Bell. If we choose to obtain the Missouri DPS command bus again, we need to do so as soon as possible. Dean Gaines volunteered his services to the Field Day Committee. Chris requested that anyone else that is interested contact club leadership and let them know.

As a reminder, we need to make sure that when we access the weather station on the 145.270 repeater that we identify ourselves after the report is received. Any time you key that transmitter, whether it is to say something or to simply use DTMF codes to access EchoLink or the Peet Brothers weather report, we need to ID when we are done. Please keep that in mind!

Monday, February 27th, at 6:30 p.m. the Greene County “2006 Spotter Training Class” will be held at Springfield City Utilities. For more information, contact Joye McElwee at (417) 869-6040.

Tuesday, February 28th, at 6:30 p.m. at the Christian County Courthouse on the 2nd floor at the old courtroom we will be having the annual "Severe Weather Spotters Class" presented by the Christian County EMA and instructed by the National Weather Service. All are encouraged to attend. This will set the groundwork for Allen's presentation next month at the March club meeting for “Advanced Techniques in Weather Spotting.” Therefore, if you have an interest in learning about weather spotting or just want to brush up on your skills before severe weather season, you will glean much good information from both of these programs. As a club, this meshes with our proposed goal of becoming much more involved in Sky Warn in Southwest Missouri.

Joe Hargis, WS0E, will be attending the Green County Hamfest in Tulsa Oklahoma on March 17th and 18th. He requested that a couple of each Midland radio be sent with him with some documentation so that he can market them for the club. Chris advised Joe that he could also use the club banners if he liked.

Bill Chambers advised that everyone should check out Four States QRP (http://www.4sqrp.com/) and look for information on OzarkCon 2006 (http://www.ozarkcon.com/).

Chris announced that J. R. Duncan was our latest Extra Class inductee and that Harold Cheek passed his Technician exam. Our club has licensed 32 new hams, upgraded 16 licenses, and only had 5 failed exams. This is a total of 53 test taken, and is something to be very proud of. Chris thanked our VE’s and meeting attendees gave a round of applause.

Meeting adjourned at 6:47 p.m. (43 minutes)

Meeting Minutes - January 28, 2006

Nixa Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
January 2006 Meeting Minutes

Members Present: (20 Members - 42% of Membership present!) James Adkins, KB0NHX; Jim Adkins, KC0IYI; Kim Adkins, KC0GKP; Fred Bell, N0LU; Bill Chambers, N0MBW; John Copelin, KC0QNM; Brad Cunningham, KL1IF; J. R. Duncan, N0RLP; Carson Eliff, KC0QJI; Matthew Eliff, KC0QJJ; Dean Gaines, KC0SQD; Al Gallo, W0ERE; Michael Hooper, KC0VTE; Jerry Johnson, KE0KI; Randy Jordan, KC0UKB; Jeff Kerr, KC0VGC; John Perkins, W6OQS; Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ; Rich Vogt, KB9YZE; Clint Wood, KC7TUE.

Visitors: (2 Visitors) Kolton Adkins; Sierra Adkins.

Meeting commenced by Vice-President Doug Schumpert at 6:10 p.m.

* President Chris Cochran, KB0WZC, was unable to attend due to the birth of his daughter, Olivia Grace Cochran. She weighed 7 lbs, 9 ounces, 20 3/4" long. Born on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 7:27 p.m. Congrats to Chris!

* Media Liaison Rod Kittleman was unable to attend due to a work conference.

Fundraising:

Chris Cochran received word that the Nixa Community Foundation refused our grant request for funding for the 6-meter repeater. Unfortunately, there was no reason given. However, during discussion with foundation board members, we believe it is apparent we were refused due to our 501(c)(4) tax. The foundation members are looking for a tax write off, which our status could not provide.

Currently, Dean Gaines, KC0SQD, is still collecting Price Cutter Community Bucks. He has another $105.00 collected, giving us $267.00 total for 2005! Great job and thanks to everyone that’s collected these and turned them over to the club. It is easy, free money. Dean will be turning these in on Monday, January 30, so get your collection of Community Bucks to him before then, especially the ones that expire on 1/31/06. The new expiration date is 6/30/06.

Patty Dixon turned in the grant request for the $500 grant. We hope to hear back from that soon. As far as the larger grant, the necessary paperwork has been turned in. We are mainly waiting for the 501(c)(3) status to be completed.

Along the 501(c)(3) status, Justin Harris, KC0VJJ, turned in the updated Constitution & Bylaws to the State of Missouri. Once we receive our updated Incorporation certificate, he is ready to file with the IRS. That process will probably take at least 8 weeks, so it won’t be an overnight deal. Thanks to everyone who voted in December to make the necessary changes!

James Adkins, KB0NHX, is going to try to get the club's 3 GE Rangr radios modified and put on 6-meters. The club will then be selling or raffling them off to raise funds. They will be 110w radios, with either 16 or 32 channels, scan capability and remote display kits & speakers. These are "retired" Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) radios. Generally, these are selling complete for about $200 modified, programmed and ready to go. James’ former boss, Jeff Alberson, KC0UPJ, was promoted and went to Lee’s Summit as a field engineer and located one of the old GE Suitcase programmers. James will use this to program the radios for whoever purchases them. The club will keep one of these radios for the proposed MEPN node. James also plans on programming the VHF Rangr donated by Citizen's Memorial Hospital for the VHF side of the MEPN node.

6-Meter Repeater Updates:

The club purchased the CAT-1000B controller. CAT donated the 19” rack mount enclosure, a $99.00 donation, and the Windows editing software, a $69.00 donation. The controller cost $679.00 plus $10 in shipping. James Adkins constructed the programming and interface cables and has since programmed the controller.

James Adkins contacted Andrew again to see if they’d be willing to help us out one more time with the UHF remote control antenna. Andrew agreed to donate one DB-408A UHF 8-bay folded dipole antenna, the DB-5012 side mount, and 450' of LDF4-50 7/8" heliax. This is pretty much all we needed to install the UHF remote receive antenna. This donation is about a $3,200 donation of equipment!

David Williams, KE7ABH, and James Adkins built the heliax jumper cables to go between the bandpass cavities and the duplexers, between the duplexers and the transmit radio, and the bandpass cavity and the receive radio. Those were built of Andrew FSJ4-50B 1/2" superflex with N-male connectors, all which the club had in stock. We did purchase a professionally made 1' jumper made by the RF-Connection with RG-142 coax. Also purchased was a 2' patch cable made of RG-142 to connect the transmit radio to the amplifier.

On Sunday, January 22, we had an antenna raising party at James Adkins house to put up the 6-meter temporary antenna. This consisted of a single DB-212 dipole, up 40 ft. We worked the Harrison, Arkansas repeater with just 5-watts with Bill Chamber's, N0MBW, Yaesu FT-817!

On Friday, January 27, David Williams went by Rayfield Communications to pick up the Motorola CDM-750 radios. However, due to technical problems, they were not ready. They were able to program them fine, but the deviation would not adjust properly. John Rayfield has contacted the engineer at Motorola to see if there is a workaround he is not aware of. If not, we will have to alter the programming slightly to make them work. A radio will have to be transmit only on a channel and receive only on a channel. What we mean is, for example, channel 1 will transmit 53.270 and there will be no receive channel programmed. Vice versa for the receive radio. We had hoped to get the repeater up temporarily at the Nixa site, but no luck. Maybe by the February meeting. Otherwise, we are simply waiting for the funds to install the 6-meter repeater at the Republic Site.

2-Meter Repeater Updates:

James Adkins and David Williams went by the 145.270 site to do some troubleshooting on the buzz that is present when the power supply is in service. After hooking up an Astron RS-35, the problem went away. The problem has been isolated to the low-current, regulated power source in the Motorola TPN-1110B. James will attempt to troubleshoot it. Until further notice, the repeater will continue to operate on the battery backup.

James also took the quarterly readings while there. The receiver is still performing quite nicely. The transmitter has dropped from 78w at the PA and 50w out of the duplexers at the 4th quarter readings to 49.8w out of the PA and 29.7w out of the duplexers. James contacted Repeater Builders to see about the status of getting our amp back they've had since October 17, 2005. They report that it will ship out on Wednesday, January 25, 2006. If that is the case, we should get it next week around January 31st or so.

EchoLink at the site has run into some problems. Jeremy Tannehill, KC0UJZ, has the hardware installed, but they are having a hard time getting the Internet there. For now, the producer of the equipment is looking into the problem. No ETA on when this will get completed, but should not be too much longer.

James Adkins contacted Barnett Electronics in Little Rock, AR, about some GE equipment. Turns out, they are willing to donate some Micor equipment to the club. David Williams and his wife are taking at trip down there on Wednesday, February 1st, in hopes of finding a new power supply and amplifier as well. He is going to try to get backup parts for all we have at the 2-meter site if possible.

70-Centimeter Repeater Updates:

The 444.275 repeater was installed at the intermediate site, the residence of Rich Vogt, KB9YZE, as of January 14th, 2006. The antenna is now up about 75' mark, being fed with RG-213 coax. Seems to work pretty well. Jeremy Tannehill advised that the Nixa East Alltel site did get into the FY06 budget and we should know sometime in the next 30 to 45 days when the tower will be built. It will be a 220 ft tower, exact location unknown, but will be between Nixa and Ozark, probably near MO 14, but closer to Nixa. The club mainly needs the side mount, antenna, and possibly heliax for this site. The site will more than likely be completed by the end of December, 2006. Before going to the final site, we will tune up the receiver and transmitter and get it up to KC0LUN standards. Thanks again to Bill McNamee, KB0WHN, for finding this “broken” repeater and donating it to the club.

1.25-Meter Repeater Updates:

No updates.

Joplin EchoLink Updates:

The Joplin EchoLink still has reliability issues. James Adkins and/or David Williams and Chris Cochran plan on traversing to the site in February to get it up and running before storm season. Plans were to use the Yaesu FT-2500 from the Nixa site out there once we got the Nixa node at the site. However, we will probably go ahead and take it over there and bring the FT-2600 back here where it can be "babysat"” until we get to the 145.270 site. We also need to do some software upgrades to make the PC controllable remotely. It proved to be a valuable asset at the end of last season's severe weather season, and it had to be "limped" through that, thanks to the help of Stan Elmore, KB0UUB, on the other end. With this next batch of upgrades, this project should be reliable. The only other upgrade we'd like to make is to take a 19" cabinet over there to house the PC & Radio equipment in Stan's office.

Miscellaneous Discussion:

The Nixa Area Chamber of Commerce NIXPO is coming up on Saturday, March 18, 2006, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Is the club interested in helping with communications for this event? It has been going on for 11 years now and this would be a positive thing for us to be involved in. Is anyone interested in providing communications for this? We need to know soon! Maybe they will let us have a free booth if we provide this service for them. Membership voted to try to be involved with communications for the event if they will let us have a free booth at the exposition. A club officer will check on this with Sharon Whitehill.

The General Membership meeting for the Chamber of Commerce is on Tuesday, February 14, 2006 at 11:45 a.m. at the Nixa Community Center. Cost is $8.00 to attend, and lunch is provided. It is an excellent way to not only network for the club, but also to find out what is going on in the community of Nixa. Anyone wishing to attend with James Adkins contact him at kb0nhx@nixahams.net. You must RSVP by February 10th. If you want to appear in the "X photo", arrive by 11:30 a.m. and wear a red shirt! This is a really fun event.

Reminder: club dues for 2006 can be paid at any time. Contact Dean Gaines and he will write a receipt for you. Dues are still only $12.00 for FY06.

We need to vote on the meeting place. Do we want to continue to hold the meeting at this location, or return to the Nixa Pizza Hut? We could have the technical “pre-meeting” at the fire department and the business meeting afterwards at the Pizza Hut. Any comments, ideas or questions? Vote was taken and was unanimous 20 to 0 to continue meeting at the Nixa Fire Department General Headquarters. Club officers will contact A.R.R.L. and other organizations and advise of the meeting change.

Allen Busiek, WF5U, discussed the J-pole project that was conducted at the "technical" pre-meeting which started at 4:30 p.m. This particular project did not get completed by meeting time, so we may want to start lengthier projects earlier. We had 7 people build J-poles and had 12 people in attendance. Everyone that came really enjoyed the program and looks forward to them continuing. Allen said anyone interested in helping teach these courses or putting on a presentation should contact him. Ideas for other presentations include a presentation on "Go Kits" and seeing if Dale Bagly, K0KY, ARRL Section Manager, would come to a club meeting for a presentation.

Brad Cunningham, KL1IF, asked what the MEPN node was. James Adkins, KB0NHX, gave a brief discussion of what MEPN stands for (Missouri Emergency Packet Network) and that the cost of putting this on the air would be about $12,000 if we bought everything at retail prices. James indicated there might not be much interest among club members for this project, but it would be a good public service project for the community by enhancing public safety communications through local ARES groups.

Al Gallo, W0ERE, asked what the status was on the 6-meter repeater. Advised him that it should be up temporarily at our Nixa location for testing shortly. We hoped to have it on the tower in Republic by this fall, but that all depended on whether we got the grant money or not. James indicated our current fundraiser's are a $500 grant request to Allstate foundation, a $10,000 grant request to Allstate Foundation, collecting Price Cutter Community Bucks, and the 2nd Annual Communications Classic. Al said if someone would put together a good document on what the repeater was for, etc., that he is a marketing person with several contacts and would try to solicit donations for the projects.

January Budget Roundup:

12/31/05	Purchase CAT-1000B controller for 6-meter repeater	-$ 689.00
1/5/06	Receive dues from Joe Hargis, WS0E for 2006	12.00
1/11/06	Receive dues from David Williams, KE7ABH, for 2006	15.00
1/16/06	Purchase wires & connectors from All Electronics for 6-meter rptr	- 17.01
1/16/06	Purchase Patch cables for 6-meter repeater	- 50.25
1/17/06	Receive dues from John Perkins, W6OQS, for 2006	12.00
1/25/06	Purchase Mics for Rangr radios for club fundraiser	- 41.70
1/26/06	Purchase speakers, control heads & control cables for Rangr fundraiser	- 155.00
	Total Income:	$ 39.00
	Total Expenditures:	$952.96

Meeting adjourned at 7:11 p.m. (1 hour and 1 minutes)