President’s Report
Winter Field Day 2022 was a great event. Good food, good fellowship and good weather made it a fun weekend. We had lots of help setting up and tearing down. We used a bucket lift to get the feed point of a 40 meter inverted V nearly 50 feet in the air, and that made a big difference!
Again, thank you to all who came out. Also, a big thank you to the Bradley University Amateur Radio Club. Several of their members came out on Sunday and helped us tear down. They helped Deb and Mark with a tower project as well.
I hope everyone had a good time. Justin – N9WX
Right: Bird’s eye view from the top of the 40 meter inverted V antenna.
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Meeting Minutes: Board of Directors
January 6, 2022 – 7:10p call to order
(No meeting notes available from December BOD.)
Winter Field Day 2022 coming up January 29th/30th at Hopedale Community Center. Have already started advertising on Facebook, but need to do more.
Deb says she’ll get the address, map it and put up on website. Recommends chili soup cookoff on Saturday night. KD9HZZ says he’ll make some. Deb will do breakfast on Sunday as usual.
Set up for Field Day around 2 to 3 p.m., get on air around 4 to 5 p.m. Then overnight, breakfast and see how many people are still around. If nobody there, can tear down and go home. (Make sure to contact Justin before coming out on Sunday!)
Discussion of antennas that we can bring – there may be a few nearby trees that can be used. There’s also a nearby park and parking lot.
No updates on Superfest. Last year, we’d talked about making a deposit but didn’t do it. Because of last year’s issues, we got $1K off. A door was supposed to go in, but KD9HZZ doesn’t think it has happened yet. Also unsure if HVAC system issues have been resolved.
Tom sent Darrin an email a while back about new signs being made for Superfest. Darrin went down to talk to Plumber Signs about 2 ft X 3 ft signs – but he warned that the signs start to fold at that size. Suggested 18″ X 24″ instead. About 15 inches out of the ground. Maybe we get metal frames that can be used for several different events? All will be single-sided for on-site signs. Arrows will be double sided. $22/each, but some may be $16/each after learning we are poor as a club. Also asked about a 3ft x 8ft banner with logo of Illinois and W9UVI welcome text. $288 for a banner that size – but will do them for $240 for us. Sign vendor says that red or black stands out the best. Will talk about final signs needed at next Superfest meeting, then ask for mockups of designs.
Treasurer report:
Have been getting people using PayPal for dues. Deb has a few membership forms that she’ll forward to Adam. (Need to separate back out treasurer and secretary roles.)
Savings: $235.25
Checking: $3,193.28 (still need to pay $200 for mailbox)
Money market: $8,391.88
PayPal: $291.98 (usually keep $100 in there – $198 in dues for past month) Eight or nine people have paid online.
Will make announcement on the Sunday night net about memberships.
Justin would like to get more stickers of the new design. Sold all of them at Superfest. Can hand out for POTA, sell at events, etc. If we sign up for new account with vendor, can get 50 stickers for $29. Otherwise, 50 for $68 with existing account. 100 stickers is $94. 200 stickers for $133. Could we get discount as not-for-profit club? Maybe, maybe not. Deb will make account on Stickermule for the club. Justin asks for $150 allocated for stickers; Tom and Darrin second, yes from board members present.
Repeaters:
Taking the UHF D-Star repeater offline at end of June at the latest. Giving Bill a month decide what he wants to do with antenna, coax, etc. At end of July, rent ends.
$2100 is new cost for a year (saving $1000.)
D-STAR usage was better on VHF, very little on UHF. Not worth maintaining.
Justin asks if we want to get rid of the VHF D-STAR to save even more money? A few board members say no, but maybe we need to pull stats and bring in front of membership.
How many repeaters are under our responsibility? Four. One in Glasford doesn’t cost us anything. W9UVI is $1100. Two current D-STARS are $1000/each.
PIA .85 machine in Glasford is Fusion-only. Costs $1/year.
Going to tap into Glasford Fire Department for internet to enable Wires-X. Time to follow-up on this. May take Fusion off .075 repeater eventually to make only analog.
New Business:
Finding shirt guy (Chris) for club. Need design. Deb wants new logo on one side with “PAARC 100+ years of making waves.” (We have second-oldest club in United States, after all.) Two sides is usually more expensive, but may not be in this case. Deb would like to also put his biz info on the website.
8:15 p.m. Motion to adjourn. Seconded by many and approved.
Submitted by Adam Gerik, KD9NYE
Meeting Minutes: Membership
January 13 – 7:05p call to order
Winter Field Day on 29th and 30th of January at Hopedale Event Center. Setup at 2:30 p.m. on 29th. Chili/soup cookoff for bragging rights on Saturday night. Sunday morning, will be breakfast by Deb. Justin is renting a 50ft tall boom lift – trees that are on Google Maps are no longer there. Will also have trailer out there, although not a whole lot there other than coax and a few antennas.
Exit 119, turn right at Caseys. Veer left keeping on main road. At 101 SE Main, pass it and turn left. Sign out front saying “Hopedale Police Department.” Community center is in back.
Winter Heat competition going on for the rest of the month on VHF/UHF, if interested.
Superfest meeting is on January 27th via Zoom link on website.
Tonight’s presentation by Scott, K9XJT, on WIRES-X.
Meeting adjourned at 8pm.
Submitted by Adam Gerik, KD9NYE
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Peoria County ARES
Feb 2, ARES Net @ 8:00 PM CST on the 075 repeater
Feb 9, ARES Net @ 8:00 PM CST on the 075 repeater
Feb 16, ARES On-line Conference @ 7:00 PM CST (Watch your email for Zoom conference info)
Call or email Rich if you are not on the ARES Roster and desire to join the Zoom Conference.
On-Line Conference Agenda includes: ARES Local Parks On The Air, Winter Training, Winlink News, Upcoming RATPAC Sessions, Help Wanted, Volunteer Opportunities, & more!
ARES website: http://www.peoriacountyares.org/
Rich Holtman, KD9ANU, Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Peoria County ARES
email: kd9anu@arrl.net
Winlink: kd9anu@winlink.org
Cell: 309-256-4272
Winterheat 2022
The third annual edition of Winterheat has come and gone! The very successful, month long amateur radio simplex event was aimed at getting folks on the air making voice contacts on 2 meter, 70 centimeter, 6 meter, 1.25 meter, 33 cm, DMR Simplex, D-Star Simplex, and Fusion Simplex. Over 134,000 contacts were made by 1070 participants. Roughly a dozen or so hams from the Greater Peoria Area participated. The majority of the contacts were made on 2 meter and 70 centimeter, but every designated band did have event traffic. This event was conceived and executed by some hams in the Springfield area and supported by others from around the state. Some excellent computer programming made it quick, fun, and easy to see the statistics, who was on the air, and even maps of all your contacts’ location. You can see the Winterheat site at https://hamactive.com/WH22/index.php.
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SuperFest
The Midwest Superfest 2022 meeting for February will be Thursday the 24th at 7:00pm using the link on the club meeting page.
We have a lot of members with great ideas and we strongly encourage you to share them, remember Superfest is for the entire club and allows us to stay on the air by subsidizing our tower rent. If you are unable to participate in the scheduled meeting but have ideas you would like to share please send them to WD9EB@arrl.net or W9UVI@arrl.net.
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January Net Logs
1/2
KC9TCM KD9SZZ KD9IBC K9TNT NM0O KD9PXZ KD9JXR W8NWG W9JDP W9WGN KD9ATO N0XOH K9XJT KD9NYI KD9QQU K9HJZ KB9TNZ KD9STL KD9IVV N9NDF K9RCS W9SEB KD9ANU WW9DLM K9CEW WF9E KD9RYH N9GUE NA9LE KD9SPJ Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
1/9
K9RCS W9SEB KD9JXR W8NWG KB9TNZ KD9PXZ NM0O KD9RJH KD9IVV KD9RYH KD9ANU K9HJZ KD9STL KT9TB KD9IBC N9GUE K9XJT W9WGN KD9ERS KB9ATO N9NDF WW9DLM KC9YTT K9TNT KD9NYE KD9AER WF9E N9WFT NA9LE KD9NYI NP2WJ Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
1/16
N9NDF KD9IBC W9WGN KD9NYE KD9JXR W8NWG KD9PXZ KD9AER K9XJT KD9STL K9HJZ NA9LE KB9ATO KB9TNZ NM0O KD9RJH WW9DLM KD9ERS KD9ANU WF9E N9GUE KD9QQU K9TNT N9WX KD9SZZ K9CEW KD9RYH KD9SPJ WD9EB Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
1/23
W9JDP K9XJT W9WGN KD9PXZ WD9EB KD9NYE NA9LE K9TNT KD9JXR NP2WJ KD9STL N9SJZ KB9ATO NM0O N9NDF KD9RJH KD9IBC KC9WRK W9SEB KD9DBQ KC9YTT KD9SZZ KD9RYH N9GUE N0XOH KD9QQU Submitted by W8NWG 73
1/30
W9JDP K9TNT N9SJZ W9WGN KD9JXR W8NWG KD9PXZ K9RCS K9XJT KD9SZZ KD9IVV KD9NYE KD9ERS KD9STL KD9QQU KD9LSV KD9ANU W9SEB WW9DLM KT9TB W9FYR KB9TNZ N9GUE KB9ATO KD9MPI K9HJZ K9UQF WF9E N9NDF KD9SZZ K9CEW WD9EB KC9YTT KD9IBC Submitted by KD9DBQ 7
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February Club Events
February 3 – 7:00 pm: Board of Directors Meeting via Zoom.
February 10 – 7:00 p.m.: Club Meeting – Learn how to use the EchoLink app that lets you use your phone or tablet to communicate – with Scott Tranchitella, K9XJT. Via Zoom.
February 19 – Noon: License Testing, Morton Knights of Columbus Hall. Click here for details.
February 24 – Superfest Meeting via Zoom.