This section of the web site will recap previous meetings and any discussion that was raised at these meetings or since that time. This will give the membership time to digest what was brought up and then pose any questions, comments, or suggestions. It will also have downloadable files of any pertinent program material presented at these meetings.
The regular scheduled RARC meeting was called to order with 11 members and one guest in attendance. We welcomed Ricky KI4WPD who was visiting from Rutherford, TN. After Jamie WB4YDL gave the Treasurer's report, a review of the last month's meeting minutes was given. Several things remain pending such as the procurement of liability insurance for the club, and the presentation of a donation to the Family in Need Fund of the National Guard Armory. The Memphis "Freefest" was held on April 12th and several club members made the trip and reported on their finds. The previous meeting also concentrated on the successful first "Ides of March" Hamfest and, at this time, the date of March 21st has been penciled in as the target for next year's hamfest.
After the old business wrapped up, Jamie WB4YDL gave a pitch for the West Tennessee DX Association which has a prominent spot on the Links page of this web site. Jamie briefly went over the purpose of the WTDXA as a group of DX enthusiasts who try to help the best they can to keep great DXpeditions going to far flung areas of the globe. This are very expensive endeavors. Normally, most DX'ers will drop a few 'green stamps' in their QSL card request for this purpose, but this is a chance to do so as a group. The WTDXA logo would likely be displayed on the DXpedition's web site and QSL card. After the pitch, well-known club DX'ers Bob K9IL and Glenn N4MJ donated $20 each to the cause. Thanks guys ! The target DXpedition for these donations will be the upcoming Glorioso Island expedition scheduled for this fall.
Ron W9RVR presented a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Obion County ARES and Obion County Department of Emergency Management. As far as we know, this is the first MOU signed between these two groups. Congratulations Ron ! A meeting is planned for the District 2 EC's and DEC for the purpose of discussing frequency coordination. It is hoped that this will be one of several 'eyeball' contacts for this group. Ron and AEC Glenn N4MJ recently visited the Baptist Memorial Hospital - Union City station and found that there are problems with the antenna system. Robin WA4YGM plans to evaluate the situation and see about repairs.
Jamie WB4YDL and XYL June provided the refreshments for the evening and they were greatly appreciated - especially those cherry-filled chocolate cupcakes !
The remainder of the meeting centered around preparation for the upcoming Field Day 2008 event which will be held on June 28-29th at the Obion County Fairgrounds. The Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club will again enter in the highly competitive 2A division. Jamie WB4YDL suggested that the site be re-visited and scoped out thoroughly and know exactly where to place stations and antennas. This year we have an interesting and wide variety of available radios for use in this event. Planned for the CW station will be Jamie's newly constructed Elecraft K3/100. With it's built-in antenna tuner, 4 message banks, and very robust DSP and crystal filtering, this should be a very productive station - as usual. The GOTA station will be supplied by Bob K9IL and Rose W9DHD, either being the Icom IC-730 which was recently refurbished, or the yet-to-be-activated Icom IC-718. Both are simple radios which should be easy to put Q's in the log. The phone station is wide open and could be Ron W9RVR's Kenwood TS-2000, Tracy N4IL's Kenwood TS-480, or Jamie's Elecraft K2/100 - all excellent radios. The VHF station stands to be consolidated this year with the satellite and Winlink/APRS station. Available radios are Glenn N4MJ's Yaesu FT-736 and Jamie WB4YDL's Yaesu FT-847. There will be three sets of bandpass filters this year which should greatly alleviate inter-station interference. Antennas and the need for vertical supports will be further discussed after the area is scoped out more thoroughly. The meeting adjourned at this time.
The following minutes were submitted by Ron W9RVR who was acting as Secretary for Jamie WB4YDL in his absence:
The meeting was called to order at 6:45 pm by President Glenn Snow N4MJ. 11 members were present and one guest, Gladys, Ron’s XYL.
The members covered old business which included talk about the First Annual “Ides of March Hamfest”. Glenn advised that we would discuss this in more detail after the break. Ron read the treasurers report and it was approved by Larry KI4UNT and seconded by Harold N4HAR. Field Day was lightly discussed as our Field Day chair was absent on personal leave. We did discuss club Liability Insurance for events including our hamfest, Field Day, and other Club outings. Glenn is to look into ARRL insurance and other options and report back on the next meeting.
The club also decided to donate $200 to the National Guard Armory Family in Need Fund in appreciation for the free use of their facility. Glenn will talk to the officer or enlisted man in charge and find out if the club officers can make a presentation. The date of this will be posted on the web site so anyone else interested in attending can come. Tracy N4IL and Larry KJI4UNT approved and seconded the motion.
Ron W9RVR talked about the Club Sunday night net and the role call made last Sunday for ARES members to report in. There has been little involvement in ARES training and reporting. We have a pretty good base group of ARES members and will start some basic training and reporting through the 3980 TN phone net. It was also suggested to check in on the 146.865 EMA/Weather net when possible. This runs Monday through Friday at 20:00 hours on their repeater. Larry KI4UNT brought up some good points and we are going to contact the LEPC and the local chapter of the Red Cross for possible MOU’s.
Volunteering is part of the ham radio tradition and Jamie Hall WB4YDL has been asked to be the District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) for District 2 Western TN ARES. This position reports to to the Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator Randy Wilder, WB4LHD who reports directly to the TN ARES top dog Section Emergency Coordinator Lowell Bennington, WD4DJW. There are 3 sub-sections in Tennessee, East, Middle and West, and each sub section has one ASEC and three DEC’s. Each DEC has up to 8 County EC’s reporting to him. Congratulations Jamie.
Glenn Snow N4MJ has been asked to fill the position of Public Information Officer. Glenn will report directly to the state position, TN Section Public Information Coordinator Ron Akers, W8BF. Good "grass roots" public relations activities involve regular and frequent publicizing of amateur activities through local news media plus community activities; school programs; presentations to service clubs and community organizations; exhibits and demonstrations; and other efforts which create a positive public image for Amateur Radio. This is an important position to hold and congratulations Glenn.
Several RARC members are going to the “Free Fest” in Memphis on April 12. Besides looking for that odd bit to put in the “ham Radio Box” I’m sure they will be comparing this ham fest to our own. They will report back at the next meeting. Good hunting guys!
Glenn N4MJ brought up the possibility of some funding for our club in areas where we have the opportunity to make an impact on Community Safety. An application for this grant money will take from four months to a year or more before any monies are granted. Glenn N4MJ is looking for good points to make on his request for this grant on how we can directly impact public safety. Some suggestions were to offer to pay for material used in our ham training classes making this a “no cost” event other than the $14 VE fees to test. Ron W9RVR suggested listing the Weather nets during tornado season and how we report to the NWS and that it would be nice if the club had some emergency equipment that was actually owned by the club. Public Service Events (PSE) and our club involvement would be another link to public safety. If anyone has ideas along these lines please speak up and talk to Glenn.
Thanks go to Harold N4HAR for snacks tonight. He handed Ron a piece of Cheese Cake that was some of the best he tasted! (I’m bad)
After the break, the club discussed our first annual hamfest. Ideas and comments were abundant. Among the suggestions were the following; Everyone jumped on Chris KI4TRM to volunteer as cook again next year! We need to advertise that we have a famous award winning Bar-B-Que chief at our ham fest. Bob is contacting other area hamfests to find out their dates for next year to eliminate conflicts if possible. Bob is following up so we can go for ARRL sanctioning earlier this year once we have a date and commitment from the National Guard Armory. Tracy N4IL suggested we charge a nominal entry fee of $1-$2 or more especially if we have more vendors or very good door prizes next year. We need to have greeters at both entrances to take entry fees and table fees next year. Rose W9DHD and Larry KI4UNT suggested we give one door prize ticket in return for the entry fee. This will help us keep a more accurate count of attendees. The club will be contacting vendors earlier (everyone wants vendors) including AES, HamStation, MFJ, Memphis Amateur, Radio Shack Etc. The need to get some of these to actually show up is great and we might offer the opportunity as an exclusive to the big ham stores as an extra incentive. Donations from these vendors will need to be advertised in our pre-fest literature and publishing’s to make a good donation worth while and justifiable for the vendor. As an added draw the club might offer to purchase a HT from one of these vendors at cost to raffle off as a door prize if all else fails. We might increase the table fee to a nominal fee of $7 or $8 dollars. We discussed “salting” the 50/50 raffle with seed money and that if we did this we would leave the money in the jar as being the most honest method. We need to review the possibility of selling the door prize tickets at $1 each, 7 for $5 or 15 for $10 which will increase this revenue. Better advertising including TV, radio and print would be nice. The members also suggested that there be more involvement in meetings and decision making process in the pre-fest planning stage. This would be a good way to help relieve the club officers of having to do all the duties and get more club members involved at an earlier stage. The ultimate decisions would remain the responsibility of the hamfest chair and policy decisions the responsibility of the club president.
Bob K9IL moved that the meeting come to a close and that was seconded by Stan W4RB and Tracy N4IL. Our next scheduled club meeting is April 24. This is an open meeting and you do not need to be a member to visit. Come on down!!
The regular scheduled RARC meeting was called to order with 13 members and two non-member XYL's in attendance. Gladys and Rhelda once again joined us and we welcomed their contribution. After the Treasurer's report was given by Jamie WB4YDL, it was mentioned in follow-up to the previous meeting's minutes that a Press Release was printed in the Union City Messenger with a photograph and caption regarding the recent presentation of the ARRL book set to the C. E. Weldon Public Library in Martin, TN. Much of the attention of this meeting again centered on the upcoming RARC Hamfest which has moved to the TN National Guard Armory in Union City. The items that were left to be discussed from the last meeting have been resolved. These include the availability of tables, additional VE testers, the use of a PA sound system, vendors, and concessions. Additionally, there was some discussion on door prizes and a "50-50" chance game put forth by Larry KI4UNT. This will require petty cash availability for three areas for the purpose of providing change - concessions, raffle tickets, and 50-50. Plans are for initial set-up to begin on Friday at 2 PM and planned Saturday clean-up after the 3 PM close. Plans are for the officers to be in communication at all times during the hamfest via HT on the 440 MHz band. Ron W9RVR will man the talk-in radio. There is also the possibility of providing an APRS beacon and GPS coordinates for our real geeky visitors ! Also discussed was that since we are a non-profit organization, that a certain percent of the proceeds should go to the National Guard. This will be an exciting time for the Reelfoot Amateur Radio Club and the first ever "Ides of March" Hamfest !
Thanks go out to Jeff W5VNH who provided the wonderful refreshments. There was a Skywarn/TEMA-West exercise on Wednesday, February 27th and several club members were able to participate - Ron W9RVR, Dolly KN4SLY, Ray N4SLY, Ottis K5BSE, Stan W4RB, and Glenn N4MJ. This opened up a discussion regarding the somewhat moribund state of the ARES group in this area. Jamie WB4YDL, the Obion County EC, took full responsibility and offered some interesting possibilities first put forth by Howard W4HLR. This would include an ARES Net that might be linked to the normal Sunday evening West TN West KY Emergency Net and with possible linkage with the TN HF Phone Net. Additionally, Ron W9RVR brought up some possibilities with communications support in area public events, such as parades, etc. These items have been mentioned before but have been on the 'back burner' for much too long. With the support of AEC's Ron W9RVR and Glenn N4MJ as well as Howard W4HLR, it is hoped that these items will come to pass.
The Ham-Com 2008 will be a big hamfest in Dallas this June and the RARC has a chance to make a little change with its promotion. This will be done as an advertising banner on the index page of our web site. Clicking on this banner will lead to the organizational web site of Ham-Com and the most 'hits' to their web site from ours will earn us $100. An error exists on the table of VE sessions given by RARC in that the May session will be on May 10th not May 3rd. We apologize for any confusion. The General Class license course is now planned for the four Saturdays of April for (at least) 4 hours each session. The RARC will now take applications for this course. At the termination of the hamfest, the order for textbooks will be submitted to the ARRL. There is no charge for the course itself except for the purchase of textbooks. The course is designed to coordinate with the May VE session.
Initial discussion on this years Field Day event was brought up by Jamie WB4YDL. There were some rules changes from previous years, but the important one was the abolition of the demonstration mode credit. In the past, RARC would demonstrate packet technology, SSTV, and last year, the use of Winlink to pass NCS messages. This has now all been replaced with the Educational Activity bonus. This is described in the new Field Day rules as a formal educational-related activity. This must be done as a group and be a pseudo-classroom event. This will be an opportunity to involve our younger members. More will be discussed on this in forthcoming meetings. The annual election of RARC officers was held as scheduled during this meeting. By acclimation, the officers - Glenn N4MJ President, Bob K9IL Vice President, and Jamie WB4YDL Secretary Treasurer - were re-elected. Congratulations to the officers ! The meeting was adjourned at this time.
The regular scheduled RARC meeting was called to order with 13 members and 3 guests in attendance. It was a very chilly night with temperatures in the low teens. We welcomed XYL guests Gladys (with W9RVR) and Rhelda (with K5BSE), as well as Bob K9IL's father, Bob Sr., K9YHD. After the Treasurer's report was given by Jamie WB4YDL, the only item of 'old news' was the delivery and presentation of a full set of ARRL books to the C. E. Weldon Public Library in Martin, TN. A news release with a picture of the presentation will be sent by Stan W4RB to area newspapers such as The Weakley County Press and the Dresden Enterprise for publication. Bob K9IL was given the designation of Legislative Action Assistant (LAA) by Henry R. Leggette, WD4Q, our Delta Division Director. Bob's duties will be to inform hams in the Northwest Tennessee area of any legislative news or concerns that would warrant attention or action. Congratulations Bob !
The remainder of the meeting was devoted entirely to discussing preparations for this club's first hamfest. Named the Ides of March Hamfest, it will be held at the Obion County Fairgrounds on March 15th starting at 9 AM. Bob K9IL is heading this up and has been quite busy with arrangements. First off, there apparently was some miscommunication with Obion County Parks & Recreation as to our requirements for an indoor facility. This will be clarified in the upcoming week by Glenn N4MJ with some facilitation by Phillip N4PWG. Plans are that an indoor facility will have the tables and displays and provide cover in case of bad weather. There also needs to be an isolated area to have a VE testing session. The outdoor area will also be covered but open for tailgaters and flea marketers. Club personnel will be needed for parking assistance and talk-in via the WA4YGM repeater. Chris KI4TRM is putting together a very nice concessions package which, in the morning will include coffee and donuts, and for lunch, barbeque with all fixin's and hamburgers. All will be sold at more-than-reasonable pricing.
Refreshments were provided by Ottis K5BSE and XYL Rhelda whose bean soup sure hit the spot on a cold night! Thanks once again! After the break, discussions continued with hamfest preparation. Bob has acquired raffle tickets which will be used for prizes. Thoughts on prizes varied, but one thought was to ask vendors to match a particular amount that the club would put up as a gift certificate. There will surely be other items presented for raffle. The ARRL hamfest package has not yet been received. Vendors are lacking at the moment. Bob has contacted Memphis Amateur Electronics and they are considering sending folks up for the hamfest. Bob will be working to provide further vendors to sell their wares. A big item of need is tables. Obion County Parks & Recreation was approached about the use of their tables, but they wanted $10 for each table used !! The club will be approaching schools and churches for use of their tables. Additionally, it was noted that each school has a fairgrounds supply building that houses such things during the off months. One is the Obion County Central High School and they will be approached about using their tables. Also noted was the need for VE testers as all available club personnel may likely be needed elsewhere. The good folks at WTARS in Jackson have often stated they would be glad to assist in our need if called upon. A small public address system will be required and Phil N4PWG and Ray N4SLY will work together to assemble this item. They will bring this to the next meeting for review. The meeting adjourned at this point.
All files below are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat® reader to view.
RARC 2007 Meetings
RARC 2006 Meetings
RARC 2005 Meetings
RARC 2004 Meetings
PSK31
ARES - Winlink
Emergency Communications - Special
Basic Message Handling
Introduction to Emergency Nets
May 22 , 2008
Field Day 2008 discussion
L. B. Cebik - W4RNL
John Foster - N4LA
Eugene Parnell - KC4RHD
Max C. Manley - KD4MIZ
O.D. Keaton - WA4GLS