Minutes of SPARC Meeting – February 2, 2024

Meeting held at DMI research

Meeting called to order at 1930

Minutes by Charles, W4BPP

Executive and Board members in attendance:

• • • Executive Staff
      • President: Rich AA2MF
      • Vice President: Carol AB4YI
      • Treasurer: Will W7WMS
      • Secretary: Charles W4BPP
    • Elected Board members
      • Tom W4CU
      • Dee N4GD
      • John KI4UIP
    • non-elected board members:
      • Immediate past president Pat AA0O
      • Club trustee Dave KR4U
      • (NOT PRESENT) Repeater trustee Bill KN4LUZ
      • SPARC gap editor Bruce KF4TYA)

Business Meeting start and greeting:

• • • The meeting opens with the pledge of allegiance.
    • New members, guests, and first timers recognized and introduced themselves.
    • The December and January meeting minutes were posted for the last meeting.

Reports:

• • • Treasurer report, Will W7WS:
      • All income and expenses are rectified and in balance
    • Secretary’s Report, Charles W4BPP:
      • None.
    • VP report Carol AB4YI:
      • New check in and tracking related to ARRL rules, membership in ARRL, related to contesting rules.
      • Reach out for invite to slack, send an email to Carol
      • Long island CW club has classes online
    • Membership:
      • 1 new members are welcomed to the club and voted in.
      • 92 paid members as of the meeting
    • VE report Pat Connely:
      • Tuesday:
        • 1 upgrades, 7 new licensees!
    • Net Manager Report, Repeater Trustee Report Billy KN4LUZ (as presented by Charles, W4BPP)
      • 608 check in
      • 35 messages
      • 983 minutes
      • 35 sessions
      • Bill didn’t tell Charles who has the record with ~25-32 check-ins, probably Alex!!
    • Repeater Report. KN4LUZ Bill (per Ed NZ1Q)
      • 2m is working, 440 has some issues which will be investigated.
      • Need net controllers, reach out to Bill KN4LUZ
      • Repeaters need a tune up, otherwise ok.
    • Trustee Report, Dave KR4U
      • Station in good operating condition
      • Received a donation of an antenna tuner with switched inductor
      • Storage room is cleaned up and organized, no more storage of pop/soda due to exploding cans
      • Anyone brings equipment in, please let someone know what it is, why it’s here, what the value might be for any donations etc.
    • W4TA Station Trustee, Carol AB4YI
      • Working on logs to get them entered from computers etc.
      • Configuring LOTW and getting it updated
    • website report, Zach K04WPO (absent). Orin and Carol provide an update
      • Fixing photo galleries
      • Removing old people with login access
      • Deleted unused plugins and  updated wordpress to latest version
      • Backed up current version, waiting to verify before overwriting legacy backup
      •  send any posts, reports, or corrections
    • Newsletter/SPARC Gap Report Bruce KF4TYA
      • Send ideas and submissions to Bruce via email
      • Planning to put out a newsletter each quarter. Lots of pictures taken.
    • Antenna Team, Ed NZ1Q
      • A winch was installed and the tower no longer requires hand cranking.
      • Takes 3 minutes to raise or lower.
    • Tom W4CU with contesting update
      • 18 operators during recent contest. Won Florida with a terrific team effort.
    • Upcoming contests
      • NAQP RTTY Feb 24/25
      • CQWWPX RTTY Feb 9/10
      • CQ 160 Phone Feb 24/25
      • ARRL Sideband March 2nd
      • German name RTTY
      • CQWPX Sideband
      • ARRL DX Sideband

Old Business:

• • • Opening station before meetings to learn how to operate and use the station
    • Club Holiday party was Wednesday Jan 10th 5-9pm at Brooklyn Pizza on Seminole and park Blvds. Fun but low turnout
    • Feb 17th we are moving back into the storage trailer. There are free items for taking.
    • Pay your dues if you have not already for 2024.

New Business:

• • • Pat AA0O attended the B Sides conference and gave a presentation on CW last year, and we are invited back. Reach out to pat if interested
    • See Will if you would like to order a shirt, we need 20 to place an order
    • A discussion of total members, paid members, and how to grow that as well as possibly hosting our meetings online again. This will be discussed during the next board meeting.
    • As of the board meeting in February the member list will be updated to remove anyone who has not paid their 2024 dues.
    • Next executive board meeting is February 20th.
    • Next meetings topic will be on satellites and AmSat

Recess

Presentation

• • • Home Brew night!!!

Meeting Adjourned 21:05

50/50 Raffle is held

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