Minutes - YRARC Board of Directors Meeting 2017-01-17

Meeting held in the Magna Centre, Multi Purpose Room 1. Called to Order at 19:05 by Chris VE3NRT. Board members attending: Chris VE3NRT Pres, Geoff VA3GS, Eric VE3EB, Steve VE3UT, Doug VE3ATP, Rick VA3VO, David VA3DCY Secty. Absent: Barry VA3LLT, John VE3IPS V. Pres. John VA3JI Treasurer. Others attending: None

1. Approval of agenda and declaration of conflict of interest: Chris VE3NRT. Additions: None. Motion to adopt the agenda, moved Eric VE3EB, seconded Geoff VA3GS. Carried.
   
2. Minutes: David VA3DCY. Minutes of the 2016/12/20 meeting to be adopted at the February meeting.
   
3. Treasurer's Report: Geoff VA3GS for John VA3JI.
   
   • Opening Balance 2016/01/01 [Available to members on request to Secretary]
     
   • Income: Dues $80.00
     
   • Refund from Markham Fair $1,856.00
     
   • Total income $1,936.00
     
   • Expenditures: None $0.00
     
   • Closing Balance 2017/01/17 [Available to members on request to Secretary]
     
   • Note: The December statement received and balanced. JI
     
   • Moved by Geoff VA3GS, seconded by Steve VE3UT to adopt the treasurer's report. Carried.
     
4. Meetings: Geoff VA3GS. The speakers planned for the upcoming general meetings are: February - Steve VE3EZ, March - Mike VE3MKX, April - Bob VE3WY and May John VA3KOT.
   
5. Winter Field Day: Steve VE3UT. WFD will have 6 people attending. The proposed budget is $140 for food and $100 for gas. Rick VA3VO's trailer will be used for cooking and there will be 2 trailers for radios. Norma, the owner of Al's Tack Shop, enquired about the club's insurance, since the site may be icy. David VA3DCY will contact the insurance company to provide Norma with proof of our insurance.
   
6. Repeaters: Steve VE3UT
   
   • There have been some recent D-STAR outages, likely caused by a malfunctioning firewall.
     
   • The UPS at the site is being upgraded.
     
7. Trillium Grant Proposal
   
   • Eric VE3EB. Eric is waiting for proposals from EmComm. Steve VE3UT: There are no available pairs available in the GTA for a DMR repeater. We could use the UHF pair from the D-Star repeater. Chris VE3NRT asked is there DMR coverage or adequate coverage in the GTA? It was noted that a used Motorola DMR repeater costs approximately $850 US on E-Bay.
     
   • Should replacement of one or more existing analogue repeaters be included in the Trillium Grant proposal? The existing repeaters are older than 30 years and it is difficult to replace parts. Replacements could include: 2 VHF repeaters, 1 UHF repeater, 3 controllers and switching power supplies. The radios should be commercial frequency agile radios. The priority for replacement is the VE3YRC VHF repeater.
     
   • Chris VE3NRT proposed including a HamWan 'back-bone' data network.
     
   • Eric VE3EB suggested upgrading the club web site.
     
8. D-Rats: Although D-Rats works on D-Star, it can only send files 'point-to-point', ie from one radio to another. Files can not be sent through an intermediate station, ie from radio 1, via 2 to 3.