Minutes, YRARC General Meeting 2017-11-07

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:30 by Steve VE3UT. Total members and guests attending: 31

1. Welcome & Introductions – Steve VE3UT
   
2. Adoption of minutes from 2017/10/03. Moved John VE3IPS, seconded John VA3JI. Carried
   
3. Treasurer’s Report – Charles VA3TTB
   
   • Opening Balance 2017/09/30 [available to members on request to club secretary]
     
   • Income
     
     Memberships $330.00
     • Hamfest $308.00
       
     • Total Income: $638.00
       
   • Expenses:
     
     • Markham Fair Rental $3,643.21
       
     • Liability Insurance $1,112.40
       
     • Canada Post box rental $250.86
       
     • Misc $12.92
       
     • Total Expenses: $5,019.40
       
   • Closing Balance 2017/10/31 [available to members on request to club secretary]
     
4. EmComm Report – Mike VA3MCT
   
   • On October 14 there was an Ontario wide SET. The York Region EOC was activated, and communication on 40m and 60m was attempted using NVIS antennae.
     
   • On November 15, there will be a Markham SET. We need support for this event.
     
5. Winter Field Day – Steve VE3UT
   
   • Winter Field Day will happen in January 2018 and the proposed site is Al's Tack Shop, 4812 Vandorf Rd in Stouffville. The board approved payment for gas and beverages only, and meals would be the responsibility of the participants.
     
   • Motion that the club pay $275 for gas and beverages, moved Alex VA3ASE, seconded John VE3IPS. Carried.
     
6. Public Service Report – Eric VE3EB. No report
   
7. Repeater Committee Report – Steve VE3UT
   
   • IRLP is off the air momentarily.
     
   • One repeater is announcing the Hamfest message – to be investigated.
     
8. Membership Report – Barry VA3LLT. We have a total or 61 paid members and 8 life members.
   
9. Hamfest Report – Geoff VA3GS. Geoff was away, but there was a short discussion on what went well and where improvements could be made.
   

Guest Speaker John VA3KOT – “Narrow Band Emergency Message System”

John talked the need for emergency communications, not for ARES types of disaster events, which occur very infrequently, but for something that is likely to happen more often, like an ice storm or winter snow storm where power and communications are disrupted.

Is voice radio communication the answer? 2M or 70cm repeaters may be down without power, simplex has limited range and it uses bandwidth.
Winlink? It works only with Windows and not open source software, depends on the internet, is email based and needs a 'connection' to function.

CW works and uses less bandwidth than voice, but not everybody knows Morse Code.

There are other digital modes that use less bandwidth than CW and work under the noise floor.

NBEMS is an open source, free, multi platform that can be 'connectionless', ie the signal is broadcast to whoever is receiving, or with a 'connection' to only one receiver for security.
Remember, email does not need to be sent over the internet.

FLDigi (Fast Light Digital) and the suite of products, like FLMsg (Message), FLArq (Automatic Repeat Request), FLWrap (to drag and drop messages), FLAmp (Amateur multicast protocol, for connectionless transfer of files).

FLDigi is open source, run on multiple platforms (Windows, MAC, Linux and more) on powerful processors down to a RaspberryPi, using a soundcard and supports many digital modes.

John demonstrated the use of FLDigi with a RaspberryPi, interfaced to a handheld radio, and received buy cheap off-shore radio, acoustically coupled to an old android smart phone running AndFLMsg. It worked and was done with inexpensive devices.

Upcoming Club Meetings

We begin another meeting season on the first Tuesday of September at the Sharon Temperance Hall at 7:30pm. Our Fall meeting presentations have been set as follows.

• September 5th: Grant VE3XTV will be bringing along ATV hardware to show what it can do. If you have a receiver bring it with you. The receivers used are standard free to air Satellite receive, for analog FM or digital DVB-S with a Mpeg2 decoder, the IF range is 950 to 2150 MHz; our 23cm band is from 1240 to 1300 MHz. As for the 13cm band (2.3 GHz up to 2.45 GHz) he will bring along a few Satellite down-converters to receive the repeater output at 2370 MHz.
  
  
• October 3rd: Hugh VE3AYR will talk about the VIMY100 special event station.
  
  
• November 7th: John VA3KOT will give a presentation on NBEMS (Narrow Band Emergency Message System).
  

We are in need of presentations for the club meetings January - May 2018. If you have one that you like to make or know of some one who might do one please let me know.

Thank you Geoff VA3GS for putting this together.

Minutes: General Meeting 2016-11-01

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:30 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 35 including 1 guest and 3 new members.

1. Welcome & Introductions – Chris VE3NRT
   
2. Adoption of Minutes from 2016/10/04 general meeting. Moved by Doug VE3VS, seconded by John VA3JI. Carried.
   
3. Announcements: Setup for the hamfest starts at 13:00 Friday Nov 4. We received a cheque for $175 from the Central Ontario ARC for our participation in a recent COARC event.
   
4. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
   
   • Opening Balance 2016/10/01 [Available to members on request to secretary]
     
   • Income: Hamfest vendor fees: $1230.00; Membership dues: $185.00; Donations (US currency conversion): $7.02; Total:$1422.02
     
   • Expenditures: Hamfest - prizes: $171.50; Hamfest - Markham Fair Grounds: $4329.60; Hamfest – float: $750.00; Repeater $75.00; Bank charges for PayPal $7.74; Total Expenditures: $5333.84
     
   • Closing Balance 2016/11/01 [Available to members on request to secretary]
     
   • Additional income to be deposited: Hamfest vendor fees: $40.00; Membership dues: $155.00; Membership dues:$35.00; Donation $5.00; Bank Fees: -$1.57
     
   • It was suggested from the floor that we charge extra when payments are made by PayPal. No action to be taken at this time.
     
   • Moved the treasurer's report be adopted, by John VA3JI, seconded Bill VA3QB. Carried
     
5. Repeater Report – Steve VE3UT
   
   • We need to check on the noise source at the Sharon Temperance Hall before winter field day.
     
   • We spent $75 on a link antenna at the MacKenzie Health Unit (to link the VE3YRA site with the hospital site).
     
   • The Field Day announcement, which has been running in error, has been turned off.
     
   • This morning it was discovered that that the link transmitter at the VE3YRC-V site has failed. The VE3YRC-V repeater (147.225 MHz) is now running in stand-alone mode.
     
6. EmComm Report – Robert VA3BXG, John VE3IPS
   
   • At the recent GTA set, we had limited participation, and did a test call-out. The next EmComm meeting will be on November 10, at the Newmarket Community Centre.
     
   • The Fox Hunt, with help from Brian VE3IBW, will likely be held on November 19. Planning will be done at the next EmComm meeting.
     
7. Other Business
   
   • Barry VA3LLT's wife is in hospital, in serious condition. Move by Steve VE3UT and seconded by Eric VE3EB, that we send flowers to Barry's wife. Carried.
     
   • Doug VE3VS is preparing name tags for those wishing tags.
     
   • Next year, CLARA will be holding its 50th birthday and preparation for the event is underway.
     

Guest Speaker – John VA3KOT

John spoke on outdoor QRP. His interest in QRP started with scanning and listening to satellites, which lead to his interest in amateur radio, especially QRP. His rules for operating QRP include an efficient antenna, elevation, using CW or digital modes instead of phone, endurance, the use of spotting web sites (to give advance notice to listen), and good propagation conditions.

Since he operates in public spaces, health and safety are important considerations. The passing public needs to be kept safe from RF high voltages etc. and 'no trace' operating means leaving the site tidy when finished.

When hiking, he keeps it simple with a Yaesu FT-817 radio, minimal batteries for lighter weight and a choice of several antennae including vertical, end-fed, loop and NVIS antennae.

John can be contacted at va3kot -at- gmail -dot- com for further information.