The meeting was called to order at 19:30
The club officers and board members in attendance were:
- NY4I – Tom (President)
- AB4YI – Carol (Vice President)
- W7WMS – Will (Treasurer)
- K2BHS – Bruce (Secretary/Newsletter Editor)
- KI4UIP – John (Board Member)
- N4GD – Dee (Board Member/Repeater Maintenance Manager)
- KR4U – Dave (Club Station W4GAC Trustee)
- KO4CEE – Alex (Repeater Trustee)
- AA2MF – Richie (Past President)
- KA4IOX – Paul (Events Coordinator)
- N2ESP – Bob (President Emeritus)
- AAØO – Pat (President Emeritus)
- KZØJ – Nick (Board Member)
All members introduced themselves
Recognition – Several members worked rare DX (Fred – W2SUB worked the British Virgin Islands, Glenn – N4GRC worked Sudan and West Africa, Pacific Isles, Lou – KB4DSL worked North Howe Island). There were multiple members who had multiple POTA activations: (Orin – KG1S with five, Bruce – K2BHS with four, Carol – AB4YI with one (at a park in Alabama), and Alex – KO4CEE with one.
The minutes from the August 2025 meeting were posted on the website and have been approved as distributed.
Carol, AB4YI reported that there will be a presentation in October regarding the proposed bylaws changes. She further mentioned that the proposed changes will be voted on in November.
Club Treasurer, Will, W7WMS gave the monthly Treasurer’s Report. He reported the balances for the month. He also reported membership stats for this month (currently 142 members).
The club welcomed new members. The new members are:
- Mason Taylor, KK4MSZ
- Bryce Nix, KR4GHU
- Aaron Hernandez, KR4GHM
- Eli Levy, KR4GKS
A motion was made by Bruce – K2BHS to approve the new members. Mike – K4HN seconded. The motion passed.
Will, W7WMS announced that Harold “Pete” Petersen became a silent key in early August. He stressed the importance of having a plan and leaving instructions upon becoming silent key. He suggested putting the contact info of a club officer in those instructions.
Bruce, K2BHS reported that the minutes for the August 2025 meeting are on the website. He also reported that he expects to have the next edition of the SPARC Gap Newsletter completed by October. He reiterated that he is always looking for members to assist with the newsletter by contributing articles, stressing a group effort can make the newsletter more frequent.
Dee, N4GD reported that all three repeaters are working and operational at this time.
Pat, AAØO reported on VE Testing for August 2025 – It was reported that there were two new Technicians, one new General and one Extra upgrade. The next VE Session is on 9/16/25.
Dave, KR4U reported everything is working and functional for the W4GAC station. He further reported that configuration changes are coming for the RTTY Contest later this month. He additionally reported that the tower needs to be maintained and still needs an additional pulley so that the fixture can be assembled.
Tom, NY4I reported that the network issue was the fault of the ISP (Spectrum) citing that Spectrum turned off four of the five nodes. Those nodes are all back online at this time. He further reported that Slack will be used to coordinate remote access time to the Flex Radio.
Paul, KA4IOX – Events/Activities Coordinator, reported that there is a RTTY contest on 9/26/25 beginning at 20:00 through 9/28/25 @20:00. Two transceivers will be used (the Flex and IC-7610) at 100 watts. Paul further reported that during the last contest, there was a malfunction on 15-meters, also the FT-1000 was running lots of noise. He additionally reported that the IC-7610 has a built-in, 3:1 narrow-band antenna tuner, however it will not tune the 80-meter antenna.
Paul, KA4IOX initially made a motion to procure a 600-watt automatic tuner, but subsequently withdrew the motion citing further research was needed. No action was taken.
Alex, KO4CEE gave the Net Manager’s report for both nets for August. The totals were as follows:
- QNI: 669 total check-ins (642 for the 2-meter net & 27 for the 220/440 net)
- QTC: 34 messages passed (32 for the 2-meter net & 2 for the 220/440 net)
- QND: 1070 minutes (17.84 hours) (1029 for the 2-meter net & 41 for the 220/440 net)
- There was a total of 35 (31 for the 2-meter net & 4 for the 220/440 net) sessions for August
Highest check-ins: 1st Place – KO4CEE (Alex) with 30, 2nd Place – WZ4GW (Bill) with 26, and 3rd Place – KM4LTG (Brad) with 25.
September’s Program was Getting Started with CW presented by Dave – KR4U, Carol – AB4YI and Lou – KB4DSL
Upcoming Programs:
- October – Nominations, Bylaws Changes, and Card Checker
- November – Officer Elections & Voting on Bylaws Changes
- December – Reverse Beacon by Pat, AAØO.
- January – Winter Field Day
Tom, NY4I reported that a new webmaster is needed citing that Zack, KO4WPO stepped down from that position. The ideal candidate will have experience with Word Press and do back-end work.
Hal, W1EES gave a quick speech on the Nominating Committee
New Business:
No new business was presented and/or discussed at this meeting
Olev, N4OHI won the 50/50 with a total jackpot of $26. Congratulations Olev!
The Meeting was adjourned at 21:29
73’s
Respectfully Submitted,
Bruce H. Solov, K2BHS