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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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