[Waverley ARS] WARS Committee Meeting Notes 10/1/08

[Simon Buxton]

Hi

The attachment appears to be lost in transit, so I am including as text 
below

73 Simon

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WARS Committee Meeting 10th Jan 2008

Meeting notes and other recent developments

General

Current balance of the club bank account is $4759. Recent purchases have 
included a barbecue, a wind up antenna mast and rotator, Powerpole 
connectors and a display tent for portable operation or on field days. 
The repeater licence for VK2ROT is due to be paid.

The cancellation of the club Yahoo group mailing list 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VK2BV is being considered unless a useful 
purpose can be justified – to be followed up by Eddie VK2BEH

Letters of thanks were sent out in December to a number of people who 
had donated material or made valuable contributions to the club in other 
ways.

Probable dates for Foundation Licence courses for the current year are 
9-10/2/08, 17-18/5/08, 23-24/8/08, 22-23/11/08.

The annual auction will take place on 21/6/08.

So far 10 members have paid their annual subscriptions using internet 
banking and completed the form on the website, which is now the 
preferred method. The Committee will endeavour to contact past members 
during 2008 with the idea of boosting involvement in the 90th 
Anniversary celebrations.

Membership cards will be issued to financial members.

Official minutes of committee meetings will be published as soon as 
possible, while dates of future meetings are shown on our website 
calendar. Members are encouraged to advise the secretary, Jim VK2JA, of 
any matter they would like considered a week beforehand. Members wishing 
to attend Committee Meetings are quite welcome providing they advise the 
Secretary of their intended attendance and any business they wish to 
raise and place on the agenda.

Note than club officers and other members can generally be contacted by 
email by using their callsign at vk2bv.org.

Activities

Some members may be unaware that a group meets in Centennial Park almost 
every Sunday for cycling and walking between 8 and 9 in the morning. 
Others joining the group will be welcome. Meeting area is on Parkes 
Drive at the kiosk where the four ponds meet. You should be able to 
contact them via the 2m repeater or email Brad VK2LR, for details.

Those with a bit of time to spare may like to be reminded that a group 
of members meet at the club every Tuesday between around 9 and 4 to chat 
and work on club or personal projects. Most are retired but all are 
welcome to drop in. Recent projects carried out include improvements to 
the shack area, modifying donated radios, improving the downstairs 
facilities and re-organising the storage area. Email Alan VK2TUI, for 
details.

The monthly evening talks were discussed and over the next few months we 
are expecting talks on WICEN, Picaxe programming and soldering 
instruction including using the lead free solder now required for new 
commercial construction. We have had an excellent program over the past 
few months which has been organised by Doug VK2DCR and he would welcome 
hearing from anyone who would like to give a talk.

A sub-committee to oversee club participation in contests is being 
formed under the auspices of Laurie VK2JAH. There is a proposal to go 
out of Sydney with overnight camping for the John Moyle field day next 
month. Those interested in contests should contact him. Contests are 
open to both club and individual operators.

The January Project Day was the first meeting of the Paraset group, who 
are making a replica of the WW2 spy transceiver used in Europe. Others 
may be interested in building one or maybe have some WW2 junk parts that 
maybe are suitable. See plans and schematic under “downloads” at: 
http://www.sm7eql.se/paraset/

Club Facilities and Technical
The club Station Manager, Alan VK2TUI, reported that the storage area 
has been tidied up. Work needs to be done on some of the antennas as the 
SWR is too high.

Eric VK2VE, the club Engineering Manager, reported that the Yaesu all 
mode 2m set is now working and the power supply facility to the console 
is being updated with powerpole connectors. The antenna patch panel is 
also being improved.

The club has had a donation of a large quantity of commercial mobile 
radio equipment including AWA RT-85, Nokia RD-40, Tait 2000 and Philips 
PRM-80s.

The most useful are the 25 watt Taits which are up to 10 years old and 
have been re-programmed by Henry VK2RE to cover all the 2m FM 
frequencies including repeaters and a few Marine frequencies. A further 
mod is needed to provide more modulation deviation and when required to 
reduce the transmit power to those sold to F calls. A brief review of 
the set can be seen at
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4725?ehamsid=541cee5454c445a96fb926e53fc1c666 

These are very good sets for amateur useand the committee has decided 
that initially that one set only be made available to financial members 
of the club at the very low price of $50 each. They are expected to be 
available by next project day. Four of these sets, specially modified, 
have been donated to WICEN.

The RT-85s are very reliable but a good deal older and are not so easy 
to modify, so are likely to be offered at a low price to anyone 
interested. The Nokias are modern sets that have been used for telemetry 
work which may be able to be modified for amateur use – this is being 
investigated.

I will be organising disposal of all these radios, so let me know if you 
are interested in any.

Access to internet at Rose Bay is still under investigation by Raffy 
VK2RF and Doug VK2DCR with a number of tests being made to find a 
reliable service at a reasonable price.

The club has acquired a 21 metre tower which is expected to eventually 
be installed at the club. Procedures for approval to install are being 
progressed. The existing antennas are affected by tree branches and 
corrosion so are not performing very well but it is hoped that their 
performance will be considerably improved for both general use and contests.

Other matters

The club's 90th anniversary will occur next year and a number of 
initiatives to celebrate this milestone, such as a special event 
callsign, are being examined. A subcommittee chaired by Eddie will be 
set up and anyone with ideas or interested in assisting should contact him.

Eric VK2VE has been planning for a club newsletter. Please contact him 
if you can help with articles.

The club is considering a stand at an ARNSW Mini Field Day at Dural to 
publicise the 90th anniversary and to offer some of the surplus 
commercial radios. A boot sale at Wyong was considered but no volunteer 
was found with the necessary trailer and enthusiasm – if anyone wants to 
volunteer to do this, please contact Eddie VK2BEH.

Simon VK2UA
12th Jan 2008