Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters

Annual Antenna Party

April Meeting 2005

Date:  April 16th, 2005

Meeting place:  Charlie Betz (N0AKC) Residence, Eau Claire

Time:  9:00 am, CDT

Business Meeting started at approximately 3 p.m. CDT

 Members Present:

   N9TTX            David Aho

   K9AIH            Darrell Schreiner

   KB9PJL                Robert Rohrssen

   N0AKC                 Charlie Betz

   W9RAY                Ray Johnson

   KB9TLV            John McDonald

   W9CDL            Chris Lantz

   KC9FVS            Mary Slifer

   N0EDV            Scott Littfin

   K9MU            Justin Glasener

   N9ISN            Al Schlaugat

   KB9QGL            Wanda Rohrssen

 Visitors:

   N9LIJ             Jim Fitzl

   N9PPE            Jeff Cole

Item #1:  New Members

·         No new members at present

 Item #2:  Modify Section 3 of the by-laws.

·         This section dealing with the club meetings currently reads:

“Meetings shall be held at least twice throughout the year.  One meeting shall be designated as the ‘annual business meeting,’ which will normally be designated an antenna building party.  A second shall be held in conjunction with the Aurora Conference.  Any others shall be held as wanted or needed.”

 It was decided to modify it to read:

“Meetings shall be held at least four times throughout the year.  One meeting shall be designated as the ‘annual business meeting,’ which will normally be designated an Antenna Building Party.  The others shall be held at least quarterly or as wanted or needed with the following dates as a guideline.

1.       2nd  Weekend in April ßOur Antenna Party.  Held usually before Aurora so we could test the completed antennas during the Aurora Conference.

2.       3rd Weekend in July ßMay change due to Central States Conference date.

3.       1st Weekend in October ßPossible EME contest conflict?

4.       3rd Weekend in December ßWeekend after the 10 meter contest”

 This change would be helpful to those wanting to know when a quarterly meeting would be held, as the by-laws are readily available through the club reflector or via the secretary.  These will also be listed in a “Member Cheat sheet” with other quick info on the club.

Item # 3:  Scores and Wallpaper

·         The past contest (HF-VHF) scores from September until April will be listed in the following newsletter, as will be past awards/certificates, etc…and will be submitted to the web editor for inclusion into the webpage.

 Item # 4:  June VHF Plans:

             These are the proposed operations for the upcoming June VHF contest…all operations

            From EN44 unless noted.

 Home Operations:  N0AKC (50 Mhz-10Ghz); W9CDL (50, 144, 432); K9AIH (50,144,432)

                             KB9TLV (50Mhz-1.2Ghz) EN45; N9ISN (50Mhz-432Mhz);

                               W9RAY (50 Mhz-1.2Ghz)

Rover Operations:  KB9PJL Michigan/Sunday Rover: EN76,66,67,etc…back to EN44

                             (50Mhz-1.2Ghz)

K9MU – Running at W0AIH/W0UC chalet (50 Mhz-10Ghz)

N9TTX – Portable in EN43gm as N9TTX/0 (50, 144, 222, 432, 1296)

 Item #5:  K9CVC Field Day Plans:

·         We are working on securing the same site that we had from last year at the Epiphany Church field across from Menards West.  We will be using the club call this year for Field Day. The following have expressed interest and their time.  Any others would be appreciated if even part time. For example Bob would like a second operator to help with the VHF “Winnie” stations.  We are planning on setting up on Friday afternoon/evening and fine-tuning on Saturday instead of rushing on Saturday.  N9TTX will be there Friday overnight to guard the area.

·         KB9PJL – Bob – VHF+ Full time.  6-meters and up.  He is bringing the Winnebago and his equipment to include Ghz, Satellite, and SSTV.

·         N9TTX – Dave – Low/high bands SSB/CW – Full time (3-4 HF rigs, towers/antennas/tent)

·         K9AIH – Darrell – 20 meters/high band SSB – full time (TS-2000, A-4 tribander)

·         W9CDL – Chris – 15 meter/ high band SSB – Full time (FT-857/towers)

·         KC9FVS – Mary – 10 Meter/High band SSB – Part/full time (Portable Garage to operate from

·         K9MU – Justin – Any band SSB/CW – part time

·         N9ISN – Al – Use of his generator again this year.  Thank you.

·         KB9TLV – John – Part time

·         N0AKC – Charlie – Possible Part time…depends on schedule.

·         Anyone else interested in operating or helping out as logger or has equipment that could be used, please contact N9TTX or W9CDL.

 Item #6:  KB9TLV’s tower

·         Plans for the Saturday before Mother’s Day to erect the tower/antennas. (May 7th)  The concrete will be poured and set by this time, and will be a tilt-up system. 

·         Basically everyone present at the meeting was willing to come and help.  Email to coordinate the effort and driving arrangements.

 Item #7:  Windmill tower

·         Brackets/dimensions and repair/construction of said brackets still need to be organized.  The new platform is up at the top.  With time schedules and such, the project may not be up in time for June, but hopefully this summer we will be able to get the 144-1296 stuff on the tower.

 Item #8:  N0EDV’s 70 cm beacon project

·         Scott has a bunch of 70-cm beacon transmitters he is willing to program for the club to id the callsign and such for propagation studies.  He needs help with getting authorization from his employer to utilize the tower space.  We have as a club offered to help him out by working up a letter from the club to his employer explaining the propagation studies benefit and self containment of the said beacons (solar power).

 Item #9:  Aurora

·         Who is going and driving arrangements:  KB9PJL, W9CDL and N9TTX will have vehicles...get a hold of them if you haven’t already if you need a ride.

 Item #10:  Treasurer’s report

·         Nothing much here as we don’t have dues.  As far as a club order to DEMI, it fell through as they changed club discount policies on some equipment, therefore nothing was ordered.  Al has said that it may be possible for us and the Badger Contesters to go together for some orders, with some $$$ going back into the clubs.

 Item #11:  Email addresses and membership forms

·         For those that filed one of these out thanks.  For those that have not, I am sending you one.  Please fill this out and return it to me please.  This is just an information sheet essentially compiling the members of the club with their interests, addresses etc….  This is only for in club use and other than the Name, Address, Call, and ARRL member information, will not go outside the club files.  The four mentioned pieces of information are needed by the ARRL for our affiliation and for contest involvement requirements.  The other optional information is self-explanatory.  Please return the info.  Thanks.

 Item #12:  W0AIH farm help:

·         Justin (K9MU) has been the main mover with this and knows what is needed and when Paul may need help out there.  Contact him (K9MU) and let him know if you wish to help out whenever he and Paul are working out there.

 Item #13:  Dayton Plans

·         No one at the meeting is going…although we would all like to.

 Item #14:  Member cheat sheet:

·         I will be putting together a small cheat sheet for members with quick information access on it.

 Item #15:  Club members with extra Equipment:

·         An idea of having a list of extra equipment to be available.  For example, if someone is in need of a certain band or an antenna because of equipment problems or portability issues (Dxpedition type thing) etc…they can contact someone with that piece of equipment to use if it is available.

·         List to include what is available, and who has it…with contact information.

·         Please email a list to the club reflector or snail mail it to me (N9TTX) for filing. 

 Item #16:  Tailgate Hamfest – CVARC sponsored

·         The Chippewa Valley Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring a Tailgate/Hamfest at the Eagles Club in July.  Information is available on their website.

 Item #17:  Added info:

·         We are not in the Badger Contesters club circle anymore.  They have readjusted their area again.

 Item #18:  Charlie’s proposed new tower

·         Up in the air (pun intended).  Everything depends on various issues as to when he will be putting up a different tower to replace the main stack.  He will keep us posted on if it will happen this year or not.  Just be aware, he will need help when it comes time to tear down ad erect a new one.

 Item #19:  EME contest

·         If anyone is interested this fall, Charlie would like help in running the EME contest weekends again this year.  He got 4th place world wide as a multi-op station in 2004….CONGRATS!

 Item #20:  Coax

·         Between Bob (KB9PJL) and Scott (N0EDV) we should have available to us lengths of Superflex feedline from 3 to possibly 100 feet.  Contact them if you have a need.

 Meeting Adjourned at approximately 4 p.m. CDT.

 Antenna Party Packed up about 9:30 p.m. CDT