Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters
1st real official meeting.
Date:
March 27th, 2004
Meeting
place: Burger King at the Westridge
Center, Eau Claire
Time:
8:00 am, CST
Members Present:
N9TTX
David Aho
KB9LVK
Darrell Schreiner
KB9PJL
Robert
Rohrssen
KB9QGL
Wanda Rohrssen
N0AKC
Charlie Betz
W9RAY
Ray
Johnson
Item #1:
Club Name
·
The club name of “Chippewa
Valley VHF Contesters” was motioned and seconded with unanimous acceptance by
the members present.
Item #2:
Reading and approving the constitution and bylaws
·
The rough draft of the constitution and bylaws was read
section by section, discussed, amended, deleted, or added as warranted.
The final draft will be sent out to the members when the final draft is
completed.
Item #3:
Proposed club call signs
·
A few call signs were discussed and listed in order of
preference for when it comes time to submit a vanity call application.
The following call signs were proposed and at this time are apparently
available for issue:
·
1st WI9D
·
2nd K9CMM
·
3rd NV9V
·
4th WI9CV
ßnot sure if available yet
·
Any other call signs that one likes and finds that they are
available, please send an email through the club reflector.
When it is time to submit a vanity call to the ARRL for the club call, a
final vote will be taken and we will send in the call list in order of
preference.
Item # 4:
Member Roster
·
The members currently in the roster sheet were read, and
checked for omissions. Other hams
that might have an interest in joining were noted and will be contacted.
·
The following are current members (with positions held as
noted) and ARRL membership noted if known:
·
N9TTX
David Aho
Secretary ARRL
Member
·
KB9LVK
Darrell Schreiner
ARRL
Member
·
K9MU
Justin Glasener
ARRL
Member
·
KB9PJL
Robert Rohrssen
Vice-President
ARRL Member
·
N0AKC
Charlie Betz
President
ARRL Member
·
KB9TLV
John McDonald
ARRL Member
·
W9RAY
Ray Johnson
ARRL Member
·
KB9POI
Randy Westerberg
ARRL Member
·
N9ISN
Allan Schlaugat
Treasurer ARRL
Member
·
K9BZ
Brad Zuehlke
ARRL Member
·
KB9TYC
Paul Brooten
ARRL Member
·
KA9OMY
Steve Bluem
ARRL Member
·
KA9GNG
Bill Noble
·
N9CIQ
Jay Grokowski
ARRL Member
·
N9RVV
Marvin Opitz
???
·
KB9QGL
Wanda Rohrssen
ARRL
Member
·
The following are possible members.
They will be added if they are
contacted and interested:
·
N9XMU
Dale McGraw
·
N9LTJ
Mark Olson
·
WB9WKT
Rod Anders
Item #5:
“Contest Site” plans
etc…
·
For those that are out of the loop, the “contest site”
is basically a location in EN43 where I (N9TTX) have contested out of for the
June and part of the September VHF contests this last year.
It is located at Charlie’s in-laws old farm, and is in a very nice
elevated and quiet area. The
discussion on this has been to fix an old windmill tower and to put up a stack
of VHF antennas (2-meters through 1296 MHz) in a permanent installation for the
ease if the ham who wants to get on the air there.
Detailed info can be had by contacting Charlie (as it is at his in-laws)
or by contacting me as I have contested there already.
·
The windmill needs to be fixed before any antennas go up.
This consists of a little metal work (I will get the dimensions and try
and get some fabrication done) to secure the top of the tower and to secure a
rotor plate. There is also some
woodwork to be done in making a new platform for the top of the tower. The old platform is rotted.
·
The antennas to be planned are as follows from high band to
low band:
·
1296 MHz: Mark
Brown has some M2 35 el. Antennas. We
are to be contacting him seeing if he can ship them here as he is on the Western
side of MN. We will be mounting one
of these on the tower. If we are
not able to get these antennas we will be most likely purchasing a like antenna
as we have had difficulty in constructing one that matches well.
·
902 MHz: The
antennas are either going to be a 45 element looper (needs two elements
replaced) or a 30-some el. Yagi if we can get it matched.
Either one will work well.
·
432 MHz: A 25
el. K1FO design yagi will be picked up at Aurora and will be used down there.
·
220 MHz: Plans
to make a 16 element. Materials
need to be acquired yet.
·
144 MHz: Pending
favorable tests at Aurora, my homebrew 14 element will be used.
KB9PJL also has an 11 or 13 element we may use also.
·
50 MHz: KB9PJL
has a modified 5 element Cushcraft. This
will be raised on a tilt base or some such tower by whoever goes out there.
This antenna will not be there permanently.
Possibly in the future we may do this, but the interaction of 6-meters
with 2-meters precludes the mounting on the same stack at this time.
·
Coax/hard-line/rotor are in the process of being lined up.
Item #6:
Antenna Party/Annual Meeting
·
The “Annual Meeting” Antenna party is being scheduled
for Saturday, April 17th at Charlie’s place. (Contact him for directions if you do not know how to find
his place.) Start time at 9:00 am.
HOPEFULLY the weather will be as nice as last year.
·
We will be building/modifying/testing various antennas.
If you have any in the works, bring them out, and we will get them
working.
Item #7:
Aurora 2004
·
Who is going? So
far, the members planning on attending are as follows:
·
N9TTX, KB9LVK, N0AKC, KB9PJL, W9RAY, K9MU
·
Any others please let your intentions be known via the
reflector. We will most likely be
taking multiple vehicles this year.
·
We will also be taking various antennas along to be tested.
They only test 2-meter and up. 6-meters
is not tested there. To those that
do not know, the tests are done with results measured in dBd not dBi for most
bands.
·
We were also discussing bringing along a card table to set
up a small swap table in case you would like to sell any items.
Aurora usually brings a small complement of tailgaters for a mini
swap-fest.
Item #8:
Contests: Which should we
use our club name for
·
As we as hams are affiliated or also members of various
clubs, we were discussing which contests we would be competing as a club in.
For example, I (N9TTX) am a member of NLRS and MWA.
As our club is basically VHF oriented, the HF contests that the MWA
competes in (see their page) will most likely stay MWA.
The VHF contests that offer club competition, on the other hand, will be
essentially ours for club orientation.
·
Jan VHF sweeps
·
WIQP basically
HF and above. Any band that is
allowed for contesting is accepted for contacts.
We may not make a dent in the West Allis club, but we could make a decent
showing if we all submit a score.
·
June VHF contest. Not
sure if this is a club competition, but if it is, claim it for Chippewa Valley
VHF Contesters.
·
Field Day
·
IARU DX championship….heck why not if a club competition.
·
August UHF contest
·
September VHF contest
·
EME contest…I have heard that a single yagi can make a
contact or two…*L* otherwise…GO Charlie!!!
·
Any other suggestions or discussion post via the reflector.
Item #9:
Club Logo
·
A club logo has been drawn, but not accepted as of yet.
Ray has a picture of it, (along with a picture of our meeting—Hope I
didn’t break the camera) and I will also scan it and send it via the reflector
for perusal. If anyone else has a logo idea, feel free to share it.
Item #10:
Membership applications
·
I will try and draw up a basic application form.
Otherwise, if you know someone that is interested in joining, have them
email me with the following information, and I will put them in the roster.
·
Email: n9ttx@yahoo.com
·
I need:
1.
Call Sign
2.
Name
3.
Street Address
4.
ARRL member or not
5.
Email address would be nice also
Item #11:
Club Reflector/webpage
·
Ray (W9RAY) has set up the reflector for the club, and it
seems to be working just great. Thanks
Ray.
·
Ray has also been nominated to do our webpage for us.
His is very professional looking.
·
For those who have not signed up on the Reflector,
the address is as follows:
CVVHF@w9ray.org
·
Also, to sign up for the reflector, the URL to go to is as
follows: http://w9ray.org/mailman/listinfo/cvvhf_w9ray.org
All you need to do is give an email address, your name if you want and
type in a password of your choosing, and you are in the reflector.
Item #12:
Shirts etc…
·
If anyone has any contacts into some basic silk-screening,
patches, etc…that we can put a logo and club name on, please get a price and
such. Shirts with the club stuff on
them, patches, or whatever. It need
not be right away, but eventually, it would be nice to have something like this.
Item #13:
Tower/feed-line projects
·
John (KB9TLV) is in need of some help in getting his tower
up and antennas in the air. We need
to get ahold of him and find out his schedule, and those willing to help out,
can plan accordingly.
·
It has been proposed by Paul (W0AIH), that if we wish we can
run a VHF contest out of “The Farm” if we help him sort and trace out
feed-lines for the VHF shack out there. This
is a nice club call opportunity (once we get it), with some good equipment on at
least 6 bands. Lets see when some
of us can get out there, and help him out.
Item #14:
Coax/hard-line
·
KB9PJL is talking with Two Way Communications in possibly
picking up some coax and hard-line from them.
Could be interesting.
Meeting Adjourned at 9:15am CST.