Daily Archives: Mar.2017

Monday Night 10 Meter SSB Net (March 27, 2017)

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Tonight we had 9 check-ins.

Upcoming Events:

1. DFMA membership meeting: April 2 at Bullock’s Restaurant

Check-ins:

1. NC4CX – Butch: Unable to check-in last week as he could not hear net control. Did listen to those that he could copy. Did not get on WPX at all this weekend. Listened but nothing new heard. Did work Ivory Coast before they left. Hope they confirm as it is needed. Did get Niger for an all time new one.
2. KZ1X – Steve: Using a different antenna tonight – a 10 meter squalo about 10’ off the ground. His usual antenna is under construction. Worked 12 contacts on WPX and now only 1 short for a SA prefix for Excellence Award.
3. KJ4UZU – Clint: Has rf audio issues with his FT897. Now using the Kenwood and all is fine. Did work a few countries in the WPX contest – about 11 contacts. One new one on 80 – Iceland and now looking for a confirmation. Also worked Western Sahara on 80 and looking for a confirmation. Still stuck at 90 confirmed. Worked Papua New Guinea on 40 from the mobile.
4. W4BOH – Wilson: Nothing new at the Wilson residence. Went to Peter’s over the weekend. Did some metal detecting today with his grandson. Got the Loudenboomer going. Found a power supply issue and also a filter choke issue. Replaced it with a choke from the Land of Magic inventory and now the high voltage is MUCH better. Going to write it up for the link. No new DX – Niger pileups were horrible. Listened Bangladesh – wonder if anyone worked them. Had a very enjoyable trip to the mountains but some rain on the way home.
5. KG4NNT – JR: Able to hear Bruce. Glad to be in the net tonight.
6. KA5ETS – Doug: Wilson came up a few S-Units due to turning his beam. Not going to be able to do much with Field Day this year. Got on 60 meters a few months ago and getting used to that. Running some JT65 around 5:00am. FCC may open more of 60 meters up for wider use. Awaiting their decision. Also now have a vertical for 80 meters with 4 radials. Have worked some Europe and Russian stations with JT65.
7. WA4PSC – Howie: Sorry to have missed the OCRA meeting last week. Been involved driving Sarah around but she is on the mend and actually drove her car the other day. Been working on lots of new projects for Dayton. Trying to get parts with long lead times reduced. Just got in from the machine shop – now eating dinner.
8. KU4GC – Dee: Missed most of the net tonight due to an OCRA Board Meeting. Heard Doug and Howie only. Not much to report. Worked Ukraine on 160 JT65. Also putting some time in on the Link proofreading. Enjoy The Egg and I breakfast.
9. N1LN – Bruce: Net Control

OCRA Board Meeting, February 27, 2017

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The minutes of the 2/27 meeting were approved unanimously at the 3/27 board meeting.

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The OCRA Board met on Monday, February 27th at Mike Carwile’s QTH. This was the first meeting since the 2017 elections, with new VP Karen Snyder KD4YJZ, new Secretary Joel Dunn KM4NOU, and new Board member Lad Carrington W4ORD attending as members.

Attendees: Dee Ramm KU4GC (Board Member), MK Ramm W4MKR (Board Member), Lad Carrington W4ORD (Board Member), Keith Stouter W1KES (Board Member), Mike Carwile KK4BPH (Board Member), Dan Eddleman KR4UB (Treasurer), Joel Dunn KM4NOU (Secretary), Dave Snyder W4SAR (President), Karen Snyder KD4YJZ (Vice President), and Mike North KK4EIB (Board Member).

The first order of business was the Officers reports.

Dan KR4UB reported that we had a total of 72 members with dues current and that we maintain an appropriate reserve balance in our accounts. Dan also explained how he managed Quicken record keeping for individual members, couple members, and family memberships. He then described the process of exporting the Quicken data to the new website database, and passed the presentation to Joel KM4NOU to show.

Joel KM4NOU gave a presentation of the website database, which is developed using the Participants Database plugin. We are developing the ability to allow members to maintain certain information themselves. Joel showed a new membership list page, which allows sorting and selection and is easier to read! Additionally, Joel and Dan both showed how easy it is to post to the website by an authorized user (member accounts need board approval), and Joel created an account for President Dave!

Michael KK4EIB gave a repeater update, and reported that the we have three of the four brackets needed for the repeater on UNC-CH Neurosciences, but still need to buy one for $120. He also has Autocad drawings which will be annotated to show the hardware for the OCRA installation. Howie Hoyt WA4PSC who has previously done an installation on campus, showed the drawings he prepared that were accepted by UNC-CH.

We confirmed that we would have two tables at RarsFest, and Dee KU4GC will make sure that we have this arranged. Dave W4SAR said that he has an ICOM 706 for the table (that was a donation some years back to OCRA) and Dee said he has another 706 for the table. We need to ensure that the membership at large knows that we have these tables for displaying merchandise. We will also be represented at Durhamfest.

Lad W4ORD brought up a concern that if the membership votes to participate in events, that they should understand that this comes with a commitment to volunteer. He asked the officers to stress this when the club committed to volunteer activities.

We had preliminary discussions about Field Day. Dee KU4GC will no longer be coordinating food plans, but he will share the 10-15 years of historical information that he has. Dave W4SAR said that it was important to get a food committee started at the next member meeting, to allow sufficient time for planning. John Boone KM4MDR has already agreed to plan the Pot Luck dinner.

We adjourned at 8:15PM