Bug Refurb – Another Piece from the Old Novice Station

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from Bruce, N1LN

Another piece of the old novice station finished today.   The bug is one that my long ago SK uncle, W2NAD, gave me after I first got my ticket.  Since then I modified it into a paddle to use with a keyer I built from the ARRL book, Understanding Amateur Radio.

Now about 56 years later, it is a bug again!

[c] [y] photo by N1LN, OCRA Inc

I lost the original weights so I made one out of a large galvanized bolt.   I cut the head off with a hack saw, drilled it / tapped it and DONE!

[c] [y] photo by N1LN, OCRA Inc

He also let me borrow his HQ-129X, which is why I purchased one to go with my DX60 / HG10 combo.

 

OCRA Board Meeting Minutes – April 7th, 2020

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Meeting Held by Video Conference

Present:

  • Dave W4SAR
  • Karen KD4YJZ
  • Bill N8BR
  • Nick KA1HPM
  • Dee KU4GC
  • Dan KR4UB
  • Wilson W4BOH

Agenda for Monday April 13th Over-the-Air Club Meeting

  • Monday’s Meeting will take place on the repeater—it will provide membership an opportunity to communicate in a round table discussion. To make it work will require a well-controlled management. Dave will direct the meeting.
  • Dan will review membership. There are now 72 members in the club. 20 are new. A high number need to pay dues, but these folks will not be identified to the club in an open meeting. However, our website will have a corrected current list of paid up members.
  • Nick will comment on the activities of Chatham Auxcom. That organization is on standby with a 48 hour notification of activities. They are not holding meetings at the EOC due to Covid-19 social gathering restrictions.

Following Dan’s enquiry Dee announced that DurHamFest for this year has been cancelled. Durham schools are closed for the rest of the current school year.

Dave announced that VEC duties with exams are on hold for now. This is a good thing since the exam team is in general composed of older folks who are most severely affected by the virus. ARRL is talking about the use of remote testing but in the mean time we will follow local regulations that currently govern meeting location and size of meetings.

A discussion of the current status of field day ensued. As of now the regulations are the same as they were last year, and will remain so until the ARRL makes a final decision. Dave believes the event will likely be cancelled. Discussion ensued concerning the potential problems involved with activities such as decontamination of mikes, keys and operating positions for participating stations as well as maintenance of social distancing issues. Dan will solicit comments on field day from the club.

Dan suggested that he has thoroughly enjoyed the few events that the club has presented by video conferencing, and suggested that we consider using more of this technology to both promote our club to potential new members as well as to better serve existing ones. His comments catalyzed considerable enthusiasm among the group. Specific suggestions that arose from the discussion included using this technology to:

  1. Recruit new club members
  2. Broaden participation at meetings by members living too far away to permit regular attendance
  3. Engage speakers from other clubs and relevant organizations to give presentations at our meetings without asking them to travel long distances.
  4. To present our club members with opportunities to more effectively collaborate with their counterparts in contesting, dxing, operating, public service and other important areas of our hobby.

The foregoing discussions culminated in the unanimous decision by this committee to present the membership with a motion to:

“Empower Dan, KR4UB, our website administrator,

  1. to research the basic strategies our club should use in order to most  effectively interface its mission with current best practice technologies for video conferencing.
  2. supervise the allocation of club funds to acquire the equipment, supplies, and subscriptions needed for the club to be able to utilize these technologies”.

Bill, N8BR – Club Secretary

OCRA Monthly Meeting – Monday April 13th @ 7:30pm via the 442.150 Repeater. NO Meeting @ Efland Baha’i Center

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As the Efland Baha’i Center remains closed due to the State and County directives that will not permit gatherings, we will hold our monthly OCRA meeting over the air on the W4UNC repeater (442.150+, 131.8 PL). This will be via a directed net, similar in format to the AUXCOMM/ARES nets held on Saturday mornings, I as club president who usually runs the meetings, will act as net control, with someone else as a back up. We will commence this net at 7:30 pm on Monday, April 13.

When checking in, give your call sign and name only, I ask that we dispense with the “what I’ve done with ham radio lately comments” we usually do with introductions, we’ll have rag chew opportunities later in the net.

After all attendees are checked in, we will have brief officer’s reports. We will have brief pauses for any members to make queries or give brief comments, via the net control.

Our agenda at this time is:

AUXCOMM/ARES

Volunteer Exams

Field Day

Any other items?

There will be a pause after each agenda item, again for any member queries or comments, going through the net control.

Following the completion of the agenda, we will have a roll call checkout, as we do with the Saturday nets, where members who wish to continue a rag chew are welcome to do so.

Hope to talk to many of you there, stay safe all!

73,

Dave Snyder, W4SAR