The CRES Amateur Radio Club held its second general membership meeting of the year on Thursday, 16 April 2009, at the New Albany library. The following members and guests were in attendance: Bill Erwin / N9CX (President) Bob Kenyon / K8LJ (Vice President) Rob Stampfli / KD8WK (Secretary) Bob Cartwright / W3CRZ (Treasurer) Tate Antrim / KD8HJA (Internet Manager) Dave Woolf / K8RSP (Station Trustee) Art Grandle / KD8ZG (VE Liaison) Al Mecozzi / WA8LBZ Dave Brown / K8AX Mike Mickelson / KD8DZ Steven Katz / N8WL Constance Barsky / WD8ODC Fred Saas / WA8PGE Mike Stansbery / WD8EBS George Foy / N4DLR Andy Elliott / K8LE Doug Gibbs / W8NFT David Jeffords / K8ON Tricia Kovacs / KC8HIH Duane Vanone / Guest The meeting was called to order by President Bill Erwin at 7:00 PM. Duane Vanone, a friend of Dave Brown's who is interested in ham radio, was introduced as a guest. The minutes from the February meeting were approved. Bob Cartwright gave the Treasurer's report: $ 7,573.87 in Telhio CDs $ 921.41 in Telhio Share Savings $ 568.14 in Telhio Share Draft Checking $ 21.65 in our cash account ---------- $ 9,085.07 Total Dave Woolf reported that the repeater was operating A-OK. Art Grandle reported that we tested 16 candidates at our last VE session, with 14 walking out with a new license or upgrade. Two passed all three exam elements at this sitting, coming in with nothing and leaving with an Extra class license. One applicant was 11 years old. One of our club members, Jim Jennessee / KD8UT, brought several applicants from a class he was teaching in Howard, Ohio. He also used the opportunity to upgrade to Extra class himself. Congratulations, Jim! Another applicant, Andrei Cretu, who obtained a US ham license (AC8DP) at our exam session, chose to join our club under our new program that extends a free year's membership to non-members who obtain a license or upgrade at one of our sessions. Welcome, Andrei! Art also reported that the Columbus Ham-O-Rama hamfest will take place on Saturday, August 1st. We will be giving ham radio exams at the hamfest as usual. However, the organizers will only permit us ten free admissions to the hamfest this year. After that, VEs will be asked to pay. (Last year, it appears that several VEs unrelated to our team got into the hamfest for free by flashing their badges.) Our VE team will work out the logistics later. Steven Katz encouraged more people to join us on Sunday evenings for our club roundtable at 9 PM on 146.67. He suggested we also examine possibly setting up an HF roundtable sometime as well. Bill next discussed Field Day issues: We have thus far found no one who is willing to assume the Contest Coordinator role, so Bill proposed he take over the responsibilities for Field Day, mainly serving in a coordination role. He indicated he would like to have a Chair for Phone and a Chair for CW operations. These roles would be responsible for procuring a suitable rig and logging computers, erecting the antennas, assigning time slots for people to operate, etc. They could, of course, further delegate these individual responsibilities. Bob Cartwright, our former CC, said that publicity was the hardest part of the job. Tricia Kovacs suggested adding a coordinator for logging. Art suggested possible coordinators for electric power, food, and publicity, and Steve suggested one for Bonus Points, as well managed Field Day bonus points can often handily increase a club's final score. A suggestion was made that we add a QRP station, but this was tabled since it was thought it would mean the entire event would have to operate QRP, although it might be possible to provide such a station by operating it as a separate entity under a different call if someone wanted to assume the responsibility for this. Bill stated if no one stepped forward to handle some aspect of the event, he would improvise. For instance, if no one agrees to coordinate the food, he would ask folks to bring their own. He also said that any recommendations or suggestions for a different site for next year should be made early -- at least this year -- so that the site could be visited and a decision made with plenty of lead time. The club received a complimentary free ticket to the upcoming Athens hamfest on April 26th. Fred Saas was the only one to express interest in the ticket, so it was given to him. The meeting was adjourned at 7:33 PM, after which Al Mecozzi gave a short talk on the various methods by which one could measure RF power. Following the presentation, he, Bob Kenyon, Dave Brown, and Dave Woolf then conducted and recorded measurements and errors on the various watt-meters club-members brought in for testing. Respectfully submitted, Rob Stampfli / KD8WK CRES-ARC Secretary