The CRES Amateur Radio Club met at the New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library on 10 December 2013. The following members and guests were present: K8AX Dave Brown - Vice President W3CRZ Bob Cartwright - Treasurer KD8ZG Art Grandle - VE Liaison K8RSP Dave Woolf - Past President, Repeater Trustee N8WL Steve Katz WA8LBZ Al Mecozzi K8TX Dan Merrick KD8LUW Duane Vanone K8ON David Jeffords KC8HIH Tricia Kovacs K8NQ Weldon Mathews KD8DZ Mike Mickelson WB8ABE Philip Wilcox N9CX Bill Erwin KD8OQA Martin Hohl W8NFT Doug Gibbs WD8EBS Mike Stansbery KD8RTP John Buck N4DLR George Foy KC8JPM Dennis Brewster Club president K8LJ could not attend the meeting due to a last minute family emergency, so former president N9CX stepped up and conducted the business part of the meeting. Also, club secretary KD8WK was not able to attend the meeting, so K8AX performed the secretary duties. The business part of the meeting started promptly at 7 pm. There were no comments or corrections made to the October meeting minutes that are posted on the web. W3CRZ reported the club has $8448.15 in the bank. The largest expense over the past two months was for new antennas and associated materials for fixing/updating the club's 2 meter repeater antenna. W3CRZ also reported that the new Yahoo email list has 55 or 56 members. KD8ZG reported on a sad story about the last VE test session held on the previous Saturday, 7 December 2013. There were 7 VEs present and no candidates! This session was communicated to the ARRL on 31 October and Art was told it would be registered in 1 to 2 weeks. That did not occur. This along with the poor weather conditions on 7 December may have both contributed to no candidates showing up for the session. Art was very disappointed and discouraged with this. N8WL said he would forward Art's experience to his contacts at the ARRL. For the April VE test session, Art called for people to spread the word and for K8RSP to put an announcement on the repeater advertising the session. Bill Neill who is currently in Florida may be interested in giving three preparation classes before the April test session. The issue of our club giving a test preparation class was brought up with very little discussion. On a positive note, the 7 December test session had no test failures and the 7 VEs had a nice get together. K8RSP next spoke about the repeater update work. Before Dave could speak, the club members gave him a round of applause for his thorough planning and behind the scene work in the preparation for both lowering and raising the repeater antenna on top of the Mt Carmel Health building on East Broad St. Dave reported that the repeater performance had deteriorated as many had noted. An SWR measurement at the repeater output was 4:1. Dave reported on and showed pictures of a loose bend between a radiating and phasing element in the 2 meter collinear antenna. Also, the 42 ft tower which had been up since 1978 looked bad with a lot of surface rust and a few broken rivets. The update work included a new 2 meter collinear antenna, a new 440 mHz link antenna which was also raised about 20 ft above its previous position, new guy wires, and tower work that included painting and rivet repair. The current amplifier is putting out about 90 watts and we have 35 to 40 watts at the base of the antenna. This 3 dB+ loss is in the duplexer and coax feed line. Dave reported that the duplexer could use an update in its tuning. Several members reported a significant performance improvement in the repeater after this work had been completed. Pictures of the new antenna installation were shown. A team of about 10 folks were needed in both lowering and raising the tower. All who helped with this project were recognized and thanked for their participation. Election of club officers for 2014: The existing officers had agreed to continue one more year in their current positions, but were open for anyone else interested in a position. Nominations were called for, but none were received. N8WL moved that the current slate of officers continue. This was seconded by both KD8OQA and WA8LBZ. All present were in favor. The elected officers for 2014 are: President K8LJ Bob Kenyon Vice President K8AX Dave Brown Secretary KD8WK Rob Stampfli Treasurer W3CRZ Bob Cartwright The business part of the meeting was followed by a two part program: W3CRZ reported on W8ZPF's participation in the Ohio State Parks On The Air event held at Buckeye State Park. Pictures of the antennas used and those participating were shown. 50 Ohio State Parks were contacted yielding a score of 6650 points. Last year's score of 8507 points was the club's best performance in several years of operating this event. Bob also reported that 10 club members operated the CQWE contest this year and that KD8ZG had the top CB score. N8WL and K8AX then gave a presentation on the formation of the QRP Special Interest Group (SIG) within the CRES ARC. First, a very brief history of QRP was given. Then 5 different QRP field operation events, including the above mentioned Ohio State Parks On The Air event, were described with pictures. This also included our sponsoring a club booth at QRP Amateur Radio Club International (ARCI) "club night" held on Friday evening, the first Day of the Dayton Hamvention. QRP ARCI is an international QRP club that promotes construction and operation of low powered ham gear. It has approximately 15,000 members, 6 of which are CRES ARC members. Following this presentation, some low power equipment provided by N8WL, WB8ABE and K8AX was displayed in a show and tell style. K8AX announced that, starting in January, the library has a new policy concerning meeting times. The library closes at 9 PM and we have scheduled our meeting times to go until 10 PM, one hour beyond closing. With the new policy, organizations must pay for the additional time used after the 9 PM library closing. Moreover, this time must be scheduled and paid for at least two weeks before the meeting date. Consequently, except for special circumstances, we will not schedule any time after 9 PM for our meetings, and we must vacate the library by 9 PM. The above show and tell event concluded at 8:40 PM and we were all out of the library just a few minutes after 9 PM. Respectfully submitted, Dave Brown, K8AX CRES ARC acting secretary