Meeting Minutes - 5 January 2012

Attendance

Attending Members:

AD7IW	Tim Bailey
K7KLE	Kirk Eimers
W7LCC	David McQuade
KB7BVR	Kermit Peterson
KF7JPJ	Bob Renn
N7IBC	Larry Stokes
KE7KQE	Martin Tushkowski
W7CIA	Ray Montagne
W7HXU	Leonard Crogh

Agenda Items

1. Membership Renewals:
   • Membership renewals were submitted to the treasurer.
   • Members wishing to renew their membership can use the on-line form and submit the form and fees by mail to CIARC, c/o Martin Tushkowski (KE7KQE), P.O. BOX 542, New Meadows, ID 83654.
2. Elections:
   • Martin Tushkowski carried the proxy for Peter Lakomski (KE7TQV)
   • Elections were completed with the results as follows:
     • President: Martin Tushkowski - KE7KQE
     • Treasurer: Bob Renn - KF7JPJ
     • Secretary / Director: Ray Montagne - W7CIA
3. Treasurer:
   • Reimbursement of $13 to Martin Tushkowski (KE7KQE) to fill Hinson Power Sports' Polaris RZR with gasoline after removing the 2-meter repeater from No Business Mountain was approved by the membership.
   • Kirk Eimers (K7KLE) indicated that the $50 reimbursement check to Kermit, which was used to provide a gift certificate to Dave Marquart (W7VT) in thanks for his service to CIARC in maintaining the repeater equipement, had not cleared the bank. Kermit to verify that the check was cashed.
4. 2-Meter Repeater:
   • The 2-meter repeater was removed from No Business Mountain on January 4, 2012 in order to prepare the repeater for a move to another site. This task was completed with the generous help of Hinson Power Sports, with the loan of their tracked Polaris RZR.
   • A formal letter of thanks is to be sent to Hinson Power Sports (Martin?).
   • Planned work on the repeater includes:
     • Removal of the GE Master back-up radio. This radio will be tuned and placed into storage for future use.
     • Strip the cabinet, plug all holes and points of access for vermin and install through wall connectors. Bob Renn has offerred to paint the cabinet.
     • Re-tune the duplexers.
     • Evaluate the Tait repeater, in combination with the Duplexers and single port isolator for de-sense. If de-sense is discovered, the extra band-pass and band-reject bottles will be tuned and installed between the duplexer and Tait radio to improve rejection of the transmitted signal on the receiver frequency.
     • Evaluate the audio frequency response through the new repeater controller and apply any necessary filter modifications to attain proper audio response (the audio through the repeater should sound the same as listening to a radio directly through a non-repeated signal path).
     • Install a 70-cm transceiver on the remote base port on the repeater controller. This radio will be set-up to communicate to the the 70-cm repeater located on Mt. Brundage. The controller will be set to not generate a squelch tail on this transmitter, allowing the squelch tail timing to be determined solely by the 70-cm repeater. Installation of this radio will effectively link the 2-meter repeater to the 70-cm repeater and provided for expanded coverage simply by changing channels (bands) when moving out of coverage from one repeater and into coverage of the other.
     • Kirk Eimers (K7KLE) indicated that Dave Eaton is ready to talk with CIARC regarding the move of the 2-meter repeater to the new facility across the draw to the west of the previous location on No Business Mountain (i.e. between No Business Mountain and the FAA site where the Donnelly VOR is located). Ray Montagne (W7CIA) to call Dave Eaton to discuss details of the repeater installation (equipement, antennas, configuration).
5. Winter Carnival:
   • Volunteers are needed to provide communication services for this event. The date for this event is unverified due to the lack of snow. Those interested in volunteering should contact Martin Tushkowski (KE7KQE) to be listed for future contact.
6. Rotating Net Control:
   • Martin would like volunteers to run the net on 147.020 on a shared basis.
   • Net Control Procedures were discussed and it was agreed that a boiler-plate be generated for handling the NET to ensure consistent operation. Boiler-plate items that were discussed included:
     • QST
     • Net pre-amble
     • Call for check-ins
     • Traffic round table
   • Members interested in hosting the NET should contact Martin Tushkowski (KE7KQE).
   • Implementation of the rotating NET control is being deferred while the 2-meter repeater is out of service.
7. Tim Bailey - AD7IW:
   • Idaho ARES
     • Tim provided a presentation on Idaho ARES. The discussion topics included ARES registration, training and certification.
     • Registration can be performed on-line at idaho-arrl.org.
     • The ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication Courses book can be purchased from the ARRL here.
     • On-line courses, affiliated with FEMA, are available (Tim - can you please provide the web page address?).
     • ARES certification examinations can be conducted in the field (possibly in conjunction with a club meeting). Volunteer Examiners can be certified to conduct ARES field examinations.
     • The Idaho Section - District 3 ARES NET is held on the K7ZZL repeater, operating on a frequency of 443.300 MHz with a CTCSS of 110.9 Hz. The NET is held on Monday Evenings at 8:30 PM local time.
     • Tim requests that all interested Amateurs go on-line at idaho-arrl.org and register by providing your personal contact information and station capabilities.

     • AMENDED 10 JANUARY 2012 TO ADD FEMA INFORMATION

       FEMA training is available here. The required courses for the ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001) are:
       • IS-100.b (ICS-100) Introduction to Incident Command System
       • IS-700.a National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction
       Recommended optional courses include:
       • IS-200.b (ICS-200) ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
       • IS-250 Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF 15) External Affairs: A New Approach to Emergency Communication and Information Distribution
       • IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management