January 2011 Board Meeting

Prehn Dental Office 2^nd Floor Meeting Room, Wausau

The meeting was called to order at 19:13 CST by President KC9NW. 

Secretary’s Report: K9DB

• Printed copies of the minutes of the meeting of 15 November were distributed.

Note: There was no board meeting in December 2010.

The minutes were accepted as presented by consensus.

Treasurer’s Report: N9ATQ

• Balance as of the meeting is $738.14.
• The post office box rental, approximately $60 has been paid.
• The Brighton annual lease fee to the Wisconsin ECB of $120.00 is due.

The report was accepted as presented by consensus.

Old Business

Brighton Repeater

• KC9NW – The repeater is running with no new issues.

Coloma Repeater

• KC9NW – The repeater is running with no new issues. K9QM reported that he can work into it on two meters from his residence.

146.22/.82 Repeater

• KC9NW - No current issues.
• No progress on the controller installation. KC9NW reports that he may be able to make progress in the next month.

WX9W Repeater at Wyeville

• No report as WX9W was not present.

ARES Requests

• KC9NW – From the annual meeting, Wisconsin ARES NE District EC Dave Leverson N9KNY requested RMRA assistance in the establishment of digital links in the district and surrounding counties. There has been no communication with Dave since then, so no further discussion was held.

New Business

Silent Keys

• Since the November board meeting, the following Amateurs, who at some time had been members of the RMRA have become Silent Keys:

Lew Sheerar K9JPS – “The Father of the RMRA”

Richard “Doc” Roberts K9BX

Roger Cannon K9BCB

Their Silent Key pages have been posted on the website since early December.

K9JPS Memorial Callsign

• It was decided previously that upon the death of K9JPS, the RMRA would apply for his callsign as a memorial call.
• New FCC rules that will go into effect on February 15^th 2011 will limit clubs to one vanity callsign, which includes memorial calls. Therefore it was decided by consensus to apply for a sequential callsign and then change it to K9JPS before the deadline and hope that it will be grandfathered.

• K9DB will secure a letter of permission from Lew’s granddaughter Dagna Sheerar.
• KC9LFG will apply for a sequential callsign from the FCC.

W9BCC Callsign

• W9BCC license will expire this fall. Renewal cannot be submitted until 90 days before expiration. Trustee KC9NW will mark this date on his calendar.

Newsletter

• K9DB suggested the club publish a quarterly newsletter in pdf form for e-mail distribution. He said this would not only serve as a conduit for keeping members informed, but it would also aid in maintaining the e-mail list.
• K9DB will assemble a prototype edition for the next meeting.

D-STAR/Internet

• K9PT has installed pair of Mirage amplifiers on the UHF and VHF D-STAR systems.
• K9PT reported that he has been exploring alternatives of getting internet access back to Rib Mountain. He anticipates running WI-FI or WI-MAX internet from his QTH to an access point on Rib Mountain.

Topics from the Floor

Meeting adjourned  20:59 CST.

Respectfully Submitted,

Paul Nelles K9DB

Secretary