March 2023 Meeting Minutes

Call to order

A meeting of Bay Area Amateur Radio Club was held on March 9th, 2023, at the Salvation Army building, Bay City, MI. Board members in attendance: president Steve Covieo (ke8nko), Dusty Trisch (k1dlt), and secretary Bill Baylis (ke8nkn). The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm. 

Reports

Treasurer’s report: current checking account balance was given.

Secretary’s report: notes from February’s meeting were read into record. A motion was made to accept these notes. The motion was seconded, and passed.

Old Business

There was no old business.

New Business

President informed members that the IRS had accepted our request for 501(c) 3 status change.  He stated he would inform the CPA and Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) of this change. Steve said the board would begin the process of developing grant requests for future donations.

President gave an update on the current club Net and talked about the importance of its continued support. Several topics were suggested for future Nets. These included 1st Field Day, Best antenna, 1st licensed, 1st contact, and most memorable contact. Steve (ke8tsj) will be Net Controller on March 14th.  Club members Dusty and Gary (wb8icu) have volunteered to be Elmer’s for the Net.

Repeater council member Ben (ke8mwn) gave an update on the 36 repeater.  The system is being updated to accept Wires X (Fusion) digital mode. Cables are needed to complete this installation. A motion was made to cover the cost of the cables and reimburse Ben for that purchase; the motion was seconded, and passed.

Presentations

Steve and Ben gave a presentation on three different types of digital modes, P-25, DMR, and Fusion. They also brought in several different H.T. and discussed the pros and cons of each one. If members are interested in learning how to program their H.T., contact either Steve or Ben.

Rob (kc8sdl) gave a presentation on a receiving component that was part of a “Command Set”. These sets were used by the military during WWII. The sets were later discarded at the end of the world. These units were cheap to purchase and easy to convert over to usable Ham radio sets. 

Gary gave a presentation on how to build a ladder line antenna with simple zip strips, wire and tubing.

Announcements 

Michigan QSO Party will be held on Saturday, April 15th. Additional information can be found on the Mad River Radio Clubs website: www.miqp.org 

Gary will be giving a presentation on CW at next month’s meeting.   

Adjournment

The president made a motion to adjourn, motion was seconded by Dean (kc8bgk), and motion passed, meeting ended at 8:20 pm. There were 12 members and 2 guests in attendance. 

William C. Baylis
SecretaryDate of approval