President’s Report
All,
As summer winds down, it means that our club’s main event of the year is just around the corner. Midwest Superfest 2022 is set for Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18th at the East Peoria Event Center, 4200 Washington Road. We look forward to seeing you next month, and hope to sign you up as a volunteer for an hour or two to make this one of the best hamfests in the area.
Volunteers make the difference: Putting on a hamfest is a major undertaking for any organization. Volunteers are the backbone of this event. We appreciate the long hours they put in not only on the weekend of the event, but in the planning and logistics process. They give of their time and purchase their own tickets to insure our success. We can’t thank them enough for their time and effort. To show our appreciation, all Superfest volunteers will get a free tee shirt. Volunteer sign up sheets will be available on line soon, but to make sure you get yours, please send you name and shirt size to me ASAP: n9wx.ares@gmail.com
Likewise, a special thanks to our Board of Directors, also volunteers, who oversee ther club’s operations, from Superfest, to Field Day, to educational and informative meetings, to license examinations and the day to day operations of our repeaters. Volunteers make the difference.
Repeaters: D-Star, Fusion and EchoLink require internet connectivity. We had an issue with our internet over the summer that was recently resolved. We are happy to report that EchoLink and D-Star are fully functional. Full Fusion operation will be coming soon.
Our repeaters are used a lot, and we want to make sure that they stay on the air to provide reliable service to the area. We made a couple of important decisions in order to insure our repeaters are there for you. We had hoped to move our repeaters this summer in order to improve service. To do it properly, we have to use experienced, insured tower climbers. Unfortunately, their availability is limited, and their prices are higher than we anticipated, so the Board decided to postpone this project for the time being. Because we rent tower space for each of our repeater antennas, we evaluated repeater usage and found that of our 2 D-Star repeaters, the UHF repeater had very little use, so we shut it down. This will reduce or total tower rent costs. The VHF D-Star repeater on 145.1050 will remain on the air.
I realize that we have talked about a lot of change here. Sometimes life is about change, and in this case it is positive change that will keep the Peoria Area Amateur Radio Club alive and well.
73,
Justin Flick, N9WX
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Meeting Minutes: Board of Directors
In attendance: Justin, Adam, Darren, Rob, Deb, Matt
7:07 p.m. July 7, 2022: meeting begins
Deb makes a motion to approve July Band Bits. Rob seconds. It
unanimously passes.
Darren bought 100 more stickers for the club.
TREASURER REPORT:
Savings: $235.31
Checking: $2,251.11 (had to pay Noize Communications,
equipment/liability insurance $723.38, Field Day $40.23, $12.04
refunded)
Money market: $8,395.27
Paypal: $147.14
SUPERFEST COMMITTEE:
- Deb picked up tickets last Friday and will invoice to John. Deb will
bring tickets to the regular membership meeting for July. Adam will
get Deb an updated copy of our membership list. People who aren’t at
the meeting will have tickets mailed to them or will meet up with them
later. Deb is also getting the raffle license signed and notarized. - We got the contract from Three Sisters Park and they’d like us to
pay the full deposit. Deb will ask if we can pay half of it now and
the other half after SuperFest ($650-700 each time) - For this year’s SuperFest, the A/C at our East Peoria location was
supposed to be fixed this summer. Deb will check on if it actually
happened. - Deb will also follow up on our food truck situation. We should have
permission, but will get it in writing. Scott was getting two food
trucks AND a coffee truck reserved. - Deb is working on getting our website opened for ticket sales and
will have it done by the end of the weekend.
REPEATER COMMITTEE:
- Justin is waiting on a climbing quote for our repeater tower move.
It’ll probably be around $4,000 for the job. - We’re still not able to get Echolink back up because we can’t get
access to the router that needs a firewall exception. - But we’re ready to move our D-Star machine to Proctor once we have
the tower climb completed. - What are we paying Noize Communications for? Not sure! Will try to
find out and see if that’s our obstacle with getting Echolink working
again. (Will also see if we need to remove the Noize antenna during
the tower work as well) - Matt picked up a used laptop to get Fusion/Wires-X going at the fire
station site.
OLD BUSINESS:
- Giant spool of coax was picked up from Neil and is being stored.
- Will check if we got registration taken care of…
Darren motions to finish, Deb seconds… meeting adjourns at 7:40 p.m.
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SuperFest
All club members have been mailed their tickets to buy or sell. If you do not receive your tickets by Friday August 5th, email Deb at WD9EB@arrl.net because either we don’t have an address listed for you or we don’t have you listed as paid for this year.
The next Superfest meeting will be on Thursday August 25th at 7:00pm. Location will be posted on our Facebook page.
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Peoria County ARES
– Photo by KD9DBQ
August 3, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
August 10, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
August 17, Monthly Meeting at the Bunker @ 7:00 PM CDT
For those who have never seen the Bunker, here is your chance. This is a cold war era facility now equipped with a variety of public service radios and antennas. Call or email Rich if you need info on how to get to the Bunker. The tour will focus on our gear as-well-as that used for weather spotting, with a shorter than normal presentation.
Please submit your Training Documentation form – bringing to the meeting is an option.
ARES website: http://www.peoriacountyares.org/
Rich Holtman, KD9ANU, Emergency Coordinator for Peoria County ARES
email: kd9anu@arrl.net
Winlink: kd9anu@winlink.org
Cell: 309-256-4272
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July Net Logs
7/3
KD9ERS KD9PXZ K9FIT NM0O KD9JXR N9NDF W9WGN KB9ATO KD9IVV KD9AER N9GUE KB9TNZ KD9STL WW9DLM KD9RYH K9UQF WD9EGV N9GZ N9WFT K9HJZ K9TNT Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
7/10
K9XJT KD9ANU W9JDP KB9ATO K9TNT N9NDF KD9IBC W9WGN KD9AER KD9JXR KD9IVV KD9PXZ AA9MK W9SEB N9WFT WF9E N9GUE K9UQF N9SJZ K9FIT NM0O KB9TNZ KT9TB KD9RYH KD9QQU KD9SZZ W9WTF KD9NYE KD9STL Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
7/17
KD9ANU K9XJT W9JDP K9RCS W9WGN N9NDF W8NWG KD9JXR N9WFT NM0O W9SEB KD9IBC WW9DLM KD9AER N9GUE K9UQF KD9ERS WF9E K9HJZ KD9RYH KD9PXZ KB9TNZ KD9STL KB9ATO K9TNT Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
7/24
K9XJT KD9ERS W9JDP K9TNT W9TTX NM0O N9NDF KD9IBC KD9IVV W8NWG KD9PXZ K9RCS KD9AER W9WGN N9WFT KD9QQU N9GUE KD9JXR KD9MPI KT9TB K9UQF WD9EB KD9RYH KB9TNZ KB9ATO K9HJZ N0XOH Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
7/31
WD9EB KD9ANU NA9LE W9WTF KD9ERS N9GUE KC9IH KD9IBC N9NDF WF9E KD9JXR K9RCS W9WGN KD9IVV W8NWG KD9PXZ N9WFT KB9ATO K9HJZ KD9AER KD9QQU KD9RYH KD9NYE KB9TNZ K9UQF KD9STL KT9TB Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
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August Club Events
August 3 – 7:00 pm: ARES Net – 146.075 Repeater
August 4 – Board of Directors Meeting – Zoom
August 10 – ARES Net – 146.075 Repeater
August 11 – Membership Meeting – Satellite Communication using the Arrow antenna – Bartonville American Legion.
August 17 – 7:00 p.m. ARES Meeting at the Bunker
August 20 – FCC License Testing: Morton Knights of Columbus, 616 W. David Street, Morton, IL. FRN Required. Bring two forms of identification and a copy of your license (if upgrading). Testing Fee: $15.
August 25 – Superfest Meeting