FIELD DAY, 2023
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President’s Report
Independence Day 2023 is quickly approaching. Be safe and have a great holiday!
I have a strong desire to POTA with a Foxhunt! I plan to have this on Saturday the 15th of July, 2023. Location TBD. Watch Facebook for further updates.
Field Day 2023 was a success, mostly. We did shut down early because of the threat of severe weather. I want to thank everyone who came out, especially those who helped set up and tear down. There’s no way I could do that without you.
We had several new members come out and make their first HF contacts. Micah made his first DX contact as well! Congrats to you all!
Again, have a great holiday and be safe! We dont need anyone to get hurt.
73. Justin Flick N9WX PAARC President
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Meeting Minutes:
Membership Meeting:
June 8, 2022, American Red Cross – Justin Flick, N9WX, Club President called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
Tom Hunt, W8NWG, made a motion to approve the Meeting Minutes as published in BandBits. Darren Weir, KD9HZZ, seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the motion passed.
Treasurer Report – John Zdanowski, KD9QQU, submitted his report to Justin Flick, who read it to those in attendance.
A motion to approve the Treasurer’s Report was made by Mark Suhs, W9WGN, and seconded by Jon Dainty NMO0. A vote was taken, and the motion passed.
SuperFest Report – Justin Flick, N9WX, and Darren Weir, KD9HZZ, spent some time today considering various SuperFest issues. They believe we need some 13-14 signs to be made up to direct folks at the new site. A draft of a new “Midwest SuperFest” banner was passed around for review. There were no objections to the design, so expect such to be prepared.
Repeater Report – Earlier today, a group from the club moved the entire D-Star cabinet from the Groveland site to the Garage Radio Room at the Bunker. As a result of that move, the VHF D-Star Repeater will be taken off the air, and the UHF D-Star Repeater will be put on the air, serving the Greater Peoria Area/Central Illinois. The Bunker had a folded dipole VHF antenna at 240’ height available free-of-charge, courtesy of the Woodford Repeater Association. Thanks to those club members who worked with the Woodford group to make this possible, including but not limited to Steve Grob, KD9AER and Justin Flick, N9WX. And thanks to those folks who came out today to perform the move.
Justin Flick, N9WX, also reported that the next step at Groveland will be to get 2 antennas down from the tower, at some future time. Expect to get the bill in July for the antenna for the W9UVI repeater located at the 160 ft position.
Matt Behnke, KD9ERS, reported that the relocated UHF D-Star machine is running just locally right now, as the computer in the D-Star cabinet is not working. A replacement computer will be configured and installed soon to connect the UHF D-Star machine to the Internet and restore full functionality.
It was also reported that a laptop has been built for the Glasford repeater Wires-X station.
Old Business – Darren Weir, KD9HZZ, and Andy Day, W9DAY, are planning to assemble the new antenna that the club has for a replacement of the damaged antenna recently taken down at the Red Cross.
New Business – We will hold Field Day on June 24-25 at Illinois Central College in East Peoria in the Visitor Parking Lot. Hoping to run on battery power only. Planning to have 2 stations set-up, with IC-7300’s and antennas. The club’s 10 x by canopy will be used. Hope to set up HAMRS logging software on a laptop or tablet to record QSO’s. Justin says he expects to start setting up on Saturday about 11 AM, and would welcome any and all help. Bring a Folding Chair!
Program Report – From Scott Tranchitella, K9XJT
Who is aware of the TEMU App/Website? This is a chance for first time shoppers to get a Baofeng UV5R for only $2.99. Throw some antenna options in too. We can give these away to new folks who pass the Technician Exam, and get them on the air quite cheaply. Everyone should jump on this to help out new hams.
Three future Program Subjects include:
1) RTTY
2) POTA Session, possibly instead of a meeting night
3) Fox Hunt (we have a low power 2 meter transmitter to use)
Send other program ideas you have to Justin’s email.
Scott then presented tonight’s program on how to use DroidStar on Android and ios devices. Simply put, this app provides D-Star capability on an Android phone, over the Internet, no radio needed. The demo included contacted a ham on D-Star in California. For ios device, one can use an app called TestFlight which will run DroidStar, does take some luck to get it set-up and working.
Meeting ended at 8:15 PM
Submitted by Richard Holtman, KD9ANU
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Peoria County ARES
July 5, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
July 12, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
July 19, ARES On-line Conference @ 7:00 PM CST (Watch your email for Zoom conference info)
July 20, Emergency Expo 4:00-7:00 PM at Grand Prairie Shopping Center
Call or email Rich if you are not on the ARES Roster and desire to join the Zoom Conference.
Meeting Agenda includes: Infrastructure Activities, Training Documentation, Repeater & Simplex Testing, NVIS Exercise, Winlink News, Volunteer Opportunities, Emergency Expo, and more.
Please submit your Training Documentation form.
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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Purchase tickets, Flea Market spots and indoor vendor spaces onine!
I want to say thanks to those of you who have reached out already volunteering for different positions at Superfest, anyone else who would like to request certain positions, feel free to contact Deb Suhs WD9EB@arrl.net.
Please make sure you have Superfest on your calendar and please plan on helping during it, without Superfest our ability to keep our repeaters is in jeopardy, your help is greatly needed and appreciated.
Since most of the positions/help needed were listed in the May Bandbits, and some definitions were in the June Bandbits, here is the explanation for the rest of the jobs/positions.
Flea Market Spot Sales and General Assistance – checking in the flea market vendors, selling/assigning spots if needed, and assisting flea market vendors with finding their spaces.
Vendor Assistant – checking with the indoor vendors, making sure they don’t need anything, watching their stuff if they need to use the facilities, especially if an indoor vendor is alone, getting food for them, answering questions, genera support as needed.
Forum Assistant – making sure the guest speakers have what they need, answering any questions, and making sure they don’t go over into the next session.
Ticket Barrel Sales – selling extra stubs, answering questions and assisting Matt & Brett with prizes if needed.
Rapid Fire Giveaway Assistance – help listen for responses when the numbers are called and help pass out prizes won.
Table takedown, clean-up – are what they sound, after the indoor vendors are done, we need to take the tables down and clean up after ourselves.
The next Midwest Superfest meeting will be on Thursday July 27th at 7pm via Zoom on the Club Meetings page.
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June Net Logs
6/4
KD9ANU K9XJT KD9MPI KD9TEG W9JDP W9WGN N9NDF N9WFT NM0O KD9PXZ KD9JXR KD9IVV W8NWG KD9AER K9TNT KB9OGS WF9E KT9TB KD9STL NP2WJ K9UQF Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
6/11
WD9EB W9WTF K9XJT KD9ANU W8NWG W9WGN W9JDP NM0O KD9AER KD9IVV KD9PXZ KD9JXR W9TTX KB9ATO K9TNT N9NDF KD9WSP KD9TEG KD9STL N9WFT K9RCS KD9RYH KD9RJH KD9WHE K9UQF KB9OGS KD9QQU KD9SPJ WF9E KD9NYE Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
6/18
W9WTF K9XJT KD9ERS WD9EB KD9ANU W8NWG W9WGN KD9YCJ K9HJZ KC9IH N9GUE W9TTX N9NDF W9JDP NM0O KD9JXR KD9RJH K9OBI KD9PXZ K9TNT K9RCS KD9AER N9WFT KD9IVV KD9QQU KT9TB KD9RYH KD9WHE KD9NYE KB9OGS Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
6/25
KD9ANU N9WX W9WGN K9OBI K9HJZ KD9WRX KC9IH K9XJT W9TTX KD9YCJ KD9HZZ W9JDP K9TNT KD9IVV N9NDF W9DAY KB9ATO NM0O KD9PXZ KD9AER KD9JXR KD9NYE N9WFT W8NWG KD9QQU KB9OGS K9CEW KD9WSP KD9TED KD9VIN KD9RYH KD9STL K9RCS KD9ERS WF9E WW9DLM Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
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July Club Events
July 5 – 7:00 p.m. – ARES Net: W9UVI Repeater 147.075
July 6 – 7:00 p.m. – Board Meeting via Zoom
July 12 – 7:00 p.m. – ARES Net: W9UVI Repeater 147.075
July 13- 7:00 p.m. – Club Meeting: TBA – American Red Cross, 311 W John H Gwynn Jr Ave, Peoria
July 19 – 7:00 p.m. – ARES Meeting: TBA
July 20 – 4:00-7:00 p.m. – Emergency Expo: The Shoppes at Grand Prairie. For information contact Rich, KD9ANU
July 27 – 7:00 p.m. – Superfest Meeting