MEETING TO ORDER:
President Jeff Darby KS0JD called to order the September, 2020, business meeting of the SFTARC at 8:11 AM. The meeting was conducted via Zoom. Members gave their call signs. There were a total of 17 members. There were no guests.
SECRETARY-TREASURER REPORT:
Marty Peters, KE0PEZ, reported the club's bank account balance. Deposits since the August business meeting totaled $50 for one family membership and one individual membership. There was one disbursement of $221.67 to pay the annual equipment insurance premium. The repeater fund balance remains the same as last month. The club now has 73 members in good standing. The financial condition of the club continues to be good.
Ensor Park & Museum [Howard - N0AZ]
Howard sent an email to club members with a link to the signup website.
The Fall season of the Ensor Park & Museum began on Sept 5. The City of Olathe Parks cleaning crew had gotten most everything ready, and Howard tidied up and fixed a few remaining areas. We are in need of one or two volunteers for Sunday, Sept 20. Last week Marty collected some items that belong to Larry Woodworth and went to visit Larry. Larry said that he had no place to store the items, and he asked that all items be disposed of as we see fit.
The 5 Gig Mesh network transceiver has been installed and is being tested. [After this meeting ended, Joe Krout, KR0UT, and others completed the MEMO HF antenna repair work.
Repeater Relocation [Jim Andera – K0NK]
A Zoom meeting with Duke took place about 3 weeks ago. There was a consensus that, due to the uncertainty about access to any repeater equipment that might be housed at the site, the hospital is not an attractive choice. There needs to be another meeting of trustees to assess other possible sites for the repeaters. Jeff will set it up.
Kansas QSO Party [Jeff - KS0JD]
KS0KS recorded 1,016 total contacts and 116,802 total points. This result is one of the best for our club. Jeff is loading our results to the 3038 website. T-shirts are coming. The hard work of the members who participated is appreciated.
Award for Larry Woodworth
The Mo-Kan Council, the JCRAC, and the SFTARC all recognize the steadfast effort of Larry Woodworth in managing the Ensor facility and in mentoring and training the volunteer docents. To honor Larry, the three groups will present a trophy (a D-104 mic with an inscription on the walnut base) and certificate. These items are being prepared by Randy Schultz. The City of Olathe will honor Larry with a proclamation. Because of Covid and the recent death of the Olathe Mayor, city officials are not able to have a ceremony in council chambers.
Web Hosting [Greg Wolfe – KI0KK]
The new Hostgator site is functioning; no problems or issues have been reported . Backing up the site is a remainingissue to resolve. Greg is still looking at options. He will report again next month.
LOTW [Jeff - KS0JD]
ARRL has solicited donations from members to support LOTW (Log Book of The World). There was a short discussion of the issue, but no one expressed a desire to have club funds used to support LOTW.
SFTARC Ham Class 2021 [Jeff - KS0JD]
It is time to have a tech-level class. Jeff asked for comments about the feasibility of moving forward with a class of some kind. Several considerations were discussed. A consensus developed that a class utilizing mostly instruction via Zoom meetings but with a few hands-on in-person sessions could work. There was a motion for Jeff, Jim Andera, Greg, Larry, and George to meet to draw up a formal proposal for a 2021 Tech Class to be offered by SFTARC and to present their proposal at the October business meeting for approval by the membership. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
OTHER BUSINESS:
Peg brought up the matter of an FCC proposal to increase fees for ham licenses. Peg commented that higher fees would discourage prospective hams from pursuing amateur radio. Jeff added the following information: “Comments are being accepted on the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in MD Docket 20-270, which proposes application fees for radio amateurs. Formal deadlines for comments and reply comments will be determined once the NPRM appears in the Federal Register. Comments may be filed now at Comment Filing System (ECFS), located at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings , and posting to MD Docket No. 20-270. The docket is already open for accepting comments, even though deadlines have not yet been set.” The NPRM can be found online in PDF format at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-116A1.pdf
ADJOURN:
Following a motion and a voice vote, the meeting was adjourned at 8:43 AM.
