NORTH AUGUSTA BELVEDERE RADIO CLUB

Meeting Minutes for February 11, 2008

This meeting was held at Aiken County Council Auditorium, Aiken, South Carolina. Fourteen members and one guest attended. President Mark Ledford, KG4IUQ called the meeting to order. If you were not there, you missed an interesting meeting.

Treasurer’s Report:

Tom Arnold – W4KVF gave the report.

Secretary’s Report:

Don Zupon – W3MIF. There had been no corrections to the December meeting minutes report.

Committee Reports:

Repeater

Dick Schoenfelder – K4FKJ reported no problems from our new neighbors Alltel‘s cell tower.

ARRL South Carolina Section Emergency Coordinator

Charlie Miller – AE4UX reported.

- A booth at the SC Hospital Association meeting explained the SCHEARTS program.

- SCHEARTS repeater in Conway is operational providing coverage from Columbia to the Coast. Walterboro repeater on line soon. Frequency assigned for Beech Island is 146.85 MHz, with tone of 123 Hz.

- Charlie will talk at the Health Professionals meeting in Atlanta.

- D-Star is active in Columbia. Others are planned for Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

- A narrow band emergency E-mail messaging system is being developed.

- Trailer upgrades. Two telephones added. One using satellite voip and another using a cell phone system. The satellite dish was replaced with a larger dish with a 5 watt transponder. Another antenna rail was added with NMO style antenna mounts.

- Public service radios were added for VHF, UHF and 800 MHZ trunking communications.

- A communications drill involving 5 counties will be activated on Saturday.

Community Support

Robert Williams -- KE4VVR reported that the Save the World Adventure Race in McCormick, SC in March has been cancelled.. An Enduro race is looking for amateur radio help starting in Salley, SC.

Old Business:

Club President Mark Ledford – KG4IUQ unveiled the club flag. Over the past several months, Mark has been leading an effort to design a flag with input from club members. A final design was silk screened in Australia and displayed at the meeting. A picture is attached.

New Business:

New Member - Gordon Baker, AG4WH. Gordon lives in Aiken area and has an Extra class license. His a primary interest is CW

Certificate of Appreciation

Jerry Flanders, W4UK is developing a appreciation award certificate for Charlie Wright, W4PED. Along with being one of the club’s original founders he has served as an officer twelve times.

Fox Hunt

Boots Boyce, WX4BB is developing details for the March 22, 2008 Fox Hunt.

Door prizes were given away.

Attendance

W4KVF, AJ4AU, W4UK, N4BOB, AE4UX, KG4IUQ, N4RM, K4FKJ, W3MIF, WA4CEM, KC8MMZ, KI4SWN, W1EOI, KE4VVR.

Guests

AG4WH arrived as a guest and left as a member.

Program

Carl Bosard, AJ4AU showed various home made antenna systems. Also showed how to trim inexpensive TV and FM antennas for amateur use. Carl also provided a wealth of hand outs on detail building of inexpensive antenna systems.