THE UPLINK - THE NEWSLETTER OF THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Vol. 11 No. 4 February 2006 The next club meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at “Sweet Mesquite – A South Texas Grill”, 2412 Bay Area Boulevard in the meeting room of the restaurant. A scheme is to arrive at 6 PM and have dinner before the meeting. Our normal meeting schedule is the last Thursday of each month. **************************************************************************** JSCARC January Meeting Minutes The meeting on January 26, 2006 was held at the Sweet Mesquite Restaurant. The meeting was called to order at 6:33 p.m. by President Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ. There were 12 members and 1 guest in attendance. Secretary/Treasurer Ken, K5RG, reported that there were 20 paid members for GFY 2006. The combined JSC Federal Credit Union accounts have a balance of $941.58 There were no expenditures in January. COMMITTEES: Repeater – Larry, WD8KUJ reported no changes, normal operation. ARISS – Ken, N5VHO reported that Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, the International Space Station commander, has achieved WAS and WAC with 71 countries contacted (he achieved DXCC this month although it will be an honorary DXCC since the DXCC rules don’t account for contacts from space). Skywarn – The Skywarn net is conducted on the JSCARC repeater, Thursday at 8 PM and will be in operation this evening. OLD BUSINESS: New Shack – The 90% Architectural Complete plans were reviewed by John Maca, AB5SS, Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ and Nick Lance, KC5KBO (lead). The top problem is the satellite tower and its base which will be removed when construction begins, possibly in April. Questions as to who moves the tower, who installs the replacement tower or at least installs the base as a minimum, were raised during the review. The committee will suggest that the satellite tower be moved to the side of the new building aligned with the cable tray into the shack. VEC – David, KB5PGY reported that there would be a test session Saturday, February 10, 2006. Audit – A start date for auditing the books was discussed. Ken, K5RG indicated that he would send out an email to the committee (Leslie KD5DYY, Nick KC5KBO and Kyle KG4YUQ) seeking a date. NEW BUSINESS: ISS Rebroadcast – The rebroadcast of the ISS air to ground transmissions on the W5RRR repeater were discussed. It was concluded that this is still allowed by the FCC although it has never been formally enacted in the FCC rules and regulations. Guest Speaker – Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (US Naval Academy staff and the ‘father of APRS) was a guest of Carolynn Conley, KD5JSO at the meeting. Bob spoke briefly on his involvement with two amateur radio experiments scheduled for STS-116 in addition to his current views on APRS, especially in tracking down malicious interference sources. The business meeting was adjoined at 7:20 PM. Agenda Items for the Thursday, February 23, 2006 meeting at Sweet Mesquite: Preparations for the new shack at Gilruth. Audit of 2004-05 books. **************************************************************************** CLUB OFFICERS, APPOINTEES & INFORMATION President Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ (w) 281-483-9198 Email: wd8kuj(at)orbitworld(dot)net Vice-President Kyle Brewer, KG4YUQ (w) 281-483-9831 Email: kyle(dot)brewer(at)nasa(dot)gov Secretary/Treasurer Ken Goodwin, K5RG (h) 281-333-2636 Email: kgoodwin(at)houston(dot)rr(dot)com Station Mgr John Maca, AB5SS (w) 281-483-8802 Email: john(dot)j(dot)maca(at)nasa(dot)gov Property Custodian Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ (w) 281-483-9198 Email: wd8kuj(at)orbitworld(dot)net W5RRR Trustee John Maca, AB5SS (w) 281-483-8802 Email: john(dot)j(dot)maca(at)nasa(dot)gov Repeater Trustee Nick Lance, KC5KBO (w) 281-483-0386 Email: nicholas(dot)lance-1(at)nasa(dot)gov QSL Mgr Vince LePar, KA8UDO (w) 281-244-7755 Email: vlepar(at)houston(dot)rr(dot)com Webmaster Dale Martin, KG5U (h) 281-484-4465 Email:kg5u@hal-pc.org VEC Coordinator David Fanalli, KB5PGY (w) 281-483-4833 Email: kb5pgy(at)clarc(dot)org Club mailing address for both business and QSLs: NASA Johnson Space Center Attn: AW7 / JSC Amateur Radio Club 2101 NASA Parkway Houston, TX 77058-3696 Repeaters: Voice : 146.64(r)/146.04(t) MHz and 1294.3(r)/1274.3(t) W5RRR APRS 144.39 MHz Website: http://www.w5rrr.org **************************************************************************** DE Ken, K5RG, Secretary/Treasurer JSCARC AR