THE UPLINK - THE NEWSLETTER OF THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Vol. 11 No. 5 March 2006 The next club meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, 2006 at “StarFire Grill (new name of Sweet Mesquite)”, 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 February Meeting Minutes The meeting on February 23, 2006 was held at the StarFire Grill. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by President Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ. There were 15 members and 2 guests in attendance. Secretary/Treasurer Ken, K5RG, reported that there were 31 paid members for GFY 2006. The combined JSC Federal Credit Union accounts have a balance of $1128.71 There were no expenditures in January. COMMITTEES: Repeater – Larry, WD8KUJ reported no changes, normal operation. After discussion on the Digi-Repeater, Nick, KC5KBO made a motion to bring the digi- repeater up to the current APRS standards with an authorization not to exceed $150. Leslie, KD5DYY seconded the motion. The most probable solution will be to purchase to KPC-3+ The motion was unanimously approved. ARISS – A forthcoming Houston school contact will most likely conflict with the shack refurbishment. If this actually occurs, then an alternate station location will be required. 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 – Nick, KD5DYY met with the Gilruth design team after the 90% Architectural Complete plans were reviewed by John Maca, AB5SS, Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ and Nick Lance, KC5KBO (lead). A full report of this meeting is available if desired (contact Nick Lance at nicholas.lance-1@nasa.gov or Ken Goodwin at kgoodwin@houston.rr.com) In short, the 20 foot tower placement was approved along with a direct coax pass-thru at the upper level; the contractor will run the underground conduit for us; the shack windows were redesigned for emphasis on security versus scenic view; the electrical loads will be reviewed; the shack will have automatic lights switches (presence detectors); Gilruth will provide on-site storage for the current equipment during the shack construction phase. VEC – David, KB5PGY reported that there would be a test session Saturday, March 11, 2006. NEW BUSINESS: Audit – A start date for auditing the books was discussed. Leslie KD5DYY, Nick KC5KBO and Kyle KG4YUQ agreed on March 20, 2006 at 4 PM. The business meeting was adjoined at 7:02 PM. Agenda Items for the Thursday, March 30, 2006 meeting at StarFire Grill: 1. Preparations for the new shack at Gilruth. 2. 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