THE UPLINK - THE NEWSLETTER OF THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Vol. 11 No. 6 April 2006 The next club meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at “StarFire 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 March Meeting Minutes The meeting on March 30, 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 10 members and 1 guest (KB5IBZ) in attendance. Secretary/Treasurer Ken, K5RG, reported that there were 33 paid members for GFY 2006. The combined JSC Federal Credit Union accounts have a balance of $1128.71. There were no expenditures in February. COMMITTEES: Repeater – Larry, WD8KUJ reported no changes, normal operation. The new TNC purchase was delayed on the hopes the current TNC could be upgraded which turned out not to be the case, so the revised acquisition will discussed under new business. The spare repeater antenna was transported to Building 1 for backup purposes. ARISS – A Houston school contact (Richey Elementary) will most likely be conducted the week of May 8/15. Skywarn – The Skywarn net is conducted on the JSCARC repeater, Thursday at 8 PM and will be in operation this evening. The hurricane season prediction is for 19 named storms with 5 making landfall. VEC – David, KB5PGY reported a nominal exam period the second Saturday of each month at Gilruth Recreation Center. OLD BUSINESS: JSC EOC – Larry, WD8KUJ is making the weekly nets each Wednesday from the EOC amateur radio station which is operating normally. The NASA EOC personnel have asked for an equipment training session along with the necessary operational procedures. New Shack – Nick, KD5DYY completed the electrical review via email with most issues resolved favorably. There will be no overhead coax runs but underground conduit as desired. However, the 3 inch diameter conduit will probably need to be larger to accommodate all the desired transmission lines along with heliax/hardline for the VHF/UHF station. Ken Schnell, W5OBR donated a 35 foot tower to the club from his personal station. NEW BUSINESS: Audit – Kyle, KG4YUQ reported on the audit conducted by Leslie KD5DYY, Nick KC5KBO and himself on March 20, 2006. The books for the last four years were audited and no discrepancies were noted. The club’s records were deemed to be in good shape. Shack – After discussion, a motion was made to revise the amount authorized for a Kantronics TNC to be $179.95. The purchase will be made from HRO in Las Vegas which will have the latest ROM (Version 9.1). Belton Hamfest – April 22, 2006 Ham-Com 2006 – June 9/10, 2006 at Plano, Texas (http://www.hamcom.org/) The business meeting was adjoined at 7:00 PM. Agenda Items for the Thursday, April 27, 2006 meeting at StarFire Grill: 1. Status of new TNC for the APRS repeater 2. Secretary-Treasurer Club Officer Position for GFY 2007 3. New Shack Progress ************************************************************************ **** 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