THE UPLINK - THE NEWSLETTER OF THE JOHNSON SPACE CENTER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Vol. 11 No. 7 May 2006 The next club meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 25, 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 April Meeting Minutes The meeting on April 27, 2006 was held at the StarFire Grill. The meeting was called to order at 6:34 p.m. by President Larry Dietrich, WD8KUJ. There were 11 members and 2 guests 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 $980.91 after purchasing the new Kantronics TNC for the APRS repeater ($179.95) in March. COMMITTEES: Repeater – Larry, WD8KUJ reported no changes, normal operation. The new TNC was received by Nick, KC5KBO and will be programmed once the recommended APRS settings have been received. ARISS – A Houston school contact (Richey Elementary) priority change was requested for the contact to be moved to May 18 from May 16. Skywarn – The Skywarn net was activated on April 21 due to the high winds in the area noted to be near 80 MPH. Club members David, KB5PGY and Leslie, K5LLE were involved in the alert. The Skywarn Net is conducted on the JSCARC repeater, Thursday at 8 PM. VEC – The VEC exam usually conducted on the second Saturday of each month at Gilruth Recreation Center will be held on June 3rd instead of June 10th because of Ham- Com on June 9/10 in Plano, Texas ( http://www.hamcom.org). OLD BUSINESS: JSC EOC – Larry, WD8KUJ is making the weekly nets each Wednesday from the EOC amateur radio station which is operating normally. The SHARES Net and the net among the NASA Centers are the normal activities. Gerald, N5FWB and Keith, WD9GET expressed interest in assisting with the station’s operation. New Shack – Nick, KC5KBO and Larry, WD8KUJ completed the 100% design complete review. A request was made to revise the 5 KW load capacity to 12 KW. Also two 4- inch conduit runs will likely be the best solution for the coax runs to the towers. Nick suggested that a series of procedures associated with the overall tower plan be written to clarify the dual responsibilities of the club and the building contractor regarding the disassembly, move and erection of the three towers. NEW BUSINESS: Secretary/Treasurer – Ken, K5RG will be out of the country for two months and expressed concern over not having access to club finances. He therefore made a motion that Leslie Eaton, K5LLE be appointed the new Secretary/Treasurer to serve the remainder of the term though GFY 2007. Discussion on having an second signature for the JSC Federal Credit Union accounts was mentioned, so if the Credit Union allows it, Ken’s signature will remain on the account when Leslie’s is added as the prime contact. Nick, KC5KBO seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous. 2.4GHz Interference – The club was asked if it knew of any 2.4 GHz RF source that was being viewed as interference. No one knew of any possible sources. Larry, WD8KUJ indicated that he would contact the JSC Frequency Coordinator EV/Catherine Sham for assistance in resolving the request. Conferences – Leslie, K5LLE reported that attendance at the Belton Hamfest was down. Ken, K5RG mentioned that the new ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN will be a speaker at Ham-Com West Gulf Division meeting in Plano on June 9-10 ( http://www.hamcom.org/ ). K5LLE indicated she would be attending the Dayton Hamvention on May 19-21 this year ( http://www.hamvention.org/ ). The business meeting was adjoined at 7:00 PM. Agenda Items for the Thursday, May 25, 2006 meeting at StarFire Grill: 1. Status of new TNC for the APRS repeater 2. New Shack Tower Plan/ICD with Building Contractor ************************************************************************ **** 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 Leslie Eaton, K5LLE (w) 281-283-6155 Email: leaton(at)meitechinc(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 ************************************************************************ **** Welcome new member Gerald Stewart, N5FWB Congrats to Leslie Eaton whose new call is K5LLE (ex-KD5DYY) Kent, W5OJ, operated W5RRR for Armed Forces Day on Saturday, May 20th. DE Ken, K5RG, ex-Secretary/Treasurer JSCARC AR