Minutes of the monthly meeting of the Iowa City Amateur Radio Club, held Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 7:00 PM, at the Pizza Ranch in Iowa City, Iowa

Members present:

Emmett Butler, KEØNBH, chaired the meeting.

Secretary John Nichols, KFØHES, read the minutes from the March 9, 2022 meeting. The minutes were approved.

Treasurer Willy Robison, KCØJFQ, reported that our account balance is $2230.41

Old business

We would like to store the club equipment with John Kauble, KØGH. John has given his approval. We will get the equipment moved, and select the equipment we need for the upcoming field day.

The 146.85 repeater is not working well. John Kauble, KØGH, reported that the 146.85 antenna is currently at 150 feet elevation. The antenna had formerly been at nearly 300 feet. It is unclear at this time whether the problems with the repeater are due to the antenna or the cable. John has said it might be possible to put an antenna on the Coralville water tower. A motion was made, seconded, and passed to ask John to investigate whether this would be possible.

Emmett Butler, KEØNBH, currently has the club’s two radios.

New business

We are waiting for EchoLink. John Kauble, KØGH, says we have a node but it has not been installed yet. It is uncertain whether System Fusion is working. John says we need to get our computer configured in order to use System Fusion.

Mike Parker, KEØQKF, talked about the upcoming Field Day. We will need to check out some equipment. Members volunteered the use of two ICOM 7300 transceivers for use during Field Day. We may have multiple transceivers, but we are only allowed to transmit on two transceivers at any one time.

The Field Day will be held on the last full weekend of June 2022, which will be June 25th and 26th. We need to verify this date on the ARRL website.

Zach Johnson, KEØYKK, from the University of Iowa Amateur Radio Club, says the university will allot them a site for a shack.

Rich Haendel, W3ACO, has a new tower coming. He is planning to host an antenna party to help with the installation. Rich says he will look into getting insurance from the ARRL for our equipment. Insurance that will cover the full replacement cost of our equipment will cost $1.40 per $100 of equipment per year.

The ICARC needs to find a business that can make nametags for us.

John Nichols, KFØHES, gave copies of the IRS printout of ICARC’s EIN record of registration to Emmett Butler, KEØNBH, and Willy Robison, KCØJFQ for record keeping purposes. The information included ICARC’s EIN (employer identification number), username, password, webpage image, and site phrase, which is all the information needed to access ICARC’s registration with the IRS as a non-profit entity, and to re-register with the IRS each year. This year’s registration was done by John on March 20, 2022.

Rich Haendel, W3ACO, reported that five people had passed their tech license exams on March 28th. The new licensees are Benjamin Steines, Ian Smith, Phillip Greco, Justin Petrus, and Merle McClain.

Willy Robison, KCØJFQ, ICARC treasurer, reported he had paid $156 from ICARC funds to renew ICARC’s post office box for one year.

Dennis Boyd, WBØVZK; Emmett Butler, KEØNBH; Mike Parker, KEØQKF; and Brad Mitchell, KFØDEE all gave presentations on grab-and-go bags.

The presentation at our May 2022 meeting will be given by Neil. The topic will be ARES.

Respectfully submitted,

John Nichols, KFØHES

Secretary, Iowa City Amateur Radio Club

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