PARA Meeting Minutes 5/8/2017
The regularly scheduled meeting of the Paducah Amateur Radio Association was held Monday, April 10, 2017 at the WKCTC Emerging Technology Center, Room 140, in Paducah, KY. There were 19 present.
The meeting was opened by President Jeff Wielgos (KB9BVL). Jeff invited each attendee around the room to introduce themselves with their name and call. The Treasurer’s report was given by Bruce Huyck (KS4V). The April 2017 meeting minutes was read by Secretary Ron Cowherd (K4GYD). Both treasurer and secretary reports were were approved by unanimous vote.
Items Discussed
- Jeff announced that Bruce Huyck is now the trustee for station W4NJA replacing Walt Welch who has since moved from the area. The former station license was due to expire in October 2017.
- There was a brief discussion about the Dayton Hamfest to be held May 18th thru the 21st. Several club members were planning to attend this year.
- Quite a bit of time was devoted to the planning of field day (June 24 and 25) discussing the following items: three stations, two of which (SSB & RTTY) to be located in the McCracken Co. Emergency Mobil Command Center on the parking lot of the First Baptist Church and one (CW) station located in a park pavilion and a snack area in another pavilion. Mike Newman will bring the radios, computers and antennas that are stored at his home. Dave Perry will bring a radio and computer for the CW station. Ken Wontor has secured the park permits. Bruce will write a letter of formal request for use of the County’s Mobil Command Center. In the past the County EMS has furnished generators and gas. Food was discussed. Jay Smock offered to bring his grill.
- There was discussion about what could be done about an Icom 7200 radio that had been purchased for a Field Day Go-To station by the club but is no longer utilized. Nothing definite was decided.
- Mike Newman added that the club had been given two beams, a Force 12 tri-bander and a 15 meter monobander that could be cleaned up and perhaps sold.
- Bruce told about the W5KUB.com webcast that is available each Tuesday night at 8:00 pm. For example this coming Tuesday, May 9th, will feature the person who is in charge of the Dayton Hamfest along with his co-worker.
- Bill Call (KJ4W) from MSU club sent word that Al Grant (KG4SXQ) will soon be moving to Brookdale Assisted Living located on New Holt Rd. in Paducah. Al may need help setting up a 2m station in his apartment. Al, you are welcome to join us when you get settled in Paducah. Contact Ron (K4GYD) (270)554-4139.
Net Control Operators for Late May/Early June
Sunday night nets are at 9:00 PM on 147.060 PL 179.9
May 14 Logan KG4VKB 13 chk-ins
May 21 Jay KD9HRH 15 chk-ins
May 28 Frank KY4LDS 7 chk-ins
June 4 Logan KG4VKB 13 PARA, 8 ARES
June 11 Ken KW4DI 16 chk-ins
Email to PARA from Paul Smith (ND4X)
There is a known problem in the version of TQSL that Bruce and I were both running (the one just before this new release). The old version will not work correctly with the link that pops up when you launch to TQSL update process. Dan says this is a known problem, but since the problem is in the version of TQSL that we currently have installed, there is nothing they can do to fix the automatic link problem.
To get around this problem: 1) Sign into LoTW; 2) Click on the “Home” tab; 3) In the middle of the screen under “TQSL Status” you will see “Current Trusted QSL software: TQSL v2.3.1 (Download)”. Click on the download link. 4) That will take you to the TQSL Download page. 5) Click on the “Go Now” under TQSL 2.3.1 for MS Windows. 6) Save the file to your local disk. 7) Run it from there (run as normal user, not as administrator).
Contest Success
ND4X – FL QSO Party
Band Mode QSOs Pts Mul Pt/Q
7 CW 48 192 16 4.0
7 LSB 10 20 3 2.0
14 CW 68 272 31 4.0
14 USB 34 68 21 2.0
21 CW 13 52 1 4.0
28 CW 1 4 0 4.0
Total Both 174 608 72 3.5
Score: 43,776
1 Mult = 2.4 Q’s
8 Hours, 13 Minutes
Congratulations Paul
Remember our next Scheduled Meeting will be Monday, May 8, 2017 at the WKCTC Emerging Technology Center, Room 140, Alben Barkley Drive, Paducah, KY.