MARCH MONTHLY MEETING

PARA Meeting Minutes 3/13/2017

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Paducah Amateur Radio Association was held  Monday, March 13, 2017 at the WKCTC Emerging Technology Center, Room 140, in Paducah, KY.  There were 23 present including 2 prospective FCC examinees.  See examinee pictures and exam results below.

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 January 2017 meeting minutes was read by Secretary Cowherd (K4GYD).  Both treasurer and secretary  reports were accepted, moved and seconded.

Old/New Business

• President Wielgos asked if anyone had any info about the State Parks on The Air contest which was mentioned during the last club meeting.  No info was known.
• Jeff asked if anyone had any club contest DX results to report.  1)  Paul Smith so far has 114 countries, 289 band slots, 98 CW,  67 phone and 27 RTTY.  2)  Ed Pflueger had 101 countries, 165 band slots, 100 CW and 1 on phone.  Fred Carter reported over a 100 countries.

• Upcoming dates of interest were discussed:

• 1)  Thursday, March 23, 6:30 ARES Tornado Spotting class.  contact:  gwheat@comcast.net  Jeff Wielgos’s meteorologist wife may be the instructor.        
• 2)  Saturday, March 25, Reelfoot (Union City) Amateur Radio Club Hamfest, http://www.reelfootarc.com/Hamfest2017Flyer.html  Ed Pflueger will give seminar. 3)  Saturday, April 8, 2017 Memphis Hamfest,  freefest@maraonline.org
• 4)  Saturday, June 3, Princeton Hamfest,  w4lb.org
• 5)  June 24 and 25, ARRL Field Day, Kyler park.
• 6)  August 14, PARA meeting:  DX Engineering PowerPoint presentation.
  Several announcements were made by various members:

   

  1)  John Hudson announced that he knew of someone that had coax, CB antenna and some type of rotator that they wanted to give away.  For contact info email:  jdhudson@comcast.net.  

  2)  Paul Smith suggested an easy way to keep track of club contest QSOs.  If you use LOTW you can up load that same file to “Club Log” which will give a nice graph that breaks down the data.  Club Log is a free program that allows you to upload any adif file.  Paul suggested that anyone interested in Club Log could bring an adif file loaded onto a flash drive to the next meeting and he will load the file and the program back on the drive for further use for the rest of the contest.  

  3)  Garry Wheatley told of the McCracken ARES will meet Thursday, 3 -16-2017,  7:00 PM in the meeting room at the EM facility 3700 Coleman Road. Final plans for the General study sessions on April 29 and May 6 need to be determined.  Garry asked for others to help and take responsibility for presenting the class study guide material, a great chance to help Elmer some newer Hams.  

  4)  Ed Pflueger announced that today was Mike Newman’s 60 birthday.  Unfortunately he wasn’t present for “Happy Birthday” to be sung to him.

  Ed also announced that he had reserved seating for the club’s Christmas Party at the Casa Mexicana restaurant 6:00pm, Monday, December 11.   

  5)  Ken Wontor announced that the 2017 Field Day site at Kyler park, including pavilions 2 and 3, has been secured for the last weekend in June, the 24th and 25th.

  6)  A letter of gratitude from George Langton’s family was passed around for club members to read.

  7)  Frank Baumer stressed the necessity of having our stations emergency-ready in case the electric grid should become unusable.

  Net Control Operators for Late March/Early April

  Sunday night nets are at 9:00 PM on 147.060 PL 179.9

  March 19           Jeff KB9BVL         12 PARA check-ins

  March 26           Frank KY4LDS     12 PARA

  April 2                Logan KG4VKB    10 PARA – 10 ARES

  April 9                 Ken KW4DI            8 PARA

  New License and Upgrade Successes

  We are happy to report that two fellows became new hams when they passed their FCC Technician exams at the close of the March meeting.  Congratulations to both of you.  You are cordially invited to join us again at future club meetings.

  

  

   Left to Right:  Kenneth Barlow                     Phillip Klingeman

  Remember our next Scheduled Meeting will be Monday, April 10, 2017 at the WKCTC Emerging Technology Center, Room 140, in Paducah, KY.