Taos Amateur Radio Club Minutes of the Meeting on 1-11-2023 OPD, 107 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos, NM 87571
Sign in. Meeting began at 6:09 pm i. Tim noted new officers at the helm, acknowledged Wayne & Glen as former Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Noted Donovan K2AH as the new Secretary and Don K2WQ as the new Treasurer.
Guest and member introductions, 16 members & guests attending with 2 by Zoom.
Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes held on 11-09-22 and published on 11-19-22. Motion for approval by Don and seconded by Wayne. Vote was unanimous with no objections.
Treasurer's Report. Don reported the balance was $11,599 and cents. Tim acknowledged Glen’s service as the Treasurer and presented him with a plaque from the club.
Tim (W5TNM) president's remarks. i. Tim noted he accumulates numbers and stated for 2022 the club provided 878 volunteer hours participating in 2 incidents, 11 events for eye-to-eye with about 24,940 people. 1 Elementary school STEM session, 3 ARRL testing sessions and 9 licenses obtained.
ii. Tim noted the new officers effective Jan 1st as previously mentioned earlier in the meeting. Went on to mention, that Brian is the official Trustee as he manages the club license. Also noted that Tom is the STEM/Grant board member.
iii. Tim spoke about the ARRL tests hosted by the club with proposed dates of March 4th, June 3rd (mentioned the current General Class license pool expires June 30th) and Nov 11th. No tests during field day and testing will be at OPD. Asked if there were any opposed to the dates with no objections or questions raised.
iv. Tim stated that required government filings are underway, directed statement towards Don regarding IRS. Don stated that the IRS site is shut down until tomorrow (Jan 12 2023) and once available he would file the tax statement and be done with it. They both discussed how easy the filing is and only requires checking a box indicating revenues of $50K or less. Tim mentioned the club brought in approximately $22K in 2021 and about $18K in 2022 but didn’t have the exact figures with him. Tim stated he is working on the State Attorney General paperwork and will update as soon as the IRS filing is completed. And the Secretary of State is due in May of 2023.
v. Tim noted the fundraising tools at the bottom of the agenda, i.e. Amazon, Smith’s etc.
vi. Tim stated that annual membership dues are due March 1, 2023. Asked the Secretary if the grace period was 60 days, Donovan stated it is 90 days. And it’s just easier to get it done at the beginning of the year and get it out of the way. Tim mentioned he uses the PayPal subscription so he doesn’t forget and it gets done.
- New business: Tim stated he wanted to throw in a couple of things that were not on the agenda…
• Tim spoke about Zach and that he was not at the meeting tonight and that his wife had been hospitalized in Albuquerque by way of helicopter ambulance. Tim said that Zach worked on solar jobs with another member of the club, Greg Busick, and would try to gather more information and perhaps there may be an opportunity to help.
• Tim said there was a club email that went out from Brian of RMHAM regarding their upcoming Techfest event on March 18th. Tim mentioned that this would be the 3rd one he had attended, it was $15 on-line or in-person in Albuquerque to attend. He went on to say how well the presentations have been in the past and well worth the money. Asked Ed if he was a member yet and if not, would provide the details in case he would like to attend.
• Tim said there is about $4,100 of the $11K in the bank ear marked for a grant, so we have about $7K that is ours and with a vote would propose to purchase 4 Tech Study Guide books at about $30/ea. Asked if all members present were in favor. All were in favor with no objections noted.
• Tim went on to say he was running out of the 5w baofeng radios that are handed out to members when they pass their exam. The radios are about $30/ea and he would like to have a motion to proceed to order about $200 worth of radios. John made a motion for approval and was seconded by Wayne and all members present voted to affirm with no objections noted.
a) Tim spoke about the past cloudy weather and asked that Brian talk about what happened regarding Picuris Peak repeaters. Brian stated that it’s an ongoing saga and after nearly a full week of no sun to the first of the new year, the batteries were steadily going down so any non-essential equipment was remotely shut down. Critical equipment for Public service, Kit Carson Elec. schools, radio station, etc. were functioning. Brian went on to say that the batteries for other users experienced disruption, with some comms moved to SAM usage (where power is on-grid). Brian continued regarding the repeaters located on Angel Fire peak. They had an outage, but have since been resolved. Both Brian and Tim spoke briefly about the upgrades that were completed last year to the Picuris Peak equipment which was completed with monies from both TARC and RMHAM. Wayne asked a question about the San Antonio MegaLink and Brian’s response was when the snow melts we will get back up there.
b) ARES update. i. Tim asked Brian to talk about the upcoming changes for ARES repeaters. Brian is currently researching new ARES repeaters for the whole state and new tower sites. Will be mixed mode DMR and linked by the State’s microwave network, in planning at the current time with no dates yet for roll-out. Tim asked if SAR frequencies would be part of that bundle. Brian stated they use those repeaters albeit on different frequencies.
ii. Tim mentioned that Kiri was supposed to be on to talk about the ARES Task Books but would talk about what he has done so far. Tim went on to show how his Task Book was setup and that a physical Task Book would be required to allow Brian to sign-off on completed training items.
iii. Tim spoke about the SafAlert test that Don, Donovan and Tim participated in on January 31st., and the list of 17 people that indicated ARES interest. Tim asked who had some thoughts on the test. Donovan responded that he had received both a text and email and followed the instructions that were in the message. For this test it was to respond by text to Kiri. Brian interjected that the alerts can be also be sent by radio, however it requires your radio to support a two-tone page. Tim went on to say there will be more SafAlert tests in the future for those who are interested in participating in ARES, it’s a club thing but not everyone has to be involved. Tim asked Wayne to mention Bill Madder who is the ARES Section Mgr for ARRL. Wayne said that he is the person to get your final endorsement for the skill level 3, which is on the last ARRL test EC-016. For completion you need an endorsement from Bill Madder. Wayne went on to say that Bill had contacted him by phone the prior Monday and after some discussion Bill indicated that he would proceed to contact Ken and give him his (Bills) endorsement for Wayne. Ken is the top person for ARES at ARRL. Wayne continued, that if one reaches that point for their training or has a need to contact Bill, he can be reached by email at, K8TE.Bill.Mader@gmail.com. Neither Wayne or Tim had his phone number. Tim asked if there were any questions so far.
iv. Generator test. Tim spoke about the Town of Taos having a propane generator at OPD and asked Tom to talk about the test to be done. Tom said that he had been in contact with Mitch the prior week and had planned to be at OPD on Jan 11th to start the generator, however the building supervisor who Mitch wanted to be present for the test was unavailable. The plan was shifted to the following day, Jan 12th to ensure that the building supervisor is able to test and verify the operation before demonstrating to TARC. Tim asked Brian regarding equipment and surge suppressors during a test. Brian went on to talk about the utility company, lightning and always highly recommends surge suppression on all electronics you’re concerned about. Tim asked an open question, “do we need to unplug or install surge suppressors for the equipment?” The consensus was to install suppressors with Tim noting that the club has over $23K of equipment at the shack alone. Brian noted that one needs to invest in quality surge suppressors, i.e. $30-$50/ea. Tim asked how many should be purchased with 6 being agreed upon, he went on to state that he would purchase those that have a high value guarantee. Tom interjected and wanted to state that it was felt that all equipment should be unplugged prior to the test. Tim noted that we would unplug all equipment before we leave the meeting. Dan asked if we knew what the generator was rated at. There was some discussion that it was more than adequate for our needs. Craig asked if there was anything that needed to be left powered on. Brian and Tim both indicated no, however since the Town of Taos has a backup data center located on-site to be addressed.
- Old Business a) Tim moved the discussion to Grants and STEM purchases. Work is ongoing for Grant close-outs and that we have about $4K allocated for STEM. This was a segway to note that Sherri KI5TLA, (STEM Board Member) who was a teacher at Taos High resigned from the Board. Tim noted that the By-laws provide to the Board the ability to appoint someone for an unfinished term. Then, at the next regular meeting hold a membership vote. He went on to say that they would be looking for a volunteer and then brought up that Darien Fernandez KI5YWK has volunteered to take the STEM position. At which time Tim asked Darien if in fact that was a true statement. To which Darien replied “I will affirm that, I will attest to that” which resulted in some laughter… Tim went on to say the Board will meet at a later time to discuss and if someone else would like to volunteer they could. He briefly mentioned the 2-year term max for any Board position and that he (Tim) would term-out on Jan 1, 2024. Tim asked if there was any further discussion regarding the STEM Board position. No one raised any comments or concerns. Tim went on to say that for the next meeting there would be an agenda item for a vote. Tim noted the reason it could be a good slot for Darien is his involvement with Rocky Mountain Youth Corp and could be outreach to other organizations.
b) Tim went on to discuss STEM updates and noted that we have focused on the high school and there’s a study and where another volunteer/told where Wayne is trying to draft Keith K5FS into organizing a technical committee on the purchase of portable equipment and accessories. Tim noted there was a study done by the State and Los Alamos about the investments in STEM and asked if Keith would briefly talk about it. Keith noted the study was done to see how effective their investments have been and that LANL has literally invested millions of dollars for STEM education primarily in NM. He went on to say the conclusion that came out of this study is that not too many of their funded programs were successful by their own criteria. The few that were successful died on the vine once the funding dried up and they attribute that to the failure to adequately integrate the program into the curriculum. Keith noted the study indicated they are reworking the strategic plan, priorities and criteria for these types of Grants. Tim stated that going forward to apply for a broader base STEM grant that’s not limited to schools and that STEM is for anyone on the community who wants to learn. So it could work to our advantage and perhaps we’re part of that case study, where we lost our teacher and the kids. Tim asked Keith to organize folks to see what we could do for a buy like shack in the box, build it, adding nice things in here and pointed to Brian for consultation. He went on to talk about George K5GEO’s email (Winlink related) and others in the club who can provide input and expertise. And putting in the club shack non-internet based email on VHF or HF, Winlink based to support the community. Tim asked Brian if it would be easy to-do. Brian stated that Winlink over the internet is easy but not as much over HF. Wayne spoke up and asked if that’s what a pan-adapter was for? Brian and others indicated no… Brian noted it’s software, sound card interface and radio. Tim went on to say that we would have this group led by Wayne and Keith and others who wish to help to draft proposals and options to spend money that will need to be voted on.
Brian brought up an ARES related topic regarding the mobile command truck owned by the town. The plan is to go through and update everything including HAM radios, repeaters, computers, cameras, dispatch console, etc. HF capability would be added as well and it could be brought out for events. Looking to the future once it’s complete that there would be a possibility for some present in the room to help operate.
c) OPD Shack facilities update. Tim stated that we had not voted on the surge suppressors and that he would go get 6 from ACE with an estimated cost of $200. Motion to approve was made by Don, seconded by John with all members present voting to affirm with no objections.
d) PIC /SAM updates. Nothing to report.
Repeater report: Covered on previous discussions.
HF Report- Don stated that due to time of year along with ice/snow that it difficult to modify/change antennas. He went on to say that for the last test conducted there was very limited success and that he only has 20M currently available at his place. Tim noted 2 additional HF stations that were up and running, Miles in Los Alamos and a non-member Will, located in Taos Canyon.
Net Report: Tim stated nets were going ok, although there was a DMR problem during the prior event. Tim asked Wayne if there was anything to add. Wayne pointed out that for ARES skill level 2 there is an optional Net Control Operator experience. Wayne offered to step down and let others if they so choose to be the Net Control for upcoming Nets. Wayne asked there would be a digital net. Brian stated that there are other digital repeaters and we should rotate between them. Members should have their radios programmed correctly, they can hit the repeaters, etc.
ARES Net: HF 3939, 1st Sunday
Other Business: Nothing to report.
Business Meeting Close. a) Motion by John (W5JHW) and seconded by Brian (NB5R). Unanimous with no objections. Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm