Taos Amateur Radio Club Minutes of the Meeting on 11-09-2022

Taos Amateur Radio Club Minutes of the Meeting on 11-09-2022

OPD, 107 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos, NM 87571

  1. Sign in. Meeting began at 6:08 pm

  2. Roll Call. 25 members & guests attending with 5 on Zoom.

  3. Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes held on 09-14-22 and published on 10-01-22. Motion for approval by Don and seconded by Glen. Vote was unanimous with no objections.

  4. Treasurer's Report. Glen reported that he would email the current bank balance the next day. POST Meeting, Balance was $12,126.37

  5. Tim (W5TNM) president's remarks.

    a) Election nominations announced by Tim asking for additional nominations for any positions. No one additionally stood for any position. Current nominations stand, and are:

    i) President, Tim, W5TNM; Vice-President, Greg, KF5TTO; Secretary, Donovan, K2AH; Treasurer, Don, K2WQ; Board members Tom, Grants, KF5RKM; Glen, Events and Facilities, KF5OSB; Sherri, STEM, KI5TLA; Brian, Standing trustee, NB5R; Mike, Immediate past president, NM5MK. Tim again asked for additional nominations. No one stood. Tim called for a vote. John C. (WB5Q) motioned for a vote by acclamation. Mike seconded. Vote was unanimous with no objections.

    ii) Tim announced that these will be the officers on the first of the new year.

    iii) Tim announced that there will be in person testing on Saturday, November 12, at 10:00. He said there were two testing so far.

    iiii) Tim said that some of the radio stations were running some old PSAs that they must have found digging through their old files.

  6. New business:

    a) Tim said that the US Forest Service inventory has been submitted. He believes we will get the $140.00 version as opposed to the highly escalated version.

    b) Tim moved on to a debrief on the gas line break incident and Halloween event. Donovan chimed in on Halloween, said we had six members participate. He said it was a great turnout and was very smooth. He went on to thank Don, Greg, and Wayne for a great job with traffic control on Placitas. Craig chimed in on the gas line on how the previous emergency lasted 14 hours. He expressed concern about how incidents could be a long haul and shifts would be required. He recommended having an emergency pack in your vehicle that includes warm clothing, etc.

    c) Board meeting update: Members, old and new gathered. A letter to city has been sent regarding how we can be a part of the EOC, callout, training, etc… The gas event, with some safety consideration spawned an insurance review action. From the known coverage, we are covered and we have the Town of Taos as a payee on our policy. Town coverage extends to TARC.

Tom chimed in and said we are covered as long as we are called out. Donovan chimed in, saying that in ARRL under ARES there is the Volunteer Protection Act. He went on to say that if you are called out, you are federally protected under most circumstances if you are a 501c3. It does not include driving a vehicle or gross negligence. Tom chimed in after Tim asked him for key points. He expressed the need for a call out system and acknowledged Wayne for doing a great job of getting people mobilized for the gas leak emergency.

d) Kiri (K7KAH) gave an ARES Update due to renewed interest: Task-books level 1,2,3, application, call out and callout list capabilities were discussed. Kiri asked for members to join a list for call out. She said you do not have to be an ARES member to participate. For those wanting to get more involved, especially with larger incidents, Kiri said you might want to consider joining ARES. She went on to describe the requirements for each skill level. Kiri also gave study and exam taking advice for the required FEMA courses. She also recommended having a 72 hour "go-pack".

e) Tim announced a private grant foundation request written by Keith Miller for eight new DMR radios. Tim asked for a vote. Without motion or second, all were in favor with no objections to submit a $3,000 grant request.

f) TARC hats were distributed for assistance with events over the summer.

  1. Old Business

    a) STEM update-Sherri (KI5TLA): Sherri stated there was a lot of money left over from the grants saying she's open to ideas, such as bringing in the public on field day. Tim chimed in about some nifty solar stuff that came in on field day. Brian chimed in about wi-fi in ham frequencies.

    b) OPD shack facilities update-Donovan: Donavan had nothing new. A question was asked about tables. Tom said he would check with Mitch.

    c) PIC and SAM work update: Brian- D-STAR is back up on SAM. Brian also said that the Megalink had a faulty antenna. He stated that he has a smaller replacement antenna and will try to replace the bad one this year. Picuris was the big one, according to Brian. He said a bank of eight solar panels were removed and replaced. Batteries were also added to the setup, increasing the total amp hour reserve. San Antonio has a camera now, but is not on the web yet, according to Brian.

  1. Repeater report: Covered on previous discussions.

  2. HF Report- Don: Notifications will be sent, according to Don on HF net. Tim suggested the 3rd Wednesday for the net.

  3. Net Report: Tim stated nets were good, getting 10-15 people.

  4. ARES Net: HF 3939, 1st Sunday

  5. Other Business:

    a) John (W5JHW) started a passionate conversation about rat protection for vehicles. He provided an electronic solution to keep rats from chewing vehicle wires. Others chimed in with other solutions.

  6. Business Meeting Close.

    a) Motion by John C (WB5Q) and seconded by Don (K2WQ). Unanimous with no objections. Meeting adjourned at 7:02 pm.