THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - March 2005 NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com. A pdf file of the web edition is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com/pdf/LO0503.pdf. It will be easy to print that edition. If you do not have the free pdf reader, you can get it at www.adobe.com TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS MEETING MINUTES PLATFORM MEETING TIME DANGERS HAMFESTS BACK PAGE COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon WTRA Swap net 146.88 8:00PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM round-table 52.525MHz 8:00PM Weekdays Informal get together Mon Wed Fri Munson Center 10AM Tue Thur Wal-Mart E March 5 Breakfest 8 AM Club House March 5 Business meeting 9:15AM Club House March 16 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM April 2 Race April 24 Bean Feed MEETING K5XY There will be a practical program at the coming club meeting on March5 at the club house. I understand that there will be a breakfast starting at 8 am. this activity will be followed by a business meeting starting at 9:15. That meeting will include an election of officers. The program will be on antenna SWR. The main part will be the neasurement of VHF HT antennas Please bring your HT antennas and find out what SWR it has. We would like to measure as many SWR's as possible. MINUTES AD5LJ Minutes of the Monthly Business Meeting 8 February 2005 The meeting was called to order at 7 PM at the clubhouse by Tim Linn, KD5SSF, the 2004 club president. The 2004 secretary was not present and Robert Bennett, AD5LJ, volunteered to record the meeting minutes. There were 32 members in attendance. The club currently has 88 full members so there was a quorum present. Tim started the meeting by outlined what he hoped to accomplish this evening. First, to allow members to voice their opinions about what is wrong with the club and to suggest corrective actions. Second to obtain a slate of officers for 2005 by nominations from the floor. The nominated officers will be elected (or not) at the March monthly business meeting. For approximately one hour, there was a lively discussion of things wrong in the club and some corrective measures were suggested. The following paragraphs summarize the main problems and suggested solutions. I will not identify who said what; however, each point listed below was identified by more than one person as a problem. 1. The club newsletter, “the Local Oscillator” was the first problem area identified. The consensus was that the oscillator was boring, didn’t contain useful or interesting articles, was often delivered late and some members indicated they had stopped reading the email copy. The majority of those present wanted a post office delivered copy with interesting articles. A few people voiced strong opposition saying they wanted an email copy but with better content. Jim Leverett introduced a motion to require the board of directors to implement both email and postal hard copy delivery of the oscillator with delivery means to be selected by the member. The motion passed with 25 for, none against and 7 abstaining. 2. The second area was the monthly business meeting. The consensus was that business meetings are too long, programs are boring or not radio related and details of the meetings (what the program will be, items to be voted on, etc) are not discussed in the oscillator. There was NOT a consensus on how to fix the problem but the following suggestions were presented. a. Constrain the length of the meeting to be from 15 to 30 minutes. Also, don’t hold a business meeting if there is nothing the membership needs to vote on. b. Separate the program from the business meeting and possibly present the program after the Saturday breakfast. c. Make sure programs are interesting and radio related. d. If only one or two items need voting on, don’t hold a business meeting. Let the members vote by email. e. Make sure the program is advertised in the oscillator. Search and rescue was identified as a desired area for future programs. f. Make sure that the financial report is published in the oscillator. 3. The third area deals jointly with new members and the club training program. The members present noted that the club is aging and needs to attract new and younger members. Many were of the opinion that the training program, particularly the Technician Class, was a good mechanism to accomplish this. The following suggestions were presented. a. Advertise the classes more. Put notices in the area newspapers, distribute flyers more widely in Las Cruces, and distribute flyers to other area amateur clubs. b. Strongly push club membership in the classes. c. Have at least one mentoring or Elmering session after each class to help new people get on the air. Advertise the session as a part of the class. d. Stay in contact with the new hams and offer assistance and encourage club membership. 4. The fourth area identified as a problem was fighting among club members and negativity of some members. There was general agreement that the club members need to pull together, make attending club functions a positive experience and stop bickering. 5. The last problem area identified and discussed was member apathy. It appears that members are either unable or unwilling to hold office, help with club projects and otherwise contribute their time. 6. Some members were of the opinion that the club needs additional activities that might bring in new members. Such actions as restarting the builders group and having more club technical activities might help. The business meeting started at approximately 8 PM. Tim started the meeting by having those present introduce them selves. The first order of business was to read the minutes of the 11 Jan 2005 business meeting. The minutes indicated that two directors (George Kopp for communications and Cash Olsen for Special Events) were elected but there was not a quorum present at that meeting and the election may not be valid. No other significant business was transacted at the January meeting. A motion was made to accept the minutes and it was unanimously approved. There immediately followed a motion to approve the previous election. It was seconded; however, some objected and were concerned that this could be unfair. There could be additional nominations from the floor at the March meeting so all candidates should be elected at the March Meeting. There were no other reports presented. The next business item was the nomination of officers from the floor. After some discussion, the following candidates agreed to serve if elected. President - Jack Lemons and Karl Larsen Vice President - Tres Campbel Secretary - J. O. Hughes Treasurer - Sandy Hempfling Director for Communication - Geopge Kopp Director for Special Events - Cash Olsen A motion was made and seconded to elect the people running unopposed. However, some objected and were concerned that this could be unfair. There could be additional nominations from the floor at the March meeting so all candidates should be elected at the March Meeting. The president then asked for new business. Three motions were introduced. 1. Jim Leverett introduced a motion to move the monthly business meeting back to Saturday morning and have it after the breakfast. 18 people voted in favor of the change, 5 were against and 9 abstained. 2. Jim Leverett introduced a motion to remove the two-year term limits for club officers from the constitution. There was much discussion of this. In order to change the club constitution, a motion has to be presented and acepted at one business meeting and then presented a second time for discussion and vote at the next (March) meeting. The members present voted (20 for, 2 against) to present the proposed constitutional amendment at the March meeting for an approval vote. 3. Gus Miller introduced a motion to modify Jim Leverett’s proposed constitional amendment to retain the term limits for the office of Treasurer. This motion was defeated (17 against and 12 for). Their being no other business, the meeting was adjourned. Robert Bennett AD5LJ Acting Secretary PLATFORM K5DI As most of you are aware I was one of the first to react to the events that are going to end the Mesilla Valley Radio Club unless some major changes are made quickly. In this effort I volunteered to be the next President since no one had stepped up and said they were a candidate in the 3 months since the Nominating Committee failed to find any candidates. Now Jack Lemons is also running for President. This is a short promise of what I would do if you elect me President. I demonstrated, by sending post cards to all members on Cash Olsen's list, that the Club must communicate better with the members. I was warned by Dave Hassall that stopping the mailed out Local Oscillator would kill the Club. He is right. But keep in mind that we ended the mailed Local Oscillator because it was too expensive. I will, if elected President make sure we again mail out meeting notices to all members that indicate they want this. I will find out how we can do this at a minimum cost to the club. I will make changes that shorten the business meeting and leave time for either a good program or some good coffee and talk among friends about Ham Radio. There will not be a crisis if a program is not available. I will shorten the business meeting, not by depriving the members of information, but rather I will present a measure as being brought out in the Directors Meeting where it was discussed at length. In the business meeting all sides of the measure will be presented and then it will be put to a vote. I plan to put Amateur Radio back into the Club. We are members because we enjoy Ham radio. There are so many things you can do with Ham Radio that all members will not be interested in the same things. Members interested in a particular part of Ham Radio can form a group that meet and do the kind of things they enjoy. These might be The Builders Group, or The QRP Group, or the County Hunter Group. The Groups will bring in younger Ham Radio people and make use of the Club House more days a month. It's common knowledge that many young hams like to build their own radio equipment. The new Ham of any age will not know which hand-held radio to buy. The Club membership can offer suggestions from their own experience. I will be available almost every day to receive telephone calls or I am on the Megalink Repeater (147.18 100Hz) from about 7 to 8:30 AM every day while walking my dog Bucket. If you want to talk I will listen. I learned many years ago that YOU don't learn a thing while your talking. NEW REPEATER WK5C A new Mega Link repeater is now available on the AT&T tower in the San Agustin pass. 147.18+, 100 Hz PL, elevation on the tower unknown. Power is 15 watts and usable in Alamogordo. I can hit it from my house which is unusual because of my proximity to the Organs. I can just barely hit the 146.78, Fritz's machine on the same tower. MEETING TIME DANGERS K5DI In the October 2004 meeting I was one who voted for changing the meeting time to the second Tuesday at 7:00 PM. There were 2 meetings held at this time and the first meeting was a bust because no-one knew it was happening. At the second meeting it was voted back to Saturday again. There were notable members like Dr. Steve Horan, who can not come to a meeting on Saturday, at this meeting. There were several members who attended this meeting, even though they claimed they can not drive in the dark...I think it's more accurate to say they do not want to drive in the dark, but can if the need is great. The point is made that the real old timers want the meeting on Saturday in the morning in daylight. The point is also made that anyone young enough to have children in the home can NOT have Saturday morning off for radio. So we have a serious problem. Of the 30 who attended the February 2005 meeting, there were almost none who had not held an office or been a Director. Had I been there it would not change things since I have been both president and director. It was hard to get ANYONE to fill the vacant positions. People did not want to do it AGAIN! So we need some young Hams to attend our meetings and get interested in the club. They can't do it if the meeting is on Saturday. So what do we do? There are more members now that are old and for a few years they can carry the club along on Saturday morning. But in less than 10 years a lot of these members will not be able to drive at all. The only solution seems to be two meetings. At first the Saturday meeting will be primary, and the evening meeting will be secondary. As time passes this will reverse. The officers of the club must attend both meetings. The hard thing to do will be a vote on an issue. Here is how I think it can work. On Saturday someone wants a vote on something. They get it and the votes must be by secret ballot. The ballots are locked up in a ballet box. At the evening meeting the President explains there has been vote on an issue and explains why the author wants it passed. Then after any questions there is a vote with secret ballot also put in the ballot box. Then the President opens the box and has the ballots counted. The results of the vote will appear in the minutes and the Local Oscillator. The Minutes of both meetings are available to any member. So anyone can know what happened at the meeting they did not attend. There will be other problems but I can't think what they are now. Whoever is president, John or Karl, need to digest this message and clearly see the dangers to the Club. I wrote this, so I do see the danger. HAMFESTS K5XY Hamfests are becoming harder to keep going. They take a lot of work and people, including hams, seem to be getting busier. The recent hamfest in El Paso is a case in point. The W5ES president, KD5QHV, said, "It is getting harder and harder to get vendors to attend functions like this, so I guess we will have to see if a 4th annual W5ES hamfest can be a reality." That hamfest was billed as going from 8 am to 4 pm. Those who arrived at 8 found few people and by 10am, some hams were packing up to go home. A talk with the one commercial vendor there reveled that they did not expect to make money at that one and that long time hamfest circuit riders like Rad-Comm were severely cutting back. They said that the recent Albuquerque hamfest was a disappointment too. All this means that we will have to make a special effort for the coming bean feed. That vendor said "Beanfeed? What Beenfeed." But they did indicate that they would consider coming to it. However we will have to make an effort. Volunteer at the coming club meeting. BACK PAGE The newsletter is always looking for articles and notes of interest to the members of the Mesilla Valley Radio Club. Please send them to Alex. F. Burr, K5XY, Editor, MVRC Local Oscillator, 695 Stone Canyon Drive, Las Cruces, NM 88011. Small personal ads from members will also be published. It would be helpful if submissions would be made in a machine readable form. MSDOS disks are welcome. Files can also be sent to the Internet address aburr@aol.com. The club has a web site maintained by WA2NIJ at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Tim Linn KD5SSF 521-0486 kd5ssf@arrl.net VPr Bob Deal KD5PPP bob-verna@zianet.com Sec Carleton Talbot KC5MRM (915)877-3538 kc5mrm@zianet.com Tres Charlie Welch W5TLU 524-3412 cwwelch@usa.net BOARD Communications Karl Larsen K5DI 524-3303 k5di@zianet.com Education Joe San Filippo WZ5R 521-7574 sanfilippo@zianet.com Special Events Cash Olsen KD5SSJ 382-1917 KD5SSJ@zianet.com Newsletter Alex Burr K5XY 522-2528 k5xy@arrl.net Repeaters Brad Sacca KD5SKE 382-4380 sheikyerbouty@msn.com Facilities Bob Bennett AD5LJ 382-0148 rbennett@zianet.com JOIN THE CLUB To join the Mesilla Valley Radio Club, renew your membership, or to support the repeaters, please complete the form below and send it with dues ($25 single, $35 family per year) to: Treasurer, MVRC, Box 1443, Las Cruces, NM 88004. Name: Address: Call: Class of License: Phone: E-Mail Address: ARRL Member? Yes? No?