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Meeting Minutes |
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Meeting Minutes |
The March 1st 1999 General Meeting Paul, VE3SY opened the meeting at 7:30pm. There were 56 members in attendance. To allow for a very full agenda the meeting began with a short business meeting. Business meeting Announcements Volunteers were very much on Rich’s mind when he asked for any "Liberal hams" interested in providing communications coverage during the next Liberal nomination. Our new District Emergency Coordinator, John VE3DOS announced the appointment of a new Emergency Coordinator, Robert VE3ZLV. Recently John attended a CANWARN steering committee meeting in London, Ontario. One of the items discussed were possible dates for ARES training sessions. Three dates were proposed, two in March and one in April. These will be announced later. He also reported that attendees of these sessions who have previously undergone training will be eligible to receive an atlas, free of charge. On the subject of maps, John mentioned that the way participants in emergency nets report their location has been changed. Positions will now be reported in latitude and longitude rather than by Grid Location. "Show and
Tell" Dave VA3DGS gave a talk on Global Positioning Systems and, in particular, methods to increase their accuracy. Dave described how he had located information on the Web and had constructed, from scratch, a circuit to eliminate "jitter" from positional data transmitted by satellites. Bob VE3FVF brought a piece of Canadian history to show club members. When the government scrapped the Avro "Arrow", much of the equipment associated with the project found its way onto the surplus market. Bob’s conversation piece was a Tester, manufactured by Honeywell and used for diagnosing problems with the aircraft’s avionic system. Ted VE3TJD demonstrated a very versatile battery charger/conditioner capable of charging just about any type of battery on the market. John VE3DOS exhibited two homebrew antennas computer designed for 440Mhz. Made from easy to come by materials and simple to manufacture they nevertheless boasted a healthy 7-8dB gain. Gord VE3EOS proudly showed one of his fine "Boat Anchors" a Canadian Royal Air Force AM/CW transceiver. He explained to the audience how he had "Blacksmithed" or modified his equipment using a very simple, albeit unusual process. The method used to remove transmitter components from the radio was as follows: "Tune into the BBC and start snipping. When the music stops, solder it back on." There followed a break for coffee at 8:30pm. The meeting reconvened at 9:00pm. Charles, a regular visitor to club meetings, produced a very unusual device in the form of a portable curling iron. Charles demonstrated how he had modified the gas-powered device into a soldering iron. There were two video presentations. The first of these featured a candid, roving journalist style video put together by Greg, VE3NXB. This fascinating footage took us right into the homes and shacks of several Cuban hams. The film ably demonstrated the Cubans ability to innovate and did much to emphasize the pitiful lack of available equipment at their disposal. Roger, VE3RKS presented the second movie. This action-packed epic introduced the sport of Motor Rallying of which Roger is a keen proponent. The shots, many taken from the inside of these high performance machines, had the audience leaning into the corners and bracing for impact. As well a being a driver in these events, Roger uses ham radio to provide essential communication between checkpoints. The 50/50 draw prize of $28.75, picked from the hat by Greg VE3NXB, was won by "Golf Bob" VE3XOO. At 9:45pm Paul VE3SY proposed a motion to conclude the meeting. Marg, VE3BLJ seconded the motion. errors or ommissions to secretary@kwarc.org
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