Here are the meeting minutes for 3/19/15:
The meeting came to order at 7:05p.
Present were: Scott KB8VWM, Forest KD8NKI, Reece KD8VNY, Teng (no license yet), Andrew KE7ESD, Gregg WB8LZG, Ed W8EO, Bob W8RSJ, Dennis KB8ZQZ, Steve WB8WSF, John KD8BQX, Dave, K8GVK.
Reece accepted the role of Club President for the following academic year. Teng and Scott are also willing to be on the Executive Board in other positions as needed. Forrest said that he might be able to be on the Executive Board. Nick was not present, but we can also ask him.
Steve recommended checking student directory names against the FCC database to identify licensed amateur radio operators, and to invite them to join the club. The student leadership can decide if they want to try this, and the benefits and drawbacks of this approach.
We will want to be present at Sparticipation.
If we are able to get an advertisement into the student welcome packets, that could also help promote the club.
The Michigan QSO party is on Saturday 4/18 from noon-midnight. The club will be participating in that contest.
Reece put together a wish list of computer equipment for the club shack. Gregg said that he will filter down the list to the most essential items, and talk to his contacts among the university administration and alumni to try to make this happen. Reece said that he specially chose the hardware for optimal software-designed radio performance. A discussion ensued over how much computer performance was needed, and whether or not used computers could work. John and Steve work with computers and suggested that they could obtain used computers relatively inexpensively. Reece said that some SDR applications on his i7 quad core laptop struggle, so a faster computer may be needed for some possible club projects/applications. Reece’s cost estimate for the high performance machines is around $3,000, with some variability depending on specific components used.
Setting up a regular meeting time was discussed. This discussion was adjourned until the next club meeting, scheduled for Thursday 4/16 at 7:00p.
The 6 meter antenna on the mast is currently not being used much. We discussed the pros and cons of taking down that antenna to free up mast space for another antenna.
Topics to discuss at the next meeting: Open Shack Night, MSUARC website, Antennas.
The meeting ended at 8:30p. Gregg had an informal post-meeting presentation about how to operate the Orion 2 radio and the antenna selector/tuner in the shack.
Scott KB8VWM
