Minutes of the Regular Meeting on May 01, 2012

The meeting was held in the Kanata Room in Sobey's, at the SW corner of Hazeldean and Terry Fox Drive in Kanata.

The following people were present:

Opening:
The meeting was opened by President Al Penney (VO1NO) at 19:30 hours.
The President welcomed one guest, Ying Hum (VA3YH).


Secretary's Report:
Secretary Glenn MacDonell (VE3XRA) introduced the minutes of the previous meeting, that had been posted on the club website before the meeting. Moved by the Secretary that the previous minutes as published on the web pages be approved. Seconded by Ken Asmus (VA3KA).
Motion approved.


Treasurer's Report:
Treasurer Ken Asmus (VA3KA) reported that the club had 19 paid up members and $783.00 on hand. The major outstanding expense is insurance obtained through Radio Amateurs of Canada. This expense, of about $280 must be paid in the late fal,l so the club has about $500 for activities over the balance of the year.


VicePresident's Report
Vice President Andy Hart (VE3NVK) will be away for the June and July meetings and asked members to contact the executive with suggestions for a speaker for the August meeting. The July meeting will include a report on the Grid Expedition. Other Executive members will have to attend to booking rooms for the July and August meetings.


Old Business:

WCARC Website
Webmaster Rick (VE3CVG) reminded members that at present he maintained identical information on 2 different websites: http://www.wc-arc.org the site which had been set up while trying to recover the original club URL, and the long standing url, http://wcarc.on.ca/. The original url had been recovered thanks to the efforts of Jeff Dale (VA3ISP). Jeff very kindly hosts our website at no charge (except the annual domain name fee). Cancelling the http://www.wc-arc.org domain name would save the club webhosting fees and save the webmaster considerable work. Members supported the cancellation of http://www.wc-arc.org. It will take effect on 14 May.

New Business:
None

General Reports:

Grid Expedition
President Al (VO1NO) reported on preparations for the expedition to FN04xa near Grafton Ontario for the ARRL VHF QSO Party June 9-10. The location has been secured and arrangements are in place for equipment, meals and accomodation. Most participants will bring their own tents or campers and a small motel is not far away. While several operators have committed, we can use more, especially experienced CW contesters. Al will describe the expedition at the June meeting.

WCARC QSL Cards
Ken (VA3KA) reported that the supply of QSL card is quite low and not sufficient to respond to cards received. He will investigate options for obtaining new cards.

Smiths Falls Flea Market
WCARC will have a table to sell surplus club equipment and can be used by club members but they must claim anything they bring that is not sold.

Beacons
Doug (VE3XK) reported that the beacons are operating nominally - now set up in their summer mode (maximum ventilation).

Ottawa Antenna Policy
Glenn (VE3XRA) reported that following the City Council meeting that approved the new Municipal Concurrence and Public Consultation process and agreed that the previous by-law be removed, a hearing of the Ontario Municipal Board was held to deal with the complaint Ray Perrin (VE3FN) had lodged against the by-law. The decision from that hearing was released only a few days before the WCARC meeting, granting the appeal and striking down the by-law.

Inexpensive SDR
Bert (VE2ZAZ) described a computer USB dongle designed as a satellite TV broadcast receiver for Europe that can be used with free SDR Windows software to provide an SDR receiver functioning from 64MHz to 1.7GHz. He ordered the $20 dongle, and will see how difficult it is to produce a working SDR system and offered to give a short report at the June meeting.

Deputy Director Ontario North East for Radio Amateurs of Canada
President Al Penney noted that our Secretary, Glenn MacDonell (VE3XRA) had agreed to serve as Deputy Director for Ontario North East, on the executive of Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). Glenn will support the Director, Bill Unger, who lives in Thunder Bay, to bring the interests and concerns of radio amateurs in our part of the region, to the attention of RAC.

Presentation(s)/Activity:
Bert Zauhar (VE2ZAZ) gave us a presentation about "Hamming on 24GHz" that showed how he had modified the front ends from surplus speed radar units to produce transceivers and demonstrated their use to members at the meeting. A link to his presentation is posted on the club website.

Adjournment:
The President, Al Penney (VO1NO) stated that there being no further business, the meeting would be adjourned. The meeting was closed at 21:50 hours.