May 2002
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SOUTH FLORIDA FM ASSOCIATION May 13, 2002 MINUTES OF MEETING

PRESIDENT RONNIE HAIK KG4DBI
VICE PRESIDENT ROBERT CRUZ KE4MCL
SECRETARY WENDY DIBEAN KG4OXT
TREASURER JASON SWIFT KE4KYY
PAST PRESIDENT MARGARET MESONES MORI KF4NZG

DIRECTORS
KEVIN SCANLON K4PCS 01-03
SAM HARTE KQ4MR 00-02
ERNESTO DIAZ KG4LXH 02-04
WEB SITE http:/www.sffma.net

Meeting called to order at 1937 p.m. with 38 people in attendance

Repeater Update
146.76 is working, but reminder, that it is just the .76 and autopatch. Construction at site will be done in August. Intermittency problem is gone and it has been rock-solid.

147.150 low-power, under-used. Rock-solid
224.200 works great. Very little users
146.865 was worked on this past weekend

Bike a-thon
Ernesto thanked everyone who helped out. It broke all records, 1,298 riders, of which 97 were walk-ons on Saturday morning. Goal was $450K for MS, exceeded the goal. Feedback from MS Committee was all good. Examples of good deed include when a tent had been stolen from RS2, by the time Committee 1 found out about it, Hams already had a tent out there. Kudos to the people at the bridge - less than $20 in tolls this year. Fire on Saturday, great job of re-routing riders. Packet had been sent out in advance, and because we had the information, it was helpful to help those out at the rest stops. Ronnie delivered food to the volunteers on Sunday who didn't have it. Thanks Ronnie. Misters were used at finish line and at Florida Rock and Sand - have hose for next year and
will do it again.

Boy Scott Expo: Bass Pro Shops had 1000 kids where they show off what they can do. Robert displayed amateur radio - supposed to have tent, table, etc. - had nothing but finally got stuff. He was there from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. He had a few inquiries so hopefully get some new hams out of it. APRS brought in a lot of interest. Next year, if can't work Break-away, could use an extra hand.

Need to get things ready for these events to be prepared. We are creating a website to put on the ARPSC website as a welcome to new hams, or those who want to be hams. We are working on creating new stuff to benefit the younger generation.

Club Call Sign: Good to have all club repeaters on one call sign. It is good publicity for the club. W4FMA is available.  Believe it had been voted on before, but not sure, so we discussed again. Ray (KD4BBM) brought up some good points.  For the first time we would have a legal trustee, if we had 1 call sign. We would need to create a new position, licensee call sign trustee, rename repeater trustee to repeater care-taker or
something. Person should have extra class privileges to make things easier to show off HF at events. Jason (KE4KYY) asked if it had to be an extra. Can't we just borrow Dade Radio Club extra class license at those events if we want to do HF? Randy (WA2OMT) said Jason has raised some valid points.  Executive Board should meet amongst themselves and make a proposal for the club on the best way to do it and obtain call sign if determined to be good. Randy, motion, board, including Repeater trustees, to meet to research it further and make proposal for how it should be done. Brendan (KG4DKF) seconded - 2 opposed.

ARPSC presentations
Had a SET with both Spanish and English on same repeater. There are people volunteering to take over certain jobs. Carl's life made much better since his Associates have come along. Time to praise our peers who go out and to a good job and for offering to do different assignments.

Award 1
Last year at this meeting at the FM meeting in May we had a lot of unhappy campers. This year, we have very happy campers. Ernesto Diaz (KG4LXH), Miami-Dade ARPSC coordinator for the MS Break-Away. Thank you. Ernesto said h couldn't have done it
without everyone's help. Thank you all! 

Award 2
One has person has been doing this event for a great number of years, one is new to the event (March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon).  Randy Davis (WA2OMT) and Joe Keefe (N0JCK) have done a great job of keeping a good event good. Randy echoed Ernesto's sentiments. He couldn't have do it without everyone. Thank you Joe for stepping in to help at the last minute. Joe said those of us who knew Rick, knew there was no job he wouldn't have done and done well. That is why we keep doing this. You all are
incredible.

SET
Information went out on internet, talked about at ARPSC. We did great with roughly 80 check-ins on Friday, and 62 on Saturday. Be ready, because it's going to happen again. Check the ARPSC (http://www.arpsc.org) and SFFMA (http://www.sffma.net) web pages regularly. Newsletters are going to be shortened, so keep track of these. What happened when we went to simplex? It was interesting. Jason and Andy had a problem in the room. 50 of 62 checked in on simplex. Had good range. Next exercise going to test simplex. Jason will show up at next meeting with an antenna system you can put together for about $100. So next time hopefully we will have better simplex signals. Thanks for getting up and joining in on the SET. Thanks Armando for interpreting to Spanish and putting information out. Check in before. If all is ok after, get an assignment, after the storm. If don't hear from you afterward, we'll come looking for you to make sure you are ok. Thank you all! Will do a critique on Wednesday and move forward to the next stage

We have not had a picnic this year. Last year it was in March, we're now in May. Do we still want to have one? Tampa had a Hamfest and a club house, and they did a spaghetti dinner night. Since summer is slow, why not get together during the summer in AC? What about cafeteria here? Carl is looking into it. We'll have a date next meeting.

Value Jet Memorial Clean-up
May 11, 1996, there were no survivors in Value Jet crash. Some were involved in recovery mission with basic communications with Red Cross. 3 years later, a memorial was built on the Trail.  Land was donated but there was no maintenance plan for it. It had been neglected for 3 years. Some hams suggested we clean it up. A group spent 40 man-hours cleaning it.  A couple hams have been going by with weed killer to keep it clean. SFFMA website had information on the clean up. We got great feedback from the families. A group went out last Saturday and met some of the families on the anniversary. Thank you all involved with helping out. There are pictures of the anniversary at http://www.sffma.net/6th.htm. We'll do another clean-up party after the rainy season. 

Other things on the web http://www.hamboree.org/hams/netcontrol.htm contains a form for net control. They enter call sign, band, net control, password, and traffic and submit. It will show what you entered.  http://www.sffma.net/Status.htm page will have the net check-ins.  You can go find out about who checked in. It also gives and idea of what is going on in the county.

Reminder: Hurricane Season starts June 1.

June 29 is Field Day. Watch the website for more information on field day.

Anthony (KF4AWH), and Jessie (KG4OXR) did a presentation at the counsel for the blind to recruit more people who are blind or have other disabilities. Contact kf4awh@kilo.com if you're interested in becoming a new ham

Armando (KG4LYD) will be giving a class for scout troop 64, which will take place on two Satur days on May 25th and June 1st.  Looking for volunteers to teach parts of the tech class (30-40 minute class). E-mail him if interested

CERT classes
May 18th - CERT event - Brendan is coordinating the event. Stop by and check out the event. Should be good demonstration of CERT. They have an opening on the team, if you are CERT trained.  Call 305-468-5418 (Bobby) for CERT class schedule or check website at http://www.co.miami-dade.fl.us/oem/training.htm.

There will be a Free Flea June 8. They are donating part of proceeds to SFFMA.

Wendy Dibean
KG4OXT

05/09/05

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