February 2009 Letter from the Prez

It’s a new year and we also have a new US president. The economy may be down but at least so are the gas prices. Let’s hope the economy improves soon. We have a new SARA Vice President Gregory KDØEJJ and a new Secretary George KCØWOA. I give great thanks to those officers leaving for their services and welcome our new officers to their positions. I would like to invite the rest of you to become involved in SARA! We are always looking for new activities, events, and people to help out. The best way to make SARA better is get involved. This is your club and the more you put in to it, the more you will get out of it.
Our next big event, Field Day, is coming in June. We are looking for a new site -- preferably around Stillwater and on the Minnesota side of the river. We still have the Fred C. Anderson Scout Camp as an option but would prefer to be in Ø land. If you know of a possible site, please research and see if it is available for us. Let us know if it is. We were trying for the William O’Brien Camp Ground and a couple cabins but they are already booked. Maybe we can look at them for 2010. Since no one has asked me what our score was for 2008, we are looking to make it easier and more fun by not worrying about points. We could use grid power and only wire antennas. This would allow us to forgo the generators and towers. If you have an opinion about this change, please let myself and the other officers know.
The Balloon Team has decided to ask the University of Minnesota if we can launch a package on their next flight. It will probably only be a transponder, but we will work on our logistics of tracking and how well we can hear our own transponder. If you’re not on the team currently and wish to be, please contact me at President (at) radioham.org.
The repeater situation has not changed. There is a repeater committee meeting January 29 7:00pm at Boutwells Landing. We are looking for a new site and equipment. We did move the Monday night 2m net to the KSØJ repeater (147.180 + 74.4PL) and we’ve been getting many more check-ins. The first night we had 22 check-ins. Please be sure to check-in to our 2m and 10m nets whenever possible.
John KCØUHY is looking at holding an event on Isle Royale. It will be about a 10 mile mountainous hike. You’ll need to be in good shape if you plan to attend this one. If you enjoy camping, hiking and QRP operations, this is a great opportunity. John will have a shake down hike before the event to make sure those that plan to go are ready for the hike. We don’t want to be using our radios to call for a rescue for one of our own.
If you’re reading this, you’ve seen the major changes that John KCØUHY has made to our website. It’s been a lot of hard work but it looks very professional. If you see John, be sure to thank him for his efforts.
SARA members can get a SARA Email address. Contact John KCØUHY, the IT committee, or myself to inquire about the SARA Email address. The SARA Email easily allows you to contact other club members by just knowing their call sign. Please know that you will need to activate your email account for this to work.
That’s it for now. See you at the February Monthly Meeting, February 14, at Boutwells Landing.
73,
Rick Brennan KØBR
SARA President