October 2008 Letter from the Prez

The time for our second meeting is almost upon us. The time has really flown by fast. The weather and the leaves are starting to change and thought are turning towards tuning up the snow blower and winterizing the lawn. Soon we won’t have to worry about disconnecting our antennas in anticipation of the next thunderstorm.

If you missed last months meeting, you missed a great presentation. It was about Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning. I was so interesting that we have about 20 members interested in SARA launching a balloon to 100,000 feet or more. The officers are looking into the expense of the club doing a High Altitude Balloon launch as an annual event in the spring. That would give us three annual events throughout the year, a spring balloon launch, summer Field Day, and a fall Split Rock Lighthouse special event. I may be possible to get the winter ice house event back.

This month’s presentation will focus on the Scarborough Reef DXPedition video. I know many of you have been waiting for us to show this at a Saturday meeting and now is the time. Come see these guys transmit from little rocks sticking up in the ocean while defending their rock from the constantly advancing attack of the local crabs.

Some other suggestions for our meeting would have, Skip KSØJ come talk to us about batteries, chargers, and power pole connectors. Jim KØIB has agreed to do a presentation about his homemade electric car. Hopefully he can drive it to the meeting too. We’re all wondering how many miles he gets per kilowatt.

The Split Rock Light House special event is coming very soon. If you have not already made arrangements, contact Dave Glas WØOXB. This is always a great event and the stories that come back are even better.

I think I finally have all the input about the mini seminars and will be organizing the class soon. A few have volunteered to lead the groups but we need more leaders.

We’re also seriously looking at getting tax exempt status for SARA. I think we’ve missed out on some potential donations because of this. There may be a significant expense in getting the 501(C)(3) but one donation could make it all worthwhile. That’s it for now. 73

RicKØBRennan
SARA President