Month: February 2022

Minutes for PARA Meeting of FEBRUARY 14

Club President Garry, KD4GCY presided and called the meeting to order at 7:08 p.m. and led the membership in the Pledge of Allegiance to the US Flag.  There were 13 members in attendance.

Club Treasurer Roger, KC4WPS, read the financial report to the membership.  Jeff, KM4LDP made a motion to approve the Report as read and Dennis, KB4SRK seconded it.  The motion was voted on and carried.

KD4GCY, Garry Wheatley read the Minutes of the January 10, 2022 meeting to the membership.  Roger, KC4WPS made a motion to approve the Minutes as read and Ron, K4INS seconded the motion.  The motion was voted on and carried.

Garry KD4GCY acknowledged the passing of the mother of Frank Baumer, KY4LDS.  A donation to their church will be disbursed by the club.

President Garry led the membership in discussion on the following topics:

• Review of best practices for Net Control for Emergency Traffic and Weather Net.  Discussion of rewording of Net Control text.  A review of use of simplex frequency in the instance of repeater down.  Suggestion to use a standardized “channel” allocation for repeaters and simplex channels.  An Ad Hoc committee is suggested to make recommendations.  Suggested to have members named to this committee in the March meeting.
• Lewis and Clark Trail On The Air-  June 4- June 19, 2022 The Kentucky contest group has contacted us regarding us activating during this time.  Contacts will acknowledged by certificate after submission to the “Logbook of the World”. we will discuss further after some clarification at the March 2022.
• National Weather Service Spotter classes February 15, 2022 both live and virtual.
• Jeff, KM4LDP reviewed some of the issues encountered at the National Weather Service during the recent tornadoes.  The radios need to be coordinated in frequencies and assignment to certain antennas to specific radios.  Suggested to plan orientation programs to train amateurs on the equipment.
• Jeff, KB9BVL discussed some of the challenges of the NWS radar and how trained spotters are able to assist.
• New rules for ARRL field day:

Max PEP 100 watts, Claads D stations will be able to log contacts with other Class D stations

Proof of media contacts will be required.

• World Wide Digital Contest rules are published on the ARRL website.
• Heil, Inc. has transferred ownership to two of their employees.  Bob Heil will remain in an advisory compacity.
• The KD4DVI 443.000 pl 179.9 repeater has replaced by a fusion (not yet WiresX) unit.

         The Metropolis 146.655- pl 179.9 still has a recieving issue

The Metropolis 147.225+ pl 123.0 repeater is both Fusion and WiresX

• The Paducah Chamber of Commerce is offering a program on  Crypto Currency Feb 17, 2022 3:30pm
• Garry KD4GCY attended the 911 service committee meeting which discussed funding issues, tower construction, and the future 800Mhz system.
• Don Fuller, KC4DR gave a presentation on the recent geomagnetic storm which destroyed multiple and eventually all of the Starlink satellites.  The geomagnetic storms are solar winds from the sun caused a heating condition in the upper atmosphere causing drag resulting in satellites being destroyed during reentry.  Our earth’s magnetic field protect us from being incinerated from these solar winds.  Two scales, the “G” ranging from 1-5, and the “K” ranging from 1-9 both increasing in intensity. A “G-3” or “K-5” can be detrimental to radio and electrical equipment. 

Net Control Operator assignments were made and the formal portion of the meeting was adjourned

Net Control

Feb 20- Ken, KW4DI

Feb 27- Frank, KY4LDS

Mar 06- Michael, KN4TIP

Mar 13- Garry, KD4GCY

A motion was made by Jeff KB9BVL to close the meeting, seconded by Dave, W4WKN.  The meeting was closed at 2112.

February 14, 2021      Leave a comment

Minutes for PARA Meeting of January 10, 2022

Club President Garry, KD4GCY presided and called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. by leading the membership in the Pledge of Allegiance to the US Flag.

Club Treasurer Roger, KC4WPS, read minutes to the November meeting and presented  the financial report. ED, AC9OO, made a motion to accept the minutes as read, seconded by Jeff, KM4LDP. The motion was voted on and carried. Don, KC4DR, made a motion to accept the financial.  It was seconded by Jeff, KM4LDP. The motion was voted on and carried.

The December 13, 2021 PARA Christmas Dinner meeting was attended by 25 at Casa Mexicana .

The first item was to assign Net Control operators for the next 5 nets.

Next, the floor was opened on the topic of electing PARA Officers for the coming year. Members who accepted the positions were: Garry, KD4GCY, continue as President. Don, KC4DR, as Vice President. Roger, KC4WPS, continue asTreasurer. Michael, KN4TIP, Scribe. Each position was voted on individually with all votes in the affirmative. No “No” votes were cast.

Several general topics were presented to the club, including:

Tech Q&A pool is to expire soon.

The New City 911 Board will be meeting on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 1:00PM in City Hall.

Boy Scouts holding a Badge Fair at WKCTC Emerging Technology Building. A Radio Badge was offered to approximately 25 scouts. Many spoke over the repeater  with  Jim, AK4PS, an Eagle Scout himself.

If the Boy Scouts had access to WKCTC, then is it open for PARA to start meeting there again.

Garry, KD4GCY spoke of his recent drive through tornado ravaged Mayfield, KY in hopes of speaking with FEMA about Mitigation Grants.

The meeting discussion then centered upon the Paducah NWS Office the night of the tornado, December 10, 2021.  NWS employee Mike, KI4NXF, contacted Garry, KD4GCY, at 5:33 PM requesting a couple of hams to operate the radios inside of the NWS Office.  Jeff, KM4LDP, and Garry, KD4GCY responded and Jeff was able to pass critical WX information from Radar Interpretation Experts at the NWS to the Union City area of the impending storms. As power was lost to the NWS Office, the electronics continued to be powered by a very large UPS. Issues with the onsite generator kept it from starting and supplying the building. During that time, all unnecessary equipment was shut down, including the Amateur Radios. The radar system has a standalone generator that kept it up and running during that period until shore power was restored. But with the power issues in the main building, the radar data could not be distributed to users during that time.

In regards to The Weather And Traffic net on that December 10th. evening, Frank, KY4LDS, started the net sometime before 5:30 PM and started taking check-ins. As the night progressed more than 40 stations are listed in Frank’s log.