Maui Amateur Radio Club – Apr 13, 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI

Maui Amateur Radio Club – Apr 13, 2016 Minutes – Maui EOC Wailuku, HI
President Tom Worthington called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 
 
The treasurer’s report were approved, and accepted by acclamation. $1837.23 reported balance.
10 members and guests attended.
 
New Business:
 
Talk Around:
K6GSS-John: Couldn’t work Herd Island. Short path, just wasn’t possible. Yaesu 2100 working somewhat. Showed grandson’s report in 1st grade.
NH6Y-Tom: Worked Heard Island 17M SSB and CW. Juan De Nova worked on 15M SSB and RTTY. Hard to work. Made 10M Australian contact today..    
N0DQD-Bob: Working on getting CW speed up.
KH6H-Mel:  Exercise last Saturday. Didn’t participate.  
KH6AH-Ron: Working remotes through California, using IPad with Flex 6300
KH6RSB-Shawn:  Haven’t spent much time on radio, but found a Yaesu FT101B on Craig’s list. Doesn’t seem to work. Found APC line conditioner. Also a 4000W generator.
KH6CJJ - Kent: Didn’t work Heard Island, but did operate in the hospital net. Operated 8 hrs in Japan Intl DX contest. CW, made 150 contacts, 42 areas. WPX SSB contest 5 hrs.
WH6EXE-Bill: Still studying for General test. Waiting for Field Day
WH6DUB-Amanda: Operated in a multiband contest. Heard lots of stations but they couldn’t hear me. Heard South Africa. Cat doesn’t like radio.
WH6DUE-Devin: Not much time talking, but working with the dipole antennas on receive. Installed a good ground. Got a better noise floor. 40 M sounding better.  RF output low.
 
This Month’s Discussion:
Can we operate 3A or should we operate 2A? We have about 12 people to operate, with 10 being able to help setup and teardown.
 
40 and 15 M station, and another for 10, 20 and 80M. The idea is for this year is not to have two stations on the same band at the same time.
We could put up a VHF station. Satellite?
 
Do we want to use the blockhouse or get the Kihei Rental car van? Diane is doing logistics.
If we did that, we could position both vehicles close to the seaside drop-off.
 
Antennas:  Idea: use the wood from last year and hang a 2 element 40m inverted V.  Also pull up the 15M 4 element vertical dipole array.   Put up the tower and put up Tribander or the separate 20 and 10M Yagis. If using the Tribander, that would give the option of running two stations on 15M during the day. Should we have director or driven element closer to the cliff? Need to model.
 
Alan thinks he may have a 80M vertical dipole ready for Field Day. John wonders if a ¼ wave vertical with lots of radials is good configuration.
 
Would we be able to get any help from the VOAD group? We have had little contact.
 
We could plan to do a 2A system, a 40/15 and 10/20/80 station. We could add a station in the blockhouse as an option. Satellite? Or would we add another HF station in the blockhouse. What antennas would we use? 2 element vertical dipole array for 20M. This could be setup on Saturday morning.
 
A discussion about the differences between 2A and 3A.
 
Van: Allan’s K3 mostly CW and the 15 vertical array and the 40m inverted v array
MEO Van: crank up tower, stack 20 and 15 M Yagi on it. 40 M vertical on the rocks.
Blockhouse: 10M Yagi on push up pole strapped to the pole. 80M Vertical and the 20M vertical dipole array.
 
A discussion on the Saturday night dinner. Nothing decided.
Generator: Hope to get one from I&L rentals as last year.
 
Contact other hams or cert people for help setting up and operating
Decision back to putting up the three Yagis. 80/40/15 M verticals
How do we get more people on the air?
 
Tom will compile input into a Field Day plan.