SOUTH FLORIDA FM ASSOCIATION April 8, 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 was called to order at 1945 hours with 30 present.

Repeater update
146 .76 - University of Miami is doing major renovations to the elevator system and all equipment had to be compressed so that it is just the 146.76 in a corner now. The 6m and 440 transmitters are in another room and spare antennas are on the roof. There have been intermittency problems and it has been changed everything twice. Ray (KD4BBM) swapped parts and it is running solid now. Others will be off the air until at least August, whenever University of Miami finishes their renovations.

147.315 - The power amplifier died and has been repaired. It is back on the air at full power.

147.150 - It covered the March of Dimes event flawlessly, proof that you don't need power.

224.200 - Works great. Some people are surfacing, and a whole group of people hangs out on 220. There are tons of repeaters. You might want to check it out, if you got the equipment

147.000 - working

March of Dimes over past weekend. The event went very well. Thank you to everyone who participated. Put all who showed up to good use. They had good cool, breezy weather. We would like to offer a special thanks to Randy (WA20MT) for putting it all together. Thanks to Jason (KE4KYY) and Carl (KA4HLO).

Ronny (KG4DBI) apologized for making a mistake. He left the rest stop he was working at when he heard a pregnant lady who was having problems, and he went to pick her up. Police had specifically asked us to not get involved in medical activities. They wanted us to let them know about any medical needs we heard about so they could act. It was an act of a Good Samaritan, and would be covered by the club, should something had happened.

Thanks to Adam (KG4PSN) for the photos. Great job!

Upcoming Events
Break-away
As of meeting night, there were 928 riders, 80 teams signed up. They are projecting about 1100 riders for this year's event. For those who are camping at John Pennecamp, they have secured permission to park in the parking lot right in front of the dive shop, so you can leave early in the morning without disturbing anyone. They still need people for Sunday. There are a bunch working both days, then there are 13 people for Saturday,
and only 2 people for Sunday. Need 31 Hams for Saturday and 29 for Sunday.  If you are interested in working, contact Ernesto (KG4LXH). We will have Red Cross van on Sunday. EOC van will be at the starting line. A concern being addressed is the bridge. They don't want Hams by themselves at the toll, so they will have other volunteers there to help. Those that are working on Sunday may be asked to move around, but they want to avoid that if possible. Ray (KD4BBM) has volunteered to do misters. The committee loves the idea. There is only one stop that has water and has given us permission (Florida Rock and Sand), but the water is 500 ft away. Ray is working on that. We are getting a real good response from the whole committee. Every request we've made, they've gone out of their way. They are appreciative that we're there. If you have APRS trackers in disrepair, please fix them in advance. Don't wait until the Friday before. Also, check the SFFMA website for pre-event information. Ray will be putting up maps and post assignments. After he will have pictures of the event.

There was a CERT refresher on the March 23rd. There were some HAMs there. There is a CERT open enrollment the next 2 weekends (April 13 and 20). The first week is at the EOC. You must register in advance, because if they do not get enough people, they will cancel it.

Go to http://hamboree.org/qsl.htm -- fill out the form so that Carl can get the information

New/Old event - Boy Scouts of America Barefoot Mailman, 39 mile hike (Wilton Manors to NW 36st), will take place in about 6 months. It will include a couple thousand scouts. The date is not yet selected. There is a real problem with people hogging the repeaters. Repeater use during rush hour should be reserved for mobiles, so please do not get on the repeaters from a base station during rush hours. Also, please leave break in between to
allow others to get in 220 repeater needs to be updated on the Florida repeater council. It is still under the old name.  The controller can't be updated until they are done at UM.

Anthony (KF4AWH), and Jessie (KG4OXR) are going to have an event to try to get people, especially blind, interested in amateur radio - please give them support.

David gave the Introduction to Red Cross Next class - Disaster Services, sometime in May in the EOC - 4 hours

Simplex tests - UHF, 6m, 220 (in future) around noon on Sundays. They have had good participation so far.

Robert brought to show his new $99 iCom HH here. It works great May 18th there will be a CERT activity in Miami Lakes. If you want to participate, see Brenden (KG4DKF). He needs $10 from you to turn in this week.

James brought in some antenna equipment he made. It didn't cost a whole lot to make. More information is available on the SoFlaHams group site on Yahoo.  An Excel spreadsheet is available to calculate measurements.