The meeting was held at Ken’s lab near Stittsville.

The following members and guests were present (in random order):

Name Call Sign Position MH Grid
Doug Leach VE3XK   FN15wg
Harold Hamilton VA3UNK   FN25dg
Dean Denter VA3CDD   FN15
Tim Evangelatos VE3MY   FN25bh
Tom Zinck VA3NFA President FN25bh
John Christensen VE3IAO   FN25xi
Barney Baker VA3BGB   FN25ai
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary FN25ch
Ken Asmus VA3KA Treasurer  
Bryan Campbell VE3ZRK Guest  
Rene Kahle VA3XK    
Manfred Kahle VA3WK    
Wayne Getchell VE3CZO Guest  
Brad Smith VE3BSM    
Les McCready VA3BZQ    
Rick Bandla VE3CVG V.P. / Webmaster  

Discussion re RAC insurance. The club will carry non-RAC members for this year. Next year they will have to cover the premium required by RAC. The club will determine the premium rate for next year at a meeting in the fall. Currently we are likely in the 74 to 80% RAC members category. The cost premium will be around $100. It was moved by Graham, seconded by John, that we send the required fees to RAC to go ahead with the RAC liability insurance. Ken will verify RAC memberships among the club members.

On the Diefenbunker and the possibility of holding meetings there - Tom will meet with the curator next week and find out what they expect in terms of volunteer work, and we will probably try meeting there for a year and see how it goes. We will shoot for a test meeting at the Bunker in August.

Should we form an ARES/Emergency Group? It was decided that there is nobody who wants to lead such a group, and no cohesive desire among the members.

Rick and Ken will have a table at the Smiths Falls fleamarket. There was no demonstrated need for a club table.

Rick did the distribution of the DEMI 902 band transverters, showed the parts in the kits, and gave an explanation of the costs to the participants. Rick gave the members an overview of the transverter project. There are 8 participants who will be building the kits (including one who wishes that he had paid for construction by DEMI). The quality of the kits appears to be excellent, with nice extruded aluminum cases and a high class PCB with helical filters mounted and prealigned. A building spree is planned at Doug’s QTH, probably on May 13th (we are going to build something with surface-mount parts on a Friday the 13th?!!).

Webmaster Rick reported on the club web site. The minutes are now in the public viewing area. He has added a new list of VHF and UHF competitions.

Rick’s work on the 222 and 432 MHz beacons is on hold for the present. The 222 MHz handheld is not working out well as a beacon transmitter. Rick will probably use transverters for these beacons. The 10 Meter I/F transmitter is working. The beacons may use MCW rather than CW.

Secretary Graham - Nothing to report.

Treasurer Ken reported on finances. This information is available in the Members section of the web site. We have 28 members - a record for recent years.

A question was raised about the WCARC history. Is this the ARC that was formed in the west end of Ottawa many years ago that used to meet in Bells Corners? Graham thinks so, but nobody is certain about it.

Tom gave a rundown on his plans to be a Rover for the June VHF/UHF contest. Tom plans to work the 50, 144, 222, 432, 902 and 1296 MHz bands in grids 14, 15, 16, 24, 25, and 26.

We were pleased to have a visit from Bryan, VE3ZRK, and Wayne, VE3CZO, who showed and described their current iteration of a loop yagi for receiving the VE3TVA television repeater on 914 MHz (+/- 5 MHz bandwidth), and gave us details on the repeater itself and how you might equip yourself for receiving the signal. Work to optimize the loop antenna is continuing.

Manfred noted that he is experimenting (playing) with electric motor-driven radio-controlled aircraft. He has one he is saving until he is an experienced pilot, and one he is using for crash testing.

The next meeting will be on June 7, 2005.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.