The meeting was held in the Kanata Room in Sobey's, at the SW corner of Hazeldean and Terry Fox Drive in Kanata.

The following people were present:

NameCall SignPositionMH GridRACWCARC
Peter JagoVA3PJMemberFN25agYesYes
Ying HumVA3YHMemberFN25dkYesYes
Bertrand ZauharVE2ZAZMemberFN25bkYesYes
Rick BandlaVE3CVGMemberFN25hmYesYes
Graham IdeVE3BYTMemberFN25chYesYes
Wayne GetchellVE3CZOMemberFN25YesYes
Clayton SmithVE3IRRMemberFN25aiYesYes
Richard FerchVE3KIMemberFN25ceYesYes
Clare FowlerVE3NPCMemberFN25djYesYes
Paul BoltwoodVE3PLEMemberFN25bjYesYes
Doug LeachVE3XKVice PresidentFN25bfYesYes
Glenn MacDonellVE3XRASecretaryFN25djYesYes


Opening:
The meeting was opened by the President, Clayton Smith (VE3IRR), at 19:30 hours.


Secretary's Report:
The Secretary, Glenn MacDonell (VE3XRA), introduced the minutes of the November meeting.
Moved by the Secretary that the minutes be approved and posted; seconded by Doug Leach (VE3XK).
Carried.


Treasurer's Report:
There was no report as the Treasurer was unable to be present. In his absence the Secretary reported that the current bank balance was $665.


Vice President's Report:
Doug Leach (VE3XK) reported that the speaker for the January meeting would be Tyler Tidwell VA3DGN on CHIR and possibly more. He added that speakers were already committed for all meetings through July.

New Business
nil


Old Business:
 nil


Reports / Project Updates

Beacons
Doug Leach reported that the beacons had been installed and were operating (except for the 6m beacon). However, he noted that there might have been one remaining issue and said he wouldd monitor the operation and decide whether future action would be required.

D-STAR
Rick Bandla (VE3CVG) reported that overall the D-STAR system was working well. There were no issues with VE3ODG on 1296 MHz and UHF but technical team is investigating a report of fluctuating signal strength by one user, on the VHF repeater.
Rick also reported that VE3STP in Arnprior had been added to the D-STAR network. A remote radio link had been established from Almonte, to provide internet to the VE3STP site. Finally, he noted that exploration of hotspot software continued and that hotspots provide fill-in coverage over a large part of the region.

Broadband Hamnet
Bert Zauhar (VE2ZAZ) reported that effective the end of April there would be no further development of firmware for the Linksys WRT54-type routers because of the CPU, RAM and flash limits of these devices. This would mean that improvements or new services developed for other devices would not be available on the Linksys routers but the routers themselves could still be used using the existing firmware.
He also noted that with the last firmware upgrade for the Linksys routers only one ethernet (LAN side) port was available and an external switch (available for $5-$10) would be needed to connect to several devices. Earlier versions of the firmware had allowed routing on the LAN side (there are four ethernet sockets that are now apparently paralleled) but latest firmware required resources previously used to support the internal switch.
Bert and Clayton described ongoing experiments and their efforts to add services to their servers that are accessible over broadband hamnet. Recent additions included an NTP server to distribute time to all Hamnet attached devices and a ringback feature allowing testing of IP phone connectivity.
Clayton and Bert had attempted video calls and found that the limitations at present are imposed by incompatabilities in client software on the machines connected to the network and not by the network itself. They would continue to look for software.
The next objective would be to link one of their stations with the YMCA providing a third major node spanning a large part of the region.

Announcements
Rick Bandla reminded members that the January VHF contest would take place on January 24-26.

Show and tell
Clayton Smith showed and described the new RTL dongles from NooElec - they are drop-in replacements for earlier RTL dongles that cover the same frequency range and provide the same bandwidth but have a better noise figure.
He also dedmonstrated a beta unit of a snap on receiver for HackRF that included a display screen, tuning knob and controls and allowed use of a HackRF as portable receiver.

Elections

The President declared that Elections part of the Annual General meeting was commencing (approximately 20:15).

for Vice President

The President declared nominations open for the position of Vice President.
Rick Bandla nominated Doug Leach, seconded by Wayne Getchell. Doug agreed to stand for the position.
As there were no further nominations the President declared Doug Leach elected.

for Treasurer

The President declared nominations open for Treasurer.

Doug Leach nominated Andy Hart (VE3NVK), seconded by Peter Jago (VA3PJ).
As there were no further nominations the President declared Andy Hart elected (in absentia), pending his acceptance of the position.

All other Executive positions will remain as they were in 2014.

Adjournment
The President noted that there being no further business, the Annual General Meeting was adjourned at 21:00 hours and the members participated in the annual Christmas party.