The meeting was held over the internet via a Zoom video conference. The following people were present:

Name Call Sign Position MH Grid WCARC RAC
Mike Kennedy VA3TEC President FN25 Yes Yes
Lawrence Dobranski VA3IQ Vice President FN25 Yes Yes
Charles MacDonald VA3CPY Member FN25ag Yes Yes
Karen Bryden VA3IGO Member FN25ag Yes Yes
Ray Perrin VE3FN Treasurer FN25dk Yes Yes
Rémi De Cristofaro VA3DRI Member FN25 Yes Yes
Bertrand Zauhar VE2ZAZ Secretary FN25bk Yes Yes
Rich Ferch VE3KI Member FN25 Yes Yes
Clayton Smith VE3IRR Member EN82qb Yes Yes
Georges-André Chaudron VE2VAB Member FN25 Yes Yes
John McGowan VA3JYK Member FN25 Yes Yes
Wayne Getchell VE3CZO Director FN25dh Yes Yes
Phil Somers VE3HST Visitor FN14 No -

Opening

The meeting was opened by the President, Mike Kennedy (VA3TEC), at 7:10 pm. There was one visitor attending the meeting.

Secretary’s Report

  • Bert (VE2ZAZ) posted a draft version of the January 2024 meeting minutes on the Club website prior to this meeting. Moved by him that the minutes be adopted as posted on the website. Seconded by Rémi (VA3DRI). The motion was carried.
  • Bert received the RAC Affiliation Program and insurance quote from RAC on February 7th. The quote was forwarded to our Treasurer, who will make the payment to RAC.
  • Bert sent an Officers update form for our non-for-profit status to the Government of Ontario. The update shows Mike (VA3TEC) as our new President. Bert later received an email confirmation that the change had been successfully processed.
  • Bert reserved the Kinburn Community Centre as a backup site for our VHF contest. This was done at no cost. Bert will contact them again in March to either cancel of confirm the reservation, based on whether the Corkery building is available or not.

Treasurer’s Report

  • Ray (VE3FN) reported: As of January 31, 2024, we had $15.00 in our share account. We also had $2,734.76 in our chequing account and a total of $2,185.44 in our two term deposits.
  • The Club currently has 19 regular (paid) members and 3 life members. Ray asked to forward membership dues to him via an Interac email transfer, or to send him a check by mail. He has also sent a reminder email to the Club groups.io reflector.

Vice President’s Report

  • Upcoming presentations:
    • Confirmed:
      • March: VE2ZAZ - A presentation of his 10G narrow-band transverter system.
      • April: RT Systems - Their radio programming software.
      • May: No presentation. We will hold our VHF Contest preparation meeting.
    • In planning:
      • VE2DX: His product line of add-ons, mainly for Icom radios.
      • VA2FSQ: Win4Icom and Win4Yaesu radio control software.
  • The February Meeting will be held on Monday the 19th, the usual third Monday of the month. The third Monday in May being the Victoria Day holiday, the May meeting will be held on the 13th, the second Monday of the month.

Director’s Report

The director had nothing to report.

President’s Report

Mike (VA3TEC) thanked everyone for electing him as the Club President. Being new in the position, he had nothing else to report.

Presentation(s)

Howard J. Simkover of the Ottawa Branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: The April 2024 Eclipse in Eastern Canada.

Old Business

  • Club Saturday morning breakfast: The Summerhays Restaurant will not take a reservation for Saturdays. Consequently, Lawrence (VA3IQ) must find another restaurant.
  • Microwave day in a park: Lawrence is proposing that we hold a VHF and microwave communication day in a park when the warm weather returns and prior to the June VHF contest, likely at the end of April or in early in May. In early March, Bert (VE2ZAZ) will inquire about the Corkery Community Centre field as a potential venue for this event.
  • Constitution and bylaws discussion: The Club will revise the bylaws to reflect the current Club situation.
    • A proposal is to have a 2-member sub-committee to perform the exercise, and then to submit the updated bylaws to the members for approval at the 2024 Annual General Meeting.
    • Bert mentioned that Norm (VE3NPP) could be a good candidate for the revision work. Mike (VA3TEC) offered to contact him to see whether he would be interested in helping out with that task.
    • Some of the items previously discussed were:
      • One proposal is to add the webmaster as a Director. This would ensure that a higher number of Officers are active and available at any time.
      • The bylaws web page should be updated to reflect, either by referring to some external information, or explicitly, the current member dues.
      • The online (Zoom) nature of our meetings should be reflected into our bylaws.
      • According to Norm (VE3NPP), all 4 Officers (President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary) are directors, and we have a fifth director, which we call the Director. This complies with the Non-For-Profit corporation structure in Ontario.

New Business

  • Microwave demo by the Club at the Smiths Falls hamfest: The hamfest will be held at a new location this year, the Civitan Club, just outside of the city. Bert (VE2ZAZ) will perform a link study between the Civitan Club and the Numogate communication hill. He will report back on the results.

Show and tell

  • Mike (VA3TEC) showed some pictures he took of the 2017 solar eclipse.

Ask the Club

No questions were asked.

Adjournment

The President observed that there was no further business; the meeting was adjourned at 9:15pm.