YRARC General Meeting Minutes - 2015-12-01

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:30 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 36

1. Welcome & Introductions – Chris VE3NRT
   
2. Adoption of Minutes from the 2015 November general meeting postponed until January.
   
3. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI. The next report will be at the January meeting.
   
4. Membership Report – Alf VA3BLE. To date 67 members have paid.
   
5. EmComm Report – Don VE3IXJ. The SET exercise was held on November 7 at two locations, the Regional Headquarters and the trailer in Schomberg. VE3TWR was the control channel. The cross band radio at the Regional Headquarters worked well to communicate from within the EOC to the trailer in Schomberg.
   
   • Using simplex frequencies to communicate with adjacent ARES groups did not work.
     
   • Other groups do not use the same pre-programmed memory channels as YRARC.
     
6. Repeater Committee Report – Steve VE3UT and Chris VE3NRT
   
   • The current repeaters are working well.
     
   • We have been approached by an existing repeater operator who would be receptive to us using the site and repeater pair for a Yaesu System Fusion 2m repeater. The site is located in Uxbridge on a police tower. Yaesu is currently offering a repeater at $500US until the end of the year. There are drawbacks to the proposal since there is a co-channel US repeater with coverage reaching the GTA. The repeater is built with 2 mobiles back to back, and reportedly not robust and may need to be run a half power. It was decided not to proceed with the proposal.
     
   • The IRLP/Echolink will be working soon.
     

Meeting adjourned at 20:00 Moved by Barry VA3LLT, seconded by Nicholas VE3NJV. Carried. The annual Christmas party followed the business meeting.