The April OAK FOREST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB face-to-face meeting has been cancelled due to Covid-19 social distancing directives. We've been notified that all public meetings at the TranStar facility are cancelled until further notice. We're planning to hold the 4/18 meeting on the 2m repeater (145.17MHz) starting at 9:00 am. To expedite the checkin process, you may send a checkin email to Hal at (KG5OIR) starting at 8:50 am. Hal will roll-call from the email list and then accept additional checkins via echolink and radio. Following the normal club business, Hal will send an email to club members inviting you to join our video conference meeting. We'll try using the Zoom application this time (runs on windows, mac, iphone, ipad and android) and it would be wise to download the application beforehand. For Linux platforms, start here. We are hoping that zoom will allow us to continue for 40 minutes contiguously. The agenda for the meeting is here. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns.
Announcements
- Our "experiment" conducting a 2m net and eztalks video conference meeting last month was somewhat successful (21 check-ins) but we had to restart the presentation many times because of the 10-minute timeout using the "free" version.
- Barry (KG5IRR) hosted the 3/28 net meeting and gave a presention entitled "Raspberry Pi for Ham Radio" that can be found here
- We continue to look for ways to conduct license testing without meeting candidates face-to-face. We are monitoring efforts by other clubs and are considering conducting tests via oral questioning and video conferrence by appointment only. Stay tuned here and watch our reflector as we rollout an implementation.
- During the 4/7 2m net meeting, Mark (WB5ANN) collected location reports of all the participants. While details of the radio power levels and antenna type and height were not recorded, a map illustrating the relative receiver signal strength and footprint of the 145.17 repeater can be found here. Many thanks to Mark and all who participated.
- Silent Key KK5KE - It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of long-time OFARC member, Larry Lawson. He will remain in our hearts and prayers. You may find out more about Larry, his internment and share your memories on the Dignity Memorial webpage.
- If you have a photo of your ham shack or favorite operating location, please send it on an I'll post them for all our members see... and comment!! Please include your callsign in the photo. Images submitted so far can be found here!
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