The CRES ARC club had a general membership meeting on Tuesday, November 9
at the New Albany library. The following members were in attendance:
Patricia Kovacs/KC8HIH, David Jeffords/K8ON, Al Mecozzi/WA8LBZ, Brad
Spencer/KC8VKS, Art Grandle/KD8ZG, Dave Woolf/K8RSP, Bill Erwin/N9CX,
Bob Cartwright/W3CRZ, Carl Yaffey/K8NU, Jack Kirkpatrick/KC8TM. Jack
Kirkpatrick started the meeting at 6:40PM.

The first topic was the status of the repeater at Lucent. Brad Spencer/
KC8VKS reported that all of the Lucent employees have moved from building
20 to building 30 and that the labs and associated equipment were moved
during the first week in November. Brad spoke with Dale McIlhargie, who
was unaware that the repeater was still in the building and encouraged us
to remove the repeater. We understand that we will no longer have access
to the building after Dec 12. All of the Lucent employees have new phone
numbers in the 367 exchange. (If anyone needs a Lucent employee phone
number, the new voice recognition name dialer is at 367-8111.) Access to
the 860 exchange Audix is expected to continue until Dec 31 but we don't
know if the 860 phone numbers will be removed at that time. Phone access
to the repeater will be lost if that happens. Dave Woolf/K8RSP reported
that Mike Stansberry/WD8EBS talked recently with the CFO and the VP of
communications at Mt. Carmel. They informed Mike that approximately 200
people will be moving to building 20. They didn't see a problem with us
leaving the repeater where it is. Mt. Carmel would like us to show them
the equipment but they do not currently have access to the building. We
don't know when Mt. Carmel will take possession of building 20. Mike and
the repeater committee plan to meet with Mt. Carmel the first week in
December to show them our equipment. In the meantime, Tricia Kovacs/
KC8HIH posted a sign on the repeater cabinet indicating that the repeater
is owned by the CRES ARC club and listed Stu Steenburgh/KB8DEO and herself
as contacts (with current Lucent phone numbers). The FCC license in Mike
Rauh/NV7X's name is also posted on the repeater cabinet with Mike's home
address. Al Mecozzi/WA8LBZ, Carl Yaffey/K8NU and Tricia Kovacs/KC8HIH
suggested that we should try to get a letter from Mt. Carmel that states
that they will permit us to leave the repeater on the premises. Thanks
to the repeater committee for their efforts to find a "permanent" home
for our repeater.

Carl Yaffey/K8NU reported on the status of the CQWE contest. As he stated
in prior emails, the previous coordinator, Tom Quay/KT3TT, is out of
contact and the other contest coordinators were happy to allow our club
to coordinate the contest this year. Rob Stampfli/KD8WK set up a new
website http://cqwe.cboh.org and requested that geocities remove the
previous website. Carl Yaffey has a new logging program which is
available at the website. We expect that Carl will be contacting those
members who volunteered to help with the contest to help tally up the
scores and produce the certificates. Thanks to Carl and Rob for all
their hard work to keep the contest going!

Art Grandle/KD8ZG reported that the next VE test session will be held
at the Parkview Presbyterian Church, 6969 E. Livingston Ave, Reynoldsburg
on Saturday, Dec 4 at 9 AM. Art needs 9-10 volunteer examiners to help.
They will meet at the Cracker Barrel on 256 south of I-70 at 7:30 AM for
breakfast. Dave Woolf/K8RSP will put an announcement on the repeater for
the test session.

After the meeting concluded, we had two programs: Brad Spencer/KC8VKS
presented a talk on APRS and Al Mecozzi/WA8LBZ presented a video of the
2004 Field Day.

Brad Spencer/KC8VKS brought his bicycle which he has equipped to use
Automatic Positioning Report System (APRS). Brad uses a handheld 2-meter
radio, a Garmin GPS, a Byonics Tinytrac TNC which are mounted on his
handlebars and a Diamond half-wave vertical antenna which is mounted on
his rear rack. Brad discussed the following topics:

  - the history of APRS which was developed by Bob Bruninga/WB4APR
  - the network of APRS digipeaters which receive and log the APRS reports
  - the internet gateways (IGATE) which interface to the internet to
    store and map the station reports.

Brad recommended two websites, www.aprsworld.net and www.findu.com,
which allow you to access the tracks of particular stations. He showed
us two tracks of his journeys by bicycle around his home in New Albany
and by car to his parents' home in northwest Ohio. We all enjoyed Brad's
informative presentation.

Al Mecozzi/WA8LBZ presented a DVD video which he produced from pictures
taken at the 2004 Field Day at Mike Rauh/NV7X and Viodelda Rauh's home.
The video included pictures of the antenna installation, phone and CW
stations, information table and the potluck picnic. Al's video also
includes several previous years which we did not have time to view.
The video preserves the memories of Field Day along with all the
participants, scores and statistics. We all enjoyed Al's professional
production.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM.

Our next general meeting will be a pizza meeting on Wednesday, Dec 8
at 6:30 PM at the Donato's Pizzeria at 1815 Brice Road in Reynoldsburg.
One agenda item for that meeting will be election of officers for 2005
so we ask that the nominating committee present the candidates at that
meeting.

Respectfully submitted (in Rob's absence),
Patricia Kovacs/KC8HIH
CRES-ARC Vice President