Wisconsin Association of Repeaters

Attention Members –

As we enter the month of July I wanted to make sure everyone was aware that we will be holding our next bi-annual membership meeting on August 31st back at the Jamf office in Eau Claire, WI. This is the same location we hosted the bi-annual membership meeting in August of 2018.

As a reminder, this location is a secured location. What does that mean? It means that you will need an escort up to what we call “Town Hall” where the membership meeting will take place. We will be opening the doors for registration at 9:30am and the last elevator up will be promptly at 10:00am, at which time we will start the meeting. So please ensure you arrive early so you don’t get locked outside.

Please note: We will also be attempting to stream the meeting live online via web conference. This is going to be our first time streaming, so access is not guaranteed and during this test we are only planning to offer one-way communication and no voting will be allowed over the web conference. We will be posting the details for access to the web conference in the coming weeks. The hope is that it we’ll be able to eventually host our membership meetings across multiple locations with full transparency.

Below, please find a diagram that will explain where you can park in the area. Please also note that on Saturday mornings from 7:30am until 1pm the Farmers Market will be going on across the street in Phoenix Park as well.

There is ample parking in the area and I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July! We look forward to seeing everyone on August 31st in Eau Claire, WI.

73,
Josh KC9WWH

Hello everyone. Just wanted to post that there have been cases where the information that WAR has in our database is no longer valid. If you or your organization has changed the primary contact, Holder of Coordination, phone number(s), as well as email and/or mailing address, please make sure to update us to those changes. Any correspondence that WAR sends usually goes to the primary contact, so if that has changed we definitely want to know.

Also, a reminder that the frequency pair that has been approved for you is based on the criteria that you submitted. If things have changed, i.e. new antenna, more power, changed PL/CTCSS, etc, then a updated form needs to be submitted to us BEFORE you actually make the change. The new criteria may cause an issue with another repeater on the same frequency, or even a repeater on a adjacent frequency, and we want to make sure that any possible interference is kept to a minimum. From our website, you can fill out a New/Modify Coordination form and send it to us via email or USPS.

Lastly, we are still looking for more volunteers to help with the organization. Please reach out to any of the board members, or Corey KB9BNA, for more information.

Other than that, I hope to hear many of you during the ARRL Field Day coming up June 22nd and 23rd.

Until next time, 73 de Dean KB7QDI

I have a couple things I’d like to bring up to all of you this month.

First, Rick W9RIX and myself went to visit the spring meeting of the Minnesota Repeater Council last month, and had a great time. The Chairman, Jay K5ZC, invited us to join him and his friend to both a great dinner at a local Fairmont restaurant known for its fish and seafood, as well as a superb breakfast at a small town diner nearby that definitely has a regular crowd every morning.

At the meeting, many of the same issues that we are addressing were discussed. One new item that Minnesota is doing is allowing RepeaterBook.com to use their repeater data from the website. The board has been asked to consider the same for Wisconsin. At our last board audio conference, we decided to continue the discussions, and bring our findings to the membership at the August meeting in Eau Claire. If you are able to attend, this would be a great opportunity to get your input on this as well.

The second item that I would like to talk about is the need for additional volunteers, specifically in our club Coordination Secretary committee. We have the great luxury to have someone like Corey KB9BNA to help with all the coordinations, as well as helping with all the other pieces that go along with that. That being said, the more people we have on that committee, the better it gets. The committee, and therefore the club, becomes more efficient, and it allows for more than just one person to take on all the responsibilities that the position requires. I ask all our members who have ever thought about helping with our club to reach out to anyone here on the board, or Corey, and let us know. Corey has put together a nice presentation before on what some of the position entails, and is willing to show anyone if their interested.

Basically, the last two years have proven that this organization works best for its members with more volunteers, not less.

Until next time, 73 de Dean KB7QDI