The February 16, 2002 meeting was held at Red Coach Restaurant in Newton. The meeting was called to order at 9:10am by President Kent Harder. Did not get a list of members present.

The December minutes were read with date correction.

Treasurer's Report: Added $75 from dues, for a new balance of $968.80.

Dave Duerksen: Mentioned an article in a recent QST talking about a Motorola APCO25 radio.

Repeater Problem: Has been working well for several weeks, so whatever the interference was appears to be gone. Roger hit it from south of First Street in Wichita. Kent Stutzman has the codes to be able to turn the repeater off and on remotely, so if the interference returns he can manage the repeater without physically going to it. Talk about getting Chance down to look at it; Robin will try to coordinate a time for Change to run some tests on the repeater.

Antenna: Purchase still pending a proper mounting bracket that can support the weight. Robin and/or Lon have not approached the mill owners about the possibility of adding a new mount, however, as this would require drilling holes in the roof and Robin is not very hopeful about getting a positive response. Robin talked about a possibility of getting a "gravity mount" which would not require drilling new holes. Robin will look into purchasing or making such a mount. Dan Inskeep offered to help make one if we have trouble find one to purchase.

Antenna/Generator: Ron Farthing demonstrated the recently acquired portable antenna and generator on a trailer in the parking lot after the December meeting.

RACES: There was some discussion about starting the RACES net back up for the season, Monday nights at 8:30pm on the 146.61 repeater, with 145.21 as the backup repeater.

Storm Spotters Annual Meeting: Wednesday, March 13th at the Chisolm Middle School cafeteria in Newton.

Lon Buller: Concern about staffing levels at the Newton command center and in the field during severe weather. Last year there was some trouble getting people to the command center. He would like to make people aware of the problem and encourage us to participate in storm spotting as often as we can. Kent Harder suggested Lon offer a Command Center tour, which Lon will try to arrange, possibly this Thursday, February 21, 7:30pm.

National Weather Service: Kent Stutzman mentioned that NWS is planning on having a certification course soon. Ron Farthing would have more details but he did not make it to the meeting.

MCC Relief Sale: April 12-13. Amateur volunteers will help provide emergency communications. Not sure who is coordinating this right now,

House Bill: There is currently a bill, H.R.817, the "Amateur Radio Spectrum Protection Act of 2001", in front of the U.S. House of Representatives which would help protect our current amateur band allocations. Kent Stutzman recommended we contact our elected officials to support this bill.

Kent Harder: Would like to see some sort of group event, perhaps a fund raiser or something, and get some community visibility. Roger Jost pointed out that there are opportunities for HAM operators to cooperate and work with the Boy Scouts.

Field Day: Kent Stutzman talked about Field Day, June 22-23. Some changes: No more Novice/Tech station, instead a "Get On The Air" station to encourage non-amateur and less experienced amateurs to participate. Kent would like to see us have Field Day in a more public place and do more publicity to get the public involved.

Meeting adjourned 10:34am.