NOTE: The clubs crossband repeater is in operation daily from about 7 AM until ?? at night. The frequency is 445.125 mhz and it hits the club repeater. You can still use the repeater like normal. No access tone is on the 445.125 mhz side yet but when it is then it will be the same as the 2M side - 141.3.

The Regular business meeting of the Choctaw Amatuer Radio Club was held on 17 Jan. 2005 at the 1st Baptist Church in Nicoma Park, OK at 7:00 pm.

Meeting was opened without the pledge of allegiance due to no flag.

NEW BUSINESS

First up was Tom Webb who gave a presentation on the 2005 Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon to be held on 24 April, 2005. There have been a few changes since last year in that they will have an early start at 4:30 am for many of the runners. Regular start will still be at 6:30 am for most of the differant events. Also, there will not be a 2 person relay this year. Instead, they will have a 1 person team that will cross over to make 1/2 the run.

Orange vests will be provided for the volunteers this year and the required online registration will be about mid February. There will be a pre-briefing at the Citadel the week before the run.

They want to be able to use Cross Band Repeat functions again this year and APRS will be used again also. They are still needing volunteers for Tail End Charlie. You will need a vehicle capable of about 4 mph for the duration; about 8 hours. Assignments will be made in late March, much like last years event. About 60 Hams will be needed again this year out of a total of about 2500 volunteers needed to put on this event. If you would like to volunteer to help in this event, we have a volunteer sign up sheet that will be returned to Tom later. The club Secretary has it and will have it at all club functions.

We would like to thank Tom Webb for his continuing support of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon and the opportunity provided to the Ham clubs in the area.

Thank you Tom.

The Oklahoma City Memorial webb site is WWW.OKCMARATHON.COM

OTHER BUSINESS

Sectretary report--Richard KA5ALO gave the Sec. report of the prior meeting which was the Christmas meal at Spencer BBQ. Also reported on the last Tech. meeting that wound up at Brahms to study melting ice cream of the 5 that showed up.

Tresurer report--Larry K5VVD gave the Tresurer report for the period 10/19/2004 through 1/1/2005 which showed Total income of $407.25 and Total balance of $1449.86. Copy of the report will be available at to next meeting.

CORA report by Bill N9SQV - CORA reps this year will be Bill N9SQZ, Dave N3CI and Richard KA5ALO WITH Don N5ENQ as alternate. Bill talked about the Ham HOliday pre-registration and the need for a volunteer to take on the pre-registration task this year. Any takers? More information will be coming as available.

TECH MEETING will be 3 February, 2005 at the VO-TECH. Mike, KD5DLM will be doing the program this time. We have a pretty good slate of programs coming this year, so be sure to attend the Tech meetings. Ron W5RGT will do the program in March about interferance and Richard KA5ALO will do the program in April on QRP operation and touch on Baluns.

OLD BUSINESS - We talked about the Packet BBS again. Don N5ENQ has the space available but does not want to do the Bullitin Board. We decided to table that idea for the time being.

We also talked about the 70 cm repeater as we have the equiptment. This may be in the offing in the near future.

2 METER NET ON THE REPEATER

We are going to try out a 2M net for a while. It will be started on Saturday mornings at 9:00 AM on the club repeater. Richard KA5ALO will kick it off for awhile and it should be a general discussion net to cover things related to Ham Radio etc. Any way, I am looking forward to the net and hope to hear many of you there. The first net will be on Saturday, Jan 22, 2005 at 9:00 AM.

VE TESTING - Bill N9SQV gave information on the VE testing program. Fees are now set at $14.00 and if anyone fails the test they will be required to pay the fee again if they decide to retake the test.

QRZ DISKS - There are still a few QRZ disks available from Larry K5VVD

MEETING Adjourned at 8:25 pm

Richard KA5ALO - Sec. CARC

SATURDAY MORNING NET REPORT

The Eastern Oklahoma County Roundtable Net met for the first time at 9:00 AM Saturday morning January 22. Richard KA5ALO kicked it off with the help of Bill N9SQV.

We had 7 checkins plus the Net control and it lasted until 10:08 am - 1 hour and 8 minutes. I have to admit that I was a little nervous but everyone made it a pleasure. Here is a list of the checkins to the net; K5GLH, Paul; N9SQV, Bill; KA3AMK, Walt; KD5TLM, Mike; WA8EFC, Bill; N3CI, Dave; and KD5VJR, Kay with KA5ALO acting as the first net control station.

Aside from learning more about each person that checked into the net, I was astounded by the interest shown about APRS, GPS and the Tiny Tracker system. I look forward to doing the net again and would recommend it for anyone to learn how to do it especially in light of the prospect of emergency nets caused by severe weather and other bad happenings.

The net will meet each Saturday morning at 9:00 am on the Choctaw repeater.

Hope to Hear many more there in the future. TNX for this opportunity to learn by,

Richard KA5ALO - Sec. CARC