UMARS General Meeting
January 8, 1993

Present: Harry Lobo, Tom Tessier, Michael Markmann, Paula Ehn, Allen Ludlam, Victor Lam, Patrick Wong, and two campus police representatives.

Meeting called to order at 5:35pm in 530 University Centre.

1. President's Address given by Harry Lobo

i. Harry Lobo welcomed all.
ii. Student Recruitment Days were held on January 5-7, 1993. UMARS had a booth located across from the Council Chambers in the University Centre Concourse. We had several serious inquiries. Thanks to Paula Ehn for manning the booth and all other m embers who stopped by.
iii. Renovations are still on hold. In a meeting with James Koh, SIGPAC Chairman, it was discovered that the cost for the renovations has increased. It will cost almost $5,000 just to put the two required doors in. As a result, renovations may not start until late January or early February. More than likely, they won't start until Spring Break in February.
iv. Open House will be held on January 21, 1993. Although the HF rig has still not been fixed, it is still possible to tune it up and transmit on it. Tom Tessier and Paula Ehn volunteered to run the rigs for most of the day with others stopping by and helping out when they can. Not more than $15 will be spent on coffee and doughnuts which will be available for all who stop by. Advertising will be taken care of by Harry Lobo.
v. It was agreed that cost of the plaque to be presented to Dr. Kinsner should be raised from $25 to $50.
vi. The next edition of the UMARS Newsletter is still being written by Tom Tessier and should come out shortly.
vii. The promotional pamphlet has not been started yet but will be completed shortly by Eric von Graevenitz and Harry Lobo.

2. Vice-Present's Address given by Tom Tessier

i. The next radio test will be given by Dr. Kinsner on January 25, 1993 at 4:00pm on the same room as the course was taught in Engineering.
ii. The Morse code test will be held on February 1, 1993 at 4:00pm with a brief meeting with Dr. Kinsner being held on January 18, 1993.
iii. Dr. Kinsner will turn the computer over to the UMARS when our room has been secured once again.

3. Tech Manager's Address given by Michael Markmann

i. It has been proposed by Tom Tessier that UMARS may be able to help the campus cops in patrolling the campus for locker break-ins and vandalism. This can be accomplished by having licensed members donate a couple hours of their time in the even ings and on weekends to patrol hallways and use their portable rigs and the repeater (VE4 UMR) for their communications. Many things must be done to accomplish this. The repeater must be brought up into working order.

It is not possible to mount and antenna on the big tower on University Centre because we do not have enough coax to reach it. It is possible to erect the telescoping tower for this use. But feed line will still need to be bought. Michael will try to fi nd and purchase some old cable television cable, but is hard to find. The campus police would prefer it if we could use the phone line to report incidents to them. They would prefer it if we did not use their radio frequencies or of allowing them to lis ten to ours.

This is because they already have too much radio traffic in their main office. To be able use the phone lines effectively, an auto patch should be installed on the repeater. It would cost about $50 to $100 to build and auto patch and a phone line would also be needed.

ii. A power supply has been found for the repeater (VE4 UMR) and will be put into use as soon as the $40 cost has been paid.
iii. The VHF antenna rotator has been fixed by Michael Markmann and Dean Riegel.
iv. The HF rig still needs to be fixed. It will be taken to Yori Tsuji (VE4 ACX) for repairs sometime in the near future.
v. Inventory should be taken and a list of out equipment left with Carole-Ann in the Student Group Centre. This way it will not get lost. Also UMARS should be engraved in all out equipment also. It should be able to complete the inventory in one night with help.
vi. If asked, Dr. Kinsner will donate a J-pole antenna for the repeater's use. This will allow the repeater to cover the campus area very effectively.
vii. Some type of fund raising activity should be held to help finance a duplexer for the repeater. A used duplexer costs about $300 and up and well over a thousand for a new one. If we do purchase one Vern Jackson has access to equipment for tunin g and has offered to do so.
viii. All old equipment should be sold, donated, or thrown out in that order.
ix. There is a WARC meeting in Monday, January 10, 1993. Michael will give a full report of what is happening at UMARS.

4. Treasurer's Address

None.

5. Fees to be paid

i. Manitoba Repeater Society (MRS) dues $30 for new member and $20 for each year there after.
ii. 73 Magazine subscription $29.
iii. $40 to Michael Markmann for the repeater's power supply (VE4 UMR).
iv. GST on 1993 ARRL Handbook.

6. Other Business

i. Congratulation were given to Victor Lam and Patrick Wong on having recently passed their basic amateur radio tests.
ii. Tom Tessier brought forward Dr. Kinsner idea of forming a company separate from UMARS that would employ licensed UMARS members . They would design, test and market amateur radio related equipment such as the J- pole or keyer. The members employed would receive a small pay and the profits would go to communication related projects in UMARS, IEEE or WARC. All showed some interest.

Meeting was adjourned at 6:20pm.

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