Category: Meeting Minutes

Seems like everyone got the report, read it and thought it was worthy of being entered into the sacred record of the vaunted CMARA annals. 

102 paid for 2024. 

Submitted by Dick W1REJ

SOS

None

HamClock Raspberry Pi-Zero – George, K1IG and Andy, KB1OIQ

November 20, 2024. 6:30 social 1/2 hour and the meeting will start promptly at 7pm. Location is St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer)

Pre-Program, Gill WK1H with Field Day Wrap Up. Gil presented the final thoughts. Yep, a good time was had by all.

Main Program,, Analysis of End Fed Half Wave Antenna using EZNEC Modeling (eznec.com) presented by Greg WA1JXR

Attending were Jim, Dan Connor, Gil, George, Tom G and Greg.

Programs

George apprised us of the upcoming programs.

Nominees for Offices

Gil will as Dick to chair a committee.

Field Day Wrap by Gil

Physical posters are a flop.

Focus on social media

Need 2 FD chairs. Internal Coordination and Public Relation

Gil presented the final thoughts. Yep, a good time was had by all.

Donation Letter needed

Greg received some donated equipment and will prepare the proper letter to the family.

HOA Letter

Greg will prepare and Dan will sent out.

Spam Contacts 

George brought up the fact that we are getting spam though our contact page. Tom G will look into some sort of spam block

           Adjourn 7:38 

Even though a whole summer went by the report was coherent enough to have been read, understood and approved by the membership. Whew! I got by another month unscathed!

We have 71 currently paid and 58 one year delinquent for a grand total of 121 folks.

Submitted by Dick W1REJ

Greg reported that ‘Old Girl’ is working fine with no strange issues. That’s great news for us.

Ray Lajoie, one of our ARRL honchos brought up the importance of the HOA legislation pending in congress. He urged all hams to sigh the letter (easy instructions and I will be sending them out) to help pass this important bill.

Zero

Nothing

October 16, 2025. 6:30 social 1/2 hour and the meeting will start promptly at 7pm. Location is St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer)

7:12

Tom G NE1NH, George KA3RLZ and Connor KC1MMM presented the plans for our involvement with a space station contact in March 2026. CMARA in conjunction with the Worcester Ecotairum, North High School and NASA (yep, those guys) are planning for a live space station contact! I must say that the program was fantastic and you can see the slides on cmara.org. Great job guys!!

Attended by Dan, Jim, Connor, Tom G, Nick and Tom C

The topic was the ARRIS contact planning and program. March 9-15 2026 will be the week of education and info with March 15 being the planned live contact with the space station. 

By some fluke of nature and the planets all lined up the report was approved by the assembled group without a single descent.

According to Dick, W1REJ we have members. Yes I know there isn’t a specific number of members because I forgot to write it down. We really have paid members and quite a few of them. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Submitted by Dick W1REJ

Once again the Repeater Committee reported that the ‘Old Girl’ is working fine. Many thanks to the group of hams that keep everything running. 

None

Zero

Nothing

September 18, 2025. 6:30 social 1/2 hour and the meeting will start promptly at 7pm. Location is St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer)

7:12

Field Day plans presented by Gil WK1H.

Exciting things are happening at CMARA this year. George KA3RLZ is going to do a presentation with Connor/ KC1MMT and Tom NE1NH on an update about the ISS (International Space Station), EcoTarium, and CMARA partnership. There’s been a lot of activities over the summer, significant milestones , and most recently NASA has approved our plans. This contact will not be directly but will use Tele bridge technology from multiple other sites across the country using amateur radio. The people in EcoTarium were a little nervous about some of the technical investment initially, but we will be providing technical and education support on amateur radio, and the technology that will be used just won’t be on site,

Attended by Connor, Dan, Gil, Selina, Jim, Tom C, Tom G, Nick, Patrick, Greg, Gil, George

• The topic was Field Day at the new venue. Here are the things that were covered.
•            Literature ordered from ARRL
•            Pens ordered
•            Mast coupler (Greg has it)
•            Club Brochures (about 20 needed)
•            Tech class flyers
•            Site Plan for Trout Brook
•            Where to put FD posteres
•            Rersend FD link pleading for help
•            Safety stakes
•            Education component, ARRL video
•            Notify Holden PD BEFORE the event
•            Notify Holden CERT BEFOR the event
•            Contact Sea Cadets
•            Contact Civil Air Patrol.
•            Hope and Pray for good weather.

The report, as sent through the magic of the interweb was accepted and approved by the members. If I could only get the interweb to write the minutes…..

There wasn’t a treasurer’s report this month because Pat was in Ireland looking for leprechauns and a pot of gold. 

94 paid for 2025 and a bunch that are delinquent for 2024. If you are in “arrears” PAY YOUR DUES!

Submitted by Dick W1REJ

No repeater report this month but since the repeater is working then it speaks for itself. 

Nothing this month…

George is working with a group to communicate with the ISS (International Space Station) in the future. We will be the radio connection for the group. There will be more details as things are worked out.

 Club Flea. Dan K1RAU brought up the Club Flea in April. Should we continue or not? The club voted to continue.

George asked about who has the definitive list of club equipment. (I believe that Herb started a list a few years ago but I’m not sure if it’s been kept up to date

June 19, 2025. 6:30 social 1/2 hour and the meeting will start promptly at 7pm. Location is St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer)

7:11pm. I think that is a speed record for a CMARA meeting!

Gil WK1H presented the plans, hopes and aspirations for Field Day. Great presentation!

I have to admit that I missed most of the board meeting. I totally forgot that it was happening and I got in late. 

The only thing of note was that Nick W1NMR talked to Kurt and all is well on the hill for us to remain.

Through the magic of the internet the secretary’s was distributed, read and amazingly accepted by the members. 

Total balance at last report (March 2025): $12,306.38

April Financial Report

• Income
  • Annual Dues: $ 20.00 (1 member)
  • New members: $25.00 (1 prospective members)
• Expenses
  • Club USPS annual post box fees: $ 248.00
• TD Bank Balances
  • $11,779.38
• Cash-on-hand
  • $324.00

Total Funds in the Treasury

• $12,103.38

New Member Applications

• Jack Sullivan (KC1WBZ)

Notes

• TD Bank account min balance to avoid fees: from $1,500 to $2,500
• Zelle online payment setup in TD Bank – information on website
• TD Bank balance includes $100 for coffee fund
• Name badges: Jim Singer investigating

Patrick Perkins
KO1NE
CMARA, Treasurer
(m): 508.667.6335

Kudos to the repeater committee for keeping W1BIM among the best repeaters in New England!

MEMBERS PAID DUES FOR 2025 :  64  

MEMBERS NOT PAID FOR 2025 : 56

MEMBERS NOT PAID FOR 2024 : 28

TOTAL MEMBERSHIP FOR CMARA: 148

73, Dick / W1REJ

There wasn’t any old or new business so we closed the meeting and went to the Annual Flea.

Thursday May 15, 2025 at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer) Doors will be open at 6pm and Zoom link up at 6pm (maybe)

Lots of junk treasures changed hands and there was plenty of BS (Brotherly Speech) between the attendees.

7pm start time

In attendance, Connor, Dan, Tom S, Nick and Tom C.

Reminder about the meeting date change.

Secretary to send reminder about the date change.

Field Day Security

We need to remember to not leave radios and equipment unsecured. Trout Brook is a public site and anyone can access it.

Bylaws and succession plan

We need to address the succession plan for the repeater trustees in the bylaws.

ARDC. (Amateur Radio Digital Communications) 

There was some discussion about this but didn’t write it down.

he Secretary’s report was entered into the historical record with no hiccups, geddups or gitalongs.

Total balance at last report (January 2025): $12,098.91

February Financial Report

• Income
  • Annual Dues: $ 197.13 (17 members + 1 donation)
  • New members: $43.12 (none)
• Expenses
  • Web hosting fees:   $107.57
  • Web domain renewal: $ 48.34
• TD Bank Balances
  • $11,725.25
• Cash-on-hand
  • $458.00 

Total Funds in the Treasury

• $12,183.25

New Member Applications

• Ray Kagels (KC1WCN)
• Preston Sturdevant (NCS)

Notes

• Zelle online payment setup in TD Bank – information on website
• TD Bank balance includes $100 for coffee fund
• Name badges: Jim Singer investigating

Patrick Perkins
KO1NE
CMARA, Treasurer
(m): 508.667.6335

We have 105 paid members and 28 deliquent.

DUES ARE DUE!

73, Dick / W1REJ

Working fine.

Need badges.

We are looking into a badge printer. Jim and/or Tom G will do research.

Possible speaker, former astronaut Ken Camerton

• March – Introduction/ overview to 3D Printing – Connor KC1MMT
• April  – CMARA Flee??
• May – Field Day Planning 
• June – Last Minute Field Day Prep

Thursday, March 20, 2025 at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer) Doors will be open at 6pm and Zoom link up at 6pm (maybe)

Gil WK1H presented the program on ‘Volunteering for the Boston Marathon’. It takes almost 300 ham radio volunteers to make the event go smoothly and YOU are needed.

7pm start time

In attendance, Jim, Dan, Tom G, Greg, Gil, George, Nick and Connor

Gil noted that Pat needs help finding a badge printer.

Connor will do a program on “Intro to 3d printing”.

April will be the annual Flea

Nick brought up that the Quincy VHF repeater is getting kicked out of it’s site and that Marlborough my lose its spot..

Even though my note taking ability is a still a bit strained we managed to get reasonable notes taken and properly transcribed for the December. The minutes as written in the official CMARA minutes…(that’s kind of redundant) were approved by all present.

Total balance at last report (December 2024): $12,047.23

January Financial Report

• Income
  • Annual Dues: $ 451.68 (17 members + 1 donation)
  • New members: $0 (none)
• Expenses
  • Deposit for Field Day 2025 site (Troutbrook Holden): $400.00
• TD Bank Balances
  • $11,690.91
• Cash-on-hand
  • $408.00

Total Funds in the Treasury

• $12,098.91

New Member Applications

• None received

Notes

• Zelle online payment setup in TD Bank – still learning how to use best
• TD Bank balance includes $100 for coffee fund
• Name badges: continuing…

Patrick Perkins
KO1NE
CMARA, Treasurer
(m): 508.667.6335

Lots of members and folks paying their dues. Which reminds me…

DUES ARE DUE!

73, Dick / W1REJ

The machine on the big hill is still working like a champ.

There is a new payment option on the website. I’m not sure what it is due to sloppy note taking but you will see it there somewhere.

The SURVEY about changing the meeting start time. 52% vote to keep it the same. 1% didn’t care. 47% voted for change. So for the time being we will continue to meet at 7pm.

I spilled the beans earlier in the minutes but we have a new website look. Check it out at ‘www.cmara.org’. Many thanks to Tom N1TJC for all the hard work.

Thursday, February 20, 2025 at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 70 Highland St., Holden, MA. (or Zoom if you prefer) Doors will be open at 6pm and Zoom link up at 6pm (maybe)

Gil WK1H presented the program on ‘Volunteering for the Boston Marathon’. It takes almost 300 ham radio volunteers to make the event go smoothly and YOU are needed.

We are still working on a new vendor. Film at 11.

Tom C N1TJC has all the credentials and new look is active.

The current laptop doesn’t have Power Point. We approved $ to but Office 365.

The members voted to keep the meeting time the same.

Wrapped up and paid for!

Another group would like permission to use our repeater as an emergency back up to their emergency system. All approved and Greg will make the proper contact.

We will take up the by-law changes that got abandoned when covid closed everything down. The last known revision will be sent to the board by Greg. This is like déjà vu all over again…and again.