Maryland Day

Maryland day is coming up this Saturday! We will be tabling the entire day, 10AM to 4PM on McKeldin. We won’t have power so it will have to be all battery operated. See Discord for more information on how to help.

James said we might be able to rent inverters and battery packs.

Joe will bring car jumpstarter for some battery power. He will also bring his laptop for SDR usage. At least one person should bring a VHF HT to use the W3EAX Repeater

Ideas:

  • Receive NOAA Satellite with Dish in Shack
  • Repeater/Handheld operation
  • Talk about radios/convince people to join clubs

Election for President/Treasurer

Thomas & Yehuda don’t have much time to continue in their positions, so we will be holding elections for both President and Treasurer. Descriptions of positions are below.

Positions

President

  • Keep club alive
  • Recruit new members

Treasurer

  • Do money things
  • Fundraising and figuring out money with STAMP

We discussed possibly creating a Club Historian position, but this will probably be a more unofficial non-elected position. To be a club at UMD we are required to have a President and Treasurer.

Election Schedule

  • This meeting (4/28) will be solicitations for candidates
  • Next meeting (5/3 or 5/10) will be election

Money Things

Updates on STAMP Funding

  • Itemized budget requested by STAMP, this is done and submitted
  • STAMP undergoing transition, we will no longer be working with Nicole
  • General lack of responsiveness from STAMP, calls from our club advisor are going unanswered
  • Mary suggested we could go up the ladder and ask STAMP or University leadership if we are not getting responses from STAMP staff

Thomas mentioned another option which is outside funding. The Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC.net) came up as they recently gave a large grant ($1M) to MIT for radome repairs. They have an upcoming grant application due on July 1st, definitely worth applying if STAMP funding isn’t done by then.

Corporate sponsorships also came up. James and Moses threw out some possible companies we could reach out to. Need to be careful not to contact companies already providing funding to other UMD organizations.

  • Keysight
  • Rohde & Schwarz
  • DXEngineering

Setting up VEC

Need 3 extras to start VEC, Laurel has been ghosting us a little bit. Laurel VEC is ideal as they do not require us to charge test takers.

Repeater

We could loose repeater frequency if we are not operational. Thomas discussed how other repeaters in the area are also hearing weird noises on their repeater, could be an area thing caused by some government agency.

Room Work

Moses has been working on room render for 70’s aesthetic. Talked about some plans for cleaning the room over the summer, especially getting facilities in to clean the floors. Thomas mentioned contacting ARRL for a replacement November Sweepstakes plaque, Joe will reach out to ARRL.

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