AARC Fan site Blog

Minutes for 4/10/2026 meeting

2026-04-10T00:00:00Z

At 7:00, Sean AD0GQ started the meeting and announced that the club is returning to the old format where the business meeting happens at the start of the meeting.

Business meeting

At 7:03, Sean AD0GQ called a business meeting to order. The business meeting lasted approximately fifteen minutes. Sean AD0GQ controlled the agenda and flow of the meeting.

Secretary report

Matt N3PAY reported that all minutes are on the fan website AksarbenARC.net/s

Treasurer's report

Account	Starting Balance	Ending Balance
Main Checking	$4,725.52	$4,747.71
Savings	$7,226.85	$7,226.85
CD Life Member (1)	$13,412.81	$6,838.67
CD Life Member (2)	—	$6,574.14
Total Assets	$25,365.18	$25,387.37

Monthly Activity:

Income: Club Dues ($100.00)
Expenses: Trailer Storage ($50.00) and Envelopes ($27.81)
Total Expenses: $77.81

Repeater Accounts:

Repeater Checking: $1,989.82 (no change)
Repeater CD: $1,139.91 to $1,139.96

President’s report

Experiment last year and some of this year about changing the meeting format. People did not like it. Back to the old way. The tail end of the meeting is the meeting’s presentation & technical discussion.

Vice President's report

Continuing to look for presentation material. K5JKA is willing to talk about an AI system running on a repeater and independent of Internet.

Events -- Pat K0CTU

Corporate Cup April 19, 2026
Track meet May 21, 22, 23, & 25, 2026
Market to Market is in late October

ARES -- Greg KC0VTO

Thanks for checking into the Sunday NETs. And the folks being NCS. 4/28 – more training. Subject is for storm season. Will practice doing radio calls and making reports with each other

5/2/2026 – ARES will go out to various watch points on that Saturday

SATERN -- Mary N0TRK

Busy getting ready for Dayton. Field day at Irvington. Planning meeting will be in April Saturday 4/18 9:30 at Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Building at 10629 Burt Circle in Omaha. We welcome everybody to come.
Going to South Dakota soon. Lincoln soon too. Reaching out to IOWA too. See N0TRK if you want to talk about it.

VE testing – May 9th at Salvation Army building.

Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Building at 10629 Burt Circle in Omaha.

Publications/Web Services Committee: Brian WE0BEP

I'm always looking for ideas, if not a full article to publish.
Would like to have eleven pages of material

Courtesy Committee -- Bill

Bill was absent and Norm does not know if there has been any activity in the courtesy committee.

Membership committee: Mary N0TRK

If you didn’t get a HAM HUM, it means that you have lapsed and should pay Adam your membership dues.

Old business:

TIM AB0S – Wants to know if new members are automatically added to the groups.io Tim suggests that people be given instructions on adding themselves to groups.io

New business

None

Announcements

John WB0CMC@cox.net (or @outlook.net) – Wants help. He has a 2 meter grid dish. Wants it taken to the recyclers. There’s a spot a mile west of John’s house. Wants to get rid of too.

John WB0CMC says repeater is working.

Tim KF0TMZ – May 9th Lincoln HAMFEST at Sandhills global event center (like last year). John mentions BARC HAMFEST

Pat K0CTU has three items in the raffle. Six tickets for $5.

Business Meeting adjourned

Motion to adjourn business meeting at 7:16.

Presentation & Discussion

At 7:30 PM, HamVillage.org members presented about their organization and ham radio outreach.

They were in Omaha for https://kernelcon.org that ended on Friday 10 April 2026.

12 people passed ham radio exams: 11 new technicians and 1 new general. Jake was at the AARC meeting -- he passed the tech exam that morning.

About six HRV folks will be at Dayton to do a panel.

Terry – NV0O shooter. Contest “can it ham” challenge to build antennas out of unconventional materials. There was a dipole creation.

TruSDX
All in one cable – N6AD creates them. Clubs can do group buys. Can use hand held to send SSTV.

HAM radio folks exploit propagations

The tone of SSTV draws people in.

KX1 and a random wire doing CW.

Birth of the CAN it HAM joke. Like the beverage cooling contest.

Realization that hackers are already experimenting with RF. Can it ham works because it removes the identity concept.

Terry wants to show us that hams are doing the same thing that hackers are doing.

$80 HF Radio TruSDX can be controlled over USB.

The box includes all bands 33 cm to 80 meters. Runs off of battery for about an hour.
There’s a bill of materials (BOM) for the box. An amazon shopping list.

Andrew up next

Licensed in the 90s with no code novice. Recently upgraded to extra in 2025.

Andrew is deeply involved in scouting. HAM radio there too. IC 7300 waterfall helps catch people’s eye and get them to stop and look.

“Complexity over curiosity"

HAM radio can be complex to visualize. How to give folks a good experience in three minutes. 15 at most.
Going for guiness world record for most exams. 173 tests in a day from Dayton in the 1980s is the number they hope to best.

How to explain a fox hunt to a hacker? A badge that is a fox is a way to start. Because there’s a badge life culture. Volunteers were tracked by tape measure yagis to track them. This was very popular. Also have some stationary foxes. The people walking with a fox badge is hard mode.

Unit cost is $7 for the fox badge.

One of the villagers teaches RF theory in college.

Kernel con – 606 people attended.

Hand ‘em a radio and show them how to send a meme over the air. Let them hear the SSTV tones.

Phone app: Robot 36 does SSTV

Kernel 10 – annual membership.

One villager is a project lead for ARDEN.

Single band QRP kit that fits in an altoid can.

Tru SDX is all open source. All on github. Or can buy it prebuilt on Amazon.

Mary N0TRK commented that 30 people signed in on the attendance sheet.

From Volunteer Donors to K0UNO

2026-03-26T00:00:00Z

New business from 3/13/2026

Matt N3PAY was recognized by the president and moved:

"The Aksarben Amateur Radio Club authorize a gift for $200 to K0UNO, the amateur radio club, at UNO."

After discussion, the motion passed with about 12 members voting yes and two members voting no.

Tim AB0S suggested collecting donations for the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) amateur radio club K0UNO. $356.00 in cash was collected. Richard KI6DPT donated a UV-25X4 VHF/UHF Quad Band radio. Matt N3PAY has the donation and will pass it along to K0UNO.

Matt N3PAY is extremely grateful to our club and cherishes the generosity of the donors.

Meeting adjourned

The meeting wrapped up about 9:55 pm. Mary N0TRK commented that 27 people signed in on the attendance sheet.

Minutes for 3/13/2026 meeting

2026-03-13T00:00:00Z

Social

At 7:00, Sean AD0GQ started the meeting and announced that the business meeting would be at 8:30 pm, after the presentation. Sean encouraged the club to mingle, snack, and buy lottery tickets from Pat K0CTU.

At 7:25, the lottery winners were drawn.

Presentation & Discussion

At 7:30 PM, Jim KX0U began his presentation about "Using inexpensive 75 ohm coax (in more ways than most hams imagine possible)."

Business meeting

At 8:36, Sean AD0GQ called a business meeting to order. The meeting lasted approximately one hour and twenty minutes. Sean AD0GQ controlled the agenda and flow of the meeting.

Secretary report

Matt N3PAY commented that the board meeting minutes were approved in the traditional way. Board meeting minutes from 1/27/2026 are online. The minutes for the February 24, 2026 board meeting are available online to view. Matt N3PAY plans to bring six printed copies to the board meeting on 3/31/2026 because the board seems to prefer reviewing minutes during board meetings. Sean AD0GQ did comment, via email on 3/3/2026, that he "skimmed it and did not see anything askew."

Treasurer's report

Sean AD0GQ read the note Adam KD0MMG gave him.

$4675.52 Checking account
$7235.09 Savings
$6575.47 CD one
$6840.50 CD two
$25,326.13 Main
$3129.96 Repeater fund

The total of the numbers above is $53,782.67.

Secretary's note: perhaps the grand total of funds is $25,326.13 and there's not a main account with 25k.

President’s report

Sean AD0GQ talked about the meeting format, conducted informal polls, and solicited comments from people at the meeting.

This section of the meeting lasted about 41 minutes.

Sean AD0GQ writes:

There was an overwhelming show of hands to return to the previous meeting format, so that will begin with the April 10, 2026 meeting, Hopefully, the presentation can begin at 7:30 pm. I plan to implement a visible 90 second timer for each report. If we do not hit the 7:30 mark for the presentation, then in May, it will shorten to 60 seconds.

I will also announce this at the board meeting, send an email to membership, and submit a Prez Sez entry to Brian for the Ham Hum.

Vice President's report

Jim KX0U made several points, including:

He has been reaching out to people who are outside the group. For example, he arranged the February 2026 presentation from Mark W5TSU.
- Mark has another presentation in mind involving Hack RF capturing most of the VHF band.
- Another gentleman has offered to do remote presentations. We're looking into this.
We have the results of the poll we did some time ago. We're going to use that poll to help guide topics for upcoming technical programs.
We have two different backup plans for times when the planned technical program does not happen.
In April 2026, Ham Radio Village will present the technical program entitled "Ham Radio Village bridges hacking with hams."

Pat K0CTU

Corporate Cup April 19, 2026
Track meet May 21, 22, 23, & 25, 2026
Market to Market is in late October

ARES -- Jim W0JRN

"I don't know. Because Greg didn't tell me anything."

SATERN -- Mary N0TRK

The next SATERN meeting is at 9:30 AM on 3/28/2026 at the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services Building at 10629 Burt Circle in Omaha. We welcome everybody to come. Topics include the upcoming field day.

Publications/Web Services Committee: Brian WE0BEP

This month's issue is very short
I'm always looking for ideas, if not a full article to publish.

Membership committee: Mary N0TRK

People have until 3/31/2026 to pay dues in order to avoid missing a ham hum.
New members, KF0WJZ and N0ATK, were inducted with Mary N0TRK's usual ceremony.

Old business:

No old business.

New business

Matt N3PAY was recognized by the president and moved:

"The Aksarben Amateur Radio Club authorize a gift for $200 to K0UNO, the amateur radio club, at UNO."

After discussion, the motion passed with about 12 members voting yes and two members voting no.

Matt N3PAY is extremely grateful to our club and cherishes the generosity of the donors.

Meeting adjourned

The meeting wrapped up about 9:55 pm. Mary N0TRK commented that 27 people signed in on the attendance sheet.

Minutes for 1/27/2026 board meeting

2026-02-25T00:00:00Z

During the AARC Board meeting on 2/24/2026 Sean AD0GQ and others voted to approve the minutes for the 1/27/2026 board meeting.

Minutes for 12/30/2025 board meeting

2026-02-24T00:00:00Z

During the AARC Board meeting on 1/27/2026 the board voted to approve the minutes for the 12/30/2025 board meeting.

Minutes for 2/13/2026 meeting

2026-02-13T00:00:00Z

Meeting started at 7:01 pm by Sean AD0GQ reading announcements. New members KI6DPT, KF0VQM, KF0VIH, and KF0WIJ were inducted with Mary N0TRK's usual ceremony. Then, Sean encouraged people to eat snacks and buy lottery tickets from Pat K0CTU. Tickets were drawn at approximately 7:25pm.

New in 2026, AARC has said the plan is to start the technical presentation at 7:30 PM sharp whenever possible.

At 7:30 PM, Jim KX0U introduced the guest speaker - Mark W5TSU. Mark walked through his Heremes-Lite transciever setup.

Meeting wrapped up about 8:40 pm. Mary N0TRK commented there were 33 people on the sign up sheet.

Verbal Annoucements from 2/13/2026 meeting

2026-02-13T00:00:00Z

AARC President Sean AD0QG read from two sheets of paper at 7 pm 2/13/2026.

Photographs of the two pages was OCRed by Google's Gemini AI; the output is below:

SATERN Meeting Information SATERN meeting on February 21st at 9:30 am at the EDS building –

Topics include upcoming large scale event participation in Wisconsin and Oklahoma for SATERN members

And we will be doing training on APRS – and specifically APRSIS32 and how it has unique features that help in a disaster response – that I have not found in other APRS clients (and after 30 years.. I have seen a lot of Clients)

AARC Volunteer Opportunities - reach out to Pat at k0ctu@cox.net

Corporate Cup April 19th – about 7:00 am to noon (at the latest generally). This is in and around Ak-Sar-Ben and Elmwood park – HT is all that is generally needed.

State Track Meet May 20, 21, 22, 23 - this is usually done in the MID afternoon – you don’t need to sign up for all days –

Market-to-Market Relay - October 17th - various start times from early morning (EARLY 4:30 am) to 9:00 am ish.. End times vary – expect 5 to 8 hours depending on start time– we are generally done with all exchange point - details will be out ass soon as the exchange points are confirmed for the dates - online sign up sheet will be available as always

If you have an event you think we can support – please reach out to the organizers first to ensure they need/want our help – and also make sure it does not overlap with scheduled events (such as our picnic and/or the flea market – better to not offer than to offer and not be able to support)