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QRZ Newsletter – Fall 2003
The annual RMRL holiday dinner will be held on Wednesday,
December 10, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. The location is the Country Buffet
restaurant, 301 West Girard Avenue in Englewood. This is the same restaurant
where we have met for the past several years. It is northwest of the
intersection of Broadway and Hampden. The cost for all you can eat is $9.09
(plus tax) for adults, $8.39 (plus tax) for seniors. Kids 12 and under are 55
cents per year of age, plus tax. We will recognize this year’s volunteers,
elect officers for next year, and give away some early Christmas presents (door
prizes). Please plan to attend and enjoy some holiday cheer!
The 2003 RMRL hamfest was held on Saturday, October 18.
The weather was unseasonably warm, but that didn’t distract anyone from coming.
The event was well attended and very successful!
Ron, NØMQJ, who coordinated the hamfest again this year,
put together a complete report which is posted on the club website. You can
read all the details there. Thanks a lot, Ron, for all of your hard work! A
special note of appreciation also to the volunteers who pitched in and made it
happen!
Mark your calendars now for the 2004 RMRL hamfest, which
will be on Saturday, October 16th. Plan to attend, have a good time, and
support your club!
Thanks to the efforts of our Webmaster, Ron, NØMQJ, the
club now has its own Internet domain name: rmrl.org. The most obvious impact
was the recent change in the website address, which is now
http://www.rmrl.org. The new domain also offers e-mail and distribution
list capabilities that were not available under the previous hosting
arrangement. These are currently being evaluated…more on them later after we
figure out how they work and the best way to use them!
If you haven’t changed your brower’s bookmark to the new
address yet, please do so before the end of the year. The old address will
automatically forward you to the new one until then.
The 146.940 machine is the only RMRL repeater which does
not require subaudible tone (CTCSS) access. However, a rash of recent pager
interference to the repeater suggests that the day is probably not far away when
full-time tone access will become necessary on this machine as well. As RF
sites become more crowded, sources of potential interference are proliferating
and it is becoming very difficult to keep unwanted signals out of the receiver
of a carrier-operated repeater.
If you haven’t set your radios up to use 103.5 Hz CTCSS
encode on the 146.940 repeater, now is the time. Then, if it does become
necessary to place the repeater in full-time tone access mode, you’ll be
prepared. A bonus is that using the 103.5 Hz tone on your signal eliminates the
one second transmit delay that is programmed into the repeater’s controller.
Ever wonder what that $20 you pay in dues each year is used
for?
The club’s largest expense is site rental fees. The days
when an amateur repeater could occupy a prime site at no charge are largely
gone. Most sites are now owned and managed by large companies who, of course,
want to make money. Fortunately, the fact that the RMRL is a ham radio club and
a nonprofit organization, along with some tough negotiating by certain
volunteers, has enabled the club to keep its rental fees affordable – so far.
Other significant expenses include liability and equipment insurance premiums,
parts for the repeaters, charges for the autopatch phone line, website, and IRLP
Internet connection, hamfest-related items, and administrative costs such as
post office box rental and membership supplies.
On the income side, the club has never raised dues in its
30+ year history! Back in the early days, the club only had the 146.940
repeater and there was a $5 initiation fee to join. Today we have ten repeaters
and no initiation fee! It probably comes as no surprise, then, that the club’s
ongoing sources of income (dues and interest) don’t usually cover expenses. We
depend on the hamfest as our major fundraiser to make up the difference (and
more, we hope!). That’s why all members are strongly encouraged to attend – and
bring along as many friends as you can!
The club also benefits substantially from the volunteers
who contribute their time, talents, and equipment. Over the years, these
individuals have worked hard to enable the club to run with the lowest costs
possible. There is no way the club could exist if it had to pay for even a
small part of what volunteers do on an ongoing basis. So the next time you
talk to a club volunteer, take a moment to thank them. And when you write
that annual dues check, thank yourself for supporting the RMRL financially and
remember you’re getting one of the biggest bargains around
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