Minutes of The 42nd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the

Leicestershire Repeater Group held

Thursday 11th May 2017 at 8.00pm at

Leicester Radio Society HQ, Gilroes Cottage, Groby Road, Leicester, LE3 9QJ.

 

The Chairman welcomed all those present. He explained that as members know he is deaf but after suffering a bout of 'flu his ears were blocked so he was finding it difficult to hear. He took the attendance list.

Attendance: 2E0WZV, G0ATR, G0DMB, G1UOZ, G3TQF, G4AFJ, G7LRS, M0CJW, M0VSE, M1GPO, M1NAS, M6JEN, G4VWI.

Apologies:   G4SJX, G8OBP, M0KEF, M1EXO.

Minutes of 2016 AGM which had been circulated previously were taken as read. That the minutes be adopted as a true record of the meeting proposed by M1GPO and seconded by 2E0WZV. Agreed by all.

Treasurer’s Report:

G4AFJ explained that the 'flu bug had made it difficult for him to complete the accounts as quickly as he would have liked so that our inspector of the accounts would have had ample time to inspect them. M1EXO had chased him on Tuesday and he had sent the accounts to her. She had hoped to complete them that evening but unfortunately had run out of time. She hoped to complete them earlier this evening and he would check his email shortly.

He had prepared a draft unaudited members account sheet to help explain the financial situation. From this draft sheet members could see that there had been an income of £2195.80 and an expenditure of £1619.03 resulting in a positive balance of £576.77. Members should note that a considerable amount of repairs and maintenance took place during the year all of which were carried out FOC by our band of willing helpers. So this was an excellent result which had been brought about by a considerable number of donations for the Yaesu Fusion project. Had these donations not occurred we would be in deficit by approximately £360. At this point he adjourned the meeting to check his email for M1EXO's statement of inspection. Her inspection indicated that there was only a matter of pence difference between the draft and inspected accounts. He asked members to adopt the accounts for 2016-17. Proposed by 2E0WZV seconded by M1GPO. All agreed.

Membership Report:

G4AFJ reported that we were losing members and in order to secure the long term future of the Group we needed to actively recruit new licensees and regular users of the repeaters. The present licensing structure meant that newcomers were less likely to operate on their local repeater and so were less likely to join the Group. The situation at the end of our year (31-3-2017) was as follows: Life 6, paying 28 making a total of 34. Also we had 4 donors. During the last year 10 members had not renewed. We had lost one of our life members, Jeff G4ZQT, who had played a prominent part in the early days of the Group. It was he who assisted Stan, G3SQV, in the removal of the original mast from the roof of a warehouse in Croft and reinstalled it at our site.

Engineering Manager’s Report:

M1NAS reported that the Yaesu Fusion repeater had only operated for a short while on GB3CF as the repeater was transparent i.e. there were no pips or 'k's'. As a result a new logic system had been bought from the USA but after a week it failed. It had been returned to the manufacturer but no information had been received about it so far. The other repeaters were working well with minor adjustments needed from time to time. At present there was a problem of interference on the input of GB3LE which appeared to be coming from the area around the top of Narborough Road. Investigations had revealed that it seemed related to the working day as it went off at 12pm on a Saturday. M1NAS asked anyone around that vicinity to check the input carefully to see what they could discover.

The GB3LEU beacon had been producing spurious transmissions so had been taken off air for investigation by G3TQF. The exciter seemed to be working with no spurii noted on extended soak testing. It could be that the problem lies with the PA. Reports were received that GB3LEX was off air. Investigations revealed that it was operational but possibly had dropped in power. It had been taken off air for testing and it was found that the PA had blown. Fortunately G3TQF had sourced another of the same type which had been installed and he was relieved to find that it produced the hoped for 1watt output. It needed soak testing before being returned to service.

Site Manager’s Report:

G4AFJ gave the report as M6BYL was not present. He had made several trips to site during the growing season and had cut back the vegetation.

Chairman’s Report:

The year had been disappointing in some respects although it was financially sound. Loss of membership and the failure of two beacons and the Fusion Repeater logic were rather disappointing although it had to be said that the 10GHz beacon had given quite a few years of service.

The Chairman thanked all members and donors for their support during the year and hoped that they would continue to support the Group. In conclusion he thanked the outgoing members of the committee for their help during the year although it was clear that some were unable to continue as they had attended very few committee meetings and were not responding to emails.

Election of Officers and Committee        

            Chairman: G4AFJ proposed by M1NAS, seconded by M1GPO,  all agreed.

            Secretary: no  proposal

            Treasurer and membership secretary: M0VSE proposed by G4AFJ, seconded by 2E0WZV,  all agreed.

            Engineering Manager: M1NAS proposed by G4AFJ,  seconded by M0CJW, all agreed.

            Site Manager: M6BYL proposed by G4AFJ, seconded by M1GPO, all agreed.

Committee     (three members)

            M1GPO proposed by  G4AFJ, seconded by 2E0WZV, all agreed.

            M0CJW proposed by  G4AFJ, seconded by 2E0WZV, all agreed.

           

Beacon Co-ordinator:  G3TQF would be co-opted by the new committee..

Vote of thanks to M1EXO, accounts examiner. G4AFJ said that as described above M1EXO had managed to inspect the accounts in a very short time and he was extremely grateful to her. Proposed by G4AFJ, seconded by M1NAS,  all agreed.

Formal closure of  A.G.M.

The Chairman closed the AGM by thanking all for their attendance and support in the difficult circumstances he found himself in.

Open Forum

The Chairman asked if there were any matters that the members wished to discuss further but there were none so the meeting was closed and G4AFJ took subs and issued membership cards.