The meeting was called to order at 8:30 A.M. EST by LARG President Luther Guise, K5NOB. There were 36 attendees present.

Minutes from the January 2011 meeting were approved without change.

Jeff, KE5APC, presented the posted treasurer report. The Treasurer's report was approved as presented/posted.

The following guests/new members were present:

New Member, Lloyd Harting – KJ4BXA.

Committee Reports

Public Service / Training:

Jay Greeley – KI4UTB Planning a Technician training class in April. He will be looking for a Scout that would like to do an Eagle project at Field Day with us this year.

Jay is planning to do a General class sometime this year.

VA Defense Force needs assistance with Satcom / Irridium training. Club members interested in helping should contact Jay.

Balloon: No report.

Field Day: Chris Painter, KB3RUR announced a kickoff meeting for Field Day 2011 to be held at NTSB Ashburn building. Date and time TBA. The goal of the meeing is to select a location and get the org chart filled in. A second meeting will be held in May before Dayton. Date and time TBA.

Interference: Rick, AI1V, reported that WAGE is not yet on the air. Members have heard WAGE conducting tests. WAGE will be transmitting with 50K watts during the day when they go on the air. Rick has obtained a filter from Clifton Labs to help eliminate interference.

Contesting: John - W4AU not present at the meeting, but is planning with Gary NC4S to have a 2m Simplex training session after the Sunday 2m net.

Website: Norm, AI2C, has added a bug reporting link on the website, look for it!

Awards: Norm, AI2C, presented the ideas that the Awards Committee have come up with for the Chase Hunt Loudoun Award. A display was at the back of the meeting room. The award criteria is as follows:

• 50 Contacts of stations in Loudoun County
• 10 Towns / Villages by Zip code, 21 total
• Working K4LRG
• Working 15 LARG members.

Norm said that there are 913 Amateurs in Loudoun.

Legislation Affairs: Rick, AI1V reported that all the amateur radio related bills in Richmond have been tabled. Congress is still considering an auction of 420MHz spectrum. ARRL has requested letters be sent to congress to prevent this auction.

Programs: Brian, KG4UPR thanked Rick, AI1V in advance for today's Balloon program. He is working with AMRAD for a future program.

Repeater Status: Dulles Repeater (145.310 MHz - W4DLS Repeater): Frank Gentges – K0BRA reports that he and Craig Brown secured some loose hardware on the antenna and that it seems to have fixed the problem with the repeater.

Leesburg Repeater (146.700 MHz - WA4TXE Repeater): Dave Boltson - WA4TXE, reports that the weather alert feature on the repeater is not working correctly. It is designed to repeat NWS alerts. Dave is planning a spring antenna party at the hospital site to replace some 9913 feedline with hardline.

Old Business:

Denny Boehler, KF4TJI, reminded attendees that he had once again produced a LARG calendar for 2011 and that they were $5 each, with all proceeds going to the club. He also thanked everyone who supplied pictures for the calendar.

The VAQP is Mar, 19th and club members are encouraged to participate. John Unger, W4AU will be organizing training and sending out his tips for operating in this contest.

New Business:

Carol, KF4TJJ, Reminded the membership about the YL Convention to be held July 21-24, 2011 in Quincy, MA. YL members are also selling raffle tickets to support YL scholarships for $1 each.

Chris Patton, W3CUM reported on attending the Skywarn quarterly meeting. A net control training class for Skywarn is being organized.

Jeff, KE5APC, indicated that several of the awarded door prizes are available for purchase: Power pole crimper, Byonics APRS Tracker kit, and the Icom HT. Contact Jeff if interested.

The following expenditures were appoved:

Holy Trinity Church, $200 for use of the meeting room.
Leesburg VFW, $200 for use of the building.
Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club, $50 for the VAQP award LARG is sponsoring.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 A.M. EST.

After the formal close of the meeting, Rick – AI1V gave the Ballon presentation he took to the Escondido radio club.

Respectfully submitted, Doug Johnson, KJ4BRN, LARG Secretary

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A reminder to all about Holy Trinity's inclement weather policy: if Loudoun County Schools are closed (or would be if it were a school day), all activities at the church are cancelled – this includes outside groups. This policy allows for parking lot clearing so snow is not packed down; and it is also a safety issue.