HO MOD SIG MONTHLY MTG. MINUTES, June 7, 2008, Black Bear Diner in Redmond
by Norm Curtis, Chairman

COMMENTS:
1. Meeting Date: The next meeting is July 12, ‘08, 9:30 a.m., TBD (to be determined). This will be a work party at someone’s home, NOT a breakfast at Black Bear.

PAST SHOWS:
2. Debrief Rollin’ Rails: May 10, Norm
Not much said about this show. It was less work and more fun because we had lots of helpers. (Thanks) Kinda neat was having Mike B present with his restored modules.

NEXT SHOWS:
3. Other show’s status: Norm
NP Convention: We have eliminated that show from the agenda as host not responding.
Maple Valley: Still no response from hosts.
NETC: (summer): We have enough modules and interest to participate. I contacted Bob who said that the room is full of stuff. He is considering two other groups, UNW and the freemo group. To avoid the two shows like last year, I told him that our preference was for December as per group vote.
Lynden: Pete has volunteered to coordinate. Rob is going to enable setup so it should be a go.
Black Diamond Days: No interest from group shown on email inquiry. Eliminated
MTF: (Model Train Festival, Tacoma). No word from Mike. Earlier he thought long shot.

NEW BUSINESS:
4. BBQ at Cherry Valley: Tom
He announced that he would be holding a BBQ at Cherry Valley to kick off the 2008-09 season. Lots more areas have been completed like the turntable, car ferry, and Black Diamond Mines. The BBQ may be the 2^nd or 3^rd Saturday in September.
5. NCE RADIO UPGRADES: Norm
Good news! NCE announced their Generation 3 radio (Ver 1.5). It promises "increased response, consistent performance, and increased range." It’s "just like being plugged in." To get the upgrades, we have to mail in all of our radio equipped cabs @$25 each. The group voted to proceed. We will wait until we have a gap in shows to send them in and there may be a waiting period. If you have a radio cab, you may want to us to send it in at the same time.
6. ANTENNA MOUNTS: Norm
As you know, we continually break off antennas. Guess what, we are not alone. Apparently the idea of mounting antennas on the PC boards is not a good one. We have learned of a private modification where the antenna mount is screwed onto the cab case and wired to the PC board, ending this constant problem. We’ll be making this modification after the radio boards have been replaced (see radio upgrades above).
7. New Terminal Strips: Norm
I read about and shared some information on a different style of terminal strips. The group was not impressed. Thanks to Brian P. I found that they were a little more expensive than the usual style and must be purchased in bulk.
8. Storage of special jumper tracks: Norm
The jumper tracks are not all alike, sad to say. Some, like the bridge, wye, and gap jumpers, have insulated joiners or unique lengths.
Regular jumper tracks cannot be used or adapted for these uses. If lost, we have to find new tracks and set them up with the correct joiners. Unfortunately during takedown, they get scattered like the wind and during the next setup, extra time is required to locate all of them. For example, during the Rollin’ Rails setup, at least half an hour was spent trying to find, not finding, and then trying to remake the bridge tracks.
We discussed this issue and tried to find out where most people would intuitively store these tracks during takedown and that is where they will be stored!
So from now on they will be stored as follows:
Bridge Tracks (8) in the bag under the bridge,
Gap tracks (4) in with the bag under the bridge,
Wye tracks (5) in with the wye scenery box.
If you cannot remember this, during takedown ask or put them on the 4D table.
In addition, I will mark these more vividly so that they can be easily spotted.

OLD BUSINESS:
9. UTP panels on corners: Norm
Last fall, we planned to put UTP panels on the corners. At Rollin’ Rails, we were able to try a Cab Bus socket outside on one of the corners. Users found that it worked just fine. It is a relatively simple solution. We didn’t discuss this at breakfast, but will at the next breakfast.
10. EPROM upgrade: Norm
We upgraded the NCE EPROM last year and found that it interfered with the computer programming. Recently we found that the new EPROM uses binary instead of simple text to communicate, so neither Easy Ramp, nor DecoderPro could communicate with the Command station. We had to make a choice.
A. New EPROM, advanced features of chip, only DecoderPro, no EasyRamp
B. Old EPROM, no new features, EasyRamp and DecoderPro
You can see that we loose EasyRamp with the new EPROM. If we find that DecoderPro is easy enough for everyone, then the decision is a no brainer. The group went with the new one.
11. Work Party, Norm
We decided to have a few work parties instead of breakfasts this summer since there are few shows and so many things needing to be done. Our first session will be, instead of breakfast, July 12 and focuses on backboards. If you need blue paint, or the background mtns, you need to come or at least send us your backboards. If you want to do foreground, then you’re welcome too. It helps to have your module or pictures of it to help design the foreground. Site TBD (to be determined).