Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club.
April 3, 2006 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA.                
http://www.erarc.com
The April meeting of the ERARC was opened at 658pm by George Dietrich KF4YGL, ERARC President. There were 18 members and guests in attendance.
Bob Frazier WB8NRK, ERARC treasurer, gave his report including VE team $387.60 and flower fund $147.39. He paid $325 for the club’s liability policy, telephone bill, $125 for equipment insurance policy and others. He had sent flowers to the funeral of Ed Vier’s father. Bob said that within the past year, his mother and father in-laws, brother in-law and his sister had all passed away and that he had never had flowers sent from the club. He wanted to know if the club would consider taking $100 from the flower fund and donating it to Md. Hospice. Discussion. By a show of hands, we agreed to make the contribution from the flower fund.
((Bob had previously said that it was time to renew the business memberships (up to 8 memberships, this due by May 18) to Sam’s Club. The only difference between a business membership and a ‘regular’ membership is that one can enter Sam’s before and after regular business hours. The price is the same at $35.00. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO OBTAIN OR RENEW A SAM’S MEMBERSHIP VIA THE ERARC, EMAIL BOB FRAZIER at: bfrazier@frontiernet.net.) Gary Kadar N8GK reported that the VE test sessions are now listed on the ARRL website for the second Saturday in February, May, August and November.
Don Anderson WD8OOR said that the announced time is correct on the repeaters since DST took effect Sunday.  The 444.45 is ‘down’ and in need of repair. 
Jay Belt K8CTI is in the process of getting it off of the mountain and taking a look at it. Hooger said that there was some kind of noise on 53.37 N8RIG repeater this morning at 5am. John Riddle N8RIG hadn’t heard it today.
Bill Sowers K8WBS said that there were now 292,000 registered Echolink users and that the Bluefield 442.45 Echolink was now working again.
Hooger Fisher, ERARC Secretary, read the minutes of the March meeting.
Gary Kadar re: ’49 repeater said that recently he has noticed that there is bad noise on transmit at times. Jay Belt said that he thinks that there is a bad element on the ‘49’s Station Master antenna and the noise is mainly evident under windy conditions.
George brought up Field Day and choosing a site for the event. Gary Kadar said that the elevation on East River Mt. didn’t help our scores, etc. and that 50mhz and up were basically “dead”. Hooger asked about the flat spot halfway up the hill where we had Field Day last year. We had mentioned possibly using that spot this year and last year it was suggested that we rent a porta-potty for the site. Hooger said that it would be around a $70 rental. John Riddle said that if we had to pay that much for a restroom that we should look elsewhere. Discussion. Bill Sowers made a motion, seconded by John Riddle to use Camp Roland for Field Day activities. Motion passed with a vote. Hooger will send in a request to use Boy Scout Camp Roland in Bastian, Va. for Field Day. Patty Dietrich KG4AYM mentioned that the dinner there would be a ‘covered dish affair’.
Gary said that he and John Riddle had attended the last LEPC (local emergency planning committee) meeting at the 911 Center and that a tabletop exercise was planned for some time in May involving a chemical spill around the Bluefield area with evacuations. He did not know if the Club was to be involved.
Dave Cox KG4MCC asked about the VHF or UHF contest the weekend before Field Day. Discussion. Nothing more.
Someone won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund but I missed that part.
ARES net controls for March: 4th George Dietrich, 11th Lonnie Underwood KI4EED, 18TH Hooger Fisher and 24th Jerry Connelly.
The meeting was over at 0721pm.
Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary.