Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club
April 5, 2010
Ryan’s Steakhouse, Bluefield, VA.
http://www.erarc.com 
 
          The April meeting was opened at 705pm by Lonnie Underwood KI4EED, ERARC President. 
There were 13 members and guests in attendance. Lonnie recognized David Bailey N8DMB who was in attendance tonight.
          Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary, read the March minutes. He is currently taking up monies for Sam’s Club membership renewals. Those concerned have been contacted by email.
          Gary Kadar N8GK, ERARC VEC was asked about any new information from the VE team. Gary gave the team’s bank balance and had no further. Since Don Anderson WD8OOR was not present at that time, Gary gave updates on the generator and antenna system for the 145.49- repeater. The generator was picked up in Salem by Don in March and the total was $332.49, which included a $52.49 two-year warranty. The unit will be ready for use for Field Day 2010. Two Saturdays ago, Gary and Don visited the 145.49- repeater site in order to swap out the suspected bad piece of feed line. They replaced the visually bad piece but this did not fix the problem. It’s now being reported that there is an open within the feed line and/or the antenna. They will have to make another visit to the repeater site in order to climb the tower and diagnose and replace broken or damaged parts of the antenna system. Hopefully, the feed line has pulled out of the antenna connector (cheapest) or the feed line is bad (not as cheap) or the antenna is shot (about a $1200 proposition). Don said that the antenna has been used for over 20 years.
          Lonnie has been in contact with the Bastian, Va., Boy Scout Camp Roland properties manager, Solomon Sowers, concerning placement of permanent antenna structure(s) and use of one of the buildings as a ‘command center’ for Bland County ARES.
Lonnie has been asked to be the ARES Emergency Coordinator for Bland County by representative(s) of the ARRL ARES group. Solomon told Lonnie to contact Jeffery Purdy at the Buckskin Council in Charleston, WV to discuss using the camp for ARES purposes. Discussions are ongoing.
          Roger Stefancic KC8LGR, ERARC Treasurer, gave his report including paying an $18.60 phone bill, renew fee for the Post Office Box at $44.00 and reimbursement to Don Anderson for the generator. 
          Lonnie was asked about the March 18 ARES meeting in Bluefield, VA. Lonnie said that they went over basic training information and that one ARES participant was also a member of the Civil Air Patrol and they talked some about the CAP’s mission. The CAP meets every Tuesday evening at 8:30 at the Mercer County Airport if anyone is interested. http://www.wvwg.cap.gov/PAO/PAO.htm 
          Don Anderson showed up and confirmed Gary’s reports (from above) and said that he visited the 147.06 repeater and adjusted the squelch to quell the’kerchunking’ that we have been hearing.
          Janet Belcher won the 50/50 drawing for the ‘flower fund’.
          There was an anonymous $20.00 donation for repair of the repeater.
          The meeting was over at 0740pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
George E. “Hooger” Fisher III, W4OF