The August meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by George Dietrich KF4YGL, ERARC President. There were 23 members and guests in attendance.
 Hooger Fisher W4OF read the minutes of the June and July meetings. Jay Belt K8CTI reported that the 444.45 repeater is still being worked on. 
 George brought up Bill Sower’s 52” crank-up tower. Bill asked it we’d like to see if it could be setup at Boy Scout Camp Roland for their use as a flagpole and our use as an antenna tower. Hooger Fisher said that he had mentioned this to two of the Camp Roland people and that they knew about it. Russel Taylor KC8GBE will check with the Scout people also. Gary Kadar N8GK mentioned that the Field Day rules say that you cannot use equipment that is permanently setup for FD use. Discussion. Bill has a rotor also.
** ARRL VE test session this Saturday, August 12, 2006, 9am at the Mercer Co. 911 Center **

 Bob Frazier WB8NRK, ERARC treasurer, gave his report. He said that he had received some dues renewals including one man who gave him $100.00 for the next 5 year’s dues and donated the other $50 to the club. Bob asked if he should send out reminders. Discussion. A “YES” on that. Current memberships expire on August 31st.

 George asked Gary Kadar to comment on ERARC’s Field Day 2006. Gary said, “We had it!” and “it rained”, and “we had a pretty good go-round this year”. David Cox made 163 20m QSOs, Gary 107 15m QSOs, Randall Hash WB4BBF made 20 CW contacts, Bill Sowers 20 10m QSOs, Harold Hodges N8NCP and Hooger Fisher 94 75m QSOs; total claimed score 1758, 424 contact points. He said that the generator did well and that he would like to thank everyone who brought food for the potluck dinner, especially Ginny Fisher KF4YBU for the chicken and for breakfast on Sunday morning.  Willie Carr W4XE worked FD by himself close to the WV line out of Roanoke, Va. for 17 hours and made 1124 contacts on 40 meters.  Bill Sowers K8WBS said that his first contact on 10 meters was W1AW in Newington, CT.  Gary had contacted Hawaii and probably needed Alaska to almost have “Worked All States”, Club-wide.  He also mentioned that although better this year, it would be nice to have as many people to tear down, as there were to setup for FD. 

 Gary: Via Dave Cox N4DBC: Dave wanted us to make a “TO DO” list of things that we bring up but never get to or put off until another meeting. Hooger will include this list with the minutes. 

 George had Bill Sowers tell about his most recent long motorcycle trip. Bill took off at 6pm last Saturday, drove 1604 miles from Princeton to Malven, Arkansas and back within 23 hours and 31 minutes to earn his Butt Burner Gold Award.

 Bob Frazier: Bob’s tribander antenna is pointing to the heavens and needs someone to climb the tower, rope it off and then help him lower it so as to repair the antenna. Discussion. Jay Belt will climb the tower and others will help do the lowering after breakfast one Saturday morning, probably on the 19th  of August. 

 George mentioned that Lonnie Underwood KI4EED had recently passed his 5WPM CW test and more recently had passed his General written test. 

 Jay Belt: All of the repeaters are working well except for the 444.45 (which is linked to the 53.37 N8RIG repeater) as previously mentioned. No work needed to get ready for winter as he knows.

 John Riddle N8RIG said that there has been discussion about taking the 147.225 repeater over from Bob Frazier and place it on the mountain with 444.45 in Jay Belt’s building. It has been in the coordination process but will probably have to be PL toned. Gary Kadar wanted to know if it could be placed toward McDowell County, possibly the Windmill Gap area. Discussion. This will be tabled until the next meeting. 
 Lonnie Underwood won the 50/50 drawing and donated his part back into the flower fund. 
 ARES net controls for August: 8th Jerry Connelly KC8TES, 15th Lonnie Underwood, 22nd George Dietrich, 28th Hooger Fisher. 
 The meeting was over at 0736pm. 
 Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary.

 

TO DO LIST:

1)     Get the little generator serviced

2)     Bandpass filters for Field Day and VHF contest

3)     Equipment inventory with serial numbers for Bob for insurance reasons

4)     Multiband antenna, feed lines, etc. with Yaesu FT100, club’s radio

5)     Bill Sowers’ crank up tower for Boy Scout Camp?

6)     147.225 repeater from Bob to ERARC?

7)     Test/maintain HF, VHF, UHF equipment at the 911 center.

8)     Go over repeater instructions in Club handbook for being current and complete. (add weather radio information, check 911 autodials, etc.)

9)     DAREN packet radio EPROM burned? Fixed? Working? Packet working? Packet/DAREN antennas OK? 

10)                      Greg Dominguez N3NPR loaned club APRS TNC Nov ‘05. Still using? 

11)                      Did we get the two position antenna switch for 2M/440 VHF contest?

12)                      Jacks and adaptors for head phones for FD. External speakers also.

13)                      Jamboree On the Air, October 14, 2006.