Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting.
January 1, 2007 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA.
http://www.erarc.com
The January meeting of the ERARC was opened at 658pm by Lonnie Underwood KI4EED, ERARC Vice President. There were 13 members in attendance.
Lonnie had Hooger Fisher W4OF read the minutes from November and December.
Bob Frazier WB8NRK, ERARC treasurer, gave his report including: $18.50 phone bill and $90.30 other November/December expenditures.
Gary Kadar N8GK had several items to bring up:
1)	Morse Code will no longer be required for General and higher licenses 
once the new law is published in the Federal Register, projected to be law sometime in February. He said that IF someone was pondering on taking the General written test before the law is in effect that he suggests that they wait to do so. The reason is because if one takes the General test now and gets a CSCE (before the new law is in effect) that the person will have to pay again for the VEC to forward the CSCE and upgrade to the ARRL, W5YI, etc. testing group. He suggests waiting until the law is in effect before taking any upgrade test.
2)	Gary has received sticker tapes to cover up the ‘old’ test questions on 
our ARRL VE tests. After the new law comes in effect, the totally new test questions will be released to the VECs.
3)	Once the law takes effect, and you are now a Technician, you’ll then have 
the old Novice privileges for voice on 10 meters.
4)	All VECs do not now have to publicly announce testing sessions.
5)	The 10-day rule for getting testing results to the VE testing group has 
been dropped but the ARRL VE group is still requiring a 10-day maximum.
Lonnie talked about the recent perception of the ‘dumbing down’ of Amateur Radio and about the misinformation floating around the Internet that is actually hurting the hobby and basically saying that just because the Code is not required now does not mean that those who have a license did not work for them. Much discussion.
Cathy Underwood KG4CTK asked about having Ham Radio classes, providing continuing education, etc. etc. to stimulate interest and participation. 
Much, much, much, discussion.
Hooger Fisher won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund.
ARES net controls for January: 2nd Steven Stefancic KD8EPJ, 9TH Cathy Underwood,16th Hooger Fisher, 23rd  Lonnie Underwood, 30th  Jerry Connelly KC8TES.
The meeting was over at 746pm.
Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary.
TO DO LIST:
1)	Bandpass filters for Field Day and VHF contest
2)	Equipment inventory with serial numbers for Bob for insurance reasons
3)	Multiband antenna, feed lines, etc. with Club’s Yaesu FT100, PS, etc.
4)	Bill Sowers’ crank up tower for Boy Scout Camp?
5)	Test/maintain HF, VHF, UHF equipment at the 911 Center.
6)	Go over repeater instructions in Club handbook for being current and 
complete. (add weather radio information, check 911 autodials, etc.)
7)	Jacks and adaptors for head phones for FD. External speakers also.
8)	Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via 
the Office of Homeland Security.
9) IN PROCESS: 147.225 repeater from Bob Frazier to ERARC.