Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. July 7, 2008 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The July meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by George Dietrich, ERARC President. There were 18 members and guests in attendance. George mentioned Field Day at Camp Roland in Bastian, Va. on June 28-29. Hooger Fisher W4OF played a video of the coverage that W V V A TV did on the event. Comments were plentiful: Bill Sowers K8WBS: Encouraged all to attend FD as it is the greatest Amateur Radio event ever and that one must attend FD at least once. Gary Kader N8GK: Reported on going to WB8NRK Bob Frazier’s home to get the antennas, feed lines, ropes, etc. He reported that Bob was having a good day and was moving around and communicating pretty well. He said that some of the experimentation that was done was either a success or failure. His “golf ball launcher” (for sending fishing line up into the trees) was a failure but Don Anderson’s G5RV 160-10M antenna was a success. Gary mentioned that the 3 EL beam that Lonnie Underwood KI4EED donated is evidently missing a Gamma Match or something. John Riddle N8RIG has a similar beam that has some sort of coil and matching system on it. Gary doesn’t know the brand name of the beam. He said that Randall Hash WB4BBF put a meter on the antenna and it was within frequency limits for the 15M band. Gary thinks that the antenna may be made by “Hy-Gain”. He mentioned later that he had worked several Special Event Stations (SES) including the Battleship New Jersey. He also worked Spain early Sunday morning. He later mentioned that he had purchased a ‘cheap’ generator from Lowe’s for $349.00 and it worked very well and was surprisingly quiet. The unit was capable of trimming the frequency and voltage output. Gary made special commendation to Ginny Fisher KF4YBU for all that she did to ensure that we had a wonderful dinner at FD. He said that all went well and was really great. He thanked Don Anderson for bringing breakfast for the operators and setup/teardown crew on Sunday morning. Hooger Fisher gave a report on the total points made by W8MOP. 1050 bonus points, 980 QSO points, total: 2030. 15M was dead until later in the day. This was the first FD that the ERARC had worked 160M by everyone’s knowledge. Don Anderson: The G5RV worked well with a tuner on the 160M band. Don also said that we had two generators that were never used. Dave Cox N4DBC: mentioned working the Voice of America SES. George asked Jay Belt K8CTI for a repeater report. He reminded us that the ’49 is now home for Echolink and that Don Anderson had donated a power supply for the ’49. 444.45 working well as is the 442.45. When asked about the packet digis, Steve O’Dell N8SNR said that he could not get BLFD to respond. John Riddle said that the TNC and radio probably need to be cut off then back on to restore function. Bill Sowers said that we need to be thinking of an alternative storage site for the Club’s stuff now stored at Bob Frazier’s garage. Discussion. Roger Stefancic KC8LGR suggested an enclosed trailer for storage and deployment. We probably need a 12’ trailer. Don Anderson said that we may be able to get a trailer from WV surplus. John Riddle said that Bob Hoge N8RIR has dealings with the surplus people in Charleston. Don will email him tonight. Gary Kadar made a motion, seconded by Bill Sowers to purchase large plastic boxes with lids to store the wire antennas, feed lines, ropes, etc. etc. now stored at Bob’s house. The cardboard boxes that we’ve been using for years are coming apart and we need covered boxes to protect the contents from wind and rain when transporting to a site for setup. A vote was taken, the motion passed. Hooger Fisher read the minutes from the June meeting. He also gave a Treasurer’s report which included: $190.13 for equipment insurance, phone bill $18.41, WV Sec. of State $25.00 for corporation annual fee, tonight wrote a check for $321.76 for liability insurance and another phone bill for $18.73. He had one check for $16.00 from Mike and Sid Puckett for membership for the next year and $32.00 in cash from the 50/50 flower fund drawings from the past several meetings. Gary Kadar N8GK, ERARC VEC, reported a balance for the VE Team. He later said that the new ARRL tests are printed and that the old ones have been shredded. After reading the minutes, Hooger asked Don Anderson about the building that housed the ’06 repeater. He said the Dave Lester N8VFR was going to use it for his Church’s Low Power Transmitter in Bluewell. Don Anderson asked about the dues for the Club. They are due by the last day of August for the upcoming year. George asked if there was any new business: David Cox made a motion, seconded by Gary Kadar to buy new ropes for FD. Discussion. A vote was taken, the motion passed. HAROLD HODGES N8NCP is looking for a 240V meter to measure voltage if anyone has one. ARES net controls for July: 8th Harold Hodges, 15th George Dietrich, 22nd Lonnie Underwood or Jerry Connelly KC8TES, and 29th Steven Stefancic KD8EPJ. Ronnie Childress KD8HBO won the 50/50 and donated his winnings to the Club Treasury. The meeting was over at 745pm. Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary. TO DO LIST: 1. Equipment inventory with serial numbers for insurance reasons 2. Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via the Office of Homeland Security. 3. The Communications Bus/ RV that the Club began to work on. Addendum: Gary Kadar and John Riddle went to the Mercer County, WV LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee) for Mercer Co. and a man from Homeland Security said that Amateur Radio really came into play when Public Service communications went down and/or there was too much radio traffice to handle during the situation at hand. He suggested that the local Amateur Radio community be involved in local simulations/mock disasters, etc. Gary said that we should be alert to the need in the future to answer the call for such exercises and the need for help with communications.