Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. July 6, 2009 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The July meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by Lonnie Underwood KI4EED, ERARC President. There were 11 members and guests in attendance. Don Anderson WD8OOR gave the Treasurer’s report. Don paid an $18.87 phone bill, $124.75 to R&L Electronics for 5 - 1:1 baluns for the Club’s dipoles and $51.00 for new ropes for the dipoles. He deposited one renewal for membership from Willie Carr N4XE and a $750.00 reimbursement check from the ERARC VE Team from the Cram Session testing on June 6 (loaned to the VE team in case 100 candidates did test out on June 6). Lonnie asked Hooger Fisher for his report. Hooger went over the June minutes. Lonnie asked if the local ARES group could us the 147.06 repeater specifically for nets, mock disaster training, and the like. Don said that all of the ERARC repeaters are for all of the members and ARES and that one should not have to go to another repeater than the 145.49 to hold such training just to keep the repeater clear for others to use. If someone else needs to use the repeater, they should ask to use it. The ARES group can always QSY to another repeater if needed. Hooger said that more interest would probably be generated if the ARES traffic stayed on the ’49. Gary was asked about the VE team. Gary paid out $12.00 for new checks, paid the ARRL VEC for the testing on June 6 and kept around $60.00 for supplies for the expected 100 test candidates. Gary gave a report on the Cram Session testing. There were a total of 20 tests given to 18 candidates, two were upgrades, two re-tested, and had about a 75% pass rate of the sixteen who took the initial Technician class. Gary was pleased with how the session went and was happy with the checklist that he made up. This list checks for names, addresses, phone numbers, signatures, etc. etc. once the paperwork is almost finished. Gary again thanked the VE team members for their work in making this another successful session. Don Anderson said that he has several of the actual study books that the men from Charleston conducted the Cram session with. These books have all of the Technician questions and multiple answers in them with the answer noted within the text. He will loan them to anyone that may be interested in taking the exam. Don mentioned that he had gone to the Northern Tool store in Salem, Va. recently and was questioning their mechanic about our broken Coleman 4500 Watt generator. Coleman is out of the generator business and is providing no replacement parts. The Honda motor on the unit is fine and with the very few hours on the unit, the mechanic suggested that we try to sell the unit and get a new generator for much less than what we initially purchased it for. They sell a 5000 watt replacement stator for around $500 and the mechanic didn’t recommend that. Gary Kadar said that the electronics on the Coleman allowed an idle condition when not under load and an increased idle when under load and that it would almost be impossible to find an acceptable idle controller under the best of conditions. Discussion. Gary made a motion, seconded by Roger Stefancic KC8LGR to place an ad in the local Trading Journal at first, then maybe Craig’s List, or eBay at last resort to sell the mounted 13 HP Honda motor with horizontal shaft for an asking price of $350.00; buyer picks it up. It was mentioned that this unit would be great for mounting a water pump to. Hooger mentioned that since the generator failed, there have been many donations to “the generator fund” and that we can use those funds and the proceeds from selling this motor to find a unit that will meet the Club’s needs. Don will get the ad running in the Journal starting this week for four weeks. Lonnie asked for volunteers for Net Control for the Mercer Co. ARES net for this month. He, Ronnie Childress KD8HBO and others will cover the positions. The meeting was over at 805pm. Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary. TO DO LIST: 1. Equipment inventory with serial numbers for insurance reasons 2. Antenna for the Bluefield, Va. Rescue Squad 3. Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via the Office of Homeland Security. 4. The Communications Bus/ RV that the Club began to work on. 5. Communications class for the Mercer Co. Civil Air Patrol 6. Trailer for storing equipment. Also used for deployment. Check out a radio-active site at: http://www.erarc.com , The East River Amateur Radio Club. We'll be glad that you did!