Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. June 1, 2009 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The June meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by Lonnie Underwood, ERARC President. There were 24 members and guests in attendance. Lonnie asked Hooger Fisher for his report. Hooger went over the May minutes as well as a mention in March about baluns for the Club’s dipoles. Don Andersons WD8OOR gave the Treasurer’s report. Don paid an $18.97 phone bill, a $35.00 Sam’s membership for Gary Kadar N8GK (reimbursed by Gary), $25.00 to the WV Sec. of State for our Charter fee, $192.00 for equipment insurance and $321.76 for liability insurance ($2,000,000 total combined limit). Lonnie Underwood asked Gary Kadar N8GK, ERARC ARRL VEC, for an update concerning the VE team. Gary said that the WV Homeland Security people will be giving the “Cram Session” for the Technician license this Saturday at 9am at the Basic Science Auditorium on the campus of Bluefield State College. The ERARC VE team will be giving the written tests around 1pm or so. Gary is going to spend some of the VE team’s money on folders and pens before the testing. He had received email communication from a contact in Charleston concerning the class/test and was advised to expect 25 to 50 people. Gary said that he is expecting to have 9, hopefully 10 VE examiners to show up for the test. IF YOU ARE GOING TO HELP GARY WITH THE VE TESTING, PLEASE SHOW UP AROUND 1PM AT BSC. During the May 9 test, testing was moved to the Green Valley Fire Department due to a flooded 911 Center. There were 2 new Technicians and 3 successful upgrades. Don Anderson made a motion to transfer $750.00 to the ERARC VE team in order to cover the expense of testing up to 50 people at the Cram Testing event. Fifty tests would come to that amount and the VE team will reimburse the Club once they are reimbursed by the State. This way, Gary can send in the paperwork with payment on Saturday and the ARRL and FCC can get to work on processing new applications. Discussion. Arlie Hicks N8AH seconded the motion, vote taken, motion passed. Don also mentioned that the 911 dispatchers had called him to report that a power supply was making a strange noise and upon investigation, found a bad part in the Astron 35 amp unit there. He used one of his personal power supplies to temporarily replace the bad PS. He called Astron and told them of his need for a small part and a “good blueprint” for the unit. Astron sent him the print and TWO of the parts for free. He repaired the unit and replaced it at the 911 Center. While there, he tested all of the radios and made sure that they were working and they were. The battery backup was tested and he found that several of the cells were bad so he just took them out of line since the 911 Center has emergency backup power. Ronnie Childress KD8HBO, Mercer Co. ARES EC was asked about ARES. Ronnie said that he hopes to get an ARES meeting going in the near future and plan on drills and the like. Don Anderson and John Riddle N8RIG said that they had researched the use of 1:1 baluns with dipoles and suggested that the Club purchase 5 of them for the 10, 15, 20, 40, and 80 meter dipoles that the Club owns for increased receive and transmission. Discussion. Don made a motion to purchase 5 baluns at a cost of around $125.00, seconded by John Riddle, vote taken, motion passed. http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/ FIELD DAY: Radios: Gary Kadar> radio and generator to work 15M, Bill Sowers> radio, Don Anderson> radio for 160M and the Club generator, and Randall Hash WB4BBF> radio and generator, working CW on a band to be determined. Hooger Fisher mentioned that we would have a GOTA station (Get On The Air) http://rars.org/fieldday/gota_faq.htm and we will use the Club’s radio for that station. THERE WILL BE A POTLUCK DINNER AT 6PM ON SATURDAY, JUNE 27 AT ERARC’S FIELD DAY AT CAMP ROLAND. Hooger read a letter from Ann Rinehart KA8ZGY, WV SM, for the WV State Amateur Radio Council concerning a “Booster” page to be included in the August 23 WV ARRL Convention booklet (held at Jackson’s Mill, Weston, WV). She is soliciting $1.00 donations from amateurs to have their name and call included on this ‘booster’s’ page. A sign up sheet was passed around and 22 dollars and 21 call signs and names were recorded. We evidently missed someone’s call and name. This list needs to be turned in by July 31; it will be held until after Field Day and the July ERARC meeting are over. Hooger mentioned that there had been discussion about the equipment donated to the Club by Jerry Connelly KC8TES-SK and its storage and use. He said that it had been suggested that ERARC / ARES amateurs be able to “check-out” a piece of the equipment, much like checking out a library book, and get to know how to program and use it. The equipment is stored at Communications Technologies, Inc. on Bland Street in Bluefield, WV and there are three key holders within the Club (Jay Belt K8CTI, John Riddle and Don Anderson). Discussion. The membership here tonight agreed that it would be a good idea to pursue this with noted comments: it’s the first time that we’ve been in the position to have equipment to ‘loan out’ and check functionality, etc. as well as being able to familiarize same ..have some sort of sign-out sheet so we know who has it and where it is at all times...“You break it, you pay for it” policy...Good to have the opportunity to keep batteries charged and ready to go. We will work on the policies and procedures for this suggestion. Lonnie asked for volunteers for Net Control for the Mercer Co. ARES net. He and Ronnie Childress and others will cover the positions. The meeting was over at 758pm. 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. *********************************************** http://www.emcomm.org/em/2009/jun2009.htm *********************************************** Check out a radio-active site at: http://www.erarc.com , The East River Amateur Radio Club. We'll be glad that you did!