Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club March 7, 2005 Ryan's Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com P.O. Box 1362 Bluefield, WV 24701 The March meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by George Dietrich KF4YGL, ERARC President. There were 17 members and guests in attendance. George welcomed all. Hooger Fisher W4OF, Secretary, read the February minutes, there were no corrections or additions. He also read the treasurer's report in the absence Bob Frazier WB8NRK. Flowers were sent recently to the funeral for James Willis KC8ZOT. Gary Kadar N8GK gave a brief report on the Feb. 12 VE testing session. One candidate underwent an administrative upgrade from a 1981 Tech Plus to General and another candidate tested for Technician but failed. There were 6 examiners in attendance. He also mentioned that the team is trying to get the Code testing on CD at this time. Jerry Connelly KC8TES, Mercer Co. ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC), encouraged any amateur that would like to resubmit or signup to be an ARES volunteer for Mercer Co. ( http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/forms/fsd98.pdf ) do so and get the form back to him so as to update his volunteer list. (kc8tes@arrl.net) John Riddle N8RIG said that he thought that Jerry needed to appoint or re-appoint the Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC) and Jerry said that he understood that he could either keep the ones in place and/or appoint new ones. George handed out the new newsletter for this quarter and commended Betty Viers KG4CTL for her hard work in putting it together. He asked that ANY materials that can be used for upcoming newsletters be forwarded to Betty at: b.viers@comcast.net. Hooger Fisher suggested that the club purchase headphones for the Club's FT-100 along with wyes (splitters) and adapters so that we can hear better when contesting, etc. Gary Kadar said that it'd be nice to also have a speaker to wye into the system so that others could hear also. John Riddle suggested that we 'use' three sets of headphones from the VE testing team since there's a bunch of them there. Jay Belt K8CTI said that he would make up some wyes for use. We decided that we'd check out the diameters, etc. of the jacks and get the needed parts etc. Gary has a speaker that he'll donate. Hooger mentioned that he has an old VHS camcorder box that may house the FT-100, power supply and related items. (We've been looking for something like this for some time). Discussion. Hooger will get the case to John or Gary and they'll see if all of the items will fit. Gary Kadar gave an informative talk on his "Simple TRS Receiver for Tracking RFI" (RF noise sniffer) with his homebrew "Moxon" antenna. His story: 'During the VHF contest, I was trying to see what was cooking on 2M SSB at home and found a loud RF noise on 144.250. It was a regular noise that repeated at about every second. I got upset, knowing that SOMEONE was interfering with my reception. As you know, I've been having bunches of trouble with RFI for years at my house. I decided to use my attenuator and TRS receiver to find out who was giving me trouble and give them a talking to. I used my outside beam and found that the noise was coming from either the funeral home or school (behind my house). I took my gear to the school, set up and determined that the noise was coming from the funeral home. I thought, "I've got them now." I then moved to the funeral home, set up, pointed toward the funeral home..NOTHING. I pointed to my house. BINGO! I then went to the east, pointed to my house. BINGO! I FOUND OUT WHO WAS INTERFERING WITH MY RECEPTION! I went into the house, cut on the radio, and then started cutting off breakers in the house. When I came to the kitchen breaker, the noise suddenly stopped. I took the radio to the kitchen and began unplugging stuff. It turns out that my wife's old Radio Shack scanner was the culprit. It had suddenly gone south and was giving out a very serious spur (or two).' This project was in the March 2001 QST and can be found in the "Member's Only" section of http://www.arrl.org. The 'guts' of the project was tuned by Jay Belt to a frequency of 136 Mhz (AM) with his service monitor. The kit was $29. Gary also showed off the 'Moxon' antenna which has a lobe on the front and a deep null on the back. He finds RF on the front and determines where it's coming from (more precisely) by using the back of the antenna. Gary tried to give a live demonstration but could not find any RF in the room. Some copies of the article were given out. Gary then mentioned that we, again, consider putting old QST magazines in Doctor's waiting rooms and possibly put a sticker in them indicating when and where the club meets and the URL for the club. John Riddle suggested that maybe Bob Frazier could print up some mailing labels with the information for those that may want to place the magazines. Gary said that he'd recently had sent QSL cards from 1997 and had found out, way after the fact, that he had several cards in the incoming QSL bureau at the ARRL. He suggested that HF operators check with their call area bureau person at the ARRL to see if there are cards waiting for them. HE ALSO SAID THAT HE'D LIKE TO SEE MEMBERS BRING IN OLD QSL CARDS FOR 'SHOW AND TELL' AT A FUTURE MEETING. ARES net control for March: 8th Lonnie Underwood KI4EED 15th Hooger Fisher 22nd Jerry Connelly and 29th George Dietrich. Jay Belt won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund and donated half his winnings to the fund. He has to pay for a prescription with his half. The meeting was adjourned at 735pm. Respectfully submitted, George "Hooger" Fisher 111, W4OF, Secretary. Check out a radio-active site at:, The East River Amateur Radio Club. We'll be glad that you did!