Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club
October 7, 2002 Ryan’s Steakhouse, Bluefield, VA. (www.erarc.com)
The October meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by George Dietrich 
KF4YGL. George welcomed all in attendance. There were 26 members and guests. 
George mentioned that he’d received a thank you card from the Don Anderson 
family re: flowers for his father’s funeral. Also, a QSL card request from 
AD4IE from the Sept. VHF contest.
Treasurer’s report given. Bob also said that as of tonight, there are now 
115 paid memberships for the ERARC.September minutes read.
John Riddle N8RIG, packet still ‘down’. HE HIGHLY SUGGESTED THAT WHEN USING 
ANY AUTOPATCH, TO < IDENTIFY > YOURSELF BEFORE USING IT. There have been 
several recent incidents where no one ID’d, including calls to 911.  John 
has ‘brought down’ a couple of unidentified calls.
**** NEW ECHOLINK INSTRUCTIONS, WHEN MOBILE / ACCESSING VIA RADIO (0N THIS 
END) ***:::: You must now enter “ *0 “,  (star zero) before entering the 5 
digit repeater number. 
**********************************************************************
Tom Gordon WW8D passed out an ARES questionnaire asking who can help if 
called, what kind of SET (simulated emergency test) training we’d like to 
see, and the like.  John Riddle asked all ARES members to ask their 
employers to see if they could get off of work if needed in a true 
emergency.
DAVID LESTER N8VFR, webmaster, is the guy who got the club the www.erarc.com 
  address.  He was here tonight to see if there’s any interest from the club 
members on members getting their own xxxxxx@erarc.com email address.  He 
said that there would be an annual fee of $15.00 per address, with the club 
receiving $5.00 per member and address.  This is an ‘alias’ address, 
forwarding to your ‘normal’ email address. He needs at least 3 members to 
start with.  Contact David at dave@routeme.com.
George: Christmas dinner.  Hooger Fisher w4of said that since last meeting, 
he had contacted Ryan’s management and got an OK for a 6pm December 3 date.
George: Mentioned that Bob Frazier WB8NRK has been taking care of the 147.06 
Princeton repeater for years and now is looking for someone to take over the 
care of the repeater.
Hooger Fisher: The G5RV HF antenna still needs to be put up at the 911 
center.
George: Election of officers. Dave Cox KG4MCC made a motion, seconded by 
Bill Sowers K8WBS to keep the same officers unless other nominations were 
made tonight from the floor.  The motion passed with a vote.  No further 
nominations made, the current officers will stay in office for the next 
year.
Round Mt. VHF contest report: John Riddle: “A good time was had by all.” 
Gary Kadar N8GK: not many 442 contacts, several  several 2M and 6M contacts. 
Tom Gordon: Jay Belt brought pizza and Maggie (Tom’s dog) ate quite a bit of 
it. 1189 pts for the contest.
Discussion concerning Saturday morning breakfast site, Green Valley’s 
“Country Kitchen” new place to meet.
Tom Gordon WW8D, Mercer EC, mentioned a meeting at the Mercer Co. courthouse 
several months ago with others that concerned possible terrorist activities. 
Gary Kadar said that our area/state (WV) is where casualties were to be 
taken in case of a mass Washington DC disaster.
ARES net controls: 1st: already done by Tom Gordon WW8D, 8th Shannon Akers 
KC8QNC, 15th Hooger Fisher w4of, 22nd George Dietrich KF4YGL, 28th Ed Viers 
KD4WOO.
Clarification of ERARC VE Team quarterly test sessions at the Green Valley 
911 center, THEY WILL BE ON THE SECOND SATURDAY, QUARTERLY, Feb, May, Aug, 
November. 9am each session.
Tom Gordon would like to get some CW training going on HF. He’ll get back 
with dates, times, frequencies.
Tom Gordon suggested that when we hear foreign stations via ECHOLINK, to try 
to make contact and welcome them so as not to give a bad impression of us 
and WV.
Gary Kadar N8GK suggested that we think about buying two jacks for the 
communications/tower trailer that we use for Field Day/VHF contests so that 
we won’t have to position logs under the wheels to level it.
Tom Gordon said that he used to get information from the “Amateur Radio News 
Service” and he’ll look into it for Betty Viers KG4CTL for newsletter usage. 
Betty handed out a new edition of “The Current” tonight.
Trancy Belcher KA8CFR won the 50/50.
George asked for further business. There being none, the meeting was over at 
0748pm. Respectfully submitted, George E. "Hooger" Fisher III, W4OF, 
Secretary