Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting.
October 2, 2006 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA.
http://www.erarc.com
The October meeting of the ERARC was opened at 701pm by George Dietrich KF4YGL, ERARC President. There were 22 members and guests in attendance.
Hooger Fisher W4OF read the minutes of the September meeting.
Bob Frazier WB8NRK, ERARC treasurer, gave his report. He said that he and John Riddle N8RIG had met and filled out the paperwork for the FCC to make John the trustee for all of the W8MOP repeaters. Bob said that we now have
96 members that have renewed to date.
George asked Gary Kadar N8GK about the September 9-10 ARRL VHF contest. Gary said that they did well with 4018 claimed points and that he, Jerry Connelly KC8TES and Dave Cox N4DBC setup on East River Mountain at the J104 antenna site using the Club’s radio and Jerry and Dave’s radios. Other operators included Roger Stefancic KC8LGR and Lonnie Underwood KI4EED. Gary said that Saturday was weak in the number and quality of contacts and that Sunday was much better. He mentioned that at one time, one contact told him that he was in the 6M DX window and asked him to move. Gary apologized and moved up the band (although he had made several contacts on that frequency). Gary was asked if the generators worked OK and he said that they didn’t use them due to the generosity of the J104 staff allowing them to use power from the transmit building at the site. Gary asked that we send a thank-you note to Keith Bowman and Mike Shott of Adventure Communications for use of the site and power.
Jay Belt: All of the repeaters are working well.
Hooger Fisher brought up Jamboree On The Air, October 21. Lonnie Underwood KI4EED has volunteered to head up the event that will be held at the Bluefield Virginia Rescue Squad from 9am to around 1pm. The object of the event is to allow Boy/Cub Scouts and Girl/Brownie Scouts to contact one another via Amateur Radio and find out a little about their Scouting experiences, where they live, etc. Hooger mentioned that the Scout Council allows the ERARC to use Camp Roland for Field Day since we provide JOTA for the Scouts. He said that he had a box full of handout materials for the event and a pair of CW signal sets for the Scouts to send their names in Morse Code to one another. Patty Dietrich KG4AYM asked if we could advertise the event in the newspapers and TV. Hooger will take care of that.
Jerry Connelly said that this Saturday, October 7, will be the annual ARES Simulated Emergency Test on VHF/UHF/HF from sometime between 10am and 3pm. 
He handed out some literature on the event and asked for volunteers to sign up for the event. This year’s event involves an influenza pandemic.
George asked for nominations for ERARC officers for 2007. Gary Kadar made a motion, seconded by Arlie Hicks N8AH, to retain the current officers for the next year unless someone wanted to ‘put their name in the hat’ for office. 
Discussion. A vote was taken and the motion passed to keep the current officers for next year
  Lonnie Underwood recognized Anthony Cook KD8EHT for taking and passing his Technician license since the September meeting.
Patty Dietrich reminded everyone about the December 4, 2006 Christmas dinner at Ryan’s and asked that Hooger check with the management to reserve the meeting room for the event. Hooger said that he would. (Ed: room/time reserved as of 0745pm tonight). She mentioned that the membership always comes through with a good variety of door prizes for the event.
George had Bill Sowers K8WBS to give a synopsis of their recent motorcycle trip around all of the Great Lakes.
George recognized D.M. Orr WB8FLE who came to the meeting. DM lives about 5 miles south of Pearisburg and joined the club back in the spring.
ARES net controls for August: 3rd Jerry Connelly KC8TES, 10th George Dietrich, 17th Hooger Fisher, 24th Lonnie Underwood, 31st Lonnie Underwood. 
Patty Dietrich mentioned that the Club, at one time, had a Goblin Patrol on Halloween, taking emergency calls from Amateurs during Halloween night and forwarding the calls to 911 dispatchers. Lonnie said that he would do that also.
The meeting was over at 0736pm.
Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary.
TO DO LIST:
1)	Bandpass filters for Field Day and VHF contest
2)	Equipment inventory with serial numbers for Bob for insurance reasons
3)	Multiband antenna, feed lines, etc. with Club’s Yaesu FT100, PS, etc.
4)	Bill Sowers’ crank up tower for Boy Scout Camp?
5)	Test/maintain HF, VHF, UHF equipment at the 911 Center.
6)	Go over repeater instructions in Club handbook for being current and 
complete. (add weather radio information, check 911 autodials, etc.)
7)	Jacks and adaptors for head phones for FD. External speakers also.
8)	Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via 
the Office of Homeland Security.
9) IN PROCESS: 147.225 repeater from Bob Frazier to ERARC.