Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. 
October 6, 2008 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA.
 http://www.erarc.com 
The October meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by Steven Stefancic KD8EPJ, ERARC Vice President. There were 18 members and guests in attendance.
 Hooger Fisher, W4OF, ERARC Secretary / Interim Treasurer read the September minutes. 

 Steven asked Don Anderson WD8OOR about how Bob Frazier WB8NRK was getting along while recovering from a stroke. Don said that Bob was doing better, was putting 6-8 words together in a sentence now and is walking noticeably better. He observed that there is quite a difference between his initial condition and how he is now.  

 Hooger Fisher gave his report. Several membership renewals have been processed, a phone bill was paid and there are now 79 renewed memberships as of tonight, as is his best count as of now. 

 Lonnie Underwood KI4EED asked about putting out flyers as to how to become an Amateur. He said that he would have no problem trying to get the message out. He also mentioned Jamboree On The Air on October 18, at the Bluefield Virginia Rescue Squad at 9am.  http://www.arrl.org/scouts/jota/  

 He will go down on the 17th and setup the antennas and looks forward to showing local Scouts about Echolink, Ham Radio, and more about the hobby. When asked about Echolink, Lonnie said that the ‘49’s Echolink was working just wonderfully. He gave a report on talking to a Ham, originally from Bramwell now living in Wisconsin, that connects occasionally and reminisces. 

 John Riddle said that the next ARRL VE test session will be on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at the Mercer County 911 Center at 9am. He also said that we need to take a trip to Jay Belt’s (K8CTI) site on East River Mountain to reset the packet and DAREN radios. Steve O’Dell said that the packet machine has been offline for weeks. Don Anderson will try to help get to the mountaintop with John, maybe this weekend. John mentioned that the APRS is working fine on the ‘new’ format but not on the ‘old’ APRS format. 


  Steven mentioned that Cathy Underwood KG4CTK had brought up the need to see if the Club could receive funding through Homeland Security for a Communications Trailer. He has been thinking of the possibility of obtaining a trailer for storage and deployment for communication capability and has researched pricing for such a trailer. He quoted single and double axle trailers of several dimensions such as 6 X 12, 7 X 12, and the like and the prices locally range from $2975 to $4100. Discussion. Suggestions included the Community Foundation of the Virginias, Inc. (http://cfvinc.org/) and the Shott Foundation for funding. Don Anderson will check prices at O’Quinn Trailer and Motor Co. in Coeburn, Va. Steven made a motion, seconded by John Riddle, to go ahead and contact charitable organizations to procure funding for the storage/communications trailer. Vote taken, motion passed. 

 Don Anderson handed out Club membership cards and a letter that asks that if any information needs to be changed to send the new information back with the letter and/or email him at dlanderson@citlink.net . 

 ARES net controls for October: Lonnie Underwood KI4EED said that he would take any net night and if someone wanted to run the net that he’d standby and then join the net.  

 The meeting was over at 728pm. 

 John Riddle won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund. There was a $20.00 donation for the repeater fund specifically in lieu of the 50/50 drawing. THANK YOU FOR THE DONATION! 

1. Equipment inventory with serial numbers for Bob for insurance reasons

2. Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via the Office of Homeland Security.

 

NOMINATIONS FOR ERARC OFFICERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP TONIGHT. IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU CAN HELP THE CLUB IN ANY POSITION, PLEASE COME NEXT MEETING AND PUT YOUR NAME IN THE HAT. NEW BLOOD IS GREAT FOR AN ORGANIZATION.