Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club
September 03, 2001 meeting
ACME Fresh Markets, Community Room, Bluefield,VA             
(www.inetone.net/erarc)

     The September meeting of the ERARC was opened at 0700pm by President 
George Dietrich kf4ygl. There were 18 members and guests in attendance.
     The minutes of the August meeting were read. Treasurer Bob Frazier 
wb8nrk, gave the treasurers report.
     Round Mountain ARRL VHF Contest: George mentioned that this weekend is 
contest weekend.  Discussion included getting the tent, feedlines, hopefully 
getting the tower trailer from Ben Mills N8XXA, and meeting at Burger King 
in Brushfork before heading out on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2001.  Everyone is 
invited to attend, help, radio and/or spend the night on the mountain.  
Hooger passed out directions to Round Mt.
     Parking at the Bluefield Coal Show: George asked for more volunteers 
for help with parking cars at the Show on Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 at the 
Brushfork Armory. We currently have around 6 volunteers now and sure could 
use more, even for an hour or so, if possible.
     2001 Christmas Dinner: Hooger gave a report on the five contacts that 
he made for possible sites for the dinner/meeting. Discussion. Betty Viers 
kg4ctl made a motion and it was seconded by Gary Kadar n8gk to hold our 
Christmas dinner/meeting at ACME Fresh Market, Westgate shopping plaza on 
December 3, 2001 at 6pm.  The meeting will follow the dinner.  Patty 
Dietrich kg4aym and Betty Viers volunteered to be ‘in charge’ of getting 
door prizes for the event.  Patty said that at a minimum, the “kids” will 
have a door prize.
     ’49 and 440 repeaters:  Jay Belt k8cti told us that the ’49’s insurance 
will be paid directly to the vendor for the new repeater and the actual 
replacement is in the works.  He said that the 440 repeater is in and he 
just need to get a new set of duplexers and commercial antenna.  Equipment 
he has received now: Kenwood TKR-750/850 FM repeater,  Doug Hall remote base 
interface, Kenwood TM-241 2M mobile radio, CAT 1000 controller.  THE 440 
REPEATER FREQ IS 442.45. Jay said that he’s in the process of getting a set 
of Wacom duplexers and a commercial (~$900.00) antenna for the machine.  Jay 
hopes to have the new 440 machine up ‘by next week’ and will be using one of 
his 440 antennas and a set of duplexers that belong to him, tuned to 442.45. 
  He says that the new repeater will hold up to 40 memories of 2M repeater 
frequencies and also has the capability of manual entry of frequencies.  The 
link will turn off automatically after a period of time of no-use, if setup 
that way.
     Membership: Bob Frazier wb8nrk said that we now have 48 members that 
have paid their dues out of 136 members from last year. Discussion. Gary 
Kadar n8gk made the motion, Bill Sowers k8wBS seconded that Bob send out 
reminders to see if we could get more to renew.
     New business: Gary Kadar suggested that we look into changing the 
election date of officers.  His reasoning is that with memberships running 
out as of August 31, some people do not renew their membership due to 
elections that occur in October.  (One cannot run for office unless they’re 
a paid member).  Discussion.  Bob Frazier suggested to Gary that he go over 
the current By-Laws, change the wording to reflect suggested changes and 
bring it to the club for discussion and/or vote for change.  Gary said that 
he would do that.
     ARES net controls for Sept.: 4th Ed Viers kd4woo 11th George Dietrich  
18th Hooger Fisher  25th  Tom Gordon WW8D.
     The meeting was over at around 0745pm.
NOTE: A meeting of the Bluefield Hamfest followed the ERARC meeting and it 
should be noted that ANY member of Bluefield Hamfest, Inc. PLEASE attend the 
next meeting on October 1, 2001 after the ERARC meeting.  It will be a VERY 
IMPORTANT meeting.
Respectfully submitted, George E. "Hooger" Fisher III, W4OF, Secretary