Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. September 1, 2008 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The September meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by George Dietrich KF4YGL, ERARC President. There were 21 members and guests in attendance. George asked Don Anderson WD8OOR about how Bob Frazier WB8NRK was getting along while recovering from a stroke. Don said that Bob was doing better, although has a way to go in his recovery. His speech is better and the affected hand/arm is better and he can ‘hunt and peck’ on the computer now. Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary / Interim Treasurer gave his report. Ginny Fisher was reimbursed $30.00 for purchasing the three storage containers for feed lines, antennas, etc. and Verizon was paid $37.70. He has received 24 renewals before tonight and 17 tonight. He also mentioned that: *********************************************************************** THE DEADLINE FOR DUES FOR 2008-2009 MEMBERSHIP WAS AUGUST 31. IT’S $15 FOR EACH MEMBER AND $1 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL MEMBER AT THE SAME ADDRESS. Please email Hooger with any questions/comments at: w4of@hotmail.com and/or mail to: ERARC, P.O. Box 1362, Bluefield, WV 24701. PLEASE RENEW. THANKS! We have until just weeks before the Christmas dinner/meeting to get renewals/information for the new ERARC handbook. ************************************************************************ Hooger Fisher read the August minutes which included comments about the ARRL VHF Contest, September 13-15, 2008 http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2008/sepvhf.html . Gary Kadar N8GK asked Jay Belt K8CTI if we could use the “J104” site (located across the road from the “Overlook” on US RT 598, East River Mountain) for the contest and he said that we were OK to use the site. John Riddle N8RIG said that we could use Benny Mills N8XXAs tower trailer. Roger Stefancic KC8LGR asked if it would be OK to change the Saturday Breakfast net from the ’06 to the ’49 machine. Discussion. This request OK. George asked Bill Sowers K8WBS about how Echolink was doing. Bill said that there are now about 350,000 registered users. Locally: # to shut the Echolink link down. Bluefield node number is 18204. http://www.echolink.org . Gary Kadar asked as to the Club’s wishes for a breakfast meeting place on Saturday mornings. It seems that the cook at the Green Valley restaurant didn’t show up one day and the service has been getting poor due to lack of help at the place. Recently, the attendees have been meeting at either Food City or at the Princeton Kroger. It was noted that at least we could all sit at one table in Green Valley. Discussion. Bill Sowers made a motion, seconded by Gary Kadar to still meet at the Green Valley location, for various reasons. George asked for a consensus for the meeting place for the 2008 Christmas dinner/meeting. Ryan’s was the ‘winner’ for the dinner-meeting. Don Anderson made a motion that since Bob Frazier had given many many years to the Club and cannot attend ERARC functions, for now, that we present him with a “Life Membership” to the Club as we did years ago for Lee Brooks K8BHG, the past W8MOP trustee. The motion was seconded by John Riddle N8RIG. Vote taken. Motion passed. George suggested that Don use his computer skills to make Bob a nice plaque. Gary Kadar reported on the August 9th ARRL VE test session. There were two new Hams, one from Bluefield, VA and one from Princeton, WV. He said that he mailed the information to the ARRL just after the test session on Saturday and that the new calls were posted by the FCC on Monday afternoon, a new world record for us and the ARRL! Gary also talked about the VHF contest re: antennas, antenna trailer, locations, etc. He and Don Anderson had mentioned that the Windmill Gap location for the ’06 machine was at 3290 feet, was only 15-20” from Bluefield and had a 360 degree footprint. The Overlook (J104) site only really ‘sees’ North and South. Discussion. Gary said that they would discuss this over breakfast next week and on the air, etc. and come up with a definite location. Don Anderson mentioned that he had sent out reminders for ERARC renewals this past week and that if information needed to be changed to send the new information back with the letter and/or email him at dlanderson@citlink.net w/carbon copy to w4of@hotmail.com . Bill Sowers mentioned that the motorcycle trips that he and George Dietrich had been on are now on YouTube. Go to YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com and search “nillybender” to see the video presentations that he’s put together. Pretty neat. ARES net controls for September: George Dietrich KF4YGL 2nd, Jerry Connelly KC8TES 9th, and no takers for the 16th, 23rd and 30th. Lonnie Underwood KI4EED had been really good to fill in for us on the nets. The meeting was over at 730pm. Steve O’dell N8SNR won the 50/50 drawing for the flower fund. There was a $3.00 donation in lieu of the 50/50 drawing. Hooger introduced new members Stephen KA8QHC and Susan N8QFR Rector to the membership present. They moved to Bluefield, WV from the Glade Spring, WV area. Steve would like to put up a 40M dipole at his residence on College Ave. but is concerned about a Verizon substation behind his home re: interference. Don Anderson assured him that Verizon’s ‘stuff’ is digital, to not worry. Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary. TO DO LIST: 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. ADDENDUM: Hooger Fisher handed out many copies of the August edition of the SouthEastern Repeater Association’s publication that were donated by Don Williams, W4VT. http://www.sera.org