Minutes of the East River Amateur Radio Club meeting. September 7, 2009 Ryan’s Steakhouse Bluefield, VA. http://www.erarc.com The September meeting of the ERARC was opened at 700pm by Lonnie Underwood, ERARC President. There were 15 members and guests in attendance. Don Andersons WD8OOR gave the Treasurer’s report. Don paid an $18.82 phone bill. The cheapest phone plan is $15.00 and we pay per-call in addition to that amount. Don has received around $280.00 in renewals for the upcoming year. DON WILL EMAIL ERARC MEMBERS INSTEAD OF SNAIL-MAILING REMINDERS IN ORDER TO SAVE THE CLUB ABOUT $100.00 IN POSTAGE. PLEASE LOOK FOR HIS REMINDER IN YOUR INBOX, THANKS! dlanderson@citlink.net you use “Bill Pay” or some other banking service, please consider sending your renewal to: ERARC, P.O. Box 1362, Bluefield, WV 24701. (You may want to use your call sign as your “account number” when using Bill Pay.) Dues are $15.00 per member per year with an additional $1.00 for each member at the same address. We appreciate your renewal to keep the repeaters on the air and insurance to cover them and us when we operate as a Club. Don said that he would go ahead and snail-mail those that he doesn’t have email addresses for and for those emails that ‘bounce’. Hooger Fisher read the minutes from the August meeting. Old business: Lee Brooks’ K8BGH antenna repair…….. Don and Gary Kadar N8GK went by Lee’s and think that an inverted “V” dipole will work great for Lee. Discussion. Lonnie has a bunch of needed items for the dipole and repair job. These guys will get together soon and get the job done. Generator motor for sale………… Don has had the motor in the Trading Journal and will keep it advertised until a sale is made. He’s had one contact from an interested person in Ceres. Gary was asked about the September VHF contest this coming weekend. Round Mt. in Bland County 3857’, Windmill Gap, Mercer Co. 3400’, East River Mt. Mercer/Bland Counties 3775’, K8CTI’s property above the Overlook 3900’, and Oneida Peak Tazewell County 4302’ were all mentioned as possible locations for the contest (http://www2.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/sepvhf.html ). Gary said that he would really like to try Oneida Peak just because we’ve never tried to operate from there. It will all be talked about at this coning Saturday’s breakfast meeting in Green Valley. (Directions to Oneida Peak: Bluefield, Va. at Graham High School, turn up the mountain on Mountain Lane and go straight over East River Mt. on the gravel road, Rt. 662 Make the (only) right handed turn which is about a mile over the crest of the mountain. Drive for maybe 3-4 miles, the road dead-ends at the operating site which is also the home of the 146.955 WZ8E repeater. Lonnie mentioned that the Civil Air Patrol wanted to know if any of the local Amateur would like to take/sit-in on their CAP communications class. Lonnie will check with his contact. Lonnie Underwood asked Gary Kadar N8GK, ERARC ARRL VEC, for an update concerning the VE team. Gary said that on August 8, they tested 4 and 4 passed. Lonnie mentioned that Ronnie Childress KD8HBO, Mercer Co., WV EC is ‘taking the ball and running with it’ as it concerns ARES in the County. He’s coming up with mock disaster scenarios as well as getting volunteers online if needed. Lonnie asked for volunteers for Net Control for the Mercer Co. ARES net. 8th Roger Nesselrodt KI4SZA, 15th Lonnie Underwood, 22nd Ronnie Childress, 29th Roger Stefancic. Lonnie asked for nominations for officers for the upcoming year. Hooger will still take the Secretary position. Lonnie will still take the President’s position. Roger Stefancic was nominated for the Treasurer’s position and Cathy Underwood KG4CTK was nominated for the Vice President’s position. Voting will take place at the October meeting. Lonnie asked about Jamboree on The Air http://www.arrl.org/scouts/jota/ and has volunteered to run the event. Hooger will contact the Bluefield, Va. Rescue Squad and inquire about using their facility for the event. JOTA will be on Saturday, October 17, 2009 and all Scouts are invited to attend and get on the air and talk to other Scouts. The meeting was over at 738pm. Submitted by Hooger Fisher W4OF, ERARC Secretary. TO DO LIST: 1) Equipment inventory with serial numbers for insurance reasons 2) Antenna for the Bluefield, Va. Rescue Squad 3) Cathy Underwood KG4CTK would like us to look into possible funding via the Office of Homeland Security. 4) The Communications Bus/ RV that the Club began to work on. 5) Communications class for the Mercer Co. Civil Air Patrol 6) Trailer for storing equipment. Also used for deployment.