Foundation for Amateur International Radio Service, Ltd.

On Saturday August 14th, 2010, 9:00am, Floyd Amateur Radio Society met at Floyd Professional Center in suite 9 of the Village Green-- Here are the notes from that meeting:

The meeting was opened and brought to order by the President, Tom King W4VZH.

The meeting was casual in nature, but that is not to say that the business of the day was not taken care of. The members in attendance were sure to address all matters at hand.

Tom suggested that he would conduct the meeting due to Russ Abbey, Secretary being absent for health reasons – we wish Russ a full and speedy recovery.

It was reported that we have a digi, but it failed the bench test in recent days, so no demonstration would be made during this meeting. A cable is in need of replacement, which David Potter W4RPI will make.

For the repeater tower, Tom et als will use angle iron provided by Dave Larsen KK4WW, the repeater is being serviced in Halifax (Henry Henderson) and David L. is also shopping for a controller card. It may be a couple of weeks +/- before the repeater will be functional.

The existing antenna on the repeater tower may be used for the “Buffalo digi”.

Once everything is assembled and operating, we will have populated Buffalo Mountain sufficiently for VHF digital and UHF analog communications to carry into portions of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Additional funds as dues to FARS came in, and Don “Birthday Boy” Clemens KE4UGF accepted them on behalf of Treasurer, Kay Clemens KF4EKH, who will deposit into the now established account for the Society at the Bank of Floyd. We are also now receiving correspondence to the Society at mail box 201 East Main St. Suite 9 Village Green, Floyd, Virginia 24091.

A website for FARS has been initialized with front page only at this time- Russ Abbey is webmaster. You may find the site by typing either www.floydamateurradiosociety.com or www.floydamateurradiosociety.org. It is encouraged for members to bookmark the page and check back often. FAIRS will continue to promote the Society and give updates at www.fairs.org. Don’t forget to sign up for the free online newsletter!

It was decided that the number of members in attendance was a quorum at a regularly scheduled meeting, and thus an important decision which needed action was voted upon. Glen Sage (W4GHS) had been invited to the September meeting of FARS which would normally be on second Saturday, September 11^th. However, due to schedule conflict for a demonstration by Sage, it was moved and carried a decision to move the meeting date back to the third Saturday, September 18^th at the regular time of 9:00am. On that date, Glen will show us an emergency communications trailer which will be available for local, regional and national emergency communications use. We will look forward to learning about the EmComm trailer as well as to testing our own emergency communications equipment and radio systems.

We will facilitate a way to let everyone know about this date change.

Tom gave a summation of the Roanoke Club’s Ham Fest which was held July 31^st at William Bird Middle School. Tom listed some of the purchases made by himself and others at the Fest, at prices which impressed those in attendance at our meeting, and he said the event was well attended, and the food was great. He mentioned to that John Hughlett N4WRT would be attending a Ham Fest in Shelby, if anyone wanted to catch up with him in advance of their Fest.

Members dispersed from the meeting after adjournment, approx. 9:45am.

The following members were present:

Don Clemens KE4UGF

Mike Finch KJ4SNT

Don Johnson KF4HDW

Donna Johnson KF4HDX

Tom King W4VZH

Dee Dannewitz Wallace KG4VMI

Minutes and recorded and submitted by acting Secretary for the day,

Dee Dannewitz Wallace KG4VMI

Floyd Amateur Radio Society