ERA appreciates comments, suggestions, and contributions from members

Contact Harley Leach KI7FX or Neil Ramhorst KL7JGS 
Or, you may use the “Contact Us” form

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ERA April 2013 Meeting Minutes

ERA February 2012 Meeting Minutes

ERA April 2011 Meeting Minutes

ERA January 2011 Meeting Minutes

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Bob Leo W7LR  has offered the following account of ERA history :

The story of the Eaglehead Repeater Association is a long and interesting one.

A memo from W7JMX on June 28, 1976 invited local amateurs to a meeting to form the Gallatin Repeater Association and to announce plans for locating a new repeater on Eaglehead Mountain, 32 miles south of Bozeman, at about 10,000 feet elevation.

I have a mountain of correspondence in our Eaglehead files, and by December of 1976 the name was Eaglehead Repeater Association. I believe that the repeater was installed on Eaglehead during the summer of 1977. A letter from Matt Montagne on August 24, 1977 shows a schedule for September 1, 1977 by a National Guard helicopter to ferry the repeater equipment from Porcupine Ranger station up to Eaglehead.

A memo from W7JMX on March 1, 1978 showed that both the Bridger repeater and the Eaglehead repeater would be handled by the Eaglehead Repeater Association.

In the fall of 1978, correspondence shows interest in moving the Eaglehead repeater to Steamboat Mountain on a site owned by Burlington Northern, in cooperation with Montana Power Company. The elevation there is 10,300 feet. A lease agreement with BN was completed in November 1978. The move to Steamboat was accomplished in the fall of 1979. Coverage was great down the Paradise Valley and to Livingston and Gardner. Coverage to Bozeman and the Gallatin Canyon was not so good. A trip was made May 9, 1980 to make building repairs. Some trips were made by driving through logging areas west of Tom Miner basin by four wheel drive vehicles, and then hiking the rest of the way. A big problem with Steamboat was the difficult access.

On January 12, 1981, W7JMX writes that “we do have an acute fund shortage at present”. Things don’t change much over the years! The same memo indicated the plans to incorporate with the state as a non-profit organization, which was done by Don Nash.

New repeater calls were issued in October of 1982: W7YB/R = Bridger 28/88 and W7LR/R = Steamboat 22/82. The previous calls were WR7ADN and WR7ANC, respectively.

A December 4, 1982 letter to the Editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle told how association members responded after an avalanche took out power at Bridger Ridge. Power was off there for several weeks. Our amateur repeater continued to work for several weeks on battery power. Later, our members charged the batteries via a long signal cable so that we were on the air for that 8 week outage!! We also reactivated, on low power, the county rural fire radio.

By April of 1983, we were planning the move of the repeater from Steamboat to Flattop Mountain, where the 22/82 repeater is still located. The reason for the move was the difficulty in getting to Steamboat and the much better access to Flattop, as well as better Gallatin Canyon radio coverage.

In June, 1983, members helped with a search near Helena for a little four year old girl who was missing from a mountain campground picnic. Unfortunately, she was never found.

A 1985 premium notice shows that ERA paid the insurance premium for association equipment. This has been done each year since.

A letter from the IRS in January of 1985 shows that we had applied for a tax exempt status. After lots of paper work by W7LR, this was granted by the IRS in June, 1985. We are exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c) (3) and our foundation status is 509 (a) (2).

At some time in the past, the Eaglehead Repeater Association and the Gallatin Ham Radio Club became separate organizations. At that time some amateurs in the area were interested in supporting 2 meter repeaters and some were not. Support by local amateurs has been good towards both organizations. Financial support for GHRC goes to the GHRC treasurer, usually at the GHRC club meetings. Financial support for ERA goes to the ERA treasurer.

W7LR – Bob Leo
ERA