OCTOBER 2005 NEWSLETTER
DIXIE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

The Club Callsign is W7DRC and our e-mail address is w7drc@arrl.net

OCTOBER CLUB MEETING

The Next meeting of the Dixie Amateur Radio Club will be held at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, October 19, 2005, at the St. George Leisure Services Building (the Old Dixie Academy Building) which is located at 86 South Main Street (on the northwest corner of the intersection of 100 South and Main Street) in downtown St. George. 
Below is a map to the location:

You may also use this interactive Google Map to chart a course from your present location.  Parking is available behind the building to the west and you can also find parking across the street to the east in the Wells Fargo Bank parking lot.

We will also have a Volunteer Exam Session there before the meeting at 6:00 P.M. (we will put a sign on the door at our original location at the FCAOG office building directing anyone who did not notify us about their intent to test so they can come to the test location).

The ham club meeting itself will begin at 7:00 P.M. 

CRITIQUE OF MARATHON COMMUNICATIONS

The meeting will include a formal critique session on our Amateur Radio club's communications participation with the St. George Marathon.  We will have Mr. Bob Pecham and others involved in the Marathon administration in attendance at our October meeting to discuss what worked, what didn't work and what could work better. Please bring all of your concerns, comments, criticism (constructive of course) to this session while they are fresh on our minds. We have been part of opne of the most sucessful marathons in the nation and should be proud of the effectiveness of our communications during this event.
HUNTSMAN GAMES WRAP UP

We will also have a wrap up  review of the Amateur Radio participation with the Huntsman World Senior Games.
CHRISTMAS BANQUET

Believe it or not we will start discussing options for our annual Christmas (shhhhh!) banquet in December.

GEOCACHING!

Club member Dan Sadler, K3RKW, has graciously consented to provide us with a short educational primer on the fascinating sport/hobby/adventure known as GeoCaching.  GeoCaching is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.  One thing we are asking is for everyone who has a GPS unit of ANY kind, please bring it to the club meeting. We want to show off the vast variety of types, sizes and flavors of GPS units. Think of it as a kind of "show and tell" for adults (well...  ...okay- Amateurs)

Refreshments will be served and and there will be time for eyeball QSO's after the meeting.

We hope to see many of our Dixie Amateur Radio Club Members in attendence at the October meeting on the 19th.



Emergency Communications News:

I found the following interesting tid-bit in one of the I.T. magazines that crosses my desk each week. This is from Information Week Magazine and was in the Letters to the Editor (you can click on this LINK for a direct link to the web version) :

Amateur Radio Can Help

Since 9/11, I've been briefing local, state, and federal officials on the need for reliable backup communications in the event of a disaster ("FCC Pushing Carriers To Fix Nets Destroyed By Katrina", Sept. 6). The 600,000 FCC-licensed amateur radio operators in the United States have reliable equipment and up-to-date training, and can cover many backup communications needs.

In most cases, officials have patted the $3,000 digital public-service radios or state-of-the-art cell phones on their belts and said they have what they need.

Erik Westgard Public Information Officer
American Radio Relay League
St. Paul, Minn.

That letter was followed up by these two Feed Back letters in a subsequent  edition:


V.E.TESTING

A Volunteer Examiner (VE) test session will be held as advertised on
 Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 6:00 P.M.
 at the same location as the October club meeting (see above address and map)

  If you are a person desiring to take an Amateur Radio test or a currently licensed ham wanting to upgrade this month,
or are a Volunteer Examiner who would like to help out at a session, please contact please contact Ron Sappington, WI7Z,  or Dan Farwell, W8EQA,  via e-mail.  You can also reach Dan Farwell at (435) 668-2436



Message From the President:
Gary Zabriskie N7AREThe  most important "hot button" item right now that needs your IMMEDIATE action is to send a letter, e-mail, fax (smoke signals?) to all three of our Utah Congressmen asking them to co-sponsor and/or support HR3876 the "Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Consistency Act," sponsored by Rep. Steve Israel of New York. 

Please go to this LINK for the full story on the re-introduction of this important bill. As a professional Land Use Planner,  I can state that the biggest challenge currently facing Amateur Radio operators comes not from public land use regulations, but from these "private" or quasi-private "regulations" imposed by the few on the many which in turn are imposed on the few.

It is imperative that we each write to our Congressional Representatives  ASAP.  I have a copy of my letter on behalf of the Club available on the main page of the DARC website: www.dixieham.org

73,
Gary N7ARE


Please help support the club!

Dues for 2005 are still being solicited. Dues are $15.00 per member ($20.00 per family for multiple ham families). Check the Club's membership ROSTER and see if we have you shown as paid.  If you are shown as current or know you haven't paid yet, please make your check payable to "DARC" and bring it to the meeting or mail it to the club address:

Dixie Amateur Radio Club
P.O. Box 422
Santa Clara, UT 84765

DARC IS AN ARRL AFFILIATED CLUB

ARRL LOGO

2005 Board of Directors
President: Gary Zabriskie, N7ARE
Vice President: Dan Hinkle, KD7RSR
Secretary: Hal Whiting, KD7TKP
Treasurer: Leila Horne, KF7HW
Casey Lofthouse, KD7HUS
Dave Owens, K7VNH
Dan Farwell, W8EQA



THERE IS NO BETTER TIME TO JOIN THE ARRL!
JOIN THE ARRL! It's the only organization that represents hams at the government level. The current resources available to us through the ARRL are astounding. Check out their web site and find out what's going on!

   Click HERE for the ARRL website.
ARRL Trademark and logo courtesy ARRL

Don't forget the DARC Sunday evening net!

Make sure you have a 100Hz PL tone activated!!!! THE SUNDAY NIGHT NET
  MEETS AT 7:00 P.M. MDT ON THE 146.91 REPEATER

In the event that the 146.91 repeater is not operational we will conduct the Sunday evening net on 145.49.
If none of these repeaters are operational we will conduct the DARC Sunday net on 146.91 Simplex.

HAM CARTOON


Please send your questions, complaints, newsletter articles, ham gear, money, accolades,
and anything but your troubles to: Gary Zabriskie, N7ARE