DIXIE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

OCTOBER 2004 NEWSLETTER

The Dixie Amateur Radio Club meets on the third Wednesday of each month
 (with the exception of December) at 7:00 PM

The October DARC Club Meeting will be held at the
 Five County Association of Governments Building.

MARK THIS DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR:
  Wednesday, October 20, 2004

THIS MONTH'S MEETING WILL BE HELD AT
7:00 P.M.

AT THE 
FIVE COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS
Tonaquint Center Office Building
1070 West 1600 South, Building B
(Just off of Dixie Drive)
St. George, Utah

Please note that the new Santa Clara River bridge crossing from Hilton Drive
 directly onto Dixie Drive is complete and makes access to the building very easy!
The online map does not yet reflect that change.

VE TESTING

A Volunteer Examiner (VE) test session will be held on Wednesday, October 20, 2004
at 6:00 P.M.  at the FCAOG Office building location:
1070 West 1600 South, Building B
Tonaquint Center Business Park
St. George, Utah

The FCAOG building will be open at 5:45 P.M.
 for those coming for the test session.

  The VE test fee for 2004 is $12.00.

If you are a Volunteer Examiner and would like to help out, please contact
 Ron Sappington, WI7Z, at 673-4552 or 467-4552.

  AUGUST LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

DAN FARWELL, W8EQA

 

DEAR DARC MEMBERS:

I apologize for any inconvenience caused by the changes made to our 146.91 repeater.

I think this served as a pretty good wake up call for many club members.

Here is a copy of an e-mail letter sent to Herb Basso.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Herb:

I received the following e-mail from Russ Bateman. Russ has been involved with the Marathon for many years.

He is a well-respected past president of our radio club as well as serving on the statewide Amateur Radio Emergency Services for Utah. The following is an excerpt from his letter:

 

"At Station (H) race milepost 15, every thing went better than any other time in the past ten years that I have been participating in the Marathon program.  The "time keepers" were happy as they say they have to be exactly at the (Race) Mile Post.  This year there was no conflict.  The nurses had plenty of room to set up and were not over run by the "water people".  The only negative comments were by the (Hospital Employee) water group was that the Dumpsters were above them instead of below where most of the water cups are discarded."
"Please pass our thanks along to Herb Basso. for the relocating the water placement which worked to every ones benefit."

"Placement and recovery of the Communications Trailer at the park went very smoothly.  The City People were well informed with no explaining required."
"I am really impressed with the operation of the net.  With the experienced operators supporting a well conducted net, the new members could fit in with minimum of training.  I noticed that there was hardly any unnecessary chatter.   Well Done."

Russ 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

The following list is a list of concerns that we noticed during this years Marathon:

1. There was a fairly consistent feeling from all involved that the minivans were not as effective as the larger vans.

 

2. We would like to see a more detailed course map- this would help our net control efforts substantially in locating

and directing the shuttles.

 

3 The shuttle drivers are still experiencing a nuisance with the course mile markers only visible from one direction.

 

4.We need to come up with a system to identify those runners picked up and taken to the hospital (name and number)

or anyone assisted by law enforcement.

 

5.At net control (my house) we realized that we will need four dedicated outdoor antennas for each of our four radios

to insure  the best coverage and communication capability.

Ham net control channel- Ham backup channel- police radio channel and the packet station used for the race data

printed at the finish line.

It really is quite exciting when all of these radios go off at once!

We anticipate further feedback at our next club meeting and I will be sure to pass along those accolades and suggestions.

 

Congratulations on another safe St. George Marathon. We look forward to many years of providing communications for this event!

Finally, I'll update the club I'm waiting on Steve Kimber and his solar cells.

Very Sincerely,

Daniel R. Farwell, W8EQA

President Dixie Amateur Radio Club Inc.

w8eqa@infowest.com
Home - 688-1609
cell -    668-2436

HUNTSMAN WORLD SENIOR GAMES

Dave Owens, KD7VNH,  passed these pictures from the early events of this year's Senior Games. When I get these and others together with captions, I will put them together a separate set on the "pictures" page:

SAFETY ORANGE VESTS FOR
PUBLIC SERVICE EVENT USE
STILL AVAILABLE! 

Please go to MegaPro Screen Printing & Embroidery at 251 Hilton Drive - Phone # 673-1001 -
 to order your safety orange vests with your amateur radio callsign
 in (3" lettering) and your first name (in 2" lettering)
screen printed in black on the back.

The front of the vest will have the Dixie Amateur Radio Club Logo embroidered.

The vests come in three sizes:   1. Small/Medium       2.  Large/Xlarge   and    3.   XXlarge/XXXL

Try the sample vest (the middle size) on at MegaPro showroom and if it's too small  or too large you'll
need to move up or down one size accordingly.

Here is an example of what the vest look like. MegaPro have quoted  a special
 out-the-door price as shown at $24.00 plus tax.

Make sure you tell them you are with the Dixie Amateur Radio Club. 

Please help support the club and pay your dues!

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

2004 Board of Directors
President: Dan Farwell W8EQA
Vice President: David Owens KD7VNH
Secretary: Gary Zabriskie N7ARE
Treasurer: Gordon Shipley KD7SGN
Board Members:
Casey Lofthouse KD7HUS
Chuck Hardy KD7RZF
Mark Sherbert KM7DX

 

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

Amateur Electronic Supply Swapmeet
 4640 S. Polaris Ave., Las Vegas, Nevada
First Saturday of every month
Starts at 7:00 AM Pacific Time (8:00 AM Mountain Time)

Don't forget the DARC Sunday evening net!

THE SUNDAY NIGHT NET   MEETS AT 8:00 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.