Category: News

The Tooele repeater (147.300 MHz) on South Mountain has been repaired and is back on the air. Consequently, the net on Thursday, April 19th will be on the repeater and not simplex. The net will include special guests from TEMC, so plan to check in!

The weekly Thursday evening net wasn’t able to be conducted last Thursday, April 12th due to some kind of a problem with the 147.300 MHz repeater in Tooele on South Mountain.

The repeater isn’t properly dropping the carrier when an input transmission ends. The carrier stays up until the time-out-timer apparently kicks in. The problem will have to be diagnosed and fixed.

The immediate issue concerns the Great Shakeout Event next Thursday, April 19th. The planned net that evening is a special event net with guest appearances from Tooele County Emergency Management. If the repeater is not functioning correctly, the net may have to be moved to another repeater or the net may have to be conducted as a simplex net.

According to an email from club president Rob Andrews, “This could be a great test of our communications abilities in difficult times. So I will let the ARES leaders make the decision on how they would like to proceed.”

The possible alternate repeater is the 146.940 MHz repeater located on Farnsworth Peak. That repeater has a negative 0.600 MHz offset with a CTCSS tone of 88.5 Hz. Club members are encouraged to set up this repeater on their radio(s).

The simplex frequency, if the decision is made to switch to simplex for the net, will be 147.300 MHz, the output frequency of the Tooele repeater. That means it will be necessary for club members to set up this frequency in their radios(s) so that the radio is both transmitting and receiving on 147.300 MHz. No CTCSS tone will be used for this simplex setup. Note that simplex range is limited and some club members in Stockton or south likely will not be able to participate without someone providing a relay.

Anyone wanting assistance setting up their radio(s) to use the 146.940 MHz repeater or the simplex frequency 147.300 are encouraged to bring their radio(s) to Elmer Night on Wednesday, April 18th. Club members will be available to assist.

The meeting included a presentation by Ray Riding (AC7RR), our ARRL Emergency Coordinator. Ray’s presentation material as well as the registration forms for ARES and RACES are in the new tab “ARES / RACES“. Please look there and register!

A change of plans for the March club meeting. TCEM Leader Ray will be presenting in April on Races and ARES rather than in March.

So, bring your shack photos, antenna photos, even cat photos. If you have a computer, bring your pictures on that and maybe the big projector will work for us.

The March meeting will be held at the Emergency Operations Center (15 East 100 South, Tooele, UT 84074) on Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 7pm.

Ray, the TCEM leader, will be doing a presentation on RACES and ARES.

In addition, those who have a “shack”, please bring a picture of your setup to give others who are dreaming of someday having a shack, or those who want to change or upgrade their shack an idea of what can be done.

The March meeting will be on March 7th at 7pm at the Tooele County Emergency Management Emergency Operations Center at 50 East 100 South in Tooele.

As of this publication date we’re waiting for confirmation that the presenter will be able to be at the meeting. This news item will be updated as additional information is available.

See you all at the meeting!

The UTAH VHF Society is holding their annual swap meet on Saturday, February 24th starting at 9am. Click on the following link for their announcement along with information on how to get there:

2018_Swap_Meet_Directions_Map_Pictures

We had a delightful evening with a bunch of people there.