Picture Gallery & Club Posts

Current Events

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Check out the Hamfest tab for pictures from the 2017 Hamfest.

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Important information for those that frequent the Tucson area. Click on the links to read the story: Distracted Driving Ordinance and Memo from Pima County Board of Supervisors.

ARRL -Arizona Activities

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Arizona Ham-Call  License Plate Fees Rebate

Our Governor, Doug Ducey has signed the License Plate Reimbursement bill.  Beginning on July 1 Arizona Hams will begin receiving $17 of each $25 we pay to the State of Arizona for Amateur Plates each year.  The $$ goes to ARCA (The Amateur Radio Council of Arizona), and will be used to benefit the clubs and individual Hams of the state.

For further detail see:

http://www.arca-az.org/image_files/pdf_files/azlicenseaction.pdf

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Distracted Driving Laws Exemptions Made For Amateur and Mobile Radio: Distracted Driving laws were enacted in Oro Valley, Tucson, and Pima County Arizona this year.  You can be cited for using Mobile or HT radios in Tucson, and Oro Valley.  This month we got to work contacting support  groups in these municipalities and had letters sent to them from Amateurs, Emergency Support Organizations, Commercial Radio Operations,  TV and Media Organizations, and Legal Supporters.

The results were almost immediate.  Both Oro Valley and the Pima County Board of Supervisors enacted exemptions for Amateur and Commercial Radio operations, acknowledging that these modes were never intended to be restricted.  There is still a question as to how law enforcement will be able to discriminate between use of Handie-Talkies and Cell Phones, and we are working on a further refinement of the exemptions to cover these modes as well.

The City of Tucson is still working on an exemption to their ordinance, and we expect to see a similar revision to their law permitting Mobile operations.  Their latest response was to have users who are cited for the violation, challenge the ticket in court and get a ruling in their favor.  Clearly this is not what we expect, and we will continue a full-court press to have the specific exemptions recorded as revisions to their  ordinance.

One thing to consider:  If you are in your car and it has Ham Call Plates, law enforcement can recognize you as a Ham Operator, and discriminate and avoid an unnecessary traffic stop.  That’s another incentive for Hams to get a Arizona Ham Call Plate !

 

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Upcoming Hamfests:

QuartzFest Convention in Quartzsite, AZ. A week-long Hamfest Featuring activities for all.  Visit the Web Pages at www.Quartzfest.org  You can see photos of the recent Hamfests at the ARRL-Arizona Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/ArrlArizona/

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AMATEUR RADIO TESTING

Phoenix area:  1st Sat 9:00AM  DeVry/West Valley Club (Walk-ins allowed) Contact David, N7TWT (623)925-0680  Email: N7TWT@ARRL.NET Location: DEVRY UNIVERSITY 2149 W DUNLAP AVE. PHOENIX, AZ 85021

2nd Wednesday,  Central Phoenix VE Team Location: South Mountain Community College (Library) Time: 6:30 PM (No walk-ins) Contact: Bill Martin (480) 205-3625 (480) 205-3625 Limited space, you must contact Bill. Email: ai0d@hotmail.com

3rd Monday  6:00 PM  EAST VALLEY VE TEAM  (Walk-ins allowed) Contact Steve, KY7W 480-478-9692.    1104 East Campus Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282-3913. Email: KJ7WK@COX.NET  East Mesa VE Team will take walk-in registrants between 6 PM and 6:30

  1. Testing will begin promptly at 6:30 for the Technician examination. You must have Photo ID. $15.00 Fee (exact change Please.)

3rd Tuesday  8:00 PM  BOY SCOUT TROOP 127  (Walk-ins allowed) Contact: JOHN H KELLY (602)2646854 Email: KELLYJ127@AOL.COM Location: ST FRANCIS XAVIER SCHOOL, 4715 N CENTRAL AVE PHOENIX, AZ 85012

4th Sat 7:00PM  Arizona Amateur Radio Club  (No walk-ins) PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED NOTIFY GARY BY THURS NITE Contact Gary Hamman, K7GH (602) 996-8148 Email: K7GH@ARRL.NET Location: 4747 N. 22nd Street, on the eastside of 22nd Street and just north of Highland Ave. in Phoenix. (No walk-ins),

Tucson Area: Lighthouse YMCA/ARRL: First Thursday Contact Matt, AC7IL, veregistration@ac7il.org

Oro Valley/ARRL: First Saturday Contact David, AK2L, ak2l@arrl.net

RST/ Laurel (No Fee): Second Monday Contact Diane, AA3OF, dzimmerman2002@gmail.com  Jacobs Park YMCA/ARRL: Third Saturday Contact Fred, K7OFA, k7ofa@arrl.net  Graham / Greenlee County Area: For VE testing on request, please contact Dave, N7AM, and he will arrange it.

Yuma Area: Second Saturday of each month. By appointment only. Contact Bob Smith K7YAZ k7yaz@comcast.com or Robert Spencer KE8DM at ke8dm@arrl.org

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ARIZONA NETS

Arizona Traffic and Emergency Net (ATEN) meets in the winter from October 15 to April 15 at 5:30 PM and in the summer from April 15 to October 15 at 7:00PM on 3986 kHz daily. Tommy Ivan KF7GC Net Manager, Arizona Section Traffic Manager Kf7gc@arrl.net www.atenaz.net

Arizona Emergency Net – Maricopa (AEN-MAR) meets every Monday at 9:00 PM local time, for training and exercise in the public service communication arts on the Mt. Ord 146.92(-), Shaw Butte 147.24(+) or Scottsdale Airpark 146.760(-) repeaters. The repeaters require a 162.2 Hz tone. The repeaters are linked and cover most of Maricopa County and portions of Pinal, Gila, Coconino and Yavapai Counties in central Arizona. http://www.aen-mar.org 

Saguaro National Traffic System (NTS) Net (www.saguaronts.net), meets daily at 6:30 pm MST (0130Z) on the Eastern Arizona Amateur Radio Society (E.A.A.R.S.) (http://www.eaars.org/ ) repeaters. The repeaters are; 146.86 and (440.700 Hub) Heliograph Peak 147.28 Guthrie Peak –

Greenlee County 145.21 Jacks Peak New Mexico. Between Lordsburg & Silver City 145.41 Pinal Peak Near Globe AZ 147.16 Mt Lemmon Near Tucson 146.70

Greens Peak Near Springerville – Showlow 145.27 South Mtn. Near Alpine, AZ 147.08 Mule Mtn. Near Bisbee in Cochise County 147.06 Lil Florida Mtn. Near Deming, New Mexico 145.47 Caballo Mtn. Near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico 145.35 West Peak. West of Heliograph 12 miles

All E.A.A.R.S. network repeaters operate with PL tone 141.3. For more information about this net, contact Greg Peters (kc5zgg@arrl.net), Net Co-Manager. – There are many more nets in Arizona. Contact Tomy Ivan KF7GC for the full list.

AM 2 meter net Greater Phoenix Metropolitan area, 2 meter AM net, 144.450 MHz, every Tuesday night at 1930 MST. Antenna vertical polarization. The 144.450 MHz is a coordinated AM frequency in Arizona. This is an informal NET, most discussions are technical. All are welcome.

ON-LINE AMATEUR RADIO COURSE

Several new hams wrote to me about an online Amateur Radio Course put together by Andy KE4GKP. They have the Technician, General and even Morse Code courses. Check them out at http://www.hamwhisperer.com/p/ham-courses.html it is even available on YouTube.

Ham Radio Contests

For information on contests go http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Contest%20Corral/ 

Have an event coming up? Let us know. Send us the flyer and we will add it to the newsletter.

Newsletter flyers can be found at www.az-arrl.org or http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/arizona 

 

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ARIZONA SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR

We need to get all ARES members to take the online ICS-100, 200 and 700 classes. I also hope to see them take the ICS-800 classes if they will be supporting an EOC of any sort. If you aren’t collecting their Certificates start doing it now. Forward them to us so that we can add them to the state repository. There will be a Statewide Exercise in 2017 that will involve ham radio. Conversations are already happening and ham radio will be involved in the actual exercise and not their own. Hopefully this will prevent the confusion of the past.

Thank each of you for your contributions. Section Emergency Coordinator

Dennis J. Bietry KE7EJF

ARRL Arizona Section

Section Manager: Richard A Paquette, W7RAP

w7rap@arrl.org

 

Here is what’s coming up!

Most of the R.A.C.E.S. meetings we have will be on the radio during the
Navajo County R.A.C.E.S. Net. Once a quarter we will meet for a
face-to-face meeting and training on the TOAD.

Join us for breakfast!
Ham Breakfast 3rd Saturday of every month 9:00 A.M. at Sal & Theresa’s Restaurant in Show Low.

Coffee at Basha’s
Get together with other ham’s for coffee at Basha’s in Taylor, AZ at 9:00 A.M. the Second Saturday of every month.

Randy’s Go Bag as Presented at Meeting.

Randy s go bag inventory.

1. Good sturdy pack large enough for all items.
2. Icom IC7000 all band all mode radio.
3. 66 foot RG8X coaxial cable
4. 20 foot RG8X coaxial cable
5. 12 inch RG58 patch cable
6. Radio power cable with alligator clips
7. LDG AT100 antenna tuner
8. Radio to tuner interface cable
9. 9:1 unun impedance matcher
10. 85 feet of #20 wire for antenna
11. 17 feet of #20 wire for counterpoise
12. Shelter tarp
13. 200 feet 550 cord
14. Bedroll
15. Insulating ground pad
16. First aid kit
17. Toilet kit and any medications you might need
18. Cooking utensils
19. 2 -32oz. Water bottles
20. Food for several days (make it heat and eat ie. MRE or backpacking food)
21 Fire starting kit and/or stove
22. Head lamp and/or flashlight
23. Extra batteries
24. Adventure Medical space blanket
25. Notepad and pencils
26. Multitool
27. Knife
28. Jacket and raingear
29. Extra socks
At the truck I will have 5 gal. of water and more 12 volt batteries and a solar charging panel
These are just suggested items. You can tailor your bag to your personal needs.

R.A.C.E.S. Tip of the Week

It is always good to have a work space to take notes on, paper, and a pencil. You may use a pen, but a pencil will make it easier to correct mistakes. If you will be taking your notes on a computer, use a laptop or tablet with a keyboard, as they have a battery to avoid the loss of work due to power outage. You could use a desktop computer, but if power is down be sure to have an alternate method to power your computer. I personally use the paper method, then transfer to computer later for a back up.

Check out our R.A.C.E.S. page for more information.