Category: Community

Deuces Wild Triathlon

The Kachina club provided communications support for the Deuces Wild Triathlon on June 1, 2024. This was our first triathlon so a lot was going on everywhere! It was a beautiful day and a great venue at Fool Hollow Lake.

Club members provided radio communications at 10 locations along the bike route.  There were 40 riders in the 57 mile race and 80 riders in the 20 mile short course.   

A special “Thank You” to Bruce Sparrow – N2KTV, Viveca Gresham – AG7UD, Randy Beecroft – W7RJB, Richard Browning – K1RAB, Kevin Parmenter – KG5Q, Wade Millett – KK7KIG, Brian Carpenter – KA7EEJ, Mike Boger – W7IJ, George Meyer – W7AGM, Mark Binnie – W3NYC, Brian McCarter – KK7THM, Tom Goforth – WY7TG, Cheri Goforth – N7WEM, Jim Mortensen – W7AZY, Marie Mortensen – N7SKS

Here are a few pictures of the event:

Emergency Preparedness Fair

The Community Emergency Preparedness Fair was held May 11, 2024 at the Taylor Rodeo Grounds. (There were about 40 booths) The Kachina Club had a booth to promote ham radio.  Many individuals came by and visited with us, and we gave out about 56  flyers!  We’re excited that maybe in the near future there will be more ham operators! Thank you to Mark Binnie, George Meyer, Randy Beecroft, Jim and Marie Mortensen for helping at the booth.

Bill Turley shared his love of Dutch  oven cooking and Brian Carpenter shared his knowledge of GMRS!

All in all it was a very successful event and great to see many of our Club members stop by!

Here are a few pictures:

Motus Wildlife Tracking Project

As we learned at the October 2023 club meeting, the club has the opportunity to assist the Arizona Game and Fish Department with a wildlife telemetry tracking project.  It’s called the Motus Wildlife Tracking Project and is international in its coverage. A PowerPoint presentation is included below.  More can be found at Motus.org.

The project uses stationary, permanently mounted receivers that are constantly listening for radio-tagged wildlife to pass by them with any detections passed on to a central database server in near real time.

As far as the Kachina Amateur Radio Club involvement goes, this project is open to anybody with any kind of interest and knowledge level.  Hopefully, we can turn this into a productive learning experience.  With a little assistance, it is relatively easy to learn to put these receivers together or host a station if you have a tower in just the right location.

Motus Wildlife Telemetry System

Possible activities for club members include building a receiver, antenna construction, and hosting a station.

Anyone interested in helping out should email President Kevin and we will get back to you with possible meeting dates.  In your email to Kevin, indicate if there are any bad days or evenings for you to make a meeting.  We may establish regular recurring meetings, if needed.  Thanks!!!

2023 White Mountain Tango Endurance Ride

The 2nd Annual White Mountain Tango Endurance Ride was held September 15th and 16th in the beautiful Vernon-McNary area. A 25 and 50 mile ride took place each day. There were 25 riders. We once again provided radio communications at 5 check points along the trails each day. The weather was gorgeous and everyone enjoyed being out in the great outdoors!

A huge “Thank you” to the following individuals for taking the time to make this a successful event. Bill Turley – KJ7GYH, Wade Millet – KK7KIG, Mike Abernathy – NM3S, Bret Woodward – KG7PIA, Jody Rammell – KK7IHM and daughter, Lynnlee, Mike Boger –W7IJ, Mark Binnie – W3NYC, Randy Beecroft – W7RJB, George Meyer – W7AGM, Manny – W7AZE and Lynn Rodrigue, Jim Hagan – KE5PZ, Jim Mortensen – W7AZY and Marie Mortensen – N7SKS.

Navajo Code Talker Day

August 14th is designated as the annual Navajo Code Talker Day. In recognition, special event station N7C will be active from August 13-19. Check out the details of this special event here:

N7C at QRZ.com

Update:

On Sept. 12, 2023 Herb Goodluck, N7HG attended the KARC meeting and gave a very interesting and informative presentation on the history and legacy of the Navajo Code Talkers.  Herb’s dad, John, was a code talker.   Herb answered questions throughout the evening. Everyone left with a better understanding of how important the role of the Navajo Code Talkers was in WW II.

Navajo Code Talkers

Since our club provides communications services and technology in northeastern Arizona, we take a moment to recognize our region’s rich history with radio communications contributions to the service of a grateful nation.  When the need arose, the US government went to the Navajo Nation and Navajo County to find expertise that was not available anywhere else.  The history and contribution of the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II is an interesting chapter in the region’s history and should be remembered and recognized by all. More information is available here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers

https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2020/12/01/navajo-code-talkers/

In 2008, the Najavo Nation erected this memorial to the code talkers in their capitol of Window Rock, Arizona, home to the Navajo Nation Museum. 

Tour of the White Mountains

The 26th Tour of the White Mountains Bike Race was Saturday, October 1, 2022, in Pinetop -Lakeside.   There were 1046 participants and each one rode their pre-registered course.  (50, 35, 30 or 9 miles)   It was another successful race enjoyed by many in our beautiful mountains!

We want to thank Kachina ARC members along with other ham operators who provided radio communications for the event.    Mike Elders – AD7W, Don -AG7OS & Darlene – KJ7JMC Roberts, June Apedaile – KF7KVV, Steve Lane – KY7K, Randy Beecroft -W7RJB, George Meyer – W7AGM, Greg Peters -W9GRG & Marie Mortensen -N7SKS.

Here are a few pictures of the event: