Welcome to the Superstition Amateur Radio Club - View From The Top Of The Tower Report
The monthly report from our President Andy Keels, KD4ABB.
The monthly report from our President Andy Keels, KD4ABB.
For August 2020 By Andy, KD4ABB
I have found myself having to be even more mindful of my personal safety over the last month. I have been actively seeking out places to wash my hands every time I go out. I always keep one or two face masks on the dash of my truck so they are handy every time I get out of my vehicle and so they get baked by the UV and Infrared radiation from the sun to kills any germs that might be on them. I am also making sure I always have SPF 50 sunscreen on my arms, neck, and face to avoid skin cancer and getting burned. I always have a pair of gloves in the seat next to me partly to avoid germs but mostly to keep from burning my hands. And of course, I try to always carry a couple bottles of cold water with me to prevent dehydration this time of year. Hopefully all of you are keeping safe like me, so we can enjoy the cooler weather we all know is coming eventually.
I want to apologize for the intermittent static noise that is still present on the 147.120 repeater and for the 449.600 repeater still being off the air. The heat at both of our repeater sites has made it not only very uncomfortable, but just plain dangerous to be outside working on them. We narrowly avoided a fire at the Stone Castle (a.k.a. Stone Oven) earlier this month when the ventilation fan quit, the repeater's air conditioner quit cooling, and some of the metal equipment in the building got so hot that it started melting the insulation on several wires. Fortunately, our brave Tech Committee chairman Steve KB7KWK, braved the heat and the smoke to shut down everything inside the Stone Castle Oven before the equipment suffered irreparable damage.
The Tech Committee is using this outage to perform some much needed and overdue upgrades to the 449.600 repeater and Stone Castle / Oven electrical wiring. The work on the 449.600 repeater is almost complete since I have been able to do most this work inside my swamp cooled shop. However, with the daily highs over 110° and the morning lows over 90° we haven't been able to work at the Stone Oven/Castle long enough to accomplish any of the required repairs there. Stay tuned to the Superstition Amateur Radio Club Members Facebook page and the Wednesday night net for regular updates.
Currently there are no activities scheduled for August. It is just too hot and the Club's Tech Committee and are busy working on the repeaters. While the SuperFest Committee is out looking for an alternative location.
The club's next big activity will be the rescheduled annual club picnic. The board decided that since Organ Stop Pizza was so much fun, air conditioned inside, and in desperate need of our business, that we will have our annual picnic there. The club picnic will be Saturday, September
26th from 12noon to 14:00MST. Organ Stop Pizza will open its doors for us at 11:45. This will be a club member's only event as the club will be using our picnic fund budget to subsidize everyone's pizza cost. The board will decide on the amount of the subsidy at the next board meeting. Club members will be allowed to bring family and guests.
Organ Stop Pizza's rules will be the same as they were at our party in July. Face masks will be required to enter the restaurant. The pizza buffet will not be self-serve, the salad bar is closed and salads must be requested from the kitchen, and if you are physically able to climb the stairs you will be asked to eat upstairs so our mobility challenged members can spread out downstairs.
The August 11 Board of Directors meeting will be conducted via Zoom at 7:00 pm. If you wish to sit in on the board of director's Zoom meeting, you can send an email to president@superstitionarc.org (24Hrs prior to the start of the meeting) requesting attendance and I will send you the Zoom meeting link.
The August 18, 2020 club general meeting will again be an over the air meeting on the 147.120 repeater with program conducted via Zoom. All club members should receive instructions for joining the Zoom program via Ham Club Online email.
Until we meet again, Be Radioactive and Keep Hamming It Up!
Best Wishes,
Andy Keels, KD4ABB
