LARRY WARREN HAMFEST SATURDAY MAY 2 ND EDITOR S NOTES

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1 THE CARA APRIL MEETING APRIL 6TH AT GREEN ACRES 7:00 P.M. GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING APRIL BOARD MEETING, APRIL 27TH AT 6:30 PM If you d like to see the pretty copy of this month s Smoke & a world of other club info, Go to the CARA web pages LARRY WARREN HAMFEST SATURDAY MAY 2 ND EDITOR S NOTES It s the big one coming up shortly. It will be guided by the competent hands of our new Chairman, Bill McNab, N7BIL assisted by Pat Thies, KD7HAB. He is already underway lining up the jobs that need doing with people to do them. He needs many hands to lighten this big load. You can contact him at cwmcnab@gmail.com This event will take place at our Green Acres facility on Moson Road in Sierra Vista as it has for several years. Grand prize for the raffle will be an ICOM IC718. Second prize is a Yaesu FT60R dualbander. There s plenty of room outside for tailgaters to display their wares and the indoor area, in the clubhouse, has always seemed adequate for the insiders. Besides that, our Mike at the mic, N7ZGO, has always provided the best entertainment of any hamfest in the state, maybe in the world, who knows? TOM FAGAN RE-ELECTED AZ SECTION MGR. Lee Ilse, KD7OED Please join me in congratulating Mr. Tom Fagan (K7DF) on his re-election as ARRL Arizona Section Manager! See Tom received 1016 votes to his opponent s 205 and was re-elected by almost a five to one margin! Many thanks to all of you who helped re-elect this faithful and diligent ambassador of amateur radio! We are all extremely thankful for your service Tom and look forward to working with you in your new term!

2 ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM THE RACES NOTES Bob Hollister, N7INK Upcoming Events: 4/ La Vuelta de Bisbee 5/2 CARA Hamfest 5/21 - Ft Huachuca Safety day 7/4 - Bisbee Coaster Race The ARES/RACES unit was asked to provide communications support on Feb. 27 th and 28 th to an event sponsored by the Cochise County Health Department and designed to exercise procedures and protocols to be used in the event medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile were to be distributed within the county. Two primary command elements were to be set up, one at the Point of Distribution (POD) and a second at a County Health Department location. Sierra Vista Police Department positioned their Mobile Communications Van at the POD and the County positioned their unit at the County Health Department location. Our radio operators operated the amateur gear at both locations. On 17 March 2009 at approximately 23:45 The RACES team was requested to respond to support a Rescue Mission in the Turkey Creek area of the Chiricahua Mountains. The mission brief I received indicated that there was an injured hiker who had fallen about 20 feet with unknown injuries. The MCU was dispatched and set up at mile post 2 of Turkey Canyon Rd. This location was about 4 miles west of the CP and was suggested to have better communications than actually deploying to the CP site. The victim had been located in Turkey Pen Canyon by the AZ DPS helicopter about five miles from the initial report. The helicopter was unable to land and departed. A SAR ground team with a medic proceeded by foot to the reported coordinate and located the patient. The patient was stabilized and decision was made to wait for the helicopter return at daybreak to do a short haul. The DPS helicopter returned in the morning and the patient was extracted and transported to an LZ at Sunglow Ranch where he was transferred to a ground ambulance and further transported to the hospital. DX CONTEST REPORT Lee Ilse, KD7OED Preliminary indications are that we had our best International DX contest in several years. The rotator on the 85 tower worked flawlessly, and band conditions were good enough to work buckets of European stations as well as Israel, Taiwan, and the Philippines (we even worked Japan and Iceland on 75M barefoot). I have not yet started to scrub the list for errors, but the software indicates 325 contacts and 123 multipliers for a claimed score of

3 129, 675 points (the score will almost certainly go down some after the contest robot helps us identify errors). This is the highest raw score we have had since I began coordinating club participation in this contest in 2003! Many thanks to KC7GNM, K7AIM, W7OL, KF7CX, and AB4LE for a job well done! When I sent in the International DX context file the contest robot only found two errors (we had edited the time on the first couple of entries after correcting the computer clock in Studio B, but did so incorrectly). I expect that several of our entries may be thrown out before all is said and done, though. For example we logged L46V (doesn t appear to be a valid call) and AH7K (but I don t think anyone was active at Kure Island during this contest). Time will tell thanks again to everyone for a great effort. ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM THE ARRL AZ SECTION REPORT Tom Fagan, K7DF, Section Mgr. AMATEUR RADIO; STRUCTURES; ACCOMMODATION Arizona HB2514 Nancy McLain AZ District 3 submitted House Bill This bill is the Arizona PRB-1 with wording that would make the HOA's reasonably accommodate Amateur Radio Antenna Support Structures for Emergency Communications. This is essentially the same bill we submitted last year. The bill is scheduled for a hearing with the Military Affair and public Safety committee on March 11th. The Arizona Legislature Website is: You can search for the bill by entering 2514 in the upper right hand corner. The Community Association Institute (CAI) Legislative Action Committee have called for an campaign to defeat this bill because of our wording. CAI stated that "Proponents of this legislation will argue that modern amateur radio equipment towers can be constructed to be as small as 4 ft." That may work for a 2 meter antenna but it will not work with HF. We have a team that is working this and I will keep you informed. (This bill passed the committee---see below.) EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS For the last couple weeks I have been working on a non-governmental disaster drill. You might ask what a "non-governmental" disaster drill is. In two words it's the Ragnar Relay. Disaster by appointment! The Ragnar Relay ( is a long distance foot relay, this year with the new course was a touch over 200 miles from the start in Prescott to the finish in Mesa. Not only spanning a long distance, it covered just under 36 hours and some rugged terrain. MCECG, with the help of the Yavapai County ARES/RACES team, provided a communications safety net for this event. Utilizing more than 70 amateur radio operators, 4 mountain top

4 linked repeaters, a stand alone repeater, amateur radio was able to cover the 36 exchange or "hand-off" points and the start finish line. So, how is this like a disaster drill? Like a disaster, the event ramped up over time. Exchanges were open roughly 11 hours which could be equated to points of distribution or a mass inoculation site or even a care and reception area. Exchanges operated with only the basics, most without electricity, in the remotest of the locations without telephones, in many cases without cell coverage (although many were in the city) In the end all 200+ teams made the finish line. Amateur Radio had an opportunity to exercise people, hardware, to explore little used linking protocols and to exercise the communications arts. In short, disaster drills often masquerade under the guise of a sporting event! Many thanks to the dedicated volunteers of the Yavapai County ARES/RACES team and the Maricopa County Emergency Communications Group. Go to to check or create your Arizona ARES registration. Rick Aldom W7STS. natecf@gmail.com SILENT KEYS Philip Madsen KC6NJX passed away after a long illness on the 27th of February. Phil was a former long time member of EAARS and a Volunteer Examiner. Ingo Radicke WA7KUM, passed away on March 6th. Ingo was the Arizona State Government Liaison and the Gila County District Emergency Coordinator. He was instrumental in getting the Arizona Amateur Radio license plates. He also had led the team for the Arizona PRB-1 bill. Ingo was also a consultant for the Globe-Miami Regional Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation and the Gila County division of ADOT. Ingo was a member of the Saguaro Amateur Remote Base Association which operates the WA7KUM Remote from Pinal Peak. ARIZONA TRAFFIC AND EMERGENCY NET (ATEN) REPORT The net meets on 3986 khz at 5:30 PM MST 0030Z Daily. For more info: February Check-ins 5229, Visitors 63, Traffic 121, Originations 81, Sessions 28, Active Stations 30 ATEN Net Manager is Tomy KF7GC kf7gc@arrl.net NEW HAMS 37 Arizona hams just received their FCC license. Congratulations! HAMFESTS/CONVENTIONS/SPECIAL MEETINGS/PUBLIC SERVICE EVENTS April 4, 2009 Radio Society of Tucson, Kino Sports Park Tucson AZ contact Randy@kf0x.com April 4, 2009 Tucson Ham Radio Picnic Christopher Columbus Park

5 April 11, 2009 AARC Hamfest Hosted by the Arizona Amateur Radio Club DeVry University, Dunlap Rd, Phoenix, AZ Talk-In: (no tone). Contact Gary Hamman, K7GH April 25, 2009 Highline Trail Run, Payson Area May 2, 2009 CARA Hamfest Hosted by the Cochise Amateur Radio Association Club site on Moson Rd, Sierra Vista, AZ May 2-3, th Call Area QSO Party aka 7QP May HamCon Colorado 2009, the ARRL 2009 Rocky Mountain Division Convention. May 30, 2009 Yavapai Amateur Radio Club and the Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association Prescott, AZ June 6, 2009 White Mountain Hamfest Hosted by the Kachina Amateur Radio Club Show Low, AZ July 17-19, 2009 ARCA/Williams Hamfest Hosted by the Amateur Radio Council of Arizona Williams Rodeo Grounds, Airport & Rodeo Rds, Williams, AZ. HB 2514 passed 5 to 3 in the House Committee today. A big thanks goes to the following who spoke and showed up at the hearing: Rep. Nancy McLain Randy Malnick KF0X John Cline K7ESQ (Our Counsel) Michael LeBoeuf K5ML Jim Wortham W7GNP Sarah Crank N7XYR Jessica Brown N7ZRD There were others there but I didn't get a list. Please let me know if you were there so you can be recognized. The next step is a vote in the House. ACTION NEED NOW your 2 House Representatives and ask them to Support HB Mention that it has passed overwhelming in the House before. And let them know that it is the same bill as the last two times. 2. We need HELP from Hams in the Gilbert Area to get a Senate Committee hearing. Please me, call me ( or ), or even drop by my house. Thank you for your help, Dan Brown NA7DB Phone or

6 GLOBAL SIMULATED EMERGENCY TEST IN APRIL The HQ Stations of all IARU Member-Societies, as well as the stations of Emergency Communications Groups, have been invited by IARU Region 1 to participate in the 2009 Global Simulated Emergency Test (GlobalSET), on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from UTC. The GlobalSET will take place on and near the emergency Center of Activity (CoA) frequencies on 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 meters, +/- QRM. Stations in the United States intending to participate need to register through their IARU International Emergency Communications Coordinator. For the United States, registrations should be ed to ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager Dennis Dura, K2DCD at, k2dcd@arrl.org. According to IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Coordinator Greg Mossop, G0DUB, the GlobalSET is not a contest, but an emergency communications exercise to develop skills needed to provide an international emergency network. THE COCHISE SMOKE is published each month by and snail mail. Editor is Ted Weaver, K9TED tedweaver2@juno.com Snail mail stuff you d like to have me publish in Smoke to P.O. Box 6017, Huachuca City, AZ or use the above address. The Cochise Amateur Radio Association, Inc. (CARA) P.O. Box 1855 Sierra Vista, AZ This Is A First Class Publication