Sunday, Sept 12 from 8:00am to noon we have been asked to provide emergency communications for the Boulder Mountain Bike tour. This is a bike ride on both the highway and on the Harriman trail with lunch at Galena Lodge. I know some of you are riding this so bring your radio. If you want to volunteer please email jpyelda@yahoo.com. This is a great communications event if you have just started and a lot of fun along with supporting the community.
Events
Barbecue/fund raiser for the Wood River Amateur Radio Club on Sept 16, Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:00pm. We will be raffling off a new 2 meter handheld, ski pass, along with other items(too many to mention) to support the repeater system. If you have something to donate please email me. The event will be held at the Sweetwater Community Center in Woodside. Please RSVP, to jpyelda@yahoo.com ASAP (include your family) so we can plan food and if you can bring a dish,dessert, or drinks please let us know. If you are new to amateur radio and want to learn more,please come. If you have just got your license and have a new radio please bring your radio and we will help you program it. If you are a first responder please come and meet us so you know everyone in the Wood River and Sawtooth Valley. We want everyone on the same page as this would be key in an disaster situation. We will also invite the group in Twin Falls. And if you want to take your test for the tech or general class license we will have a testing group for you.
There will be a Net on Monday, December 7th at 7:00pm. Gary W7FSI will be net control.
This last week we licensed 21 new amateur radio operators. This brings to 61 new operators we have licensed this past year alone and we now have a total of 83 amateur radio operators in our group.
The demographics of our group is very interesting. For example we now have 17 women in the group. Quite different from most amateur groups. The majority of our group are in their twenties,thirties,and forties. The diversity is also interesting as we have members from the following;St Luke’s Wood River,Blaine County S/R,Sawtooth S/R,Id trans dept,Sun Valley Ski Patrol,Ketchum police,Sawtooth mountain guides,Ketchum fire,Sun Valley fire,Sun Valley trekking,Wood River fire,Sawtooth avalanche center,US Forest Service,911 dispatch, and a number of back country enthusiasts like myself who like having communication in the backcountry. Really we now have a base of amateur radio operators who can communicate in a disaster.
We have two communication events coming up in 2010. July will be the mountain bike race at Galena lodge called the Galena grinder. August will be the Sawtooth century 100 mile bike ride from Ketchum to Alturas lake and back. We will let you know the details later.
As you may know we have a complete VHF,UHF,and HF station operational at 911 dispatch in the new Public Safety Building in Hailey. We will also have shortly a VHF station at St Luke’s Hospital /Wood River. Add a proposed new VHF station at Elkhorn Fire station in Sun Valley and we have simplex coverage between north and south valley in a disaster situation.
