In Person Meeting JAN 29th

All,

We are in the works to have an in-person meeting/social on Thursday, January 29th, 2015 at the Public Safety Building on 300 East 400 South, beginning at 6:30 pm.

The topic of the meeting will be "A simple, carry-along battery solution and Anderson power pole connectors...construction and application".

With this, we are looking to make a group purchase on a 12V 7AH battery, charger, and Anderson power pole connectors.  I will include information below provided by Tom -W7GT.



Hello Power-Hungry Hams,

Here is the battery which I and others have been using for a few years.  It is a 12 volt, 7AH battery.  They make bigger and smaller ones, of course.  But the bigger ones start getting pretty heavy to lug around (think car battery), and this one seems to be a good middle-ground battery.


http://store.batteryspecialists.com/ps1270.html

The approximate pricing is shown on the quote below I got from Battery Specialists.  In 1 ea. quantity, they are $33.80.  But if we buy 10 they are $18.68, and if we buy 20 they are $13.13 (basically, two for the price of one at this level).   I bought 2 so I can have one “in use” and the other one charging.

http://store.batteryspecialists.com/psc12800ac.html

This is the charger they recommend, and it’s made by PowerSonic, the battery manufacturer.  Chargers are $34.95 Q=1, and the price comes down modestly with Q=10.

http://www.amazon.com/Anderson-Powerpole-Connectors-Pair-Genuine/dp/B005P9CATU

Some of you may also want some Anderson connectors.   Here’s an Amazon offering for those.  They are not super cheap – about $1.30 per wire (i.e. a pair of connectors).   So for $13 you get 10 pairs, as shown here.  Think about how many devices you have that use  12V DC power (your radio, the AC power adapter that came with your radio, your batteries (that you will buy), your cigarette lighter power cable, etc.)  Every one of those 12V cables is a candidate to cut in half and put Anderson connectors in line with it.

We would also want to buy a roll of red and  a roll of black wire too for making connections.

Please reply by email to let me know…

•         How many batteries would you like to purchase, if any?

•         How many chargers would you like to purchase, if any?

•         How many Anderson connectors would you like to purchase, if any?

The prices may vary slightly from what I found above, but hopefully it won’t be so different that you would have made a different decision.

Once we get desired quantities from everyone and place the order, we will meet on January 29th and distribute them.  What could be more fun than that?

Please send your reply ASAP to Dave.Anderson.1@comcast.net if you are interested in a purchase.  We will tally up the count and include it with Tom's order for the best price possible.

Thanks,

Dave Anderson

KE7ORB

Community Preparedness Workshop

Community Preparedness Workshop

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Public Safety Building
475 S 300 E
Salt Lake City, UT

Dear Salt Lake City Community Members,

The 3nd Quarter 2014 Community Preparedness Workshop has been scheduled. Please join us at the workshop on Saturday, August 16, 2014. Continental breakfast will be offered at 8:00 am. Welcome and opening address will begin at 8:30.

This workshop will be divided into three sessions. The first session will cover the proper use of FRS radios. If you have an FRS radio, bring it to the workshop. The second session will present the Fix-the-Bricks program. This program was designed to provide some basic tools to enable residents to do a preliminary assessment in determining potential structural impact of a 7.0 seismic event. The third session will be presented by structural engineer Glen Palmer. Mr. Palmer will continue the topic of structural seismic stability addressing considerations Salt Lake residents should make and steps that can be taken to reduce the impact of a seismic event to homes and buildings.

Please visit www.slcgov.com/em as soon as possible to register to attend the workshop. State “yes” or “no” in the comment section to indicate if you will be attending the breakfast. Please pass this on to anyone you feel would be interested in attending.

                                                                                                                                

Community Preparedness Workshop

Agenda

Saturday, August 16, 2014
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Public Safety Building
475 S 300 E
Salt Lake City, UT

• 8:00          Sign-in & Light continental breakfast/ Welcome & Open Meeting – 
• John Flynt/Mayor’s Office
• 8:30           Emergency Radio Communications: How to Use FRS – 
• Susan Smith

Numerous types of radio services are available for emergency communications.The Family Radio Service (FRS) is used for casual and emergency purposes by families, neighbors and CERTs. Pros, cons and how-to's of FRS will be covered in this presentation. If you have an FRS radio, bring it to the workshop. If you don't, this presentation may help you decide whether to get one or not.

• 9:30           Break
• 9:45           Fix-the-Bricks – John Flynt

This program was designed to provide some basic tools to enable residents to do a preliminary assessment in determining potential structural impact of a 7.0 seismic event. 

• 10:45           Break
• 11:00           Palmer Engineering – Glen Palmer

This session will be presented by structural engineer Glen Palmer. Mr. Palmer will continue the topic of structural seismic stability addressing considerations Salt Lake residents should make and steps that can be taken to reduce the impact of a seismic event to homes and buildings. A Q&A will follow.

• 12:00           Adjourn 

Free parking is available immediately to the right as you turn on to Blair St. from 400 South, in the small parking lot to the east of Blair St. on the east side of the Public Safety Building, and on 500 South beside the Public Safety Building.

People with disabilities may make requests for reasonable accommodation no later than 48 hours in advance in order to attend this meeting. Accommodations may include alternate formats, interpreters, and other auxiliary aids. This is an accessible facility. For questions or additional information, please contact Michael Stott, ADA Coordinator, at michael.stott@slcgov.com, (801) 535-7976, or TDD (801) 535-6021.

Any questions, please contact:

John Flynt
Preparedness Coordinator
Salt Lake City Office of Emergency Management
801-799-3604
john.flynt@slcgov.com

Ham Radio Class in August

Ever had an interest in 

Amateur Radio?

Ever wanted to learn how we will 

Communicate 

relief efforts in a major disaster??

Ever wanted to add radio 

communications to your 

CERT skills? 

An amateur radio "Technician license" course is being taught this month over the course of two Fridays and two Saturdays.

Beginning:             Friday, August 15th from 6pm to 9pm
       continuing               Saturday, August 16th from 9am to 5pm
               continuing             Friday, August 22nd from 6pm to 9pm
                       and finishing       Saturday August 23rd from 9am until 12pm noontime.

Location:    Wasatch Presbyterian Church
                    1700 South 1700 East, Salt Lake City

Cost:            $45 which includes - Instruction, Manual, Exam Fee and Door Prizes

Taught by:    Eugene and Carol Mc Wherter

If you are interested, please send an email to dave.anderson.1@comcast.net including your name and phone number.  Your information will be forwarded to the class organizers.

Meeting and Social

Dear Friends of Amateur Radio,

The Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club cordially invites you to a meeting and social on Thursday, Jun 19 as outlined in the invitation below and attached.  One point of business will be discussion of a Club logo.

We are excited to have the opportunity to see Club members and other supporters in person soon!  Please share this invitation as you see fit.

73 (Regards),
Susan

Susan Smith, President
Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club
www.k7xrd.blogspot.com
SSmithRPh@gmail.com
cell  (801) 910-2245
(Texting is great.)
KJ7ABC

CHARC: Shakeout 2014

The Cottonwood Heights Amateur Radio Club participated in Utah's annual earthquake drill The Great Utah Shakeout this year, 2014. This video depicts how the drill is run in Cottonwood Heights and how the Radio Club (CHARC) helps to run the communications in a real emergency.

Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club Net

The Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club 

net meets on the air every Thursday at 9:00pm on 

147.50 mhz simplex.

The purpose of this net is to develop and coordinate an emergency communications team in the Communities within and surrounding Salt Lake City by providing amateur radio operators the opportunity to exercise their radio equipment, to practice radio operating procedures, and to perfect the form of the Net.  Although the primary focus is ham radio, other topics of communications and emergency response preparedness are discussed.

Check-ins are called from the four Divisions of SLC and their Community Councils.  If you know in which division you live but not the community council, check in at the end of your division.  If you don't know your division, speak up at the end of the SLC check-ins.  If you don't live in SLC, you're welcome to push the PTT after the SLC check-ins.

Have a pen and paper handy so you can practice writing callsigns as hams sign in.  If you have an interested family member or neighbor, have him/her do likewise.  One day, any of you could be asked to be scribe for net control or to direct the check-in part of the net.  It's really easier than you might think!

Looking forward to your check in!

Community Preparedness Workshop

 Dear Salt Lake City Community Members,

The 2nd Quarter 2014 Community Preparedness Workshop has been scheduled.  Please join us at the workshop on Saturday, May 10, 2014.  Continental breakfast will be offered at 8:00 am.  Welcome and opening address will begin at 8:30.

This workshop will be used as a public forum to discuss the Salt Lake City ShakeOut 2014 exercise that was conducted at Highland Park Elementary on April 17th.  This was the first Full-Scale Exercise conducted to integrate shelter/reunification operations, the CERT program, and Amateur Radio operators under the umbrella of the SAFE Neighborhoods program.

As introduced last year, in the event of a catastrophic incident that requires evacuation of a community neighborhood, individuals and families need a SAFE location to go for family reunification, temporary sheltering, and a place to receive emergency public information.

Salt Lake City, in partnership with the American Red Cross, and the Salt Lake City School District developed the SAFE Neighborhoods program which trains volunteers from each school neighborhood to open, staff, and run their own reunification shelters within their own school neighborhoods until outside resources arrive.  However, the sheltering/reunification operations are only one component the SAFE Neighborhoods program. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Amateur Radio are two additional critical components in our “Whole Communities” planning efforts.

As we move forward, coordination with faith-based and other volunteer, community, and/or non-governmental organizations will be incorporated.  Please come and participate in the discussion to learn about what is being accomplished and learn about how to become involved with Community Preparedness in your area!

Community Preparedness Workshop

Agenda

Saturday, May 10, 2014, 8:00 am – 11:30 am
Public Safety Building
475 S 300 E
Salt Lake City, UT 


8:00am      Sign-in & Light continental breakfast/ Welcome & Open Meeting
                  – John Flynt/Mayor’s Office

8:30am      ShakeOut 2014 Exercise – Review & Discussion
                 This session will review the details of the individual exercise activities: shelter,
                 CERT, and amateur radio.  Questions and input from exercise participants
                 are encouraged.

10:15am    Break

10:30am    Vigilant Guard Exercise
                  In this session, discussion will focus on the Vigilant Guard exercise to be
                  held on November 4th.  Though this exercise in conjunction with the Utah
                  National Guard, the community based portion of the exercise will consist
                  of the same functions as the ShakeOut exercise.  The primary difference will
                  be the conduct of exercise operations at two schools instead of just one.
                  Leaders from each of the respective disciplines (shelter, CERT, & amateur
                  radio) will have the opportunity to present discussion items concerning
                  exercise conduct.
                           
11:30am     Adjourn


Free parking is available immediately to the right as you turn on to Blair St. from 400 South, in the small parking lot to the east of Blair St. on the east side of the Public Safety Building, and on 500 South beside the Public Safety Building.

People with disabilities may make requests for reasonable accommodation no later than 48 hours in advance in order to attend this meeting.  Accommodations may include alternate formats, interpreters, and other auxiliary aids.  This is an accessible facility.  For questions or additional information, please contact Michael Stott, ADA Coordinator, at michael.stott@slcgov.com, (801) 535-7976, or TDD (801) 535-6021.

Under Construction

With the announcement of The Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club receiving a new vanity call sign, we have modified the address of our blog.

Our new blog address is K7XRD.blogspot.com.

This site is still under a bit of construction, so make sure you check back in a week to see all the menu options.

Sign up now to receive blog updates and posts 
as they become available 

-- left side of blog, right under the main menu bar.

Thank you,

Dave Anderson
KE7ORB
SLCrossroadsARC@gmail.com

CQ CQ Calling CQ

Dear Friends in Amateur Radio,

CQ CQ Calling CQ

to all Salt Lake City (SLC) hams and others licensed and not licensed in amateur radio who are interested in having fun with ham radio and supporting the SLC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in emergency and disaster communications.  You are invited to a meeting . . .

When:       Thursday, March 20, 6:30 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m.

Where:     The new SLC Public Safety Building,
                 475 S 300 E, Salt Lake City
                 (free parking on some of 500 S, which is a westbound one-way street)

Why: 

1. To take a tour of the SLC Emergency Operations Center, including the Ham Radio Room, given by Cory Lyman, Director of SLC OEM (arrive early!),
2. To learn about the new ham radio club in SLC, Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club (how do you spell fun?), and
3. To learn how you can participate in the SLC Great Utah ShakeOut Exercise (easy-peasy!)

And by the way, we want to reach out to as many SLC hams as possible, so please Share The Date by forwarding this email to all your ham buddies!

See ya there,

Susan

Susan Smith (KJ7ABC), President
Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club
SSmithRPh@aol.com
home (801) 487-9115
cell  (801) 910-2245
(Texting is great.)

Announcing SL Crossroads ARC

Dear Friends in Amateur Radio,

As announced Feb. 6, 2014 on the Salt Lake City (SLC) Southeast Division Net, the Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club (SL Crossroads ARC) has been formed, and we are recruiting members.

The purposes of the Club are "to promote the enjoyment of the hobby of amateur radio and to support emergency and disaster communications within communities of and around Salt Lake City, Utah."

Some details about the SL Crossroads ARC (Constitution and By-Laws available upon request) include:

• All persons interested in amateur radio communications are eligible for consideration as members of the Club, whether residents of Salt Lake City or not.
• Membership is by application.
• The membership application fee is $5 for the primary person and $3 each for additional family members at the same residence.
• There are currently no membership dues or fees other than the membership application fee.
• Callsign Members are those who have FCC amateur radio licenses.  Callsign Members have full voting privileges and can hold office.
• Associate members are those who do not hold FCC amateur radio licenses but are otherwise interested in the Purposes of the Club.  Associate members cannot hold office and have limited voting privileges.  Associate members may participate on committees (except the Nominating Committee) and at activities and meetings.
• Officers are elected annually in November by the Callsign Members.
• Officers as currently constituted are President (Susan Smith, KJ7ABC), Vice President (Dave Anderson, KE7ORB) and Secretary/Treasurer (T. Mike Smith, KM7TMS).
• Marvin Match (KA7TPH) is the Club License Trustee and is applying for a Club license and callsign.
• An email address and blog or other website will be established for the Club.
• Currently, there are no plans for regular, scheduled meetings or activities, other than a weekly radio net (starting date to be announced).
• Committees for various purposes will be established for short or long periods of time, as needed.

Our two primary activities at this time are:

• coordinating hams by email and meeting(s) with the City for the Great Utah ShakeOut on April 17, 2014 and
• setting up equipment in the SLC Public Safety Building ham radio room, which the SLC Office of Emergency Management has so graciously allocated for volunteer ham emergency communications and training.

All that said, we know that for most hams, amateur radio is a hobby and meant to be fun.  In addition to the serious matters of emergency communications, we intend that SL Crossroads ARC will provide opportunities for hands-on activities, social interaction and other worthwhile events.

Please sign up by mail or by email (application below and longer one attached).  Send your application fee(s) by check via mail to 2660 Filmore Street, Salt Lake City, UT  84106 written to "Susan Smith" and "Club member" in the check note.

Also, whether you become a member right now or not, we are interested in your interests, skills, activities you would like to see, and how you would like to become involved.  A questionnaire will follow in a different email.

73,
Susan

Susan Smith (KJ7ABC), President
SL Crossroads ARC
SSmithRPh@aol.com
cell  (801) 910-2245
(Texting is great.)