Follow this link for more details.

2008 Utah Field Day Scores Call Class Score QSOs Po- sition of Per- centile 2007 Per- centile Club Portable Stations K7UM 3A 12,638 3,893 3 303 99.0 98.9 Utah DX Assn K7DAV 3A 6,096 1,632 24 303 92.1 84.8 Davis County ARC W7SP 2A 4,572 1,033 80 442 81.9 83.4 Utah ARC N7XJ 1B1B 1,970 162 22 99 77.8 — (Bob Armstrong) W7DRC 3A 2,608 758 131 303 56.8 57.3 Dixie ARC W7SU 2A 1,456 601 302 442 31.7 20.2 Ogden ARC W7IVM 4A 1,664 473 86 109 21.1 36.7 Bridgerland ARC W7UAR 2A 1,158 257 355 442 19.7 — Hobble Creek Stake W7BAR 2A 212 71 440 442 0.45 — Borderline ARC Home and Fixed Stations WA7LNW 2D 3,404 1,098 3 15 80.0 —   N7HZB 1D 396 8 107 374 71.4 —   K7NAL 1E 1,060 405 65 202 67.8 —   AC7JW 1D 328 76 127 374 66.0 —   W7DML 1D 272 47 150 374 59.9 59.7   K7UB 1F 2,024 446 18 43 58.1 45.2 Golden Spike ARC K7DAC 1D 248 99 164 374 56.1 —   KD7SWL 1D 204 57 192 374 48.7 —   KC7PVD 1E 126 13 197 202  2.5 —

Key to Entry Classes Starting number   The number that begins each class is the number of simultaneous transmitters on the air. For example, UARC's 2A class indicates there was a maximum of two transmitters on the air at any given time.   First Letter The letter that follows the starting number tells the type of operation: A: A club or group portable with three or more operators B: A non-club group portable station using one or two operators C: A mobile station D:   A home station using commercial power E: A home station using emergency power F: A station at an Emergency Operating Center (EOC)   Second number A "1" or "2" following the letter indicates the number of operators. Class B entries are subdivided in this way.   Final “B” A “B” following the number of operators or the class letter indicates an operation powered entirely by batteries and running no more than five watts transmitter output power.   Example: Class 1B2B means a single-transmitter portable operation with two operators using only batteries for power and running five watts or less.

For the full story and pictures see Field Day 2008.

Woody recently got married at age 96. For full details see http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/256254/17/ for a story from the Provo Daily Herald.

You might be a ham operator if:

1. When you look at a full moon and wonder how much antenna gain you would need.
2. When a friend gets a ride from you and remarks that you have a lot of CBs in your vehicle, it turns in to an hour long rant on how ham radio is not CB radio.
3. When someone asks for directions, you pause, wondering if long or short path would be best.
4. When you can look at a globe and be able to point to your antipode (and you know what an antipode is).
5. Your cell phone ring tone is a Morse code message of some kind.
6. You have accidentally said your Amateur Radio call sign at the end of a telephone conversation.
7. Your favorite vacation spots are always on mountain tops.
8. You notice more antennas than road signs while driving your car.
9. You have driven onto the shoulder of the road while looking at an antenna.
10. Porcupines appear to be fascinated with your car.
11. If you ever tried to figure out the operating frequency of your microwave oven.
12. When you look around your bedroom of wall-to-wall ham gear and ask: Why am I still single?
13. The local city council doesn't like you.
14. You actually think towers look pretty.
15. Your family doesn't have a clue what to get you for Christmas, even after you tell them.
16. Your HF amplifier puts out more power than the local AM radio station.
17. The wife and kids are away and the first thing that goes through your head is that no one will bother you while you call “CQ DX” a few hundred times.
18. When you pull into a donut shop and the cops there on their coffee break ask if they can see your radio setup.
19. You refer to your children as your “harmonics.”
20. Your girlfriend or wife asks: "You're going to spend $XXXX on what???
21. You actually believe you got a good deal on eBay.
22. When you see a house with a metal roof, and your only thought is what a great ground plane that would be.
23. You have pictures of your radio equipment as wallpaper on your computer's desktop.
24. Every family vacation includes a stop at a Ham radio store.
25. The first question you ask the new car dealer is: "What is the alternator's current output"?
26. You buy a brand new car based on the radio mounting locations and antenna mounting possibilities.
27. You have tapped out Morse code on your car's horn.
28. A lightning storm takes out a new laptop, plasma TV, and DVD recorder, but all you care about is if your radios are okay.
29. Your wife has had to ride in the back seat because you had radio equipment in the front seat.
30. Your wife was excited when you were talking about achieving that critical angle, but very disappointed when you finally did.
31. During a love making session with your wife, you stop to answer a call on the radio.
32. Your wife threatens you with divorce when you tell her that you are going on a “fox” hunt.
33. Talking about male and female connectors makes you feel excited.
34. You dream of big, comfortable, knobs, but not on women.
35. You always park on the top floor of the deck, just in case you might have to wait in the car later.
36. When house hunting, you look for the best room for a radio shack and scan the property for possible tower placement.
37. When house hunting, you give your realtor topographical maps showing local elevations.
38. The real estate agent scratches his head when you ask if the soil conductivity is high, medium, or low.
39. You have Ham radio magazines in the bathroom.
40. When your doorbell rings, you immediately shut down the amplifier.
41. Fermentation never enters your mind when “homebrew” is mentioned.
42. Instead of just saying no, you have said “negative.”
43. You have used a person's name to indicate acknowledgement.
44. You become impatient waiting for the latest AES catalog to arrive.
45. You have found yourself whistling "CQ" using Morse code.
46. You always schedule the last full weekend in June for vacation.
47. You walk carefully in your back yard to avoid being close-lined.
48. You have deep anxiety or panic attacks during high winds or heavy ice.
49. You and the FedEx/UPS men are on a first name basis.
50. You really start to miss people that you've never seen.
51. Your exercise machine is a Morse code keyer.
52. You walk through the plumbing section at the hardware store and see antenna parts.
53. Your neighbors thought you were nuts when you ripped up your lawn to bury chicken wire.
54. Your next door neighbor thinks that your wife is a widow.
55. Your wife has delivered meals to your Ham shack.
56. If you sold all your Ham radio equipment, you could pay off your mortgage.
57. Removing snow from the roof of your car requires working around the antenna and wires.

UARC made 1790 QSOs over the twenty-four hour period, almost a thousand more than the nearest competitor. The Manti group, however, was able to amass more points owing to the multipliers for lower power and battery operation.

One good way to rank stations is by their percentile within their entry classes. This shows how well they competed against stations running the same number of transmitters. By this metric UARC did very well, coming in at 88.9, the highest in the state. Referring to the table below, you can see that UARC was 29th place out of 262 entries in the 3A class. This meant that 88.9 percent of the 3A entries had lower scores than did we. This was an improvement from last year's 83.4.

The Davis County Club (DCARC) has often made a very good showing, coming in last year with a 92.9 percentile. Apparently, however, they did not send in an entry for 2005.

Those who are ARRL members can access the score database directly at www.arrl.org/members-only/contests/scores.html?con_id=90.

Here is the tabulation of Utah entries in order of percentile:

2005 Utah Field Day Scores Call Class Score QSOs Po- sition of Per- centile 2004 Per- centile Club W7SP 3A 5,538 1,706 29 262 88.9 83.4 Utah ARC NC7X 1AB 7,890 714 5 19 73.7   Manti Contest Club WB6FDY 1B1 1,044 245 15 53 71.7 60.4   N7ARE 1C 405 51 21 54 61.1     N7BO 2A 1,802 609 272 454 40.1 78.6 Rainbow Canyons ARC W7DRC 2A 1,946 554 255 454 43.8 67.7 Dixie ARC K7UB 4A 1,940 351 81 127 36.2 21.1 UBET ARC WI7J 1A 870 310 95 141 32.6   La Verkin ARES W7IVM 4A 1,806 468 87 127 31.5 33.3 Bridgerland ARC K3SS/7 1B2B 1,180 108 16 23 30.4     N7JS 1A 690 289 104 141 26.2   Ogden ARC KD7VEM 1B1 238 44 41 53 22.6     AD7BN 1B1B 310 6 77 84  8.3     KD7WPJ 1B1B 160 2 81 84  3.6     KB6BYU 1D 19 19 263 269  2.2     K7DAV — — — — — — 92.9 Davis County ARC

Key to Entry Classes Starting number   The number that begins each class is the number of simultaneous transmitters on the air. For example, UARC's 3A class indicates there was a maximum of three transmitters on the air at any given time.   First Letter The letter that follows the starting number tells the type of operation: A: A club or group portable with three or more operators B: A non-club group portable station using one or two operators C: A mobile station D:   A home station using commercial power E: A home station using emergency power F: A station at an Emergency Operating Center (EOC)   Second number A "1" or "2" following the letter indicates the number of operators. Class B entries are subdivided in this way.   Final “B” A “B” following the number of operators or the class letter indicates an operation powered entirely by batteries and running no more than five watts transmitter output power.   Example: Class 1B2B means a single-transmitter portable operation with two operators using only batteries for power and running five watts or less.

We now have a story in two parts about the trip written specifically for UARC members. Check it out at http://www.xmission.com/~uarc/ufremnt.htm, or if you have already read Part 1, you can go directly to Part 2.

If you would like to offer your services and be added to the listing, or if you are already listed and would like to add or modify contact information, talk to Brett. He can be reached at 994-9944 (business hours), 298-5399 (home), or by e-mail at bsutherland@attbi.com.

That's the way the Utah Senate display board looked just before 11 A.M. on the morning of February 14 as Utah's PRB-1 bill got the final vote it needed for passage. On March 15 it was signed by Governor Leavitt and became law. This bill could be a major boon to amateurs wanting to erect antenna structures.

Sixteen other states had passed similar bills in order to ease the legal hoops through which amateurs must pass to erect reasonable antennas. FCC made a clear claim of federal preemption with its PRB-1 declaration that required cities, counties, zoning commissions, etc. to reasonably accommodate amateur antennas enacting only the minimum restrictions necessary for health and safety considerations. (“Federal Preemption” is the notion that federal rules override state and local legislation in matters the federal government regulates, such as radio licensing.) Unfortunately, hams have sometimes needed a great deal of time and money to fight unreasonable restrictions using PRB-1. A state law that reflects or emphasizes the PRB-1 provisions can make it much easier to convince local government entities that they need to comply with those provisions.

It all started in Utah when Mike Davis, KD7FQD, who drives for the Granite School District, realized that one of his fellow drivers, Neal Hendrickson, was a representative in the Utah Legislature. With Mike's input and help from the Capitol Hill attorneys, Representative Hendrickson drafted a bill that would prevent cities and counties from restricting amateur radio antenna structures in a way that would be inconsistent with FCC rules, particularly PRB-1. The bill became known as HB-79.

The first major hurdle for the bill was passage by the House Political Subdivisions Committee. John Hanson, KI7AR, using his experience in the Washington Legislature, came to bat to help fight for the bill. However, on January 21, the bill was rejected by a 3-7 vote in the committee.

Representative Hendrickson, though, did not give up. Part of the problem had been that time for the committee meeting ran out when some of the members still had unanswered questions. A few days later Representative Hendrickson let Mike and John know that he believed he had the votes to pass the bill and it would come up for reconsideration. Daryl Hazelgren, AF7O, prepared written materials for distribution to the legislators, a task that is said to have saved the day for the bill. On January 28 the bill was recommended favorably by the committee on a vote of 8-0 with two absent or abstaining.

From that point on, the bill met little opposition. It was passed by the full House on January 31 with a 65-8 vote (two absent or abstaining).

In the Senate, the bill was referred to the Business and Labor Committee which reported it out favorably on February 6. John Hanson, KI7AR, tells us that he went to the hearing prepared to address the issue. He got only a minute and a half into his presentation when the Chairman said,

“You're speaking in favor, right?”

When John indicated that he was, the Chairman suggested there was no need. A 6-0-2 vote demonstrated that he was correct. John says he's sure the favorable report was the result of the Committee realizing it was the only way they could avoid hearing him speak for another fifteen minutes.

The Senate votes on most bills twice, once on “Second Reading” and once on “Third Reading.” The Second Reading vote was taken on February 13 and HB-79 passed on a 26-0 vote (three absent or abstaining). The final vote came on the following day when the bill won a 23-0-6 approval. The last step was the Governor's signature which came on March 15.

Signing ceremony, April 4, 2003. L. to R.: John Hanson, KI7AR; Gov. Leavitt; Mike Davis, KD7FQD; Rep. Neal Hendrickson; Daryl Hazelgren, AF7O; Mel Parkes, AC7CP, Utah SM.

A “ceremonial signing” took place on April 4, making possible photos of key participants with the Governor.

Thanks to the hams who originated the bill and defended it in its committee hearings. Thanks also to those who contacted their state Senators and Representatives and helped assure passage.

UARC is considering purchasing a supply of connectors that members may purchase for just a bit over the UARC cost to help defray the costs of the crimper. Perhaps, at club Elmer Hour at the UARC meetings and the like, we will be able to help members use the crimper to put connectors on their own cables. On average, each PL-259 is about $1.50. Currently, we do not have the crimp dies for SMA or RG-174, but if there is enough demand, we may purchase those in the future. This is yet one more benefit available to the UARC membership.

-Tom, NY4I

For those unfamiliar with mailing lists, here's how the idea works. The list is a bit like a party-line for e-mail. Whenever someone wants to send a message of general interest to the whole group, he simply sends it to the group address: UtahAmateurRadioClub@egroups.com. The list server then duplicates the message, possibly hundreds of times, and sends a copy to everyone who has “subscribed” to the list. Thus, one can reach a large number of people with a minimum of effort.

-Tom NY4I

DF PAGES AVAILABLE

Direction-finding is surprisingly easy and inexpensive to get started in. You can build one of the simple homing circuits with a single integrated circuit. So you can get started for a few tens of dollars if you can use a soldering iron and read a schematic. (And you learned that back on the Novice test, right?)

Clint, KA7OEI, has put together some information to help you get started. Check the UARC DFing Page for some basic pointers and the famed circuits designed by Mike Mladejovsky, WA7ARK. Mike has been involved with CAP in locating downed aircraft. His team once won a national contest and located their target a good hour before the nearest competition. Mike's circuits have been circulating in the Utah ham community for a number of years and are now available on the web.