SM Article for July 2002 QST

Are you ready for Fort Tuthill? This is the month of the big event for this year, our own "Arizona State Hamfest/Convention". This year we will have many presentations along with VE exam’s on Saturday. Ed Hare, W1RFI from ARRL headquarters will be present and will give two (2) presentations; the first on Saturday morning, and the second on Saturday afternoon. The Repeater Owners conference, ARRL Forum, and ARCA forum are all scheduled along with another ATV balloon launch at 0900 hours. Check the ARCA web site for complete scheduled activities. Food vendors will be present so "Leave your diet at home". It is not too late to make reservations for a selling space. As of 01 May there were still spaces available. Don’t forget to make the necessary plans for the Southwestern Division Convention on 16-19 August. This year it will be in the San Diego area at the Holiday Inn in Escondido, California. This promises to be a big event with lots of presentations and vendors. This is your opportunity to buy new products at a reduced price. I still need a good beam antenna and plan to buy at the convention. I will be gone from August 12-20 due to vacation along with the convention. The West Valley Amateur Radio Club has a lot of members that live in the western part of the Phoenix area. Their president is Bill Roberts, KD7JMN (telephone number 623-214-2665) and they meet the first Monday of every month at 1900 hours at Saint Clement Social Hall. The club web page is www.qsl.net/wvarc. This club is very active with two (2) repeaters (147.30 (-), PL 162.2, and 449.800 (-), with PL of 162.2), a weekly club net on Wednesday at 1845 hours on the 2-meter repeater, and a 0900 hour brunch every Thursday at Coco’s restaurant on 98th Avenue and Bell Road. If you are in the area, use the repeaters and talk with the many members. Don’t forget to checkout our state web site at "www.qsl.net/arrlaz". This site has all the latest information and links to the many clubs here in Arizona, throughout the country, and has a listing for the entire state ARRL volunteer’s. Tom Fagan, WB7NXH, is keeping this site up-to-date. Here in Arizona we have over 50 more clubs. If you need list of the clubs you can contact the club coordinator, Bruce Makas, K1MY or me, both our e-mail address are through "arrl.net". The DeVry Hamfest, the Mohave Educational Fair in Kingman, and even with fires in the area, the CARA Hamfest were all a big success. The people responsible for putting on these events did a great job. It appears that we will have the "Westfest" at Glendale Community College in January 2003. See you at Fort Tuthill. 73’s Clifford Hauser KD6XH.