Temporary Repeater
Our 147.220 MHz repeater on Mingus Mountain is in a temporary location while we move out of the old building into the new one. The other repeaters in that building will be out of service during the move.
For some people the temporary repeater has not changed their signal. Others are having trouble with it. If you are having difficulty getting into the temporary repeater try some of the standard techniques to improve your quality: more watts and different antenna location are good places to start. Or give us a few weeks to get into the new building. You could also give our Squaw Peak repeater a workout. More info here:
https://vvara.org/repeaters.html
VVARA Club Meeting May 18, 2022 
Our May meeting was held at the Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Clarkdale, Arizona. Special thanks to Toby K7ABP for an interesting presentation on "Providing sound and multimedia at large venues around the world."
VVARA Club Meeting April 20, 2022 
Our April meeting was at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Special thanks to Jack W7JLC for an interesting presentation on "Eclectic Technologies: ADS-B, Aircraft Scatter, Radiosondes".
VVARA Club Meeting March 17, 2022 
Our March meeting was at the Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Clarkdale. Special thanks to Dr. Gary K9SG for his presentation on Astrophotography. Be sure to check out a few samples of Gary's work here: https://vvara.org/photos/k9sg_2020/gallery/
ARRL Seeks Exemption from Proposed US Forest Service Communication Facility Fees
Non-commercial and uncompensated communication uses by radio amateurs within Forest Service areas long have served the public interest in many ways, among them by providing the means for otherwise unobtainable emergency communication capabilities in times of need...
Click here for the full article on the ARRL Website.
New Fee Proposed by Forest Service
A $1,400 per year new fee is being proposed for each communications site on National Forest land. The VVARA has two repeater sites which will cost the club $2,800 per year if this goes through. That is practically the entire budget for the club.
The law was passed two years ago to bill users of the forest service land for the expenses of maintaining the leases. Our only chance to change anything is to convince our elected officials that volunteer organizations should be exempt from the fee.
Complaints to the USFS will simply get counted and passed on to the Department of Agriculture and they will only do what Congress has told them to do. The comment period for the USFS has ended, but comments to our elected officials have no deadline.
When sending letters use the word volunteers instead of amateurs. Talk about public service and emergency communications. Talk about how many volunteers are involved and the number of hours put in by the various service groups. There are 41 repeater sites and 23,000 radio operators just in Arizona that could be impacted by this new fee. This is primarily a western states issue so don't expect much help east of New Mexico.
Congress is where we should focus our efforts. And getting our local officials who will be impacted by our loss of service to contact their superiors. In your letters talk about the impactand the solution. The impact is to public service events and emergency communications if repeater sites are removed from USFS land and the cost of replacing those services. The solution is to exempt volunteer organizations from the fee.
Here are some addresses to send comments to:
Senator Kyrsten Sinema contact information:
https://www.sinema.senate.gov/contact-kyrsten
Senator Mark Kelly contact information:
https://www.kelly.senate.gov/
Representative Paul Gosar (CD4) contact information:
https://gosar.house.gov/contact/
Representative Tom O'Halleran (CD1) contact information:
https://ohalleran.house.gov/contact
