The following information was provided by Donnie Norvell
who is a member of the National Pony Express Association for SE Wyoming.
He is requesting the help of WY hams in providing communications support for the
re-ride in 2009.
This year is the 149th anniversary of the Pony Express.
The dates for this year are June 12th-14th, 2009. California, Nevada, and
Utah have hams that help cover the location of the mail and rider. The
main objective is to report the location of the mail and rider. I am
thinking if anyone is interested, what we could use is a main control station
and check stations along the route at the different exchange points. A special
events station could also be set up.
For more info about the NPEA and the Re-ride, check out
www.xphomestation.com
For local re-ride info, please contact Les Bennington,
National President-NPEA. He is from Glenrock. His Phone is
(307)436-9569. Our state President is Carl Schultz from Green River. His number
is (307)875-2974.
Please spread the word to anyone you think might be
interested. A lot can be done with this. Just need some interest and
coordination.
I hope that we can support this endeavor. If you are
willing to volunteer your time either as net control or along the ride, please
contact Tate, KA7O or LeeAnne, WY7DTW using their arrl.net address.
The WY SET exercise was held Nov 15th. Those in
attendance felt the exercise was a valuable learning experience and went well.
There were approximately 18 stations that checked into the net representing
about 10 counties. In the near future we will take time to discuss the
event and work on ideas for improvement. Thanks to all who took the time
to participate.
Oct 9-12 I visited ARRL headquarters to attend the SM
workshop. I had a terrific time and learned a lot. It was really
great to meet other SM's from all around the country, and a lot of fun to make a
DX contact from W1AW. Please check out this
link to ARRL for the full story and some photos.
Thanks to David KE7EKA,
for this posting to the NEWARA yahoo group site. I don't have space on
this page for the great pictures just now...
Saturday the 4th's NEWARA
Tower Raising project was successful, as 63 feet of tower now resides at the top
of "Dobe" hill (as in A-dobe) about 1,000 feet west of the Bliss Ranch
Headquarters.
Leaving Gillette about 20 minutes later than planned, the caravan of six
vehicles arrived at the Bliss Ranch at about 10:40 in the morning...20 minutes
after the target of 10:15 so we weren't as far off as we could have been, given
the wrong turns taken leaving Gillette in the first place. (That's another story
to be told over coffee, but through the use of 2 meter radios, we finally got
line out and headed north!)
Frank, K7WIZ had done tremendous prep work on the project...with power to the
site, a radio shack you could live in year-round, a great ground system carved
into the ground and an absolutely perfectly plumb tower base cemented in place
(Hand-mixed cement on-site!).
The tower site is on the top of a ridge that is about 300 feet higher than any
surrounding terrain and contains a business band repeater used by ranchers in
that area. That antenna was moved from ground level to the number two spot on
the tower when complete...which should give that already good UHF system
tremendous reach as well.
Work progressed well through the day...the only "glitches" might be described as
having to reform a tower section leg that was bent..possibly dropped at the
factory or in transit to Dick...and a roundup of additional guy wire clamps.
We wound up at about 5 or 6 p.m....with a darned good completed tower if we say
so ourselves!
Dick was able to reconnect the heliax to the antenna for the business band
radio...but still needs to install the repeater and run the cable to the 2 meter
antenna in coming days. We also have to figure out what we're going to do for
the UHF control link for the repeater...since it was as we had feared...the
controller for the
NEWARA repeaters couldn't be heard from the site (or at the top of the new
tower).
But, once those issues are resolved...we'll have a 2 meter that will boom
into all of NE Wyoming and southeast Montana and should make a great link into
the Sheridan area!
Dick deserves great kudo's for his work on the tower...that up and down multiple
times and waiting on the ground crew to figure out what they needed to do next
while he dangles at altitude was major physical work!
The weather wasn't perfect, but didn't stop us..although the sunny skies and
winds in the 20's-30's gave way to overcast and rain showers in the area in the
afternoon...but the heavier ones danced to our west and missed us. And, we
were all on the ground and starting to pick up equipment and tools when we
spotted a lightning bolt which the internet connect and computer Frank has in
the tower shack showed was about 50 miles to the southeast.
And, I think I speak for the rest of the crew when I say Frank's tour of his
radio collection was major league impressive...folks, until you see all
those restored and pristine radios and see one tuned up and operating, you don't
know what you're missing.
He also hosted us to a hamburger fry...and a relaxing after-tower raising
session before the drive home.
Those working the project included:
Frank Bliss K7WIZ
Bob Davis WG7Y
Garth Crowe N7XKT
Dick Klinker KD7QDM
Lee Jorgenson N0WQ
Robert Avery W7REA
David King KE7EKA
Ron Swart - Call Sign TBD but working hard on it!
