Repeaters are the "bread and butter" of the 2 meter world. Who knows how many thousands of 2 meter repeaters dot the world landscape. Many such repeaters are maintained by various amateur radio clubs and the tireless volunteers who make those clubs tick. We are very fortunate to belong to one such club: The Verde Valley Amateur Radio Club (VVARA). The VVARA repeater is located up on top of Mongus Mountain at one of the electronic sites there. My wife and I love Mingus Mountain and we go there fairly often. In fact, we were up in that neck of the woods this past February 11th. You can click here to read about that trip.
The VVARA Mingus repeater will always hold a special memory for me as it was on this machine that I made my very first radio contact after receiving my FCC call sign. I've never forget the stage fright I had when pressing the TX button to begin to speak.
Sometimes we forget that repeaters are just a reflection of the human faces that maintain and operate them. So, today, we'd like to say thanks to the most recent group of VVARA members who trekked up the mountain April 30 to provide some routine maintenance for the trusty repeater. Without the people you see above (and many other VVARA members as well), we wouldn't be checking in on the morning Knobby Knee Net. Our Arizona neighbor and Dear Friend N7NUU is fond of speculating that the VVARA repeater is the most reliable such repeater up on Mingus and, in an emergency, would probably be operative longer than even the municipal public service agency repeaters located there.
So, THANKS, GUYS, for all you do to keep this machine up and running--we appreciate your volunteer service!!!!!!
Left to right in the photo above are: Bob Thompson (KC8BOB), Steve Pearson (KC7TIL), Jim Beck (KJ7NW), Mike Wingate (WA6LSE) and Bob Kiekenapp (KØCKE). The photo was taken on a tripod by KØCKE (AKA: Capt. Bob). KØCKE is one of our most active and energetic HAM Elmers. He's really helped us in so many ways. THANKS, CAPT. BOB!
Cheers & 73, jp
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