We
are located on the west slope of the Wasatch Range. To our west lies the Great
Salt Lake and beyond is the Great Basin. The Salt Lake Valley is bordered on the
east by the Wasatch and on the west by the Oquirrh Mountains. These two ranges
provide several major canyons that are home to some of Utah's best ski resorts
and were the venues for many events of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The altitude
of the valley averages about 4,500 feet AMSL.
Many
of the repeater systems utilize the peaks in both ranges to provide towers ranging
from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above the valley floor. Propagation challenges abound
from simplex on the valley flat lands, to canyons and hidden peaks, and to the
voice and packet links among twenty plus remote mountain aid stations for the
Wasatch 100-Mile Endurance Run.
Members
of Salt Lake County ARES represent typical amateur operator profiles: doctors,
and lawyers, homemakers, students and professors, bus drivers and airline pilots,
engineers and consultants, teachers, locksmiths, parents and children, young and
old, fire fighters and police, and the list goes on. All bring their passions
and skills to make Salt Lake County ARES a strong and reliable organization providing
the community with skilled emergency and public service radio operators.
We
are pleased to have served our county and state during mountain flooding, a tornado
(rare for Utah), the 2002 Olympics, apartment and dwelling fires, and many public
service events. We train with the agencies we serve: NOAA (weather emergencies
and flood monitoring), the state medical examiner (support for a midair collision),
the US Army and the State of Utah (Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Plan),
the American Red Cross in their multifaceted relief role, and the many emergency
managers in Utah, Salt Lake County and its municipalities.
Our
communication system consists of eight repeaters (two 2-meters, one 222MHz,and
five 440MHz) owned by Salt Lake County ARES and an emergency communications trailer
providing dedicated equipment for voice and packet modes in the VHF, UHF and HF
bands of the Amateur Radio Service, licensed VHF aircraft, marine and search-and-rescue,
and VHF, UHF and trunked public safety radios.
Additional
repeaters are available for immediate use during emergencies through standing
operational agreements. Utah’s many ARES, RACES and other emergency communications
groups have established a gentlemen’s agreement on emergency allocation of
two-meter repeaters and simplex frequencies. They keep an open dialogue through
bimonthly emergency coordinator meetings.
