Upcoming Events

2024 Utah Emergency Communications Conference

Here is the link to sign up for the Utah Emergency Communications Conference (formerly the Utah RACES/ARES Conference) 

Canceled

2025 Utah VHF Society Swap Meet

Saturday, March 29th 2025

The location is the same as in recent years - the Davis County Legacy Events Center, building #2 (151 S. 1100 W. Farmington).

The doors will open at 8 AM for sellers and 8:30 AM for the general public - and the cost the same as last time (e.g. free for members, $4 for 18 and under, $7 for non-members).  Pending limited availability, tables are available for $5 each, and a space for a table (if you bring your own) is $3.  If available, the use of a chair is $2, but due to the very limited supply, we recommend that you bring your own chairs.

For full directions, maps and pictures, see "The Utah VHF Society 2025 Swap Meet - Where and When". 

2025 Utah DCC

 (Utah Digital Communications Conference)

Saturday, Febuary 22nd 2025

8th Annual Amateur Radio Utah Digital Communications Conference.  February 22nd 2025   http://utah-dcc.org/

The conference will be a fusion of amateur radio communications and maker topics. Amateur radio is the pioneer of digital modes. This conference will focus on the amateur radio hobby that surrounds utilizing digital modes or technology in the hobby. Current emerging topics such as digital modes for emergency communications and building your own components. If you have questions please email UtahDCC@gmail.com

Conference will be held at the Salt Lake Community College Conference Center. Located at 9750 South 300 West Sandy Utah. Please note there is new directions for arriving from the south on I-15

Click Here for directions map 

Calendar

Announcing the 2022 Utah VHF Society Swap Meet

The Utah VHF Society is pleased to announce the annual swap meet, scheduled to be held on Saturday, 26 February, 2022.  The location is the same as in recent years - the Davis County Legacy Events Center, building #2 (151 S. 1100 W. Farmington).  

Barring any (currently) unforeseen circumstances, please reserve this date and join us there where you may buy, sell, and trade your "stuff" - not to mention see friends that you haven't seen for a while.

More details about this event will be posted soon.

Introduction to Winlink

In an effort to make Utah ham’s better communicators in an emergency, Utah ARES is putting together an Introduction to Winlink training session. You do not need to be an ARES member to attend.

The first session is an introduction to Winlink, just the basics. Then there will be a follow up with 4 weekly training sessions on the specifics of Winlink, install, setup and running the software.  This training is being organized by Oliver K6OLI, District Emergency Coordinator ARES LAX Northeast District in conjunction with Utah ARES.

Thank you to everyone that was able to attend the presentation. 

For those that could not attend here are links to the video and the Chat text. The chat text has lots of good reference links and useful comments.

When I receive the links to the 4 week training I will pass it along to this group also. This training will begin in August.

Link to the presentation video:

https://youtu.be/bl4aFN-sJjY

Link to the chat text:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jQBXnpiZxArKo5erTpLv8KmdAYelkYXF/view?usp=sharing

WINLINK FOR EMCOMM - CLASS #1, #, #3 &#4

Classes #1, #2, #3 and #4 are recorded and archived at WaveTALKERS.com —  https://wavetalkers.com   — skim through at your own pace. 

Here are some setup guides from the class.

ARES Class DEFAULT Setup for Winlink - Packet and VARA FM guide

Quick Setup Guide - Packet Soundcard Modem (by K6OLI)

Again, thanks for your interest in Winlink.

If you have any questions or comments please let me know!

Tyler Griffiths

N7UWX

Utah State ARES Section Emergency Coordinator

If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. tyler.griffiths@gmail.com

To find out more or to learn about the Winlink system click this link.

https://winlink.org/

Winlink, or formally, Winlink Global Radio Email, is a worldwide radio messaging system that uses amateur-band radio frequencies and government frequencies to provide radio interconnection services that include email with attachments, position reporting, weather bulletins, emergency and relief communications, and message relay. The system is built and administered by volunteers and is financially supported by the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation.

Winlink networking started by providing interconnection services for amateur radio . It is well known for its central role in emergency and contingency communications worldwide. The system used to employ multiple central message servers around the world for redundancy, but in 2017–2018 upgraded to Amazon Web Services that provides a geographically-redundant cluster of virtual servers with dynamic load balancers and global content-distribution. Gateway stations have operated on sub-bands of HF since 2013 as the Winlink Hybrid Network, offering message forwarding and delivery through a mesh-like smart network whenever Internet connections are damaged or inoperable. During the late 1990s and late 2000s, it increasingly became what is now the standard network system for amateur radio email worldwide. Additionally, in response to the need for better disaster response communications in the mid to later part of the 2000s, the network was expanded to provide separate parallel radio email networking systems for MARS, UK Cadet, Austrian Red Cross, the US Department of Homeland Security SHARES HF Program, and other groups.

Past events