Whatever happened to

HAM RADIO CENTRAL?

By WB6AMT

About four years ago radio clubs were seeing a change in the commercial sites that ham radio club repeaters were operating from. One that comes to mind was the Black Mountain site. The site rental was going up exponentially, forcing the hams to remove their equipment and look for a location for their repeaters.

At this time that I met with a ham radio buddy and the discussion came up…what could be done to help the local clubs?

A local licensed amateur wanted to get involved as an investor for the project.

We were given a starting budget for the project and started to look for something to build to serve the ham community. Thats when the tower at Ogden came to mind.

The project was planned and kept underwraps from the hams in the valley until a plethora of details could be worked out.

We wanted a place for club meetings open to any local ham club in the valley.

• It had to have a Ham Shack with 2-3 operating stations, antennas for the different radios or bands being operated.
• Meeting room for approximately 75 chairs.
• Training classrooms with tables, chairs, Video wall for presenting material.
• A library of current publications as well as older donated materials would line one wall.
• A glass display radio museum of equipment by many local hams for viewing.
• Available for tours to local Junior and High Science classes and STEM students.
• A kitchen area to support club functions like Christmas parties or on-site field day events.

Anything already available was looking to be too expensive and didn’t meet our requirements, then I got crazy…..

The following is a 4 minute tour of the spot I thought we could build our dream ham radio facility….it would be ideal because it already has a 100 ft. tower to start with.

Please hold off from starting the video yet so that my narrative can match what we are viewing.

This video was created for me by W7LVN Sonia Webb, she is a professional videographer.

This was the initial layout for us to work with.

 * touch on Trustees, City council, school district, Radio vendors, ARRL, permits and licensing, donations, commitments from supporters.