A Brief History by Bob Cutter, KIØG
There
were amateur radio operators in the Glenwood Springs-Aspen area before
1969 but
that was the year of the first attempt at organized activity. First known as Glenwood Amateur Society (GAS)
it consisted
of Bob Cutter
WN0YED(KI0G), Ken Eigsti W0LSD, Dale Hoveland, Neal Morris K0TIV and
Neil Van
Gaalen WA0KAP. The primary emphasis
of the group was ARRL Field Day and the first group effort was in June
1970 at a
location above Glenwood Springs.
FM
repeater activity came to the valley in 1976 when WR0ANT was issued an
FCC
license. In those days repeaters
had to be individually licensed and involved a rather detailed
application for a
specific site. Sunlight Peak was
chosen as WA0KAP maintained the Garfield County TV translator system
and could
obtain access for the machine. One
of the elements of the application was a rather complicated calculation
of
Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT). The
Sunlight Peak site had an HAAT of 8,815 feet. The
present location, building and tower are the same as
used by WR0ANT
when it went on the air November 14, 1977 on 146.07/67 MHz.
In
1977 the City of Glenwood Springs donated several Motorola mobile FM
transceivers that were surplus to their police department.
The first repeater was assembled from these transceivers
after
considerable work and modification by Doug Bridges W0FV, KI0G, Walt
Smith
W0FG(sk) and WA0KAP. The license
for WR0ANT required that control operators be designated and
WA0YED(KI0G), Larry
Gerbaz WB0LLR(K0CL) and Fred Scully WB0FOR(K0VK) were listed. One Glenwood police radio remained
un-butchered and it was
given to then
high school student, Robert Burry WB0BWW.
In
1979 FCC rules were modified to allow a General or higher Amateur Radio
Licensee
to operate a repeater under his own call sign. The
WR0ANT repeater was changed to WA0YED/R on September
30, 1979 and to
KI0G/R on 146.28/88 in 1981. The
final change to club call K0RV/R was on December 18, 1996.
The
club name was changed to Ski Country Amateur Radio Club, Inc. with
incorporation
as a Colorado nonprofit corporation in 1983 and
to more accurately reflect the regional nature of the
club and its
members. The club also filed for
and obtained IRS designation as a 501(c)(3) charitable corporation.
The
club has proudly fielded an operation each Field Day since 1970. In
addition it
has hosted swapfests, hidden transmitter hunts and provided
communications for
fire emergencies and various public events. When
the FCC initiated the Volunteer Examiner program the
club was quick
to obtain authorization and has always prided itself in making
examination
sessions available when needed.
The First Field Day 1970
Pictured
from L to R are: Neil Van Gaalen, WAØKAP -
Dale
Hoveland - Ken Eigsti, WØLSD - Neal Morris, KØTIV and the rig being
operated
is KIØG's Heath HotWater-100
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