Saturday, January 21, 2012

2012 Georgia Statewide ARES Meeting

Had a great time today at the statewide ARES meeting at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, GA.  Met up with Lester-KF4JBQ, Christine-KK4ANA, and Peter-KJ4FAW and we left Savannah this morning at 0500 and arrived at the Cracker Barrel in Dublin around 0715 where we met up with a couple of the Liberty County guys, John-N2DRL and Dwight-K4YPM for breakfast.  Got back on the road again about an hour later and arrived in Forsyth around 0915.  Great agenda today with key note addresses from GEMA and NWS representatives.  The 2 hour breakout sessions were a big hit again this year.  Great to see several of my fellow Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief team members and many of my other radio friends from across the state. 

The meeting ended around 1600 and we headed back to Savannah with heavy rain and lightning all the way home.





Lester-KF4JBQ, Peter-KJ4FAW, Christine-KK4ANA, Dwight-K4YPM, John-N2DRL

Bill-KG4BKO from Toombs County

D-Star Breakout Session

Very creative "Go Kit"

Breakout Session Area

ARRL Table

Charles-K4GK, our Section Traffic Manager

John, Peter, and Dwight hashing it out

Mike Brown-KE4FGF, our Section Emergency Coordinator

Dr. Gene-W4AYK, our Section Manager

In the Auditorium

My New Toy......Tektronix 475 Oscilloscope

I'm the proud owner of a late 1970's era Tektronix 475 Oscilloscope!  It's amazing what people with just give you when they know that you are into radios and electronics.  Thanks to my good friend Freddie for my new scope!  Not sure how long Freddie had it or where he got it from but he has little use for it these days.  Freddie has been in the electronics repair business for the last 40+ years and had this instrument on a shelf collecting dust.  Guess he thought that my ham radio buddies and I could make better use of it these days. 

What makes this even sweeter is the fact that this is the very model scope that I used in the Air Force all through the 1980s as an avionics technician.  Brings back alot of memories of testing and troubleshooting radio equipment used on the EC-135 "Looking Glass" aircraft that I was a crew member on.  I know all of my old Air Force buddies are seriously jealous!

I plan to use this scope as I work on some of my own radio gear and may incorporate it into the amateur radio license classes that I teach.