Fort Tuthill 2012
Flagstaff, AZ
The Arizona ScQRPions club is returning to Ft. Tuthill We would be pleased to have you join us for our Annual Fort Tuthill QRP Conference July 26 - July 28, 2012 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Here are those details you have been waiting for!
*** It just gets better! ***
It's that time of year again and the Arizona ScQRPions are happy to announce the 2012 QRP Conference and Campout at the Fort Tuthill campgrounds near Flagstaff Arizona on July 26, 27, and 28!! Everyone is welcome whether or not you operate QRP. The forums are usually of general interest, but oriented many times toward outdoor operating, construction projects, new techniques, small portable stations, antennas, and accessories. Don't tell, but we even have some closet QRO operators in the group!
Our program this year include Dan Butler (N7XQA) of MicroChip with a presentation on getting started in programming with PIC(r) Microcontroller chips. Paul Playford, W8AEF, has tips, tricks, and techniques of trouble shooting with an oscilloscope to share. Scotty Cowling (WA2DFI) brings a program on advancements in Software Defined Radios. Mike Wyman (W1DRY) will bring you up to date on the care and feeding of Li-Ion battries.
Early bird camping begins Thursday afternoon July 26th. Stake out your territory at the campgrounds.
Early Friday morning would be a good time to plan an early Friday morning SOTA assault on Mt. Elden or Woody Mountain both of which are on the edge of Flagstaff. Or pick another site from the Arizona SOTA Map Get an early start to avoid the heat and T-Storms and hike or, for those of us less fit, drive up to the summit and do some operating! Take some gear for both HF and VHF/UHF frequencies. Give 6m a listen. Ops in Phoenix and other surrounding cities should have no trouble working you. Working the campgrounds is duck soup even with an HT!!
Friday July 27th is the day where YOU become the activities!! Your chance to show off what you like to do in your corner of Ham Radio! Remember seeing Duffy's VHF/UHF contest rover vehicle with all the stations and antennas a couple of years ago? Extremely interesting! Did you see Ken?s beautiful loop antenna at one of our meetings? BRING A DEMO. SHOW US WHAT YOU DO AND HOW IT WORKS! Do satellites? What do you use for tracking software. Work a few birds from the campground. Brag a little. Brag a lot! Built an interesting new gadget? Bring it. Have an interesting piece of equipment? Bring it and tell us about it. Are you a weak signal guy? Operate 6m Meteor Scatter and WSPR? Love to see a demo of that one especially after hearing Ned Stearns (AA7A) talk on how do Meteor Scatter! Now I want to SEE a demo of it in action and what it sounds like! Do just WSPR? JT65? Bring that and show yourself on the Reverse Beacon Network running 2 mW output. Built a microcontroller project? Bring it and show us how you designed and programmed it. Got a new Ham Radio oriented software package? Bring your laptop/netbook/Droid/iPbone. Show us what it does! Remote control your radio? How does THAT work? Anyway, you get the idea!!
Of course you can always visit with old friends and make new ones. Bring some trading material for an informal swapmeet on Friday. We'll have a few things to sell for the benefit of the club. Whatcha got in the box mister? Some will set up stations and antennas to operate. There could be other semi-spontaneous activities, but only time will tell. This is your day. And at the end of the day Friday, enjoy a group dinner at the Sizzler in town very near the park or perhaps with a smaller group and get a little something from the Beaver Street Brewery... There has been considerable flux in the location of the Friday evening supper from time to time so watch this site closely.
Saturday, July 29th is the day for all the forums. You can see from the list of presenters above, this will be an interesting day! Top it all off with the Saturday night picnic and campfires. No rainouts allowed as we have reserved a large covered ramada for 70 happy hams just in case.
Internet access to the forums will likely NOT be available.
Hopefully one way or another you can join in the fun! Looking forward to seeing and meeting you all at 7500' in the cool Ponderosa pines of Northern Arizona!
We will provide security for the times that the campground site is unoccupied.
Saturday night finds us back at the campground for a cookout. We provide everything with the exception of your "entree". Portable tables and chairs would be wise choices of things to bring with you. Water and electricity is available. There are five permanent picnic tables and plenty of places to contain your cooking fire. Afternoon thundershowers are pretty routine in the mountains (7500'+) and you'll be looking for a place to stay sorta dry if one literally blows through. The desert is blazing hot (112F today), but the temperatures at the campground will range from the upper 70's to the mid-80's during the day.
Prizes will be awarded after the picnic Saturday. There is no admission charge and no prize tickets to buy. As in the past, we have several terrific sponsors that are very generous. They help provide our prizes and other assistance to put these programs on. Thanks to the Four States QRP group, Hendricks Kits, Uncle Cy the LED Guy, Microchip, and NorCal. They are top notch! If you are looking to make an amateur radio purchase, please consider these guys FIRST.
There are many accommodations near the campgrounds if you are motel camping. Here are two links to Google Maps showing about 11 major brand hotels and motels in each area. Take me to the Lucky Lane Motel Map or take me to the South Milton Road Motel Map (extension of I-17 North). The Econo Lodge at Lucky Lane was an especially good value for a nice room in 2009 - 2011. Here is a map showing all of the locations mentioned in this announcement GPS coordinates for all sites are available on this map.
All these hotels are way less than 10 minutes from the campgrounds at Fort Tuthill. Exit 195, East or West, from I-40 to I-17 South will take you to the campgrounds. Exit 337, North or South, off I-17 will take you to the campgrounds on the West side of I-17. This is also the exit to the Flagstaff airport. Turn West at the Stop Sign (North or South) after exiting the I-17 freeway. This road leads you directly into Ft. Tuthill just as you cross highway 89A that would take you on the scenic route to Sedona. (A wonderfully beautiful 25 mile drive if you haven't done it! (Watch out for the elk) Just show me the campground map! Click here to download an official copy of the Coconino County fairgrounds map (Ft. Tuthill). Our area on this map is on the far left side of the map just below the center where it says "Group camping area." Or something like that. The group campground is adjacent to the small military museum in the back of the fairgrounds.
Let's try the Mt. Elden 2m repeater frequency 146.98 (-) 162.2 PL if you need assistance finding us. Maybe we'll answer. Probably not, but someone just might help you out since this is a well known location. Sometimes we're having so much fun we forget to listen or just don't hear you over the racket. You will not intentionally be ignored!