About the Officers:
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Mel Parkes, NM7P (ex AC7CP) is the current President of the Utah VHF Society. Mel, first licensed in New Mexico in 1991, now holds an extra class license and is a life member of the ARRL. Mel has also served with the Air
Force MARS State Director and net control for its Administrative net,
was the president of the Davis County ARC in 1996 and 1998, and
presently an ARRL VE (Volunteer Examiner) for the Davis County ARC.
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Vice President: Les Blades, W1UT
Les was born in Montreal, Canada and shortly thereafter moved to NJ in 1953 where he grew up and finished high school. His first call sign as a novice was WN2MTX followed by WB2MTX while still in NJ and remembers going to the FCC office in Manhattan, NY to get his general class license. Since then he has held several call signs and got his current call in the mid-1990s. His father was a radio operator in the RCAF during World War II and was instrumental in helping him get into amateur radio. Les moved to Idaho in 1971 to attend Ricks College and worked at a radio station to help pay for school. Following a mission to Germany he finished school at BYU and has worked as an engineer in aerospace mainly on airplanes the flying public uses. He has lived in a number of places around the country including Seattle, near Washington DC, Pennsylvania and most recently for 30 years in northern Vermont. As a young man struggling through school he worked as a technician for a telemetry company back in NJ. It was there that he learned how to properly solder, build and test complicated electronic equipment although he had built kits and repaired old radios while still in high school. He enjoys building kits and restoring older ham radio equipment as well as dabbling in amateur photography. Les retired in 2015 and currently lives in Heber City, Utah. His wife Cynthia is also a ham (N1MGN) licensed back in the early 1980s but is rarely on the air. They moved back to Utah to be closer to their kids and grandkids. Les looks forward to trying to fill Don Blanchard’s massive shoes as your new vice president. |
Secretary: Mike Groves, KD7MG
Mike was born and raised in
San Jose, CA, where he rode the
technology wave to eventually become a principle R&D engineer,
with emphasis on
designing RF/microwave power FET's and power amplifiers.
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Treasurer:
Danny R. Fullerton, KC7RUF Danny, KC7RUF, has been licensed since 1996 and he currently holds a General Class license - and is currently working on getting his Extra. Danny became interested in Amateur Radio several years ago when helping with the MS bike race, after amateur radio in action. Since then, was joined in the hobby by is wife, Mary (KC7YLY) and his son-in-law, Gabe (KD7OGN.) Danny works as a driver for Cream O' Weber dairy, and in his free time he gets involved with many of the aspects of Amateur Radio's community involvement - such as the Pioneer Day Parade, the Wasatch 100 marathon run, and (of course) the event that introduced him to to Amateur Radio, the MS bike race. Danny is also involved with RACES and ERRS - organizations that train to provide communications during emergencies - training that came in handy as Danny helped out in the aftermath of the 1999 tornado and the Riverdale flood. Danny is currently a net manager for the UVHFS Swap net as well as having duties on the weekly UARC Information Net (Sundays at 9 PM on the 146.62 repeater) in addition to being the UVHFS Treasurer. As if that weren't enough to do, he also helped in organizing and executing the 2002 Utah Hamfest. Danny is also a lifetime member of the ARRL. If you have a question as to whether or not your UVHFS membership check has cleared, Danny is the one who can find out. He may be reached at home at (801) 301-0162 during "normal" hours (that is, not after 10 pm!) |
John Lloyd, K7JL, is the
current Frequency Coordinator
for the Utah VHF Society. In this position, John is the
clearinghouse for repeater information and frequency utilization within
the state of Utah for the amateur VHF, UHF, and microwave
bands. More than half a century of field experience
gives John an extensive knowledge equipment operation, repair, and
modification, as well as practical knowledge pertaining to propagation
and the identification and resolution of interference issues. John obtained his first
license when he was in Jr. High School in 1967 and, by 1970 (in High
School) he upgraded to an extra class. John has been
president of the VHF Society and was DARS (Deseret Amateur Radio
Society) president for 2000-2001, and is a life member of the
ARRL. John is the primary force behind the Intermountain Intertie
(a.k.a. the "Snowbird Link System") being the one who usually does the
installation, repair, and maintenance of these (and other) affiliated
repeaters along the Wasatch Front. Some of John's other interests
include Scouting as well as building even more
repeaters. For questions regarding frequency coordination issues or about the Intermountain Intertie, you may contact John at: Utah VHF Society Frequency CoordinatorIf you interested in putting up a repeater or are considering use of a frequency in a way that might affect other users, please contact John. Information about repeater coordination and related topics may be found on the Frequency Coordination page. |
 Arizona VP: Doug Pelley, WB7TUJ Doug has been a licensed ham since 1975 and holds an Advanced Class License. Ham radio is much more than a hobby to him, it's his social life. He is a life member of the Utah VHF Society and the Arizona Repeater Association as well as several other clubs in Utah and Arizona. He’s also very active on all HF bands, especially 40 meters. He is heavily involved with paving the way for the Intermountain Intertie to continue into Arizona via the old “North Link” system which is owned and maintained by the Arizona Repeater Association. He provides technical consultation and support to both UVHFS & ARA on a regular basis. Doug retired in 2018 after 45 years of self-employment in the land mobile radio industry & as a contract broadcast transmitter engineer in the broadcast industry. Most of his experience has been on mountain top tower sites for small town & private public safety, paging transmitters, business band community repeaters and low power TV & FM transmitters & translators. He also has professional experience in building and managing mountain top tower sites. Since retirement, Doug’s “full time work” is donating much time to the amateur community as a volunteer consultant when it comes to the same, as well as elmering ham clubs with RF, antenna and electrical issues. Doug is a Mesa, Arizona resident and also spends about 40% of the year in Spanish Fork, Utah, most of it during the Summer season. |
 Idaho VP: Mike McCarthy, AG7MM I own a two way radio dealership in Burley. I’ve been a ham since 2020, I have an IT background mostly in building mission critical systems. Currently I support all the local public safety radio needs at several mountain top sites I own or manage, as well as communication needs of local farmers and maintain radio dispatch and 911 call taking equipment and computer aided dispatch systems. I’m on the board of directors for the Mt Harrison radio society of Idaho and take care of a lot of the work at that mountain top ham shack. I run hybrid Winlink HF and Packet Winlink nodes and you’ll generally find me at a local public safety dispatch center or in my office building some kind of unsavory combination of radio and computer for fun and critical communication. |
President:
Mel Parkes, NM7P
Officer
Emeritus: John Mabey, W7CWK (SK)