Gentlemen,

Last Thursday morning's "on the air" demonstration of the BEARS- STL/ Emergency Response Trailer, HF and VHF communications systems, met and exceeded all of our expectations ! During the demonstration, the trailer was crowded with between 15 and 20 managers and specialists, all members of the Boeing - St. Louis Emergency Prepardness Task Force Management Team.

My extra special vote of appreciation goes to those operators who put their stations on from home due various circumstances beyond our control !

We were able to sucessfully demonstrate local (VHF), regional (midwest) and continental communications simulateously from St. Louis. On VHF, we had several of our retirees on 2 meters, to demonstrate both the operation of our repeater as well as direct ,point-to-point, simplex operation. We also had several club members mobile from various parts of the St. Louis Boeing campus. On 40 meters, we had excellent signals from KC0AHN, BEARS - Wichita, which demostrated our "regional" communications capabilities. Simultaneously, we were able to contact most of you on 20 meters with good to excellent signals. My apologies to anyone who tried to call in for the net and was not recognized. It was at times, difficult to hear the radio in the trailer with all of the visitors present. Twenty meters was also pretty crowded that morning and it was difficult to blow a hole in the QRM sometimes !

The system we are now using is comprised of a 30 foot "surplus" flight test equippment trailer (TEMPEST) which has been located adjacent to one of our buildings on campus. The trailer was "gutted" and refurbished and now accomodates 5-6 operating positions, three of which are dedicated to amateur equipment. The trailer is equipped with a 35KW generator and small 20 foot tower. Our stations now consist of the following:

HF Position # 1: Icom 775 DSP/ Henry 4K Ultra Amplifier
HF Position # 2: Yaesu FT-847 (and eventually, refurbished Heath SB-220 amp)
VHF/UHF/Satellite Position: Yaesu FT-847
VHF/UH Position #2: Icom 207H xcvr
Antennas: HF - Force 12 C36XR beam for 10,15,20 & 40 meters
VHF- individual beams for 6, 2, & 440 mhz (horizontal polarization)
VHF - Comet GP-9 for 6, 2 & 440 mhz, vertically polarized
Satellilte Antennas - to be installed
Main Tower - US Tower, HDX- 572, heavy duty, motorized, crank -up 72 feet, located adjacent to the trailer site

Once again, thanks to all for your participation in last week's demonstration ! We clearly hit the mark with the St. Louis - Emergency Preparedness Task Force !

73 and hope to see you all on the air,

Dave, K2DP

Trustee, W0MA, BEARS - STL