The DeForest Amateur Radio Club is an ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) club affiliated with the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). BRIEF HISTORY The club was formed late in 1974 as a result of the 1974 tornadoes that ripped through Ohio, including Adams County. We were first named the "Adams and Brown Counties AREC". The "C" in AREC was "Corps". When the ARRL later changed the service to ARES, we also changed our name. A few years later when the two counties were no longer affiliated with each other the club name became the DeForest Amateur Radio Club. A non-geographic name was chosen because there were remaining members in both Adams and Brown Counties. All club property and records were then owned by the DeForest ARC. EQUIPMENT The DeForest ARC (callsign K8GE) owns and operates a two meter repeater system on 147.00 MHz in the Adams County area. The PL is 94.8 or the wakeup code is 500 on a touch-tone type microphone. SERVICES TO OUR COMMUNITY The DeForest ARC was never considered a repeater club, but a club with a repeater. The DeForest ARC is involved with many activities that do not involve the repeater, such as ham radio classes, Field Day participation, special events, parade control and even operating an HF station on a club sponsored float, searches of missing persons, provide communications for Ohio National Guard during the 1978 and 1994 snow emergencies and the 1997 flood. The club provides support for the Adams County Emergency Management Agency, the Adams County 911 Communications System, and the West Union Fire Department.