About Us
The Superstition Amateur Radio Club has something for everyone. Whatever your amateur radio interests are, you will find someone in the club to exchange ideas with, learn from, and or teach someone something new.
You might want to learn CW (Morse code), work other continents, build and tune your own antennas, climb mountains, and talk to other people around the world. Summits On The Air (SOTA) is another activity you may which to engage in.
You could help others build an Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network using 2.4 GHz, 3.4 GHz, and/or 5.8 GHz microwave nodes in Mesa and the surrounding communities. Not only is it a lot of fun to build, you will be able to help out in case of an emergency with the services that you can help provide. You can even help out the National Weather Service get “eyes on the ground” for weather reporting with Skywarn.
There are any number of other activities with the new digital modes of communications. As Amateur Radio Operators, you will find there’s always someone that you can chat with while you are learning something new!
Superstition Amateur Radio Club History
Superstition ARC was co-founded in 1972 by Jerry Navarre, WA7RDC and the late Floyd Zeka, WA7UWG. It was formed in Apache Junction, AZ. In 1977, the club acquired the call sign WB7TJD. They established the first repeater that was located in Apache Junction. In 1978, stones and river rock were gathered up from the Salt River. Using those stones, the Stone Castle was built in northeast Mesa. The repeater was relocated there and that location is still in use today. It is home to our 449.600 repeater.
In 1982, the club held its first SuperFest. The goal was to replace the repeater that was stolen from Stone Castle. That first SuperFest was a huge success. We have continued to hold this event each year on the first Saturday of December at Mesa Community College.
In January of 2015, the club was able to purchase three new repeaters and some other needed equipment. The 147.120 repeater was moved. The new 448.275 machine is located on Usery Pass Mountain in East Mesa. Our 449.600 repeater remains at Stone Castle. It has been there since 1978.
Our SuperFest’s for 2016 and 2017 did very well. With the money raised, we were able to upgrade more of our repeater system with three new controllers and some new cans. We rebuilt the link system between the 147.120 and 449.600 repeaters. We also added a DR-2X Yaesu Fusion Repeater in the spring of 2018 to the Usery Pass Mountain 448.275 repeater location with some help from an anonymous donation (thank you who ever you are).
In 2018, we added two more DR-X2 Yaesu Fusion Repeaters for the Usery location and the Stone Castle location in East Mesa. We also upgraded the firmware on the Arcom controllers. The Tech Committee spent many hours tuning the Arcom controllers to the repeaters. The result is that the audio is sounding almost identical on the linked repeaters. Thanks Again to the Tech Committee for all of the hard work they perform throughout the year.
Our 2019 SuperFest broke all previous records with 699 paid admissions, 126 vendors, and tailgaters selling a record number of Hourly and Grand Prize Tickets. Thanks to the SuperFest Committee for all of their diligence!
The Superstition Amateur Radio Club now has over 200 members and growing. It has been quite a jump from those original 20 Ham Radio Operators who founded this club forty-five years ago. You can see our humble beginnings back in 1972. We have come a long way and are continuing to work hard to keep Amateur Radio alive and well here in the far East Valley of Arizona.