Donations
UtahSAG is now officially UtahSAG, Inc.
UtahSAG, Inc. registered as a Utah Non-Profit Corporation and received our IRS EIN and 501C3 status as of December 7, 2018.
In addition to the support services we provide to public service events and other community organizations, we are working on fundraising for equipment that the HAM radio community is in need of. As an example of this kind of need is the equipment and supplies necessary for the National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City. The weather service folks will be doing an internal remodeling of their office space and as part of that remodeling there will be a space dedicated for the use of HAM operators for Skywarn and in the event that there is a weather emergency activation. Unfortunately, due to cuts to the federal budgets and changes in what the weather service offices can requisition, they are no in the positions to get what will be needed. As such it falls to us in the HAM community to acquire and provide what's needed to the folks at our Weather Service office so that we can provide to them the best support possible. What we found out during the Skywarn Recognition Day event last December was that they had radios that were missing parts (microphones, headphones, power cords), and damaged equipment (one of their dual band ground plane antennas is damaged and the cost to repair can't be justified compared to the cost of new antennas) as well as the need to get a new multi-band HF antenna. And, with the construction, new coax to the roof, new antenna mounts, wall plates, connectors etc.
We also are looking to get replacement equipment for some of the older repeaters in Utah, as well as getting new repeaters in areas with limited coverage so that we can better support the events we are asked to assist with. And there's always the need for replacement repeater antennas after our harsh winters. Without the equipment in the field our ability to provide volunteer based communications services becomes exceptionally limited and that's something we don't like happening.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, many of the 2020 annual events were either cancelled or postponed. As such, we have missed out on a lot of donations that would normally have come from event participants and event managers. Many of these donations were in the form of materials needed for our volunteers, but some were as cash donations so that we could purchase equipment and services to support and protect our volunteers. Our largest single expense for supporting our volunteers is the necessary liability insurance we need to be able to provide our services as volunteers. As a result we are reaching out to everyone we can to help us raise the money we need to be able to provide the level of support that we would like to in the future.
We have paused donations while we get things updated.