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 My name is Gary
Zabriskie. My picture is shown above. I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah
in 1959. I grew up on the west side of the Salt
Lake valley in an unincorporated
area known as Granger (now incorporated as West Valley
City). I attended
and graduated from Granger High School and then attended and graduated from
the University of Utah with a Bachelor of
Science Degree in Urban Planning. I met my wife MaryAnn (Partridge),
who grew up in West Jordan, while we both
worked at a supermarket in West Valley
City. MaryAnn
attended and graduated from West
Jordan High School.
MaryAnn
and I were married in the Salt Lake LDS (The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) Temple in July 1986. My Wife
MaryAnn and I currently make our home in Santa Clara, Utah.
I am employed in St. George by the Five
County Association of Governments as Senior Planner in the Community and
Economic Development Division. I am also the agency's web master. MaryAnn is
employed with H&E Equipment.
The largest City in southern Utah is
St. George and is located in the southwest corner of Utah along the border of northwestern Arizona. St. George is
located along Interstate 15, 300 miles south
of Salt Lake City and 110 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Approximately 65,000 people live in St.
George City.
As I mentioned we live in Santa
Clara City which is located just west and adjacent to St. George City. The population of Santa Clara is approximately 6,300. Our
entire County (Washington County) has an estimated population of 125,000
persons, but is the fastest growing county in the state of Utah. It is projected that our county
population will reach 205,000 by 2015 and reach 607,000 by 2050.
Shown below is a map showing
where we live in
southwestern Utah:
This area
is known as "Utah's Dixie".
The reason it is known as Utah's Dixie
because the early LDS (The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, a.k.a. Mormon) settlers in the area grew cotton.
The temperature and climate here compared with the winter to summer seasonal
extremes that they experienced before they left their homes in Salt Lake City, Utah
(300 miles north) to move here was similar to the differences one experiences
when traveling from the northeastern U.S. to the southeastern
states. This area because it was in the "south" of Utah and was warm and grew cotton, thus became known as
Utah's "Dixie".
Interestingly, St. George is home to Dixie
College whose team's "name" is the "Rebels".
There is no "real" connection with the area being known as "Dixie" and the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The comparison is more of climate and the fact that cotton was successfully
grown here. The advent of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 negated
the need for cotton to be grown in Utah as
cotton was able to be readily shipped from the southeastern U.S. to Utah.
My wife, MaryAnn and I reside in Santa Clara City
with our two cats, Oscar
and Sandi. We
enjoy the beautiful weather and scenic splendor of this area very much.
We have resided here for nearly 10 years. Among our many interests we enjoy
together include motorcycling on cruisers, MaryAnn on her new 2006
Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide and me on my 2006 Harley-Davidson Road
Glide.
MaryAnn
and I are die-hard,
long-time Green Bay Packers fans . We consider ourselves Utah's #1 Packers fans. We are going to strive
to attend one road game each year (they don't play out west on the road
enough)and dream of the day we can see them play at Lambeau
Field (Is there anyone in Wisconsin that has a pair of game tickets they
would sell us?)
Another hobby interest of mine is Amateur Radio (also known as
"Ham Radio"). I am an FCC licensed Amateur Radio Operator with the
FCC issued callsign N7ARE and have
been an "ham" operator continuously since
March of 1978. I have held an Amateur Extra Class license since 1980.
I was
first licensed as an Novice amateur radio operator
during my senior year of high school (1978). My first callsign
was WB7WRE. I upgraded later that same year to General Class and
changed my callsign to the new (at that time) 1x3
"N" format callsigns and was issued the callsign N7ARE . Over the
next year or so I upgraded to Advanced and Extra class. This was back when
you had to be tested in front of an FCC examiner. Since I liked it then and
continue to, I have kept the same callsign.
I have
enjoyed over the years operating HF, both CW (morse
code) and SSB (voice) mainly using very low power (QRP) 5 watts or less using
a Ten Tec Argonaut and later a Ten Tec Argosy, VHF (both weak signal SSB/CW
and FM), and assisting in public service exercises. I now use a Kenwood
TS140S with a Cushcraft AP8
8 band vertical antenna. I use an Icom
IC-703 QRP rig for mobile with a full set of Lakeview Ham Sticks. For VHF (6
meter, 2 meter and 432 MHZ) I use a Yaesu FT857D.
 
Astronaut Owen Garriott, W5LFL
on board the Space Shuttle Columbia
during his pioneering ham radio
operation on STS-9
My most
memorable experience in ham radio came late in 1983 when I was able to
complete a two-way contact (QSO) with Owen Garriott,
the 1st Ham Operator in Space. I was the 1st Utah ham radio operator in history to make
two-way contact with an astronaut aboard a Space Shuttle. Amateur Radio has
been carried aboard orbiting US space shuttles for nearly 15 years now. It
all began in the fall of 1983 with shuttle mission STS-9.
The
following text from the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club tells the
story of the first space shuttle flight to carry Amateur Radio:
"On
November 28, 1983, STS-9 was launched carrying Mission Specialist Owen Garriott, Amateur Radio call sign W5LFL, and his ham
radio into orbit. For 10 days the Space Shuttle Columbia streaked through the
skies, and for the last 7 of those days, hams around the world were sent
emotionally into orbit when they heard Dr. Garriott's
voice break their squelches calling earthbound stations. But it was just the
beginning. Amateur Radio had moved into its newest frontier, and it was there
to stay."
Astronaut
Owen Garriott on the Columbia space shuttle mission STS-9
SpaceLab-1 used a hand-held 2-meter FM transceiver with a small window
mounted antenna to contact just over 250 hams around the world.
Click here: 
to hear a "wav" file (size=355k) of the first
ham radio transmission from Owen as the shuttle Columbia
came across the west coast of the U.S.
It is
exciting to know that the new International Space Station will have a
permanent Amateur Radio station to allow the astronauts, in their "off time" aboard
the station ability to communicate directly with licensed ham operators
around the world.
If you
are a ham operator and are coming through St. George don't hesitate to call
me. I'll be happy to give you some travel information or assistance if I can.
Or call me on the 145.45 (-.600) or 146.91 (-.600) repeaters. I'm in the phone book or you can call me
at work at 673-3548.
Take care!
Gary N7ARE
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