Cass was born May 27, 1964 in Sioux City, IA to Sylvester and Jean (Cass) Nemmers. He was a deputy with Polk County. Most importantly, Cass was an amazing father and husband of 26 years. He loved to ride his two Harley Davidsons, was an avid bowler and coached youth leagues for many years. Cass loved to ride his recumbent bicycle and was a Ham Radio Operator – NØYMU. The Des Moines Register was quoted as saying, “Nemmers was well-known to lawyers, judges, courthouse employees and routine visitors.” He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

Cass is survived by his wife, Patsy; children, Ryan (Amber) Nemmers, Nathan (MaKayla) Nemmers and Hayley Nemmers; adopted son, West Steel; siblings, Theresa White, Paul (Peg) Nemmers, Julie (Scott) Slater, Angie Nemmers, Mark Nemmers and Sylvia (Iyad) Nemmers; mother-in-law, Patricia Roccesseca; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, September 4, 2010 at Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1701 8th Street SW in Altoona, followed by burial at Highland Memory Gardens Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Hamilton’s on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Cass Nemmers Memorial Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank location.

For more information on the BSA 100th Encampment event, click here to visit the BSA Mid-Iowa Council’s website. If you are interested in volunteering with the amateur radio display, contact Tom Reis, N0VPR, or Scott Kirstein, N0OOD.

Requirements

Nominees for the Iowa Section Youth Award must meet the following requirements to be considered for this award:

• A current Iowa resident
• A licensed Amateur Radio operator
• Under 21 years old

Timeline

• Nominations (including the nomination form and any supporting documentation) for the Iowa Section Youth Award must be submitted on or before March 15, 2011.
• The nominee of the winner will be notified by April 5, 2011.
• The official presentation and announcement of the award will be at the DMRAA Hamfest in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 23, 2011.

Additional Information

• Although all accomplishments and activities will be considered, the concentration should be on those activities that took place within the past calendar year, and it should be noted when each activity occurred.
• The judges will select an award recipient based on their involvement in ham radio, especially community service, promotion, operating, technical knowledge, and enthusiasm.
• All decisions of the judges are final.
• Nominations and all accompanying material must be mailed to Iowa Section Youth Award Committee PO Box 81 Dunkerton, IA 50626 or e-mailed to ke0j@dunkerton.net on or before March 15, 2011.
• Any questions about the award or nomination process should be directed to Joe Hoepfner, KE0J via e-mail to ke0j@dunkerton.net.

Iowa Section Youth Award Nomination Form

Nominator Information
Name: Callsign: E-mail Address:
Street Address:
City: State: Zip code:
Daytime Number: Evening Number:

Nominee Information
Name: Callsign:
E-mail Address:
Street Address:
City: State: Zip code: Daytime Number: Evening Number:
School: Current GPA:
School Address:
City: State: Zip code: School Phone Number: Current Grade:
Date of Birth: Current Age: Gender:
Current License Class: Date First Licensed:

Questions (to be answered on a separate sheet or sheets)
1] Why should your nominee receive this award? (500 words or less)
2] What activities is your nominee involved in, besides Amateur Radio?
3] Attach a brief list of your nominee’s activities over the past calendar year, highlighting the major ones. (It’s fine to mention both those relating to ham radio and other activities, but your concentration should be on their ham radio related activities.)
4] Make any other comments about your nominee, not covered in the above questions.

Include a recent, wallet-sized picture of your nominee. Include any relating documentation, pictures, awards, or other supporting material with your nomination form and associated questions.

Mail this form, answers to the questions, and associated documentation to Iowa Section Youth Award Committee, PO Box 81 Dunkerton, IA 50626 or e-mail required information to ke0j@dunkerton.net by March 15, 2011. (If the form is mailed, it must be postmarked by March 15, 2011.)

A missile range instrumentation ship named after a western Iowa man, who’s considered to be the “Father of Electronic Warfare,” will be christened Saturday afternoon in Mississippi. Howard O. Lorenzen died February of 2000, in Washington State, at the age of 87. Lorenzen grew up and graduated from Atlantic before obtaining a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronic Engineering in 1935 from Iowa State College, before it became known as Iowa State University.

The Seattle Times obituary notes the Atlantic, Iowa native’s advances in wireless communications science, and also his love for amateur radio.

“It was important what he did at NRL,” said his daughter, Susan Black of Redmond. “But he loved ham radio. He was really into that. . . . He got his first call in 1927. He had collected (call) cards from all states and all countries as verified by the Amateur Radio League.”

The Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association (DMRAA), Iowa’s largest and oldest amateur radio organization, will be joining the Des Moines Amateur Radio Technical Society (ARTS) to host the Des Moines Field Day event at Big Creek State Park near Polk City. At the event, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with area amateur radio operators and see for themselves what the amateur radio hobby is about. Showing the newest digital, satellite, high-frequency technologies and even historical Morse code, hams from across the nation will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities. Last year, the Des Moines Field Day operation netted just under 1,000 contacts from around the world.

The proclamation signed by Gov. Culver will be on display at the Field Day site throughout Field Day weekend.

Field Day is a publicly-held training exercise that helps radio amateurs prepare for emergencies. Skilled work and planning is required to select radio equipment, frequencies, and antennas to facilitate operating under less-than-ideal conditions. During Field Day, operators set up in remote areas, at shopping malls, or even in their own backyards, and get on the air using generators or battery power. Radio operators then try to contact as many other Field Day stations as possible.

Amateur radio activity is growing in the United States. In 2009, over 30,000 new people became “hams.” The technical skills of hams also has improved as almost 50% of American amateur radio operators have gone beyond the entry-level licensing requirements and passed the more difficult testing to earn higher-class FCC licenses. There are more than 680,000 amateur radio operators in the US, and 2.5 million around the world.

For more information on the Des Moines Field Day event, visit http://www.dmraa.com/fieldday/ or e-mail info@dmraa.com.

The text of the proclamation as signed by Gov. Culver is attached below.

WHEREAS, the State recognizes the services amateur radio operators provide to our many emergency response organizations, including FEMA, DHS, and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management; and

WHEREAS, these same individuals have further demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing free radio communications for local parades, bike-a-thons, walk-a-thons, fairs and other charitable public events; and

WHEREAS, the State of Iowa recognizes and appreciates the diligence of these “hams” who also serve as weather spotters in the Skywarn program of the National Weather Service; and

WHEREAS, amateur radio once again proved its undisputed relevance in the modern world in 2005 by providing emergency communications when other systems failed in the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the USA and in the tsunami catastrophe overseas; and

WHEREAS, these amateur radio services are provided wholly uncompensated; and

WHEREAS, the ARRL is the leading organization for amateur radio in the USA; and

WHEREAS, the ARRL Field Day exercise will take place on June 26-27 and is a 24-hour emergency encampment exercise and demonstration of the Radio Amateurs’ skills and readiness to provide self-supporting communications even in fields without further infrastructure:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Chester J. Culver, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim the week of June 20-26, 2010 as Amateur Radio Week in Iowa.

The Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association, a non-profit organization and one of the oldest amateur radio clubs in the midwest, was established to conduct its programs and activities to advance the general interest and welfare of amateur radio in the community. The club regularly hosts programs, activities and exercises and maintains radio communication systems to benefit the community.

• PPT PowerPoint format (10 megabytes, in a ZIP file)
• PDF Adobe Reader format (42 megabytes)

The websites that were featured in the presentation (plus some bonus websites) are listed below:

• Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association
• Amateur Radio Technical Society
• Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association
• Facebook
  • Iowa ARES
  • ARRL
• Twitter
  • DMRAA
  • Mid-Iowa Skywarn
  • Hashtag search for #hamr or #hamradio
  • KC0ZMX’s APRS-to-Twitter gateway
• YouTube
• ARRL
  • How to navigate the new ARRL website
  • myARRL profile management (must be logged in)
• 73s.org
• Ham Radio Nation
• The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast
• This Week in Amateur Radio Podcast
• QRZ
• Google Maps APRS
• K6IB 3D APRS
• K5EHX Repeater Mapping
• callbyTXT
• RadioReference
• DX Clusters
  • DX Watch
  • eHam
  • QRZ
  • ham-radio.ch
  • F5LEN
  • DXFUN
  • 2-meter propagation
• Reverse Beacon Network

Officers (1 year term)
President, George Noble KK7FM
Vice President, Kevin Sanders K0KDS
Treasurer, Bill Claypool NU0Q
Secretary, Kirk Nelson WL7CLI

Board (two year term)
Ron Hobbs N0XWI
Dennis O’Brien KA0DOS
Chuck Hoveland KD0SSH

Present officers
President, Tom Reis N0VPR
Vice President, Kevin Sanders K0KDS
Secretary, Tre Critelli KA0FRW
Treasurer, Bill Claypool NU0Q

Present board
Bruce Brumm KC0ZMT *
Craig Rose KC0YHU *
Ron Hobbs N0XWI
Dean Madsen N0XR *
George Noble KK7FM
Dennis O’Brien KA0DOS
* Term expires in 2011

For more information, visit the CARC W0I website at http://sites.google.com/site/cycloneradioclub/w0i.

Overall, the Festival raised approximately $1.5 million that will be invested in Iowa’s public television programs.

The volunteer team consisted of Dennis O’Brien KA0DOS and wife Mary, Mark Campbell W0GZR, Brad Boeckmann KC9DMQ, and Kevin Sanders K0KDS.