CONTENTS:

Who we are:

We are a local San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Original MARC group founded in southern California in 1992.  Our chapter's focus is to find reasons to go riding and provide motorcycle and communications support for various charity and public service events.  As a chapter, we are simply a collection of people with motorcycles or an amateur license who hope to contribute back to our communities while having a good time with our hobbies.  We have found the motorcycle's small size to be a great support vehicle to use in an event because it allows us to be mobile on narrow roads and streets without interfering with event participants.  

 

Amateur radios provide superior communications in difficult situations over large distances and when we couple motorcycles and amateur radios together, our ability to supply communications during event production keeps event organizers reliably informed.  This is especially true during course accidents where our presence to deliver reliable communications from our roving mounts is often critical to timely medical attention for injured participants.

 

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Bay Area Group Photos:

Here are a few snap-shots taken at our first meeting.  There are more pictures of the motorcycles and the members available in the Members area.  Take a few minutes and look around the members area to see what we are riding and where we have our equipment mounted.

 

                

 

 

Group picture on the left is a collage of our initial group standing together and then each of us standing near our motorcycles.  Don Weber, lab manager at Thompson Baird Photography,  did the Photoshop  work to create the combined photo.

 

In the second picture from the left, the faces show all of the initial group sitting around the table except for  Ray Davis, who is taking the photo.

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Mailing List Information:

Our Bay area mailing list is sponsored by Yahoo Groups.  If you are already member of eGroups or Yahoo, you can simply add our list to your group listing and mail from this list will arrive without any further action on your part.  If you aren't member of either group, signing up will only take a few minutes and can be expedited by entering your email address in the form displayed below and then clicking on the "Join! Yahoo! Groups" button.

 

BA-MARC Mailing List:

BA-MARC

on YAHOO Groups  is an open forum for those interested in our chapter of MARC.  This mailing list is intended as a safe place for us to talk and share experiences without causing problems associated with a large-scale national list.  My only guiding rule is to not have rules unless a situation develops where we need to control a pest.  As pest appear, we can talk about them on the list and our Bay Area Group Coordinator will make a decision about what to do.

 

BA-MARC Mailing List Page is here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/group/BA-MARC/

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Joining:

If you enjoy riding and or amateur radio, you already have what it takes to find BA-MARC interesting.  Having both assets are not required.  We expect many who will join won't have both and we plan on helping those interested in getting an amateur license be successful.  For those who don't have a amateur license, it has never been easier with the FCC removal of the Morse code requirement.  

If you aren't sure, consider just joining our mailing list and see the things we talk about.  Come by and attend some of our meetings and maybe even volunteer to help out in some our public service events.  

As you can probably tell by now, we have an easy structure and try hard to keep fun as a major focus.

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Membership Applications:

All applications for membership are handled by the original MARC group in southern California.  Applications are available on their web site and you can display an application that you can printout by clicking here.

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Cost:

Our mailing list is an open no-cost service provided by Yahoo Groups.

All regular members of our local group must join the national MARC group.  They charge $12.00 per year to cover the cost of publishing and delivering the MARC newsletter.  At the local level, we collect no dues and have almost no expenses.  For the few small expenses we incur, the national group covers our cost.  All members of the national group can be subscribed to the MARC discussion list.

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Meetings:

Each third Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM we meet at the following restaurant unless our schedule indicates otherwise:                              

Our current restaurant is providing us with a sectioned off meeting area so additional seating shouldn't be a problem.  If you know you are coming, drop me a note and I'll be sure to look for you at the meeting.

Traveling to and from the meeting we use the local repeater frequency of 147.24 + no PL.  Our simplex frequencies are 144.370 w/PL 100 or 446.00 no PL.  We also monitor CB channel 1 when we are on our bikes for those CB equipped and within range.

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Group Rides:

We try and take a ride someplace every second Sunday of the month.  Where we are going and when is outlined on our Ride page.  Our rides are not sponsored events of any kind.  We have them to build fellowship amongst ourselves and those who join us during our rides.

To join us on a ride, please read the Ride Information listed on schedule information page and meet us at the start, or any place along the route.

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Contact Information:

If you think this might be for you, send me an email with your name, phone number and address so I can call and send you a copy of our newsletter.   If you are more attached to regular mail, my address is listed below.

Telephone

      -   Voice

 

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