Organizations

Amateur radio has so many ways to be “radio-active”. Here are some of the ways I enjoy engaging in our amazing hobby with groups of other hams.

Nittany Amateur Radio Club (NARC)

I have been a member of NARC since 2016. I help maintain the club’s station on top of Pine Grove Mountain, and I have served on the Board of Directors since 2020.

I was named the Ham of the Year (HOTY) for 2019, probably the last time I’ll ever be considered a “hottie”.

Mostly to provide entertainment at our December banquet, the club gave me a special award in 2023 for work above and beyond the call of toilet duty in servicing our porta potty prior to Field Day 2023. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. And since I use the thing more often than most, believe me, it’s self-serving.

NARC has a groups.io site at https://groups.io/g/Nittany-ARC.

Mountaintop Station

I’ve been trying to do a better job documenting various aspects of our club station.

And a new Quarto-ized website/manual:

American Radio Relay League (ARRL)

I am an active member of the ARRL, and receive email from the ARRL reflector using my_callsign@arrl.net.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)

I participate in the weekly (Sunday night, 9:00 pm local time) ARES net on the W3YA 146.85 repeater as a participating station and as a net control station. Here are some upcoming dates when I will serve as net control:

Date
21 April 2024
9 June 2024
28 June 2024

Here is a link to the roster.

In addition, I enjoy providing communications for various special events via the ARES organization.

Penn State Amateur Radio Club (PSARC)

For several years, I served as the faculty adviser for the Penn State ARC, and as trustee for the K3CR repeaters. Dave Cubanski has now taken over those duties.

Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA)

Our local QCWA Chapter 203 has a weekly net on Sunday nights at 8:30 PM local time on the W3YA 146.85 MHz (-600 kHz; 146.2 Hz) repeater. I am one of the net control stations.

Pennsylvania Narrow Band Emergency Messaging Service (PA NBEMS)

When I have time, I check-in to the Sunday 7:30 am PA NBEMS digital modes net on 3.583 MHz. The net has a groups.io site at https://groups.io/g/panbems. The net uses THOR22 for check-ins and then traffic is passed using MFSK32 or THOR56.

I’ve successfully checked in from Tioga County when on vacation there, and from home, sometimes running QRP.

I have also checked-in to the New Jersey NBEMS net.