Category Archives: Public Service

Fall SET Drill This Weekend Oct 1.

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Members,
The fall SET drill will take place at the club house at 8:45 AM on Saturday Oct 1st. {This Weekend} We are in need of 6 operators that are willing to help out with the test.  If your interested please send an email to trustee@w3kwh.com to sign up.

NEW MEMBERS:
Your also invited to come up and watch the drill.  This will be a great learning experience on learning the emergency service of ham radio and how to handle traffic when things go bad in the world. Just send an email to the above address to let us know your coming.

Boy Scout Merit Badge @ SCARC

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On August 5-6, 2022 the Steel City ARC will be doing the Boy Scout of America Radio Merit Badge at the Steel City club house.  Steel City ARC will be needing operators to help the scouts make contact so that they can finish their education and earn the Radio Merit badge. Members are encourage to let there local troop know of this event and they can be invite. If additional troop wish to use the Steel City clubhouse for radio merit badge please contact Jeff N3EVN at n3evn {at} yahoo {dit} com.

WE ARE IN NEED OF OPERATORS TO STANDBY TO MAKE CONTACTS WITH THE SCOUTS

For Merit Badge Information: Radio Merit Badge PDF

 

Carnegie Library Ham Display Case

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Carnegie Library
Display Case Project

Steel City ARC has been ask by the Carnegie Library here in Carnegie, PA to have a Ham Radio display in their lobby.  This is the same place where we had our special event station this spring. It is a very beautiful building that is over 120 years old.  This would also a good public service project to remind the public that Ham Radio is alive and well.

Well are in need of a couple of volunteers to help Karl setup the display.  We are in of posters describing ham radio and the club.  We are in need of some ham radio display items.  Please let Karl know if your willing to help out: Karl WA3VXJ

Ohio Twp – Community Days

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On July 23rd Steel City ARC presented Ham Radio to the public at the Ohio Township Community Days event.  There was Ham Radio and Fireworks at the event. Club members who attended and helped with setup and tear down included: Sean, KC3SZH, Luke, KC3UHR, Chris K3PQ and his wife, Bob NU3Q, Seth KC3SIJ, and Dave WA3YER. The team utilized the W3KWH Go box and had antennas for 2M, 20M and 40M setup behind our booth. Sean and Luke brought their battery operated Go station, along with Seth who brought a complete FT8 station. Unfortunately there was a very loud band playing at the end of the soccer field which made operating on the radios rather difficult.

The team had some visitors stop by who were very interested in ham radio, one family stayed and chatted with Sean, KC3SZH for more than 30 minutes. Other folks stopped by asking questions about the Heathkit radio that Chris, K3PQ brought along to display, the tubes attracted some of the visitors! Many youngsters had no idea what they were!

Overall the turn out was pretty good considering the number of attendees, and everyone enjoyed the fireworks at the end of the event.

As reported by WA3YER

Public Service Can Be Fun Too

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Here is a wonderful experience that Sean KC3SZH and  Luke KC3UHR had at last weekend Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix race.  With Sean premission I am posting it here.

Luke and I volunteered for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) this weekend, 7/23 and 7/24!  They put us at Turn 1 both days, which covers not only Turn 1 coming down from the Start/Finish line, but also Pit Road In, Pit Road Out, and the Winners Circle.  We had a blast!  Having earned his Technician Ticket, Luke was able to be with me in Turn 1 while all the action was going on.  We both had “Race Side” armbands which gave us access to the Paddock, Pit Road, Winners Circle, and all places on the inside of the track.
Day one was practice and qualifying for all the classes of cars.  Day two was the real racing.  Every turn had a Ham Radio Operator, and there were about 22 turns in all.  We saw AD3AA – Lee Rice (Turn 6) and WA3PYU – Mike King (Turn 4) on Day one, and we saw KA3VXM – Kathy King on Day 2.  Mike and Kathy had alot of action on Turn 4 as it was the beginning of the haybale Chicanes – we heard them on the radio a lot – LOL!  Luke and I had a relatively quite day on Day 1 with no real mishaps in our turn.  However, on the last two races on Day 2 there were 2 pretty good wrecks in our turn that were very exciting to have to handle and call in to Control…
Right before the last race, they invited Luke to ride in one of the pace cars to start the race.  They say they got up to 150mph over the Panther Hollow Bridge in a brand new Mercedes C300 – he was smiling from ear to ear!
Luke and I definitely had a great time working the PVGP.  They treated us very well and everything was done in a very clean and professional manner.  If they decide to let us come back, we will absolutely volunteer to work a turn next year!

Steel City ARC @ Community Days

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Saturday July 23 TIMES   ~4:00 PM – Till The End Of The Fireworks.
Steel City ARC is planning to have a educational booth at this event.  This is a good public event to attend to educate to the public that Ham Radio is alive and well in 2022.  We are look for some people to help man the booth and would be will to talk with the public about ham Radio

Location:
Ohio Township Community Park | 325 Nicholson Road | Sewickley, PA 15143

Enjoy a fun-filled evening at the park!  The parade will kick off festivities at 5pm, and a dazzling firework display at dusk will close out the night.  There will also be plenty of activities and entertainment for all ages including demonstrations by the fire department, a Touch-A-Truck event, Food Trucks, kids activities, local vendors, live music, and more!

Rachel Carson Trail Challenge – Ham Volunteers

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The Twenty-Fifth Annual Rachel Carson Trail Challenge will take place on June 18, 2022, the Saturday nearest the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. The Challenge is a 35-mile long, one-day, sunrise to sunset endurance hike on nearly the entire rugged Rachel Carson Trail. Unlike a footrace, the “challenge” is not to win, but to endure, to finish the hike in one day. This time, the Challenge starts in North Park at sunrise and ends 35 miles later in Harrison Hills Park. The deadline for finishing is sunset, 8:54 PM or 15 hours 4 minutes, whichever comes first.

Volunteers

They are going to need ham radio volunteers at many of the check point along the trail.  There are many different shift from morning to late afternoon shift.  Check out the signup form below to see where and at what times the shift are at. If you’d like to help out, review the Volunteer Roles and Responsibilities and sign up!

NOTE: It will require to sign in use “rctc” for both user-id and password.
Rachel Carson Trails Volunteer Signup

Hurricane Center Communications Test – May 28

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National Hurricane Center Annual Communications Test to be Held on May 28

WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida, will hold its annual communications test on Saturday, May 28, 2022, from 9 AM to 5 PM EDT (1300 – 2100 UTC).

The event is designed to evaluate WX4NHC’s amateur radio equipment and antennas at the headquarters in Florida, and to give operators an opportunity to evaluate their home equipment prior to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1 and runs through November 30. This event allows ham radio operators worldwide to hone their amateur radio communications skills for times of severe weather.

Brief contacts will be available on many frequencies and modes, as well as the exchange of signal reports and basic weather data with any station in any location.

WX4NHC will be on the air on HF, VHF, UHF, 2- and 30-meter APRS, and Winlink at wx4nhc@winlink.org (subject must contain “//WL2K”).

The Hurricane Watch Net 14.325 MHz frequency will be active for most of the test, as will 7.268 MHz, depending on propagation. Depending on man-made noise, the net may move to different frequencies, and participants can locate the net using one of the DX spotting networks, such as the DX Summit website at www.dxsummit.fi.

Read more at:
http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2022-05-12#toc04

ANNUAL ARMED FORCES DAY CROSSBAND TEST

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The Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test, scheduled for May 14th 2022. This annual event is open to all licensed amateur radio operators, and will not impact any public or private communications. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this event, which is only an exercise scenario, designed to include hobbyist and government radio operators alike.

The AFD Cross-Band Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly-controlled exercise scenario that does not impact any public or private communications.

Military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific ARS frequencies monitored. All times are ZULU (Z), and all frequencies are Upper Side Band (USB) unless otherwise noted. The frequencies used for the test will not impact any public or private communications, and will not stray outside the confines of the exercise.

The following stations will be making two way radiotelephone contacts with stations in the ARS between the time periods listed on the frequencies listed in Kilohertz below.

For more information & scheduled:
https://www.dodmars.org/mars-comex-information-website/armed-forces-day