Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club – Since 1948 – Winchester, Virginia 

  73rd Annual BERRYVILLE HAMFEST and ARRL Virginia State Convention were great!
Update and pictures. See you next year August 3!

W4RKC Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club Winchester, Virginia

DOD MARS Armed Forces Cross Band Test – May 11, 2024

Apr 12, 2024

The United States Department of Defense is set to host the Armed Forces Day Crossband Test on May 11, 2024. This event, a longstanding tradition of over 50 years, invites all licensed amateur radio operators to participate. The exercise involves testing two-way communications between military and amateur radio stations, specifically tailored to enhance technical skills and interoperability without affecting any other public or private communications. During the test, military stations will use certain military frequencies and monitor designated amateur radio frequencies, all communicated in ZULU time and mainly using the Upper Side Band mode. The frequencies selected for this exercise are carefully chosen to ensure they do not interfere with other communications.

Find more information and frequencies here:

https://www.dodmars.org/mars-comex-information-website/armed-forces-day

JOTA + GOTA October 21st at W4RKC Clubhouse – Join us!

Oct 18, 2023

A young girl operating a radio under the watchful eye of a licensed ham radio operator.

Update 10/26 from Jamboree on the Air

Weekend Statistics:

“A record 600,000 of you registered

That includes 7,000+ Scout Groups from 149 countries

1,200 Scout Groups shared their radio call signs!”

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The Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club invites members of the public to join us to GOTA! Get on the Air.

We will be hosting several field radio stations to help local Scouts earn their merit badge for Amateur Radio.

If you are not a scout, never self-identified as one, but would like to experience getting on the air and making some contacts with other scouts and other amateur radio operators around the country and world, stop by for a few minutes and say “hello”

•This is a free event.

•Non licensed persons will be using the club’s callsign, W4RKC, under the
guidance of a licensed radio amateur.

•All ages are welcome to join us.

•The Scouts will have priority on the radios

•Location: 2925 Grace Street Winchester, VA 22601

•Parking in the rear of the clubhouse – look for the antennas!

Find out more about Amateur Radio:

https://www.arrl.org/what-is-amateur-radio

Learn more about the annual Jamboree on the Air:

https://www.scouting.org/international/jota-joti/jota/

Youth on the Air Camp – July 16 – 21 – Ottawa Canada

Jul 14, 2023

From Amateur Radio Newsline – 14 July 2023 https://www.arnewsline.org/

Young amateurs in the Americas are getting ready for an out-of-this-world experience at the Youth on the Air camp in Ontario, Canada between July 16th and the 21st: The campers have a scheduled contact with the International Space Station on Tuesday, July 18. Meanwhile, they’ll also get to experience the thrill of being chased by callsign hunters by activating VE3YOTA. They go on the air starting Sunday July 16th and don’t go QRT until Friday July 21st. There’s also a satellite station for them to operate and they’ll be on the air to experience contact with the birds on Wednesday July 19th.

Parks on the Air activity is expected to play a big role for the kids too: Fifteen QRP stations will be on the air on Tuesday, July 18th from 1900 UTC to 2100 UTC and Thursday July 20th from 1300 UTC to 1600 UTC. They will activate a two-for-one POTA location, the Central Experimental Farm National Historic Site, VE-5095, and the Rideau Canal National Historic Site, VE-4882.

Don’t forget to catch the opening day ceremonies via their webstream on Sunday July 16th at 2100 UTC, featuring keynote speaker Phil McBride, VA3QR, president of the Radio Amateurs of Canada.

 

More information: https://youthontheair.org/ottawa2023/

Parks on the Air https://parksontheair.org

YOTA POTA activations July 18 1900 UTC – July 20 1300 UTC

VE-4882 Rideau Canal National Historic Site

VE-5095 Experimental Farm National Historic Site

Youth Nets:

http://www.arrl.org/youth-nets

YARC – Young Amateurs Radio Club 

https://yarc.world/

Join YARC on their Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/yarc

 

Special Event Stations – July 22 – BOTA – Buffalos on the Air

Jul 14, 2023

Cross posted from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/14ubop0/buffalos_on_the_air_2023/

 

Event Updates / Frequencies: https://www.facebook.com/groups/751075983050671

July 22, 2023 from 1600 GMT til propagation allows

 

Hi I’m Phill, VA7XOZ from Comox, BC. I’m an Avionics Tech in the Royal Canadian Air Force and I have organized an event called Buffalos On The Air (BOTA) to celebrate the retirement of the De Havilland CC115 Buffalo, fixed-wing Search and Rescue plane.

I worked on the Buffalo as a tech for several years and now that we have retired them to museums across Canada I have arranged for amateur radio clubs across the country to hook up to the Buffalo’s beautiful mil-spec length of 45ft antenna wire to broadcast for this event using amateur radio equipment.

This is not a contest, but if you are able to make contact with more than one Buffalo you can request a certificate. You may also receive a QSL card just for making contact.

The event is on Saturday 22 July from 16:00 GMT into the evening. Each location has their own Canadian special event callsign and coordinator:

-VC7BUFF457 Comox BC – Phillip Tanner VA7XOZ

-VC4BUFF462 Winnipeg MB – Calvin Winter VE4AJ

-VC3BUFF456 Trenton ON – Dave Ackerman VE3UGT / VE3OX

-VY2BUFF451 Summerside PEI – Doug Silliker VY2DS

We have a facebook group and event setup to be able to send out info on what bands and modes we’re broadcasting on, answer questions, and stay coordinated. https://www.facebook.com/groups/751075983050671

If you’re in the area, we welcome you to come out to the actual Buffalo locations and come say hi.

I’ll try and answer as many questions as I can in this thread, please try and reach us on the day of. It’s a unique opportunity to be able to make contact with a retired air force plane’s antenna and I hope to continue this event in the future. Just be patient as unlike regular events, we only have the one antenna at each location to communicate with.

Thank you for your support, Phill VA7XOZ

 

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Find out more about this airframe and it’s service to Canada:

https://www.canada.ca/en/air-force/services/aircraft/cc-115.html

 

KQ4IGV Annabel – How POTA created a new ham!

Jul 12, 2023

Cross posted from QRZ: https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/general-kq4igv-annabel-hiraldo-charges-ahead-with-parks-on-the-air.871923/

Annabel Hiraldo had participated in over 700 Parks on the Air activations with her husband, David Lama HI8D, long before she was a licensed ham radio operator. Although she didn’t initially understand the lure of ham radio, she loved being in the outdoors, helping where she could and keeping David’s logs in order. But as Annabel began to recognize voices and callsigns, especially those that continually answered David’s CQ’s, she knew that this was a community, and hobby, that she wanted to be part of. Once she decided to get her license, Annabel passed her Technician and then General license exams in short order. Now Annabel is on a mission to learn more, including CW, pass her Amateur Extra exam, and to open up a path to ham radio for more women. Annabel’s story is one that many of us will relate to – the draw of the connectivity and unique community that defines ham radio.

Amateur Radio is not just for OM [Old Men], it’s for YL’s [Young Ladies] and XYL’s [Married Ladies] also. 

YL 33: The First Female Ham Radio Operators, and their Awesome Legacy
https://www.themarysue.com/female-ham-radio-operators/

Sisterhood of Amateur Radio  http://www.soar-yls.com/

Women Radio Operators of Maine https://womenradiooperatorsofmaine.org/

Young Ladies Radio League https://ylrl.net/

YL International Side Band System https://ylsystem.org

 

Noted YL’s
KM4BUN Audrey https://www.arnewsline.org/2022-yhoty
OH7BG / R1BIG Raisa Skrynnikova https://raisa.blog
WX6SWW Dr Tamitha Skov https://www.qrz.com/db/WX6SWW

 

Find out more about Parks on the Air    https//parksontheair.com/ 

 

Are you local to Winchester, Virginia?  Come and get your license with us at our next test session: https://winchesterhamtest.com

 

Fine Field Day!

Jun 28, 2023

Field Day national emergency communications preparedness event  is always the 4th full weekend of June annually in the United States and Canada. This year that weekend fell on June 24 – 25 and was an amazing day filled with fine people and weather throughout the operating 24 hours. Fine thanks to the Clarke County Fairgrounds for hosting us. Thank you to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office for stopping by on Friday late evening to ensure everything was in order. Thank you also to Berryville Mayor (Jay) Harry Lee Arnold, Jr for visiting Saturday afternoon to learn how amateur radio can serve his community during communication and civil emergency.

Club members began at 8AM Friday morning to pack and transport gear from our clubhouse in Winchester to the Lions Club Pavilion at the Clarke County Fairground. Though conditions on the ground were soggy, the skies cleared with temperatures in the high 70’s / low 80’s during operations.

Thanks to K04SSD, Jeremy who lent his spiffy red light LED lanterns from LuminAid to ensure our night vision was preserved. Gratitude to KC4RCR, Rousseau “Mr Lightning” for lending a fine bug zapper to keep flying insects at a distance and his 2 meter 10 element yagi antenna.

Fine food during Saturday’s traditional group lunch at Mario’s Pizzeria. During the weekend all types food was shared by members including amazing grilled hot dogs, hamburgers. Sweets abound with fine selections of muffins, cookies, pie, and of course it’s not amateur radio without “power rings” also known as donuts from Dunkin Donuts. Thank you to Rob for making the gas grill spic and span and then cooked up sliders and hotdogs for dinner for us on Saturday evening. Thank you Rob! Thank you to Andy NR8N and Tom KM4FEC for making breakfast on Sunday morning.

Field Day Radios [Transceivers]

Our station, with club callsign W4RKC, operated 3A [three HF transmitters in club or non-club portable operation] this year, radios were:

3A stations each had a computer laptop and N3JFP logging software to document contacts on CW [Morse Code], Phone [Voice], and Digital [FT8]. FT8 is a digital mode capable of send and receive with milliwatts of power over high-frequency [HF] for global communications capability.

Field Day antennas in use this year included:

This year marked the passing of the Field Day operations lead from KW4CW, Tom to AF7YL, Frances and AE7YH, John for 2024. Thank you Tom for amazing dedication to the tradition of Field Day and the importance of having our club being prepared and ready when called up for service by our community. Tom served for the Club in this capacity from 2009 – 2023. A fine legacy to uphold! Thank you Tom.

If you would like the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club to provide an operations demonstration and / or speak with your organization about the importance of Amateur Radio to the communications infrastructure, or, speak to careers in S.T.E.M [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math], please contact us, we would be delighted to help. https://svarc.us/contact-us/