Welcome to the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club – W4RKC – Winchester, Virginia.
Founded in 1948 as a nonprofit club dedicated to the advancement and enjoyment of amateur radio operators in the northern Shenandoah Valley, the Shenandoah Valley Amateur Radio Club, Inc. (SVARC) is one of the oldest established radio clubs in the U.S. We are an ARRL-affiliated Amateur Radio Club, we support the local A.R.E.S. (Amateur Radio Emergency Services System), and we are the home of the famous annual Berryville Hamfest, now in its seventh decade of operation, always the first Sunday in August.
How to join SVARC: https://svarc.us/how-to-join-svarc/
Annual Member Renewal – Click Here
News & Updates
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Upcoming On the Air Events: Winter Field Day January 28-29 | Virginia QSO Party March 18-19, 2023 | 12 Month Contest Calendar | State QSO Parties
Contest Corral [.pdf] January 2023
Special Event Station K4S: Operating 90 Feet Down
The Woodstock Amateur Radio Group, spearheaded by Carl Dennis NX3A and supported by several SVARC members from Shenandoah County, operated Special Event Station K4S from inside Shenandoah Caverns in...
Remembering D-Day [6/6/45] 77 Years Ago Today
Would you please take a moment of silence today to remember those who did what had to be done in the name of Liberty and Freedom, 77 years ago today. More information Here:...
Annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Exercise Set for May 14
Reposted from ARRL.org The US Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test on Saturday, May 14. While Armed Forces Day is May 21, the AFD cross-band...
FCC $35 Amateur Application Fee Effective Date will be April 19
The FCC released a Public Notice<https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-22-307A1.pdf> on March 23, 2022, stating that the amateur radio application fees, including those associated with...
X-Class Solar Flare – North Central South America
An X Class Solar Flare was released toward Earth and North, Central, South America today at 17:37 UT / 1:37 PM Eastern Time. Per the map above, expect low or no propagation, especially below 30MHz...
Chasing the Backstory of Mountaintop Portable
Steve WG0AT is a well-known Summits on the Air activator. His excursions to the top of SOTA summits to operate mountaintop portable with his to goats, Peanut and Rooster is legendary. But there is...
IARU R1 Records on 134 and 241 GHz DK5NJ & DB6NT
New IARU R1 Records on 134 and 241 GHz Amateur Radio Bands Tuesday, March 1st 2022 DK5NJ at the Leipzigerturm (797 m ASL) near Schmiedefeld JO50ON60BJ DB6NT at the Aschberg (913 m ASL) near...
Winterfest March 27, 2022
WINTERFEST and the ARRL VA Section Convention for 2022: The Hams of Vienna Wireless Society (VWS) are hosting their annual hamfest – WINTERFEST – on Sunday, March 27th at the Annandale Campus of...
2022 Virginia QSO Party – Let’s Do This!
CLICK HERE for 2022 Virginia QSO Party information. This includes links to everything you'll need to participate, including lists of logging software. The NEW PLAQUE is Virginia Mobile...
March 2022 News from ARRL
Here are some news items from the March 10, 2022 ARRL newsletter: Axiom Private Astronaut Mission Crew Will Conduct ARISS School ContactsARRL Teachers Institute to Offer Four Sessions this...
Weather Spotter Training
Severe weather season is approaching as today is the 1st day of meteorological Spring. AI0K, Jerry, will be running a Weather Spotter net class on Tuesdays evenings at 8:30 PM ET on the 147.300...
Page Valley Amateur Radio Club – HamFest Saturday Feb 19
Looking to unload some of your ham radio gear? Don't have enough and are looking to pickup up some more? Page Valley Amateur Radio Club will be having a mini-hamfest on Saturday, February 19 from...
Club Meeting Update Feb. 17, 2022
The regular club meeting on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 at 7:30 pm will be held at the Clubhouse, with the option of joining by Zoom if technology cooperates. The secretary will send out the Zoom link...
QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo March 12-13
Rex, W1REX, and Stephen, N1SH, will join the Expo for a fourth time with two new Build-a-Thons, allowing Expo ticket holders to build kits with them, in real time, with demonstrations and...
Amateur Radio Satellites: Getting Started
Episode 1: How and Why to get started in Operating Amateur Radio Satellites https://youtu.be/Vp7h4ikthDQ Episode 2: Tips on Operating FM Amateur Radio Satellites https://youtu.be/5ReWESQCOOQ Episode...
Important Changes To EZNEC
Last year, Roger Steyaert K7RXV made an interesting presentation to the club on the topic of network analyzers, one of which was a program called EZNEC. He just alerted us to an important...
All About Electronic Circuits
A big shout out to Mason McCoy, who found this resource while working on his Boy Scout Electronics Merit Badge and shared it with our club to use on this website. It's an excellent article by Mark...
The Storied History of the Ham Radio Callsign: A Video Presentation 1/20/2022
:Every legal amateur radio operator in the world has a unique callsign assigned to them by their government, and many of us are better known by our callsign than our given name. A video...
POTA Activity at Lake Frederick
Greetings! Below are three photos from my recent POTA activity at Lake Frederick. I used an IC-7410 and a K3VAT design/build full-size vertical. Made 70 QSOs all on FT4 and FT8. TU and happy...
Got Chirps? Whistles? and WWV
Take a moment to tune in at every 8 after the hour on WWV and 48 after the hour on WWVH transmitters. WWV, WWVH stations, HamSCI and NIST and investigating HF propagation. The Characterization...