Amateur Radio has something for everyone. Some people are interested in local and worldwide communications and others in emergency communications or the technical aspects of electronics or antennas. Our club offers something for everyone and we learn from each other as well as from the club programs. Click each activity title for more details.
Berryville Hamfest:
This is our premier event the first Sunday of August, now in its seventh decade and attracting amateur radio and electronics enthusiasts from the mid-Atlantic region and beyond. CLICK HERE for more information.
VE TESTING SESSIONs:
The club hosts VE sessions for those seeking to become licensed or upgrade their existing license. CLICK HERE for more info. Typically, there are 10 sessions scheduled every year, generally held at 1 PM (Eastern Time) on the second Sunday of the month, with the following exceptions:
- May – No VE session is held in May as it coincides with the Mother’s Day holiday
- August – No VE session is held at the SVARC clubhouse, as there is a VE session held in conjunction with the SVARC Berryville Hamfest (held the first Sunday in August annually).
Field Day:
Our club actively participates in the annual ARRL Field Day event held on the fourth full weekend of June each year. This is a premier annual event which gets us out of the ham shack and gives us the opportunity to practice the art and science of setting up portable stations running on emergency power sources at remote locations. CLICK HERE for details.
Our weekly nets:
The club supports weekly VHF and HF nets.
- On Tuesday nights there is the 2m SVARC Club Net at 7pm on 146.820. The Net Controls are Tony Amick KM4HUE and Audrey Strite KN4CHI.
- The Northern Virginia Emergency Net meets each Sunday afternoon at 12:30 PM Local Time (Eastern Time) on 10 Meters at 29.200 MHz AM. The Net Control is Royce Crocker, W3IF.
Training and Education:
As needed or requested, the club offers electronics, morse code, and license test training classes. We work with local Boy Scouts to provide hands-on demonstrations and experience. We have operated special training sessions when requested by churches, schools, and hospitals.
We are fortunate to have two well-equipped rooms set up in our clubhouse for the use of members, training sessions, and special events. VHF and UHF repeaters are available for casual and emergency amateur use in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. CLICK HERE for more information on our open repeaters.
We occasionally post educational articles and information on this website. Click Education & Resources here or in the menu above — scroll down to find items of interest.
Public Service and Emergency Communications:
Our club station W4RKC is registered with the Scouting organizations so we can host local Scouts for their annual “Jamboree-On-The-Air” (JOTA), a scouting event that’s all about getting young people to talk to each other using amateur radio. It’s not a contest, but rather a way to introduce Scouts fo ham radio. It is usually held the third weekend in October.
We support community events in need of our communication services. These include bike races, festivals, foot races such as the MMT 100, and other area events.
Other club, Tech SIG, social, and ham-related events are listed on the Events Calendar.
On The Air From Our Clubhouse Station:
Maybe you’ve worked us on the air in a contest, special event, or any other reason. Our HF stations run Ham Radio Deluxe software, and we attempt to log all contacts in the ARRL’s Logbook of the World, as well as eQSL, and the QRZ.com logs. If you’ve just worked our station and would like to see that you’re in our log, feel free to check out our qrz.com web page, (maintained by Gary, K4GJF), and click on the log tab which will show you our most recently logged contacts. If you have an account on qrz.com, and would like to confirm our contact, there’s even a button there to do that!