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 WWhat else could possibly be the main topic of the June meeting except Field Day? After getting the meeting started, things settled into a businesslike pace as minutes were read, and reports were given. W3BC reported the club’s ARRL Special Service Club status was renewed after many years of inactivity. He further commented that the Field Day Press Release had been picked up and published by several local news outlets, and that a television news camera crew is expected. The subject turned to Field Day, and visitors Lee and Mary Lewis (N3NWL and N3UDN) shared with us some very useful Field Day pointers from their years of experience at putting on a really great Field Day operation in Ridgway.
Hams from four counties gathered at the Clearfield County EMA Center for their June Meeting. Guests helped finalize Field Day plans, newcomers introduced themselves and guest Steve Waltman KB3FPN presented an engaging technology program to round out yet another good old QCARC meeting! Mike WB3EQW raised the question of why the club covers four counties, and Club Founder Joe W3BC related the history of the Club’s creation and the rationale behind the large geographic area.
Under new business, W3BC suggested a new program for members wishing to do more for the club — the Dime-A-Day Donor Program. Club members may voluntarily contribute an additional $36.50 each year to go toward the Club’s Educational and Outreach programs. In recognition of these voluntary contributions, they will receive the status of “Sustaining Member” and a certificate bearing witness to that fact. Several contributions were given to the Treasurer. 15 members and guests were in attendance.
After the meeting, Coffee and Donuts were enjoyed, and a 50-50 drawing was held. 
The program was then presented by Steve Waltman KB3FPN from Brookville, with help from Tom W3KWT. The program was a demonstration of the capabilities of a Communications Monitor, and how amateur transmitters could be tested easily to be sure they measured up to specs.
Photo Gallery
(Click any image to begin slideshow, press [ESC] to stop)
 OON MAY 24, the ARRL renewed the Special Service Club status for the Quad-County Amateur Radio Club. QCARC has been an ARRL Affiliated Club since 1978, and became a Special Service Club in 1985. This renewal indicates the Club’s continuing commitment to providing additional services to its members and the communities it serves.
Is it a big deal? Yeah, it kind of is. Of the 43 ARRL Affiliated Amateur Radio Clubs in the Western Pennsylvania Section, the Quad-County Club is one of only three Special Service Clubs currently listed in the ARRL online Club Directory. Nationwide, only 137 SSC clubs are so designated from 2,000 ARRL Affiliated clubs. The national average is under 7% of all ARRL Affiliates are SSCs.
A Special Service Club is not “bigger and better” than other clubs; the designation is conferred upon those clubs that in addition to the usual ham radio activities have made an extensive effort to reach out to their members and communities, provide education and technological expertise to their members and the public, encourage and assist their members in keeping their operating skills sharp for emergency communications should the need arise, and present Amateur Radio to the public in a positive light, attracting new members and new hams by their activities rather than promoting with empty words.
The following description of Special Service Clubs is from the ARRL:
"TRULY SPECIAL Amateur Radio clubs are well balanced in their programs for serving the community, developing club members’ Amateur Radio skills and social activities, striving each year to build on their successes to improve their effectiveness. The objective of the ARRL’s Special Service Club program is to help good clubs organize and focus their efforts on those things that really count. Being an SSC should mean that members have certain skills, that the club as a group has the ability to improve service inside and outside the Amateur Radio community, and that it does so when needed.
To be accepted under the ARRL SSC program, a club must be actively involved in each of the following areas:
- New Ham Development and Training
Purpose: Develop an effective, coordinated program of public relations, recruiting, training and ongoing assistance targeted to prospective hams in your community to foster needed growth in Amateur Radio.
- Public Relations
Purpose: Establish an effective Amateur Radio presence in your community, including contact with local media and coverage of your activities; Public Information Officer appointment.
- Emergency Communications
Purpose: Club members should become skilled in communicating effectively during communications emergencies and be prepared to assist when needed; Official Emergency Station appointment and participation in ARES.
- Technical Advancement
Purpose: Continuing education in the technical aspects of Amateur Radio to ensure that your club members are technically competent, familiar and comfortable with modern radio-electronics technology; Technical Specialist appointment.
- Operating Activities
Purpose: Active participation as a club in one or more major operating or operating support activities to ensure that your club maintains a high level of operating skill.
- Miscellaneous Activities
Purpose: Every active club has its special interests and activities that make it unique, that give it special personality. At least three such activities are required to become a Special Service Club.”
 The Quad-County ARC May meeting was held Friday, May 20. Despite being the weekend of the Dayton Hamfest, there was a reasonable turnout. Routine business was conducted, the outstanding Spring Banquet bills were submitted for reimbursement, and several people volunteered for Club support positions.
Beginning his term as Technology Specialist is Lars Kvant SM7FYW. If anyone has technology questions, feel free to ask Lars! It’s only natural for Joe W3BC to accept the duties of Public Information Officer, which he did at the meeting.
Field Day discussion resulted in the formation of a committee to look into a location for this year’s effort. By a poll of members present, it will not be held at the EOC this year, but at the Fairgrounds or another suitable park. More details will follow as soon as arrangements have been made.
After the Business Meeting, the coffee and donuts were served, and the evening’s program began. Lars SM7FYW and Don KB3LES put on a very interesting program about radio fox hunting, and discussed the antennas, techniques and technology it takes to find an unknown transmitter.
A drawing was held for one of Don’s antennas that he kindly donated to the club. The lucky winner was Bryan Simanic WA3UFN from DuBois.
Next month’s meeting will be the finalization of Field Day planning, and the program will be Tweak and Peak night. Steve Waltman, KB3FPN will bring a commercial communications service monitor to help check out rig performance and tuning. Bring your VHF and UHF equipment, and Steve will help you get the most out of it!
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[showtime]
 Well, as most of you already read, I will show you how to have a chance catching one of those elusive Foxes…
So, today I went to the local hardware store and got some plastic pipe, T’s, 4 way thingies and a pair of hose clamps, the tape measure itself, comes from a garbage bin at work, so its a little bit too thin, but works fine anyway. Apart from that, you also need a few feet RG-58, some electrical tape and 5 inces of 16 gage copper wire.
I was really going to let you come down to the meeting, to get the rest of the dimensions, but decided to give them to you here ;-)
Schedule 40 plastic pipe, think its 3 feet, about $ 1,67, 1 Tee end, that fits the pipe, 2 cross pieces, also same size, a few cents each…. ;-) You will also need 2 hose clamps, that fits the cross things.
 Cut the plastic pipe into 3 pieces, 11 3/8 , 6 7/8 and one more 11 3/8. Put the T on the one end of the 11 3/8 pipe, then put the one cross piece on the other end, next stick the 6 7/8 pipe into the already assembled parts, then the last cross piece onto the 6 7/8 and last but not least, the 3rd piece of pipe, its going to come out something like this: ———————————->
Now to the tape measure itself, cut one piece 41 3/8 inch, two pieces 17 3/4 inch and one piece 35 1/8 inch, you can use ordinary pair of scissors, but be careful, the ends gets really sharp! (put some tape over ends)
Attach the 35 1/8 to the T, make sure its centered, (use electrical tape) next file of about 1/8 inch of the paint on the one end of both 17 3/4 pieces, attach the two 17 3/4 onto the middle cross piece with the hose clamps and finally the longest, to the next cross piece, using the tape again.
When all is put toghether, see picture 3, you will need to solder the 5 inch copper wire, which you have to shape like a U, presolder the ends first, solder it onto the feedpoint, (dont overheat, plastic will melt) then solder your RG-58 to the same point, coax running towards the handle…..
I hooked mine up to my Bird, and it shows very low SWR, so good luck, and if you are interested or have questions, come down to the meeting, and we will help ;-)
Lars FYW
 The April Quad-County ARC meeting featured a very interesting program on APRS presented by Carmine Prestia K3CWP and Woody Brem K3YV. Twenty-one amateurs were in attendance—some from as far away as Clarion and Emporium—and all four counties were represented. President Doug W3DWR called the meeting to order and during the brief business meeting the upcoming Spring Banquet plans were finalized, Field Day discussion was opened and committee reports were heard.
The business meeting was adjourned and the program was presented. Carmine K3CWP and Woody K3YV discussed their use of APRS to track Santa as he visits the neighborhoods in State College every year. They explained how parents can see when Santa’s firetruck will be approaching their neighborhood and take their kids out to see him every Christmas Eve, and the positive public response this has generated.
Carmine demonstrated how this worked by showing their path to the meeting using the online map at aprs.fi. Woody explained the construction of the “dot-box” which is the self-contained APRS rig he constructed inside a toolbox. AS Woody passed his dot-box around the room for the members to look at, Carmine discussed how the boxes were mounted on the firetrucks.
The program was very well received, as indicated by the number of questions from the hams in attendance. There was ample opportunity to discuss APRS technology with the guests and our members who have been using APRS. There were a number of APRS stations on display. Scott W3EOD brought his Kenwood TM-D7 Hand-held APRS transceiver and wrist-mounted GPS that he uses on the trail, W3BC brought his Kenwood TM-D710A and his “Frankenstein” rig, which he constructed from old equipment in his junkox for very little cash outlay. WA3UFN’s Yaesu FTM-350R flexed its APRS muscles, and the equipment used to support the N3QC-2 APRS Fill-in digipeater at the EOC was on display as well.
According to many comments received this was the best Quad-County meeting in quite a while, and we are trying to have more meetings like this one in the future. We hope to see you at the next one!
Photo Gallery
Click on an image to see it full size.
[slideshow]
In light of the next club meeting with the presentation on APRS, I tought this would be a great article to check out on the ARRL website. Just click the ARRL news feed tab on the right side of the home screen and look for the article titled “Surfin’: APRS’ing the Tsunami”.
As befits an organization I have obtained the domain name “qcarc.org” for our website. The old “dot-com” name will continue to exist and will address the same content, at least for now. During the next several days, there may be some delays as the DNS servers recognize the change. For the best performance, please change your bookmarks to www.qcarc.org.
Hi everybody!
As I was sitting here, looking at our exellent home page, I got one of those ideas that maybe I could try to write something of my own, if nothing else, it might encourage all of you readers to do the same, afterall, we can’t wait for Joe to come up with all the articles.
That said, I would like to tell you all, that my tower is back up, my 10m quad is repaired, and the 6m beam is finaly back in the top.
Furthermore, I have a new rotor, it’s now a HAM IV rotating the antennas, so now I can finaly see at what direction I’m beaming (thanks Don, for the rotor cable)
For those of you, who are waiting for the weather to warm up, I will try to get my plans for FOX hunt realized, more about that later…….
If you are interested in fox hunt, please Email me, so we get to know how many are willing to hunt….
This was a lot about nothing, LOL, but never the less, a beginning.
Lars FYW
It is said that engineers never know when to stop “improving” things. I certainly share that malady!
I think the website is close to its final, working form, and is almost ready for production. It already has plenty of new and useful functionality. There is one new and very exciting feature I’ve added… If you’re a registered user, YOU CAN ENTER YOUR OWN ARTICLES!!! As everyone uses this feature more and more, the website becomes a place you will have to visit often. It’s safe to say the website is never the same twice!
I’ve added lots of eye-candy. I think I may have missed my calling as a Graphic Designer. Or maybe it’s brain damage from my reckless youth!
You’re probably wondering what the “QRM” box is all about. Well, each item submitted to the website can be “tagged” with several keywords describing what it’s about. The QRM is a 3-D beehive of those keywords. The bigger they are, the more articles are related to those keywords. Clicking on a green one loads all articles with that keyword. Slide your mouse on over to the QRM box and watch all those pretty colors, man… (oops, another flashback!)… You know you want to!
This is YOUR website. Please feel welcome to reply to any post, vote in the polls, browse the Classified Ads, read all the “stuff”, and write your own posts to share with others. If you have photos of your shack, upload them! Let’s all make this thing grow!
Hello everyone!
I’d like to open this discussion as a place for you to leave your comments and suggestions for the new website. Is there a feature you’d like to see? is there something that could be better. Is something missing?
These and many other concerns are just what we will discuss here!
This is the new, upgraded website of The Quad-County Amateur Radio Club. It has been redesigned from the ground up to support modern features and provide you with an interactive experience which will help you find the information you are looking for more quickly and easily.
You may comment on any discussion, and even start a new discussion topic. In addition, the new technology allows the club to present the latest information immediately without any fancy HTML programming required!
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WWhat else could possibly be the main topic of the June meeting except Field Day? After getting the meeting started, things settled into a businesslike pace as minutes were read, and reports were given. W3BC reported the club’s ARRL Special Service Club status was renewed after many years of inactivity. He further commented that the Field Day Press Release had been picked up and published by several local news outlets, and that a television news camera crew is expected. The subject turned to Field Day, and visitors Lee and Mary Lewis (N3NWL and N3UDN) shared with us some very useful Field Day pointers from their years of experience at putting on a really great Field Day operation in Ridgway. 
