Welcome to the Frederick Amateur Radio Club!

Please join us for Mesh Monday at the regular meeting of the Frederick Amateur Radio Club! What is Mesh Monday? It’s the Monday where we learn all about Meshtastic and Meshcore – how it works and what you can do with it. In addition to the presentation by a small team of members, we’ll be voting on the proposed bylaw changes, as well as other club business. The bylaws change is a big deal – if you haven’t read over the proposed changes, PLEASE do so. You’ll find it here: FARC Bylaw proposed changes

Also, during the social hour, I’ll be offering the HT Challenge that we did at CaraFest – where we hand you a card with a frequency, CTCSS tone and some DTMF digits to transmit, and you race the clock to configure your handheld and send the digits. So, bring your HT with you and test your configuration prowess!

The social hour begins at 6pm and the meeting at 7pm. We meet in the social hall of the Independent Hose (fire) Company, at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and hall entrance are in the rear of the building. While joining in person is best, a second choice is via Zoom, using this link: FARC Zoom 2026. ALL members of the local community are welcome to join us – no need to be a member or licensed or anything. If you’re a regular member, please try and join us for the bylaws vote – we value your input.

As always, let me know if there are questions – send me a note using my call sign @arrl.net

73!
Mike K3MMM

Please join us on Monday September 21st at 7PM, for the regular club meeting of the Frederick Amateur Radio Club. This month, Rick N3RO will recount his experiences as a radio signals interceptor during his military career.

The social hour begins at 6PM and we meet in the social hall of the Independent Hose (fire) Company, at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and entrance are in the rear of the building. We wholeheartedly welcome any member of the community who has even a tiny interest in radio or how military signals interception worked. As always, joining in person is best, but if you just can’t, the next best option is via Zoom using this link: FARC Zoom 2026.

We hope to see you there!

**UPDATE** we’ll be adding a Parks on the Air (aka POTA) aspect to this, as Cunningham Falls State Park is fully POTA approved.  I’ll bring my personal + POD Bravo HF gear to share.

We hope you can join us for an Amateur Radio Fox Hunt at Cunningham Falls Manor Area ($3 MD admission, $5 out of state) on September 12, 2026 starting at 10:00AM (weather permitting). We will have both walking and driving foxes (hidden transmitters) in place for you to use your radio Direction Finding (DFing) skills to find. The park is located off US 15 Southwest of the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve, at 6179 Cunningham Falls Park Rd., Thurmont, MD 21788. We will meet at a picnic table between the Manor Area Playground and the Visitor Center (bear to the left after you enter the park). Just look for the fox hunt signs or look for vehicles with extra antennas!

An Amateur Radio Fox Hunt is a practice drill to find hidden or lost radio transmitters using RF Direction Finding techniques. This is a receive only drill, so you do not have to be licensed to participate in this event. All you need to participate is a receiver or scanner capable of listening to signals between 144MHz and 148MHz, and an antenna. There will be extra equipment at the site for you to use. All our foxes will be on the 2M band (144 to 148MHz). We’ll have multiple fox hunts set up and running at the same time.

1. For the walking hunt, we’ll have a few low power (10mw) foxes located around the park for you to find while honing your DFing skills and enjoying a walk in the park! If you are a “DF expert”
you might hop in the car to find the fox located a few miles away. At the walking hunt there will be assistance for those new to fox hunting.

2. For more of a challenge, there will be a driving hunt using a 1W fox located within six miles of the park for you to find. The K3KMA 448.025M (PL 103.5) repeater will be used to coordinate
this hunt. At the beginning we’ll announce the fox frequency and take check-ins on the repeater so we know who is hunting. When you find the fox don’t tell everyone where you are, in case
you are the first. Just let us know you found it.

Hope you can join us for the walk in the beautiful park!

You can find the full flyer with maps and frequencies here: Fall 2026 Foxhunt

On Monday August 17^th at 7PM, it’s the Frederick Amateur Radio Club’s “bring your power supply to meeting day”. At the July meeting we heard a great overview of using an oscilloscope in a ham shack and this month we’ll get a hands-on look at various devices, including YOUR power supply, and what these devices may be unintentionally emitting.

The social hour begins at 6PM and we meet in the social hall of the Independent Hose (fire) Company, at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and entrance are in the rear of the building. We wholeheartedly welcome any member of the community who has even a tiny interest in radio (or oscilloscopes). As always, joining in person is best, but if you just can’t, the next best option is via Zoom using this link: FARC Zoom 2026.

We hope to see you there!