Welcome to the Frederick Amateur Radio Club!

Hello everyone,

At any given Frederick Amateur Radio Club (FARC) meeting, we have centuries of combined radio experience in the room. For the February FARC meeting, our goal is to put that experience into action. We invite both club and greater community members to bring their questions or struggles, and we’ll try our best to help. It can be anything from understanding the various available radio services (Amateur, CB, MURS, FRS, GMRS) or programming a repeater to APRS to making digital data work with your computer, or choosing an antenna. Feel free to bring your radio for help. In order to make this easier, I’ll bring a couple of power supplies and antennas, minimizing what you may need to bring. If possible, bring along your radio manual.

We’ll meet at 7pm on Monday February 17th in the Social Hall of the Independent Hose Company, located at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and entrance in rear of the building. Many of us arrive around 6pm to chat as we set up – feel free to join early. As always, joining in person is best, but not always possible. Second best is to join via Zoom using this link: FARC Zoom 2025 Please put your name or call sign into your Zoom profile, so we know that you’re not a bot.

Upcoming Events:

March 22: FredFest 2025! All of the details are here: FredFest 2025

April 27: Pedal for Lymphoma. This is a new cycling event that we’re supporting, but smaller in scale as compared to others that we’ve done. This event begins and ends at the Comus Inn, and the 50, 25 & 15 mile courses route through western Montgomery and southeastern Frederick Counties. We’ll need to staff three rest stops, three SAG vehicles and Net Control.

May: Combo Portable Two Meter Challenge + ARES drill.

June 7: Tour de Frederick. We’ll need to staff ~10 rest stops and 12 SAG vehicles, plus net control. This is a great event that benefits kids in Frederick County.

June 28 & 29: Field Day.

July: POTA Activation

August: Foxhunt

September 27 or October 4: Half HAM (half Hike Across Maryland). We support the Mountain Club of Maryland as folks hike the Appalachian Trail from PenMar Park in Cascade to Washington Monument near Boonsboro.

December 15: Club holiday party

Let me know if there are questions – my email is my call sign @arrl.net

73!
Mike K3MMM

CLARIFICATION:  While logging is not required, we’d appreciate it, as it tells us which stations can reach one another without repeaters – think ARES/RACES.  But if you just don’t want to log, please participate anyway.

CLARIFICATION: From 7:00 to 7:10, I’ll monitor 146.73 W3FDK AND 147.09 W3CWC for questions, if any.  If you don’t have questions, find a two meter frequency (see chart below for suggestions) and call CQ.

The Frederick Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring the FARC and Friends 2M Simplex QSO Challenge on Saturday, February 15th from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM (but feel free to go later if you choose).  You do NOT (not!) need to be a club member to participate, and is open to anyone within range. The goal is to provide a fun February event without getting cold; an event for both new hams and those who maybe don’t get out like they once did.  So, at 7PM, find a frequency (see chart below) and call CQ.

While I’m a fan of digital, I’d like to keep this an all-voice event, using FM and SSB modes. The spirit of this event is to provide a very local QSO party, but with this additional twist:

How Low Can You Go Challenge (can be optional).  As you make a contact, each end should reduce power to determine the lowest output required to still communicate.  Most radios will only support High/Medium/Low.  For example, let’s say that K3MMM makes contact with N3LSB.  After initial exchange, K3MMM will say “I’m going low”, and then moves to medium power, then transmit something like “N3SLB, medium power, how copy”.  If good copy, K3MMM moves to low power and repeats “N3LSB, low power, how copy”.  If good copy, N3LSB would then start the step down in power process.  If at any point, contact is lost on lower power, move back to last good power level and complete the transaction.  Yes, this will take an extra minute or two, but it can be interesting to see how much or little power is really required.  If using an HT, same thing – your high/med/low will just be lower. Log the lowest power required to effectively communicate.  You may want to turn squelch down/off for this event.

Logs can be in any format, including hand-written.  If electronic, I’d prefer ADIF format, but can take .csv or most anything else.  Logs are due on or before March 11th – you can email to my call sign @arrl.net or mail to my address found on qrz.com.  I’m not going to cross-check logs, but rather count on your spirit and integrity.

I’ll be awarding the most-distant contact for both SSB and FM.  In addition to your log, PLEASE (please!) let me know your longest contact, including far end call sign and approximate distance from your location.

Those using SSB should the weak-signal frequency range of: 144.000 to 144.500, with specific “channels” of 144.100, 144.200, 144.300, 144.400 & 144.500.

In keeping with the T-MARC bandplan for our region (found here if you’re interested) and to save you from looking it up, the standard FM simplex frequencies are below. For FM, we’ll use the 146.415 to 146.595 block of channels, as they’re likely the most familiar with most folks, although any of the simplex frequencies are fine.  Specifics are:

Download a copy of the above chart in .pdf form here:  T-Marc simplex 2m frequencies

As always, let me know if there are questions.  My email is my call sign @arrl.net, or you can comment to this note.

73
Mike K3MMM

UPDATE: as of 7:30 Feb 8th, this event is a GO

Hagerstown has well over a century of aviation history, from shortly after the Wright Brothers first flight through today. The Hagerstown Aviation Museum (HAM) showcases that history, particularly the variety that Fairchild Aircraft produced in Hagerstown, when the company employed as many as ten thousand local staffers. This Saturday, February 8^th, the Antietam Radio Association will present Ham at the HAM from 10am until 4pm. This includes both overview and demonstration of amateur radio and how it fits into aviation history, with the goal of installing a permanent amateur radio station at the museum. Bring your HT; coordination is on W3CWC 147.09 (+ offset 100Hz).

The Hagerstown Aviation Museum is located at 18450 Showalter Road, Bldg 8 in Hagerstown, MD 21742

For a great understanding of Hagerstown aviation history, see this nicely-produced video overview: Hagerstown Aviation Museum Welcome Video

Visit the Hagerstown Aviation Museum website here: Hagerstown Aviation Museum

And here is a flyer with details for this particular event:  Ham at Hagerstown Aviation Museum

I hope to see you there!

Mike K3MMM

Winter Field Day 2025 is in the books, and was well received.  We had about thirty people stop by over the weekend, and just about everyone made a field day contact.  While Mother Nature reminded us that it is winter, we remained warm enough to function.  And, as always, there were some lessons learned, such as: the combination of LED lighting, switching power supplies, and solar chargers adds significantly to the noise floor on some frequencies – so much that a successful Winlink connection required that I had to go even more portable from our portable location – a couple hundred feet made a world of difference on 2 meters.  We won’t have final score for a few days, but it really isn’t about the numbers, rather it’s about putting together a remote operation in adverse conditions. We don’t need a score to know that we had success.

Anyway, thanks to all of the folks who contributed to the effort, particularly to neighbor Dave who helped split wood, hang lights and tarps, as well as brand new ham Paul KD3AMT who had NO idea what he was getting himself into, and came over early and joined the preparations. And to the folks who brought their gear, food, snacks, drinks and great fellowship.  It was a great weekend!

A few photos: