Welcome to the Frederick Amateur Radio Club!

Hi all,

We’re having an old-fashioned mast raising and POTA (Parks on the Air) this Saturday November 1st from 10am to 1pm.  What is a “mast raising” you ask?  It’s the initial setup of the clubs’s new portable mast that we’ll use for various events including field day.  The event will be at the Manor Area of Cunningham Falls State Park – this is the area that is accessible from US Rt 15 between Lewistown and Thurmont.  Once you turn in the entrance and go past the guard shack, you’ll turn left toward the visitor center (official address is: 6709 Cunningham Falls Park Rd, Thurmont, MD 21788) – it looks like there is green space near the playground just before the actual visitor center – call it W3W: ///cartons.clown.sailor. Please note that the park has a $3/each entrance fee for MD registered vehicles and $5/each for out of state vehicles.

Feel free to bring your radio or antenna or whatever you’d like.  Many of us will have radios and will be happy to share.  If you have questions, send me a note using my call sign @arrl.net.  PLEASE join us!

I hope to see you there! 73!
Mike K3MMM

Frederick County ARES is hosting a Simulated Emergency Test (aka SET) exercise this Saturday, Oct 25, 2025. All amateur radio operators are welcome to participate. This exercise involves search and rescue simulated by a mobile fox hunt located near Emmitsburg and 4 additional foxes near Middletown, MD. The following frequencies will be active starting at 10am for two hours:

These are to be placed along the side of a road and are to be located via automobile using mobile directional antennas. If possible have two operators: one to drive and another to search! Once you find a single fox, transport it back to one of two sites (whichever is closest):

Site A: Remsberg Park, Middletown (near the pavilion what3words ///sweeper.maple.kettle): Foxes 1, 2, 3, 4 (check along Holter Road near the park, also check down Rte 17 between Middletown and Burkittsville)

Site B: Eugene Myers Park, Emmitsburg, what3words ///dodgy.bulbs.lamplight: Fox 5

Communication with sites A and B will be via 146.58 MHz simplex. Please call in when you start looking and when you find a fox. Then transport the fox to the nearest Site.

The exercise scenario is the following:

***Exercise-Excercise-Excercise***
Narrative: A massive 100m asteroid is detected headed for the MDC
region. A nuclear blast destroys the asteroid right over Middletown,
resulting in a localized EMP and many cases of temporary blindness due
to not following instructions such as: “don’t look at the nuke”. The asteroid is harmlessly vaporized but unfortunately an EMP has destroyed all local repeaters, cell phone towers, fire and police communications, the power grid and the internet within a 5-50 mile radius of Middletown. An astronomy club from Emmitsburg, MD was also observing via telescope :(.           However, intrepid ham radio operators took actions beforehand to safeguard personal radio equipment against the EMP blast. Supplies and equipment from the public health department were pre-positioned at Sites A and B and radios were placed in shielded Faraday cages prior to the event. After the EMP a message was sent to all ham radio operators to bring temp-blindness victims to stand along rte-17 and Holter rd.
The Emmitsburg group was also located. Each group was given one working Baofeng radio to intermittently broadcast so hams in the area with functioning cars can radio-locate the victims. The victims are then transport to Site A or B, whichever is closest. Communication with fox hunters/Sites A and B is via crossband repeat 146.58 / 52.55 MHz. Mobile searchers should use 146.58 simplex. Shelter reports will be shared between site A and B via Fldigi if in direct contact, otherwise via winlink.
***Exercise-Excercise-Excercise***

Sandy Chesney, KB3EOF, ARRL Emergency Coordinator, Frederick County

Please join us on Monday October 20^th for the monthly meeting of the Frederick Amateur Radio Club. This month in lieu of a presentation, we’ll be having a mini hamfest to sell the equipment of our late pal Luke W3JP. All of the proceeds go to Luke’s widow Carol. We will be selling the equipment via silent auction style; each item will have a sheet on which you can bid. At the end of the night, the high bidder for each item buys that item. We will accept payment by cash, check or Zelle. You can see a listing of the items for sale here: Luke Silent Auction. If you cannot join us in person, please conspire with a friend to bid by proxy.

We meet at 7pm in the Social Hall of the Independent Hose Company, located at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and entrance are in the rear of the building. ALSO we begin setting up around 6pm – feel free to join us and socialize before the meeting. We welcome ALL members of the local community to join us – no need to be a club member or a licensed amateur. Most of us were not club members at our first meeting – we like it when new people visit!

If you cannot join us in person, consider joining via Zoom, using this link: FARC Zoom 2025

If joining via Zoom, please include your name and/or call sign in your profile, so that we can distinguish you from a bot. Also, in order to minimize extraneous background noise, please keep yourself muted except as needed to participate.

In person or via Zoom, I hope to see you on Monday.

73!
Mike K3MMM