Read below for the latest news and announcements from the club.
CWARC Helps Habitat for Humanity
CWARC offered the use of our repeater to the Habitat for Humanity this past summer. Below is the thank you letter we received. Click on the letter to see a full-sized version.
Camp Wilderness Featured on NOAA Storm Ready Website
Camp Wilderness has been featured on NOAAs StormReady website. The link below is for more information on the program.
http://www.stormready.noaa.gov
A Ham's Night Before Christmas
'Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through two-meters,
Not a signal was keying up
Any repeaters.
The antennas reached up
From the tower, quite high,
To catch the weak signals
That bounced from the sky.
The children, Tech-Pluses,
Took their HT's to bed,
And dreamed of the day
They'd be Extras, instead.
Mom put on her headphones,
I plugged in the key,
And we tuned 40 meters
For that rare ZK3.
When the meter was pegged
By a signal with power.
It smoked a small diode,
And, I swear, shook the tower.
Mom yanked off her phones,
And with all she could muster
Logged a spot of the signal
On the DX PacketCluster.
While I ran to the window
And peered up at the sky,
To see what could generate
RF that high.
It was way in the distance,
But the moon made it gleam -
A flying sleigh,
With an eight element beam,
And a little old driver
Who looked slightly mean.
So I though for a moment,
Summer Camp 2012
I am sad to report that summer camp has come to an end for the 2012 season, but am happy to report that amateur radio has been active at Camp Wilderness during the season.
Over 100 youth earned the Radio Merit Badge during the seven week season. Each week I solicited the help of the PICONET to get these youth on the air to have a short QSO with the net controller. The youth had a great time getting on the HF radio and conversing with a new friend on the other end. We did some PSK work during the summer and were able to make contacts into Florida, Texas and Oklahoma. The scouts thought it was awesome to text someone so far away (HI HI). Each week the badge sparked one or two individuals to comment about wanting to go further and earn their technician tickets….in fact, one parent came to me late in the week and told me his son had already picked out his radio he wants for Christmas this year and that it was apparently going to be an expensive Christmas!
Annual Meeting
The annual CWARC meeting will be May 19, 2012 at 7 PM at Camp Wilderness. The meeting will be an informational meeting for anyone who is learning more about the Camp Wilderness ARC and ham radio in general. Registration or RSVP is not required, and anyone is more than welcome. See you then!