West Virginia
Welcome!
Spencer Repeater Call Sign KA8AUW
147.015 MHz | CTCSS 107.2 Hz
Upcoming Event!
Join us at the
Annual West Virginia Black
Walnut Festival!
Members
of
the Roane County Amateur Radio Club and the Roane County Emergency
Communications Team
will set up a pop-up canopy booth in downtown Spencer
(near Walmart) at 200 East Main Street (next to the Roane County EMS
Station) from
1000-1700 hours (see the schedule below) to provide information about
the FCC Amateur Radio Service, the local ham club, and the county
emergency communications teams. We will also demonstrate communicating
with other local radio operators using the Spencer radio repeater
system and at times around the world with a mobile, low power High
Frequency radio
station. We will offer numerous handouts, brochures, a free
engraved carabiner (red, blue, or orange) and a free imprinted gel pen
(ham radio orange).
The public is highly encouraged to drop by!
Check this page
for last-minute details. Text Bart N3GQ at 304-786-0871 or write to
[email protected]om to sign-up for the ham radio booth. So far,
it's just Bart,and he would very much appreciate a bathroom and a lunch
break on each day!
Booth Sign-Up Schedule
| Day and Time |
Name |
| Friday, 10 October 1000-1700 Hours |
Bart N3GQ |
| Friday, 10 October |
|
| Friday, 10 October |
|
| Friday, 10 October |
|
| Friday, 10 October | |
| Saturday, 11 October, 1000-1700 Hours |
Bart N3GQ |
| Saturday, 11 October |
|
| Saturday, 11 October |
|
| Saturday, 11 October |
|
| Saturday, 11 October | |
| Sunday, 12 October, 1000-1400 Hours |
Bart N3GQ |
| Sunday, 12 October | |
| Sunday, 12 October | |
| Sunday, 12 October | |
| Sunday, 12 October |
Roane
County, WV — Many people
enjoy casually meeting and speaking with new people. A few enjoy doing so over
long distances, through the connecting power of the radio.
Amateur
radio is the non-commercial use of technology to communicate with others using
radio waves to transmit messages over short or long distances. Also known as
ham radio, the activity is a hobby for some, as well as an essential method of
emergency communication for the City of Spencer and Roane County.
Amateur
radio operators, nicknamed hams, can use and customize a wide range of
equipment to transmit their voice, morse code, or digital data. Such equipment
can include transceivers, which send and receive signals, and antennas, which
affect incoming and outgoing signals’ distance and clarity.
To begin
transmitting, a ham in the U.S. must pass an exam and become licensed through
the Federal Communications Commission. There are three ascending levels of
licensure — technician, general and amateur extra — with each subsequent
license providing access to more designated frequency bands.
Through
ham radio, hobbyists can connect with other like-minded individuals from all
over the world, with Roane County being no exception.
For ham radio enthusiasts in the region, there’s this club, which offers a space for local hams to interact in-person and share about their craft.
The club meets informally at 6 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month at Gino's Pizzaria in Spencer.
Everyone is invited to attend!
A lot of
people like the ability to communicate with others, either locally or
worldwide, and be able to experiment with different signal types and modes of
operation. The club is for amateur radio
operators and others who want to experience being with other ham operators and share their
stories, experiences, triumphs and problems, and help each other solve them.
Affiliated
with the nonprofit American Radio Relay League, the club contains three volunteer
examiners, who are authorized by the FCC to conduct licensing examinations.
Membership
in the club itself is open to anyone, ham or not, although licensed individuals
are granted voting rights.
Apart from
meetings, club members can keep in contact over the radio through organized
gatherings on the air, known as nets (radio networks). These nets serve a
number of purposes, including disaster preparedness training, information
gathering, or simple socialization.
Club
members increase their transmission distance using the Spencer repeater system, a radio device
that re-transmits a signal at a higher power level and elevation to another
frequency. The International Space Station also has such a repeater, which acts
as a relay point for transmissions to reach greater distances.
Transmissions
can be done individually or in groups, such as in the Parks on the Air
(POTA) program,
which challenges hams to establish stations in a POTA-recognized local,
state
or national park. The hams must then contact operators in other parks
and log
their contacts to earn rewards. There are periodic POTA contests during
the
year. Caleb, KC8WGO is an old hand at POTA. Come
to our meetings to discuss with him his many POTA challenges and
stories using a low power transceiver.
For more casual enjoyment, some club members occasionally travel to places like a local park, set up a field station, and work off battery power. While there, they’ll attempt to make as many contacts as possible.
EmComm
Amateur
radio also has a more serious side. Hams can provide emergency communication
services (EmComm) even when other methods of communication have failed. Amateur radio
transmissions use radio waves, so their signals are not affected even when
infrastructure like cell towers and landline telephones become overloaded or
otherwise compromised.
When all
else fails, ham radio can get through.
The importance of ham radio in emergency situations is particularly evident during the hurricanes that ravaged the American Southeast in September and October of 2024. While cellular service remained unavailable, amateur radio operators helped relay information, assisting first responders and relief organizations.
Our club is affiliated with the Roane County Office of Emergency Services. See Roane EmComm Teams for more information.
Helping Out at Local Events
Hams have an important role locally as well. Wearing reflective vests and using handheld radios, members of the club are prepared to handle communications during local events, such as the annual West Virginia Black Walnut Festival held in Spencer. They can also helped direct traffic and keep track of runners during local races, like the annual bike race held at the Spencer Reservoir.
Changes over the Years
Some
members picked ham radio as a hobby in the 1960s, when one could only transmit
morse code and single-sideband transmissions (which can sound like Donald Duck)
were a new signal type. Today, there are
several signal types and modes from which one can choose to operate.
Talking to
people in other countries is a lot of fun, too.
If you want to talk to people around the world, ham radio is the way to
go.
All the
members of the Roane County Amateur Radio Club are helpful. We like to see more individuals from all age
groups get involved with the radio service and hobby.
The
equipment needed to participate in amateur radio has never been as affordable
as it is today. You can get started with
a sixteen-dollar radio to use our local radio repeater system.
The world
of amateur radio has a lot to offer. We
have only covered a few things that can be done with it.
Annual
membership is only twenty dollars, which is much cheaper than the great majority of
amateur radio clubs.
How far individuals
go with amateur radio as a hobby is totally up to them. A person can purchase
equipment or even assemble his or her own home-brew equipment.
However
much someone wants to get involved in the service and hobby, members of the Roane County Amateur
Radio Club are ready and willing to instruct those wishing to dip their toes
into the world of radio.
New, Seasoned, or Potential Hams:
A Few Words about the Need for “Plug and
Play” Stations
Today, we
have a need for “plug and play” amateur radio stations. We don’t want to take the joy out of
designing, assembling, building, and soldering an amateur radio station, but we
do want to make it as less frustrating as possible. I was talking to my wife, Dee, K3KAT and it
occurred to me that after 57 years as a licensed ham, serving in various ham
radio positions, and working as the FCC’s only radio frequency engineer for 13
years, there are still some challenges I have to work through to design a station
for local hams that is as economical as possible and relatively easy to
use.
It doesn’t
matter what type of station a ham is setting up – it takes some time, effort,
reading of manuals, and some technical understanding to get it right, or as
close to right as possible. There are so
many different models of equipment, signal types, software, and modes of
operation that it is easy to become frustrated trying to get them all to work
together. When you try to go as cheap as
you can, you are stuck with buying a Chinese radio with no instructions or
instructions that are translated so badly that you want to give up on it. And I’m a Chinese-Mandarin linguist who was
sent to language school for three years by the US Army to become a China
expert.
I bring
all this up because if you want to either join our local fellowship or set up a
radio station, please feel free to contact me or other members of the club to
help you. It doesn’t matter if you are
just starting out or if you’ve been an Extra Class licensee for half a century,
there is always something to learn in amateur radio. No one can know everything. Even the engineers at the FCC responsible for
advising the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) on amateur radio did not
understand many of the technical aspects of the service. Ditto for university professors who teach
wireless communications.
73, Bart, N3GQ
This page will be updated with more club information.
