Notes from the Shack…
This is where we post timely news and other information targeted to the active ham radio operator.
They were named Notes from the Shack, filtered, and placed here to make them more readily accessible to the target audience.
Anyone is welcome to read these postings.
Please enjoy.
POTA at Pine Grove Furnace State Park
** EVENT POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER FORECAST ** ** Wanna play? Outside! ** Members of the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club will be meeting at Pine Grove Furnace State Park in the future on Saturday, September 23, ...
Amateur Radio License Stats
** So how many active hams are there? ** Curious Newcomer (CN) and Experienced Elmer (EE) both started interesting groups.io threads. One asked for people to tell what they do on the air, and the other ...
VOTA Update as of July 1, 2023
Eight CARC members continued their quest in the ARRL VOTA Contest. The standings as of July 1, 2023 are: Call Sign Overall Rank Country Rank State Rank QSOs Points Points per QSO Change N3AIR 4464 2751 ...
CARC Member Standings — VOTA May 2023
** CARC Members Continue to Amaze Club Leadership ** Our eight active participants in the ARRL Volunteers On The Air year-long contest kept plugging away during May. Looks like a good month to have gone on ...
Volunteers On The Air — Leader Board
** WHERE DO I STAND AMONG THE VOTA PARTICIPANTS ??? ** So you have been actively burning up the airwaves making VOTA QSOs. You regularly visit the Leader Board to see where you are compared to ...
The CARC Derby — May 6, 2023
****** Who: Listed in the body of the message. What: The CARC Derby Where: Ponderosa Park, Dillsburg PA When: Saturday May 6, 2023 Why: To hone our skills in preparation The Big One – Field Day ...
National Parks Week– April 22-30, 2023
** Parks On The Air! National Parks Week April 22-30, 2023 ** Q.) What can be more fun than operating portable in a National Park? A.) How about Operating Portable in a Park during National Parks ...
VOTA — CARC Member Standings
** VOTA UPDATE ** The ARRL has changed the Leaderboard format. As of April 7, 2023, eight CARC members were on the Leaderboard. All are PA residents. All are in the top 1,000 in the Commonwealth ...
Radio License Counts and Percentage
** Radio musings ** When I have too much time on my hands I enjoy crunching numbers. We had some cold, wet weather recently. I stayed indoors. That was my invitation to curl up with a ...
Call Sign Memory Aide
** Call Signs ** I have seen some nifty call signs lately. The call signs mentioned below are all active. Some people are fascinated by license plates and try to make clever sayings from state issued ...
FLrig Software.
Software can make radio more fun ! When I read that headline my first reaction was --- "What? Software can make radio more fun?" YES, it is true. Even a fairly modern ham radio can benefit ...
GMRS License Fee Has Been Reduced
This is sort of old news. On April 19, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission reduced the fee for a ten year GMRS license to $35 from $70. At the same time, the previously free, but had ...
Special Event Station W3R
W3R QSL Cards The W3R Special Event station QSL cards have arrived from the printer. They look fabulous. Look to the right where you will find an image of the card. Cumberland Amateur Radio Club sends ...
Keep Calm and Use Your Ham Radio
As wars and rumors of wars flood the media, sometimes you just need to step away. Go to the shack... Turn the transceiver on and do what you enjoy doing: whether you choose to hunt down ...
And now for something completely different…
Passing the Torch After fifteen years of leading the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club to new achievements including the highest membership headcount ever, Andrew Forsyth, AF3I decided to listen to his wife and not run again for ...
DMR Contesting
Notes from the shack... DMR contesting Contesting has been a part of the great wide world of amateur radio since at least 1928 in the US. Typically contests involve spending hours in the shack on the ...
Fun with Numbers
Notes from the shack.... Fun with numbers! The Cumberland Amateur Radio Club (CARC) is a diverse group. Current Membership Statistics by license class: Advanced 4 11% Extra 17 45% General 10 26% Technician 7 18% The ...
Keep it simple. Mastering the Two-Meter Analog HT
Notes From The Shack... I have come to the realization that while for most new amateur radio operators, the first radio is a HT. That is great, but too many are encouraged or choose to get ...
Logging Question
Logging Question... From our friends on the N3FJP groups.io site. The resounding answer, from multiple people was NO! You worked it, you logged it. You may never get a QSL card, but you made the QSO ...
Sandpatch Mountain and Railroad Tunnel
Why Play Radio... For many years, I was a member of the Yahoo Groups Sandpatch List. Sandpatch, named for Sandpatch Mountain and tunnel, is where the Baltimore & Ohio, now CSX, crosses the Alleghenies. It was ...
Why Play Radio?
Why Play Radio... For about 50 years or so, rail fans have used radio scanners to listen to the railroad frequencies in the land mobile FM portion of the 137-174 MHz band. The railroad frequencies are ...
Portable On The Porch
Notes From The Shack... Sometimes you just have to go play outside. But there is life... so what do you do? Operate portable from the porch? Or, get a good look this crowded setup... Yeah, this ...
I took a Vacation from the 80 Meter Band
Fun with N3FJP software – An Update! A few months ago, I shared some data that I had extracted from my N3FJP Amateur Call Log. At that time about 41% of my lifetime QSOs were on ...
Digital Landscape
• Do you have an interest in DMR radios? • Perhaps you are hesitant to wade into digital radio communications because it seems as if there are so many different “standards”. • D-STAR, WIRES, FUSION, C4FM ...
Radio Frequency Exposure Rules
Notes from the shack... From the ARRL Newsletter Updated Radio Frequency Exposure Rules Become Effective on May 3, 2021 The FCC has announced that rule changes detailed in a lengthy 2019 Report and Order (R&O) governing ...
The ARRL and Me
Notes from the shack... The ARRL and Me What does the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) do for me? I am a member of the ARRL. The ARRL sends a nifty magazine, QST, to my mailbox ...
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
Amateur radio on the international space station 20th Anniversary Celebration SSTV Image reception from space is within your reach ! The 20th anniversary of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station event is going on through ...
Learning Is Always Good !
Learning new stuff is always good! My dad’s cousin is 86. She was a math teacher and has been interested in computers since the late 1970s. She studied and earned her amateur radio license around the ...
Take a Break. Play Radio Outdoors.
Take a break from radio... ...or play radio outdoors ! Amateur radio is a fun hobby! It is amazing to receive a Slow-Scan Television (SSTV) image from the International Space Station, or realize the FT8 digital ...
N3FJP Software Fun
Part of the Notes From The Shack... series. Scott Davis, N3FJP and his fine team at Affirmatech have created a constellation of software logging packages. His AC Call Log is one of the more popular software ...
A Little Goes A Looooong Waaaaay
How Far Can You Go? Sunday night August 30, 2020 the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club Weekly Two Meter Net had two visitor check-ins. We welcome visitors. In that sense, there was nothing unusual about one or ...
Eight year old enjoys Ham Radio
Not just for grown-ups! Faye KN4WDF recently was the Virginia Fone Net Net Control Station and reported that she had talked to a newly licensed ham on another net she runs. The new ham is an ...
A Few of Frank’s Favorite Gadgets
Favorite Ham Radio Gadgets Frank shares with us some thoughts about his favorite gadgets. These are not going to change the world, but they just might brighten your day. Complete with photographs. Link to content: How ...
Field Day Tips
Field Day, Contesting and Random Operating Thoughts After Field Day 2020 was in the books a group of us from the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club K3IEC Field Day crew discussed what worked, what didn’t work, and ...
FT8 Addiction?
FT8 addiction? With some help from our friends at WSJTX@groups.io.com FT8 is one of the many digital modes in the WSJT-X software suite from Joe Taylor, K1JT and his team of collaborators. The basic software covers ...
Are You an Active Ham
Are you an active ham? Good day! The United States leads the world in having the greatest number of licensed amateur radio operators. There are about 763,000 among all US License Classes. About 8,000 of those ...
Memory Aids for Call Signs
Memory Aids for Ham Radio Call Signs What on earth is this doing here? It will make sense after you read the story. Some people find memorizing things is easier if they associate it with something ...
Share The Airwaves
Share The Airwaves It's OK to just want to play radio! This weekend, as I was watching an email thread unravel on a ham radio reflector, I was reminded of one of my nephews. He was ...
WSJT-X and JTAlert — Guest Author: N6DBF
So, what's this all about? A female voice is saying "Calling You" and then a male voice says "Wanted DX". While in the background, the Stereo is playing some of that good old time rock and ...
Slow Scan TV
Tonight (February 23, 2020) as part of the Sunday evening CARC Two Meter Net which meets at 1900 EST, CARC members Frank Mellott KB3PQT and Andrew Forsyth AF3I demonstrated sending and receiving SSTV images (Slow Scan ...
February – A Good Month To Play Radio
February - A good month to play radio! February is a fun month. It starts with Groundhog Day and ends with the South Carolina QSO Party. It has the Minnesota, Vermont and British Columbia QSO Parties ...
Winter Field Day 2020
Notes from the shack.... Winter Field Day, 2020 Ah... Field Day. Summer temps, picnic food, setting up outside... can’t wait! UH...wait....you said “Winter Field Day? Huh? Winter?? as in freezing outside? Ummm...no thanks. Really. Winter Field ...