Aug 30, 2017 | 6 Meters, Nets, Special Event
This week, Wednesday, August 30th the Magician’s will be heading over to Spring Mount Ski Lodge located in Schwenksville for the yearly “Net on a Hill” Adventure. Equipment used for the Magician’s Net will be my trusty Yaesu ft-991 running 100 watts into a pair of “STACKED” OA-50’s. Power for the electronics will be provided by Honda which was generously donated by Dr. Bill/W3FRB who also supplied the OA-50’s that Bill/KA3RMM meticulously crafted together to make a stacked array. Logging for the nets will be handled by none other than Lee/K3SFX who does a fantastic job of getting all those calls, into the log. Backup power if needed will be provided by the now famous “Monocacy Hill” Deep Cycle Marine Battery. I’ll also have some inverters to convert 12VDC to 110VAC if we need them? Also on the “MOUNTAIN?” will be Mr. Steve/K3ALV (Admiral of Little Vessels) who will meet the challenge of running the Mini Boat Anchor Net AM style.
Times: Magician’s Net – *8:00pm* local time. The Mini Boat Anchor Net will follow IMMEDIATELY after Net Control takes the last check-in for the Magician’s Net.
Frequencies:
- Magician’s Net – 50.130 Mhz. (SSB – Mode)
- Mini Boat Anchor Net: 50.400 Mhz (AM – Mode)
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Dec 5, 2016 | 6 Meters, Club Meeting, Nets
PAARC 2016 Member Night Awards
Six club members were recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club (PAARC) at their Dec. 2nd meeting in Limerick, PA.
– Jim Steiner, W3BWD, was honored for his service as a founding member of the Pottstown Area Repeater Team, the precursor to PAARC. Jim housed the 2M repeater at his home for eighteen years, and has been a contributing member for over four decades.
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Nov 19, 2016 | 6 Meters, Nets
We just had another new check-in on the Magician’s Net this week. His name is John, and his call is W3KFT (Kentucky Fried Turkey). For all you VHF fans John also runs a 6 meter net on 50.550 MHz (usb) at 9pm on Sunday evenings under the club call of W3AWA. It’s called the Mobile Sixers Club. As Magician’s we are always striving for new and better ways to explore the band. To the beginning 6 meter op it appears at first that the band is dead, but we’re here to show you that you just have to know where the action is. We’ve shared our discoveries with other clubs notably the Keystone VHF Club, the Packrats club, and now the Mobile Sixers Club. Everyone’s invited to the nets!! Being inclusive is one of our strengths!
Propagation Alerts: As we wind things down heading towards the Winter months that doesn’t mean we have to hibernate, at least not radio wise. There’s still a little life left in the 6 meter band, but again, you have to turn it on to find out. At this time of the year up until the month of January we can sometimes experience some great Es openings. Keep checking http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php for updates. For a closer look at what Old Sol (the sun) is up to please check out http://www.solarham.net/ for the latest happenings in the current Solar Cycle. I know I hound you guys to death with this stuff, but if you’ve never worked Aurora you’re in for a treat! Look for elevated levels in the A & K indexes. The more uses you find for those radios, the more fun you’ll have. Speaking of fun I just started preparing my station to work some meteor scatter using a relatively new digital mode called MSK-144. It’s included with the newest WSJT-X software that’s been released. It’s an Alpha version which means it could be buggy, but so far I haven’t had any problems that I can point to, or at least none that were caused by this program. Time will tell. Turn on those rigs during the week, and please use those two links I gave in the last paragraph. I’ve found them to be indispensible when it comes to 6 meter propagation. (more…)
Jul 17, 2016 | 6 Meters, Events, Nets, Special Event
Calling all PAARC members…. 
Yes, it’s that time of the year again when we run nets from locations other than our shack.
This year we’ll be running both the Magicians Net and the AM Mini Boat Anchor Net from high atop the Hopewell Fire Tower at French Creek State Park. We’ll be testing out new antennas that a few of our members recently purchased specifically for 6 meters. The antenna is called the OA-50, an omni directional antenna model made by Par Electronics. From initial tests, this thing really works. Let us know what you think.
Rigs & Antennas: The Magicians Net will be running a Yaesu FT-991, and the AM Mini Boat An
chor Net will run a Gonset (Gooney) G-50 for the AM portion of the net. Both stations will be sharing a Par Electronics OA-50 Omni Angle Antenna.
Times: We will start taking check-ins for the Magician’s Net at 8pm this coming Wednesday, August 31st rather than our regularly scheduled time of 8:30pm. Thank you Ed/K3BVQ for your support! The AM Mini-Boat Anchor Net will start at its usual time 9pm.
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Apr 5, 2016 | 6 Meters, Events
After a nice chat on the phone with our very own Dr. Bill/W3FRB I was told that both the Magician Net & the Mini Boat Anchor Net were listed on the EPA ARRL website. After enlisting the help of Melody/KB3SJR she graciously found the article posted below. The listing was submitted by Steve/K3ALV. Thanks to both Melody and Steve for sharing your time and talents!
Things are just starting to perk up here on the 6 meter band with some great openings into South America. Although it’s not for everyone, when the band opens up it can lead to some very fast paced contacts. With the Spring VHF contest coming up in June, and the band starting to show signs of activity it is our hope that everyone will give this often neglected band a try.
Speaking of activity, I got a text message on my cell phone Sunday from none other then Joel/KB3OZC. Joel always let’s me know when the bands open. By now I’m sure you’re noticing a bit of a pattern here? From the very article you see posted below to the message I received on my cell phone Sunday afternoon, it’s people that make it all happen. You may not see them, and you may not hear them directly, but they’re in there just the same.
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