PAARC at the 2016 Montgomery County 4H Fair
On August 12 and 13, the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club operated and did demos of amateur radio for the public. This was our third year at the fair. Thanks go to Wes N3HWH who got the club involved back in 2014. It is a wonderful opportunity to show off to the public what amateur radio has to offer to individuals and to their communities.
This year we were in operation for two days, Friday and Saturday. Equipment was a Yaesu FT 991 radio with A G5RV mini antenna for 40 meters through 10 meters. We also put up a roll-up J-Pole antenna for two meters. We wanted folks to see home made stuff that would be easy to make erect and hide on a very small lot. We had several young people who got on the air with Bill WF3M on our club’s 2 meter repeater. Bill did a wonderful job of making the kids feel at ease during their QSO, and their parents had a good photo opportunity with their child on the microphone.
We called CQ on the 147.210 repeater so we could offer PAARC members a special event K3ZMC QSL card. So look for us next year if you missed us on the air!
Club members who made our special event possible: Tom K3TWL, Wayne KA3BQS, Wes N3HWH, Melody KB3SJR, Ben KE3KQ and Ed N3WXW.
The HF Band conditions were fair. The heat was nasty for us old timers, though it did not look like it had much effect on the younger crowd who were enthused to see all of the fair exhibits! Because of the heat we stopped operating at 2 pm Friday and Saturday.
