ARRL Field Day 2023
(Madison, WV) 22 June 2023 – The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club in cooperation with our partner organization, the Logan County Amateur Radio Club, are pleased to announce the upcoming Club participation in ARRL Field Day 2023 at the Water Ways Soccer Field, Julian West Virginia. The Club will participate in activities which includes emergency radio preparedness and educational activities we provide through the club’s affiliation with ARRL.
The club operates for 24 hours, from 2pm on Saturday June 24 until 2pm on Sunday June 25 on a variety of different radio modes and on all available amateur radio frequency bands. Potentially thousands of other amateur radio stations will be contacted during this event where basic information is exchanged to verify contacts in both directions. These contacts are submitted to ARRL, along with other pertinent information and around mid-November, the results will be presented by ARRL.
If you’re interested, stop by the Club location at the Water Ways Soccer Field on June 24 or 25 2022. Club members are all too eager to
tell you all about radio operations and their equipment. It’s a great time for amateur operators and it’s an awesome experience for young
folks interested in STEM activities. The club will make every effort to allow public participation in radio operations, just let us know
and we will GET YOU ON THE AIR!
Talk-In Frequencies:
146.52 (simplex)
146.685 -0.6 MHz 203.5pl (repeater)
73!
The Coal Country & Logan County Amateur Radio Clubs
Posted in Field Day by admin
ARRL Field Day 2022
(Madison, WV) 24 May 2022 – The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club is
pleased to announce the upcoming Club participation in ARRL Field Day
2022 at the Water Ways Soccer Field, Julian West Virginia. The Club
will participate in activities which includes emergency radio
preparedness and educational activities we provide through the club’s
affiliation with ARRL.
The club operates for 24 hours, from 2pm on Saturday June 25 until 2pm
on Sunday June 26 on a variety of different radio modes and on all
available amateur radio frequency bands. Potentially thousands of
other amateur radio stations will be contacted during this event where
basic information is exchanged to verify contacts in both directions.
These contacts are submitted to ARRL, along with other pertinent
information and around mid-November, the results will be presented by
ARRL.
If you’re interested, stop by the Club location at the Water Ways
Soccer Field on June 25 or 26 2022. Club members are all too eager to
tell you all about radio operations and their equipment. It’s a great
time for amateur operators and it’s an awesome experience for young
folks interested in STEM activities. The club will make every effort
to allow public participation in radio operations, just let us know
and we will GET YOU ON THE AIR!
Talk-In Frequencies:
146.52 (simplex)
146.685 -0.6 MHz 203.5pl (repeater)
73!
The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club
Madison, WV – www.wv8ccc.org
Posted in Field Day by admin
HamFest 2019
We’re excited to announce our 3rd Annual Coal Country Amateur Radio Club HamFest at the Madison Civic Center, September 22 2019, 7am until 2pm. Please download the flyer and pass it around! Also, share this page with your friends so that everyone will know about our upcoming HamFest in September.
We’re looking for vendors, flea marketers, hobbyists, small businesses, home based businesses, etc. to vend at our show, so get in touch with us soon to reserve your spot.
Contact info:
Posted in HamFest by admin
HAMFEST 2018 Info
The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club is happy to announce the 2nd Annual CCARC Hamfest to be held at the Madison Civic Center, Saturday, September 22 2018 from 8am until 1pm. We are accepting applications for vendors.
More info may be found in the following documents:
Posted in HamFest by admin
Field Day 2018 Announcement
(Madison, WV) 10 January 2018 – The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club is pleased to announce the kick-off of Club participation in ARRL Field Day 2018. We have just secured the location, Water Ways Soccer Field in Julian West Virginia. This was the location of CCARC’s 2017 Field Day Activities and it is absolutely perfect for our use. Through discussion with the Boone County Administrator Pam White and the Parks and Recreation Director Russell Thomas back in 2017, the Club provided information detailing the impact of our activities which includes emergency radio preparedness and the educational activities we provide through the club’s affiliation with ARRL. Ken Cregger, the President of the Club states “…we’re always excited for Field Day. It brings our club together, we operate in an emergency type situation. Putting up new antennas and working different pieces of equipment provided by club members is very educational.”
The club operates for 24 hours, from 2pm on Saturday June 23 until 2pm on Sunday June 24 on a variety of different radio modes and on all available amateur radio frequency bands. Potentially thousands of other amateur radio stations will be contacted during this event where basic information is exchanged to verify contacts in both directions. These contacts are submitted to ARRL, along with other pertinent information and around mid-November 2018, the results will be presented by ARRL. In 2017, the Coal Country Amateur Radio Club scored 6th Place overall in the West Virginia section, a great accomplishment by a club that’s only been participating in Field Day for the previous 4 years.
If you’re interested, stop by the Club location at the Water Ways Soccer Field on June 23 or 24 2018. Club members are all too eager to tell you all about radio operations and their equipment. It’s a great time for amateur operators and it’s an awesome experience for young folks interested in science and math. The club will make every effort to allow public participation in radio operations, just let us know and we will GET YOU ON THE AIR!
73!
The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club
Madison, WV – www.wv8ccc.org
Posted in Field Day by admin
Mini Expedition 2017 #2
In an impromptu move, the Club laid plans at our October and November meetings to go on another trek. This adventure took us to Barger Springs West Virginia, where two of our members have camps. Another member, Tristan (KE8ENC) also has a camp near this location, but on the mountain.
We made plans to get together and head up on the weekend of November 25 2017, the weekend after Thanksgiving. We loaded up the trucks with ample supplies, including plenty of toys to play with.
Upon arrival, John (WV0CQ) setup his rig and summarily figured out that he liked the 857d in his truck vastly over the Icom in his cabin, so he switched those out.
Over the course of the weekend, we made some contacts, ate some food, watched several movies and generally had a good time. We did a little work as well. We built Roy (KD8VYO) a new di-pole HF antenna and strung it out on the tops of fence posts, tested it and made a few contacts with it over the weekend. After Tristan made the trip down, he took back with him a Kenwood 2m/70cm machine capable of cross-band repeating. Ken, (K8KDC) set it up to work on a pre-arranged pair of channels, one of which was the input to our Bolt machine. We tested it’s capabilities, which didn’t prove successful in the location Tristan had to place it at his camp. We’ll get back to this at another time.
Some pics!
Posted in Mini Expeditions by admin
HamFest 2017 Report
Sneak Peek of a new audio device by Heil
The Inaugural Coal Country Amateur Radio HamFest was held at the Madison Civic Center on 23 September 2017. We had approximately 70 people visit the ‘fest, with I believe 4 vendors. We’ve already secured the same location for HamFest 2018, 22 September 2018.
Many folks were able to see friends at the ‘fest that they haven’t been in contact with in awhile. Forums were conducted, radio discussions and a live presentation by Bob Heil was the highlight of the HamFest.
After winding down, we were able to have a VE Session where some passed their Tech license and a few upgraded to General or Extra. 
The local Danville Area Lions Club did the concessions and our visitors were able to obtain some of “Danny’s Famous BBQ”, and Lions Club Hotdogs, which are always a crowd favorite.
We’ve already taken commitments from vendors and we plan to grow each year until our ‘fest is one of the biggest HamFests the State of West Virginia.
Thank you to everyone that attended. We hope to see you again next year!
73!
WVOCQ – John
WV8CCC Club Secretary
Posted in HamFest by admin
HamFest 2017 Announcement
Inaugural
1st Annual
CCARC Hamfest
Where: Madison Civic Center 261 Washington Ave Madison, WV 25130 38.059376° -81.820621°
When: 23 September 2017, 7am – – Vendors Setup 22 September (7p)
Talk-In Freqs: 147.195 442.55
- Prepper Conference
- Door Prizes
- Discussion Forums
- Raffle
- Vendors
- Lectures
- VE Testing
- Refreshmens/Concessions
PURCHASE TICKETS! (Safe and Secure Online Ticket Sales)
$5.00 Entry Fee
$15.00 each table or $10.00 each for multiple tables – includes admission.
Large Indoor Facility
Contact: Ken Cregger, K8KDC kdcregger@gmail.com – 304-307-2216
Download the flyer to share with your friends!
Posted in HamFest by admin
Mini Expedition 2017
Spruce Knob West Virginia, Elevation 4,863 feet, the highest point in West Virginia and the highest peak in the Allegheny Mountains.
Date: 8-18-2017 though 8-20-2017
Callsign: w8v
The Coal Country Amateur Radio Club planned this outing well in advance. We had our campsite reserved many months before the trip. We coordinated with the National Radio Quiet Zone in Greenbank West Virginia to make sure we did not cause any interference and we made sure that operating from the platform on top of Spruce Knob was allowed by the National Park Service. We had several people wanting to go, but with K8VYD’s xyl about to bear their first child, two of our fold didn’t make it, grandpappy K8KDC was on “baby watch” duty. And we’re happy to report the new addition to Ham radio was born and all is well 🙂 There were others that had wanted to go, but it came down to three of our members and one father thereof.
We set out in the early evening on Friday, August 18 2017 for the 4 hour trek through the hills of West Virginia to get to our campsite. Myself (wv0cq) and Roy (kd8vyo) went the southern route across I-64. Tristan (ke8enc) and his father (not yet a ham) went the northern route up I-79. Roy and I were held up along the way, despite this, we were able to make it to the Spruce Knob Lake Campground before Tristan. Turned out, Tristan lost a wheel off of the utility trailer that was borrowed from kq8usa (Jim Nelson) for the trip. They tried to make repairs, or find a wheel, and the result of which was two 5 gallon bucket lids, duct-taped together. We eventually bore a hole through the center, aligned it with the axle, then secured it in place with what else? More duct-tape. Red Green would be proud!
Let me tell you, it’s absolutely amazing how much gear three ham operators can take in three different trucks! We had our choice of equipment. Several different rigs and several different antennas were used by our crew to make a bunch of contacts. We were able to have successful QSO’s from Germany to California, from northern Ontario down into Central America. We worked 10, 20, 17, 40 on vertical antennas and 40/80m ever-so-briefly on a dipole.
We had planned to operate on 40/80m well up into Saturday night, but the weather started looking rough. We had a big storm rolling in with air-to-ground lightning. Considering we were on top of the tallest point in the State of West Virginia, we decided to bug-out prior to the storm becoming an issue.
The following day, we decided to forego any more Knob operations. We took a drive down to the Spruce Knob Lake and then each of us went our separate ways.
We had a blast, I would do it again in the heart beat! Hopefully, we’ll be en route to some other exotic place in the hills of West Virginia within the next year or so! Stay tuned!
73!
WV0CQ
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Posted in Mini Expeditions by admin