On Tuesday, April 29, 2025 a line of severe thunderstorms raged across Pennsylvania causing significant damage. In anticipation of the excess communications traffic that would be needed NWS CTP asked amateur radio operators to staff the amateur station in the State College Office. Carmine Prestia, K3CWP, and Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ, operated from 1600 to 2000. Although very quiet at first around 1828 things changed. Continue reading
Public Service Events For 2025
There are a number of Public Service Events coming up in 2025. We’ll need volunteers for all of these. Each listing has a link for who to contact for more information or volunteering. Please consider donating your time on one or move of these events, they represent real service and real PR for Amateur Radio. Continue reading
Successful WPA/ARC Spring Simulated Emergency Test
Numerous amateur stations participated in the WPA Spring SET on Saturday, April 5th from 10:00 to 12:00. A number of stations activated or simulated activating emergency locations or shelters. Here’s a brief summary of some of the activity taken from Greg, K3HOT’s report from WX3CTP/NWS State College, and Brett, W3SWL’s log of the KC3WQG American Red Cross station. Continue reading
Plans for the 2025 WPA Simulated Emergency Test released
The ARRL WPA section along with Eastern Pennsylvania and the American Red Cross have released the plans for the 2025 Simulated Emergency Test (SET). Amateur Radio Operators (AROs) whether affiliate with ARRL or not are invited to participate on Saturday April 5, 2025 between 10:00 and 14:00.
Full instructions can be found in the following documents. More instructions will be announced by K3CWP, Carmine, Centre County EC in the near future.
Participant Instructions:
ARC FROST (Field Remote Operations Support Team) Report:
Here is a list of shelters for those AROs who would like to simulate deploying:
Nittany Amateur Radio Club Announces One Day Technician License Class
The Nittany Amateur Radio Club (NARC) of State College is sponsoring a technician license prep class. Class will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at a location to be determined.
NOAA/NWS possibly up for layoffs
In the administration’s race to cut government NOAA/NWS could be on the chopping block. See:
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/27/layoffs-hit-noaa-national-weather-service
I understand that a federal judge may have blocked the actions. However, this is a matter of public safety that can affect every United States Citizen and visitors to our country.
Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act Reintroduced
U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., and Representatives August Pfluger, R-Tex., and Joe Courtney, D-Conn. announced their joint re-introduction of legislation in the Senate and House to restore the right to Amateur Radio operators to install the antennas necessary to serve their communities.
Homeowner association rules often prevent Amateur Radio operators from installing antennas at their homes even though Amateur Radio has proven to be essential in emergencies and natural disasters such as hurricanes when other means of communication fail. Continue reading
Winter Field Day Escapades 2025
After a couple year hiatus I decided to return to our RV in Huntingdon County, PA to participate in Winter Field Day this year. My plan was to set up a battery powered station with a couple of my portable antennas. Looking at the rules I operated as ‘1M WPA’ since the RV is on wheels and can be moved if need be. The effort was successful even if I did not work a lot of stations or qualify for any awards. Continue reading
Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Article
Here’s a very complimentary article on Amateur Radio and Emergency Communications from The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction Colorado.
Unscheduled Communications Drill 18 Jan 2025
Our WPA Section Manager, Joe, W3BC, this morning requested that all ARES Emergency Coordinators conduct a drill immediately after the WPA ARES HF net. ECs were to use ‘local net frequencies’ to take check ins from the end of the net to 10:00 Local. Continue reading