"Please, don't drool on the radio!"
Welcome to the Vermont
Technical College Amateur Radio Club's home page. Our club's
call sign is W1VTC, formerly WA1LYR, and our shack is located
under the bleachers in the Judd Gymnasium at VTC. Our club
advisor and trustee is Don Nevin, KK1U.
News Flash! We tuned up the repeater, and it
seems to be doing much better. The last couple days, though, its
been kerchunking itself every few seconds. We're right on top of
it, and hope to have the problem resolved forthright.
Some of the activities the VTC Ham club participates in:
- Morse Code Class every Tuesday night at 7:00pm, in the
Green 111 electronics lab. If you are interested in
attending, please email n1ywb@amsat.org.
We have been doing quite well, thanks to help from Bob,
W1ZCJ. We even have some pictures
of our practice session!
- We are currently assisting the VTC Solar Car
Club by donating time and equipment to the Moorocco,
our converted VW Scirocco. The car is entered in the Tour
de Sol, and will race from Waterbury, CT to Lake
George, NY. We are implementing a telemetry
transmision system, which will send a constant stream of
vital Moorocco statistics to the chase car. We will be in
these areas May 21 through 29, assuming things go well.
If you need to contact us about interference issues,
please email or call or snail mail or leave a message for
on Packet (W1VTC-5 for now) for an officer. We will
operate a QRP transmiter in the 440mhz band, on a packet
frequency yet to be determined, and any input would be
appreciated.
- We just set up a packet station! It isn't quite permanent
yet, and may be on and off the air. But try us and see
how you do, we have excellent coverage to a large part of
Vermont from our area. Most of the time we will be on
145.75mhz. Connect to W1VTC for a keyboard to keyboard,
or to W1VTC-5 to leave us a message.
- In the late summer we host a local hamfest! Located in
the Judd Gym, it always brings a wide array of local
hams. Date this year has not yet been announced, but stay
on frequency hihi.
- On campus "Fox Hunts"- A transmitter is hidden
somewhere on campus, members must locate it using
direction finding techniques and signal strength
observation.
- Off campus "Fox Hunts"- The club has been a
guest of RANV
(Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont) for the past
year in their Chittenden County wide fox hunts.
- Trips to hamfests- A hamfest is a great way to get
equipment cheap and increase your interest in any
electronics related hobby. Like a swap meet, people will
sell most anything at unheard of prices! Also a great way
to turn your own junk into cash! In addition, there are
usually informational forums, as well as exam sessions.
- The Milton
Winter Hamfest is hosted by RANV every
February at the Milton High School. Come tune for maximum
smoke at the "the best little hamfest in the
world!" Always plenty of goodies around, and great
forums. This years fest will be on Feb 26, 2000 (Assuming
we're still here hihi!)
- The biggest hamfest in New England takes place in October
at the fairgrounds in Rochester, New Hampshire. It is
almost 2 miles wide, and lasts for 2 days. Two years ago,
the VTC Ham club took a VTC bus to it, spent the night,
and has pictures to prove it! This
year it rained too much to use the cameras. We used life
rafts to paddle from the tents to the cars.
The mission of the W1VTC Amateur Radio club is to provide it's
members with a good experience and knowledge gain in Amateur
Radio through trading of knowledge and techniques, activities,
and licensing new members.
The club operates a 2 meter repeater on campus. The frequency
is 147.090 MHZ with a positive offset. Key it up and give us a
shout! We offer free access to autopatch for local calls on the
repeater. E-mail hams-l@.vtc.vsc.edu
to find out how to access the autopatch. It had been off the air
for quite some time, but it seems to be quite healthy again! It
has coverage to Bethel in the south east, and Montpelier to the
north. It's rumored to have been keyed from Essex Junction.
In the club shack we have an Icom IC-746
for use on the HF, 6m, and 2m bands. Using this one radio we can
talk to people around the world, around the state, or just around
town. We also have an old TenTec
rig, which needs some work, and we have a packet station in the
works. There is a tower located on the side of the Judd Gymnasium
supporting a Cushcraft A3S triband HF yagi antenna and a 19
element 2m/70cm dual-band yagi antenna.
If you have any questions about ham radio we just might have
the answers.
Do you need to look up a callsign? We
have everything you need!
W1VTC likes to show off its favorite Links.
Club
members and officers.
This page © Copyright 1999 By The W1VTC
Amateur Radio Club.
Our other rig is a TenTec with real tubes! We also have
Gel-Cells. We should be Y2K Complient ;)
Last updated March 24, 1999
Remarks? Email n1ywb@amsat.org