NORTH  PENN

AMATEUR  RADIO  CLUB

HARLEYSVILLE, PENNA.

MEETINGS

The North Penn Amateur Radio Club met once a month in the second floor meeting room of Alumni Hall in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.

CLUB STATION

The club station was set up in a side room off the main meeting room.

CLUB FREQUENCY

The club frequency was 29.520 MHz where all the club members would gather, operating AM, and rag chew day and night. An especially busy time was commute time when everybody was going to and from work all over the Delaware Valley.

CLUB ACTIVITIES

1. HIDDEN TRANSMITTER HUNTS

Once a month the winner of the previous months transmitter hunt would take the club "hidden transmitter" and try to find the most devious place they could find to "hide". At starting time the "fox" would make a starting transmission so that all gathered at the starting point could take a "fix". The hunters would then go their seperate ways depending on the initial "fix" that they had taken. If the "hunters" needed an additional "fix" they could request the "fox" to make another transmission.... BUT the person making the request would get "points" taken off their score at the end of the evening. The hunts would be over at 10:00 PM and all the participants would gather at the "Wurtzbuerger" in Skippack and talk about the hunt and total the points to see who won. The winner would get to "hide" the transmitter next month.

2. FIELD DAY

The last weekend in June the club would drag all their equipment to the Hilltown Horse Show Grounds and set up "field day" stations to see how many other "field day" stations they could contact in a 24-hour period.

3. HOLLOWEEN "SPOOK" PATROL

The club members would take their mobile radio stations and help the Telford and Souderton Police Departments patrol for "mischief makers" on mischief night and Halloween night. They would report back to a base station, set up in the Police Station, so that a police cruiser could respond and stop the mischief.

WHATS HAPPENED TO THE ORIGINAL CLUB

Over the years the membership of the club shifted from the North Penn area to the Jeffersonville / Norristown area and the club meetings moved to the Womens Club building in Jeffersonville. Eventually the interest and attendees dropped to a point where the club became inactive.

After many years of inactivity a group of QRP operators in the Souderton / Telford area re-activated the club as a "QRP" club. They go out on field day and just like the "big" boys they see how many other field day stations they can contact using QRP or very low power.

The trustee of the club call, W3BTN, is Joe Burgess W3PNL. For more information on the "NEW" North Penn Amateur Radio Club you can contact W3PNL or Russ Mumaw K3NLT on the RF Hill repeater, 145.310 MHz, in Sellersville.