K3WOC

We're pleased to announce that the Worcester Radio Group is now an official amateur radio club. Our club callsign is K3WRG.

You can access the club website at k3wrg.com and join the group.

I'll occasionally keep this website updated as a personal blog for ham radio and technology related topics, and to maintain this local list of repeaters.

Thank you all and feel free to contact me anytime mark@k3woc.com.

Worcester County Field Day 2020

Great times were had at Field Day 2020 in Worcester County. For all who showed up, it was our very first field day and overall we were successful in setting up our communication operations!

We learned a lot and are looking forward to streamlining our process and making things more enjoyable for all skill levels of operators.

We have posted a gallery of pictures for your enjoyment here: Worcester County Field Day 2020.

K3ORB Repeater News - Ocean City UHF 443.450

The callsign identifiers have finally been updated! It was no easy task learning how to program an S-COM 7330 but now we know how. There were several identifiers that needed updating as well as a macro that was being repeated. Once we learned the trick with character delays over the Ethernet-To-Serial connection we have in place, and learning the format of the commands, we were in good shape. We might be assisting WB3GXW in Silver Spring, MD with assistance as well since they have the same controller over there. More information to come.

Club News

We will be filing for our FRN number with the FCC this week and sending in our club application with the ARRL. The last things needed to come to a consensus on is the name of the club and the vanity callsign.

We're also pleased to announce the creation of our new group page on Groups.io! Amateurs can join simply by visiting: https://groups.io/g/worcesterradio

Groups.io is a fantastic message board and mailing list service. You can communicate either by using the website's message board feature, or you can simply reply to email messages sent to and from worcesterradio@groups.io

Thank you all and have a wonderful 4th of July holiday.

We're excited to announce that hams from around Delmarva will be setting up for the ARRL Field Day 2020 on Saturday, June 27th.

Location: Worcester County Fire Training Center
6743 Central Site Ln, Newark, MD 21841

Time: 12:00 PM Noon

What are we doing?:

• Demonstrating how to use a variety of radios such as HF rigs, VHF/UHF All Modes, Receivers, and SDR devices.
• Deploying antennas of various shapes, sizes, and purposes.
• Allowing guests to make transmissions and test out equipment.
• Using logging software for keeping track of contacts.
• Hanging out and having a good time!

What to bring? (Optional):

• Any radio equipment you'd like to test or find useful to the group such as radios, antennas, cables, connectors, and tools.
• Food and beverages.
• Sun protection.
• Masks and sanitizing products.

Contact Information: If you would like more information or are interested in volunteering, please feel free to contact Rob Gray kc3ajv@gmail.com or Mark Shaw mark@k3woc.com. See you there!

On our Wednesday net, K3ORB announced that Ocean Pines will be performing maintenance on the Water Tower, during which the K3ORB DMR repeater on 444.0125 and the N3RCC 2m repeater on 145.190 will be unavailable. We expect downtime for at least a month. Check back here as updated news becomes available.

In other news, EchoLink has been restored to the K3ORB UHF repeater in Ocean City on 443.450 just in time for summer! If you're visiting the beach, tune in on this frequency and give us a shout.

Lastly, Ham Radio Swap Meets have been planned for June 6, 2020 and September 12, 2020 Contact Jim Jester KC3IRT and Arthur Parks N3EAK for additional information.

The first Worcester County Amateur Radio net last week was a success! There was a nice modest number of hams that checked in and we discussed a variety of topics including the idea of starting a club in Worcester County, possible names, and areas of interest.

Join us again this Wednesday 05-20-2020 @ 9:00 PM EST on the K3ORB UHF Repeater in Ocean City on 443.450 MHz. The transmit frequency is 448.450 and the PL tone is 151.4 MHz.

Topics on the agenda

• Club Name Ideas - Worcester Amateur Radio Association, Worcester Wireless Society, Worcester Amateur Radio Tribe.
• HF - Tell us your experiences with HF, equipment you enjoy using, and some memorable contacts.
• Your Next Project - What's the next project on your list? Radio related or not.

We look forward to hearing you on the air!

A small group of hams are organizing a net this Wednesday 05-13-2020 @ 9:00 PM EST on the K3ORB UHF Repeater in Ocean City on 443.450 MHz. The transmit frequency is 448.450 and the PL tone is 151.4 MHz.

The net is open to all amateurs and we'd certainly love to have your company. We hope to use it as an opportunity to discuss ideas on getting a club going for Worcester County and the surrounding areas. Repeaters and times may be subject to change depending on availability.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing you on the air!

It has been a busy weekend on K3WOC.com! Check out the Repeaters section for a huge update to the list of DMR repeaters here on Delmarva and beyond. A huge thanks to all the hams that maintain and sponsor the DMR repeaters here on the shore and the folks that put together the information so we could put it on this website. We've heard that the Shore has complete DMR coverage and some users have boasted that you can travel just about anywhere on the Peninsula with only 1 watt and a stubby antenna. We'd love to test this theory! Join us on the 8802 talkgroup and let us know which repeater you're using and the power level.

The Clubs section has also been updated as well with 3 clubs from the area and information on weekly nets.

We're also very happy to report amazing VHF conditions for 2m SSB users on Saturday, April 25th from the North East and the Mid-Altantic regions of the country. For those that tuned in to the Chesapeake 2m Activity Enhancement Net on Saturdays at 9:00 PM were in for quite a treat hearing folks as far North as Connecticut in the FN21 grid. Even yours truly K3WOC was able to make a confirmed contact to WZ1V using just 10 watts and a Yagi in the attic all way from Ocean City, MD to Clinton, CT!

We hope everyone is doing well during the COVID-19 lockdown. At least it has been a fun time for radio. We wish you and your families all the best.

Great news for hams on Delmarva. Local clubs are beginning to conduct their monthly meetings over the air instead of in-person due to the state mandates on large group gatherings in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although events like the Radio Electronics Expo have been cancelled, you can still expect to hear the Sussex Amateur Radio Association WS3ARA club meetings to be held on the 3rd Thursday of every month at approximately 8:00 PM EST on the WS3ARA repeater on 147.090+ PL 156.7 in Millsboro.

In other news, the fine folks running the plethora of DMR repeaters on the shore have provided me with a detailed spreadsheet of all the linked repeaters in our area. Expect them to be updated on the Repeaters section of this website very soon.

Stay safe and stay sharp.

For those that haven't heard the news, the local hamfest which is normally held in Georgetown, DE by the Sussex Amateur Radio Club has been cancelled. With the state mandates regarding COVID-19 that is requiring bars, restaurants, and events to all be closed down and limiting groups to no more than 10 people, there is unfortunately no choice but to cancel Delmarva's Radio Electronics Expo. Club meetings for WS3ARA and DARC are temporarily suspended until further notice.

We're off to a good start! The Repeaters section has quite a few new analog VHF/UHF repeaters that have been added to it. Although this list is certainly not meant to be completely definitive for Delmarva, it is still some of the most widely used repeaters in the lower shore that all new hams in the Worcester County area and beyond, should have programmed in their radios.

The DMR repeaters will be my next task to document. There are so many all over the peninsula. It will be a great resource to centrally list them all here, but to also have ready-to-go codeplugs available for popular radios. Stay tuned for further updates on this feed.

Lastly, we're beginning to list Events as well along with the basic pertinent details like date, time, location, and where to find more info. As we hear about more events, we'll certainly list them.

More to come and thanks for stopping by! mark@k3woc.com

The objective of this website is to share information about amateur radio in Worcester County, the Delmarva Peninsula, and beyond. This website's basic design is intended to make it easily accessible for all types of users, from any device, with fast load times.

This is the perfect place to start if you're a new ham here on the shore, interested in radios, emergency communication, electronics, computers, and how it all benefits you as an individual as well as your community.

This news feed was built using very simple custom XML which can be accessed here: https://www.k3woc.com/news.xml

If you have news you'd like to share, please feel free to contact mark@k3woc.com.