Why ham radio?
Amateur radio operators come from every walk of life: doctors, students, kids, truck drivers, retirees, your neighbor. What they share is a license from the FCC and a fascination with talking to the world without a phone company in between.
- Talk anywhere. From a mountaintop, your car, or your kitchen table, to the next town or the other side of the planet, and to the astronauts on the space station.
- Be useful. When storms take out the cell network, hams pass traffic for the Red Cross, county emergency management and the National Weather Service.
- Build and tinker. Antennas, digital modes, software-defined radio, satellites, moonbounce, Morse code, or just a good long conversation.
- Compete. Contests like Field Day and the Pennsylvania QSO Party reward operating skill, and we do them as a team from the clubhouse.
The entry-level Technician license takes a 35-question multiple-choice exam. Most people pass after a few weeks with free online study tools. General and Amateur Extra open up more of the HF bands.
Take the exam here
Steel City ARC runs a Volunteer Examiner session almost every month, the Thursday after the business meeting, at 7:00 PM in the clubhouse. All license classes are offered and walk-ins are accepted.
VE testing dates and what to bring
Free classes
When there is enough interest, the club runs a free two-day Technician review course, usually on consecutive Saturdays, that covers everything on the exam: radio and signal fundamentals, electricity and circuits, antennas and propagation, equipment, the rules, and safety. A VE session follows the second class so you can take the test the same day.
To ask about the next class or put your name on the list, email Jeff Bussard, N3EVN, at n3evn@arrl.net.
Scouts and youth groups
The club hosts sessions for scout troops and youth groups from around Western Pennsylvania, at our clubhouse or yours:
- Radio Merit Badge classes
- Technician license classes
- How-to-solder workshops
- On-the-air special events and Jamboree-on-the-Air
- Fox hunts, tracking a hidden transmitter
The only requirement is one adult for every ten youths. Contact our education chair, Jeffrey Bussard N3EVN, at n3evn@arrl.net.
College scholarship
Through the ARRL Foundation the club funds a $1,000 annual scholarship for a college student living in the ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section. Details and applications are handled by the ARRL Foundation.
Study on your own
- HamStudy.org: free flash cards and practice exams, and where you pre-register for our sessions.
- QRZ practice tests and eHam practice exams.
- ARRL: Getting licensed and find an exam session anywhere.
Then come up the hill
Once you pass, the best next step is a Wednesday night at the clubhouse. Somebody will hand you a microphone, show you the repeaters, and help you pick a first radio. Directions.