Amateur Radio Club of Alameda

ARCA is an amateur radio club located in Alameda, California affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and serving the East Bay. Amateur Radio encompasses a wide variety of activities from emergency communications to radio contests and outdoor events, and ARCA is engaged in a wide variety of them.

ARCA is very active in emergency communications in association with Alameda CERT teams, the Red Cross and the Alameda Fire Department. The club holds a weekly communications net each Thursday evening to develop and practice skills in emergency communications, an important aspect of disaster preparedness.

Periodically ARCA members participate in radio contests that are both fun and useful in practical ways. ARCA participates in the annual ARRL Field day in addition to other contests. This fun social activity provides the opportunity to quickly set up antennas and portable stations and try new ideas. ARCA typically operates field day as QRP stations running entirely on battery or solar power.

Ham radio operators have a justly earned reputation for helping new comers and old timers alike. A unique aspect of the club are shop nights which are held on the first Monday of each month. These generally informal meetings provide opportunities to build projects, set up systems and share ideas.

Amateur radio is regulated in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC has provided three levels of license that offer different privilege levels. ARCA participates in collaboration with other radio clubs and associations in the East Bay in providing free training classes to assist students in getting their first license, or upgrading to more advanced levels.

The club is dedicated to providing assistance with learning from entry level (Technician) to the Extra class FCC licenses.

ARCA is club providing technical, practical and social events to any and all who are interested in the fascinating hobby of amateur radio. Please drop by and check us out.

About Us

Meet The 2024 Officers

President: Ron Fitch WQ6X

Acting Treasurer/Secretary: Tom Charron, WB6RUC

ARCA is an amateur radio club located in Alameda, California affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and serving the East Bay. Amateur Radio encompasses a wide variety of activities from emergency communications to radio contests and outdoor events, and ARCA is engaged in a wide variety of them.

ARCA is very active in emergency communications in association with Alameda CERT teams, the Red Cross and the Alameda Fire Department. The club holds a weekly communications net each Thursday evening to develop and practice skills in emergency communications, an important aspect of disaster preparedness.

Periodically ARCA members participate in radio contests that are both fun and useful in practical ways. ARCA participates in the annual ARRL Field day in addition to other contests. This fun social activity provides the opportunity to quickly set up antennas and portable stations and try new ideas. ARCA typically operates field day as QRP stations running entirely on battery or solar power.

Ham radio operators have a justly earned reputation for helping new comers and old timers alike. A unique aspect of the club are shop nights which are held on the first Monday of each month. These generally informal meetings provide opportunities to build projects, set up systems and share ideas.

Amateur radio is regulated in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC has provided three levels of license that offer different privilege levels. ARCA participates in collaboration with other radio clubs and associations in the East Bay in providing free training classes to assist students in getting their first license, or upgrading to more advanced levels.

The club is dedicated to providing assistance with learning from entry level (Technician) to the Extra class FCC licenses.

ARCA is club providing technical, practical and social events to any and all who are interested in the fascinating hobby of amateur radio. Please drop by and check us out.

Station Operations & More

Station Operations Info

ARCA has the call sign of K6QLF. A station is operational. Net control meets weekly on Thursdays at 19:00 hours, on 444.575 MHz, with a PL of 88.5 on the K6QLF repeater. For the first and third Thursday of the month, the second half of the net will go to the ROMEO 2 repeater on 147.825 MHz with a negative offset and a PL of 88.5 HZ. For the second and fourth Thursday of the month, the second half of the net will go to ALPHA Channel 146.505 MHz for the Simplex portion of the net. If that frequency is in use or the channel is poor, we will use Bravo Channel at 146.535 MHz.

Shop Night

Shop nights currently held during the monthly meeting on a periodic basis.

ARCA Monthly Meeting Location

All meetings are held on the 4th Saturday of each month at 10am at the Oakland Yacht Club - Regatta Room, 1101 Pacific Marina, Alameda, CA 94501.

Repeater Information

The ARCA repeater was built, installed and maintained by the club members in 2008. It may be used by anyone with an amateur radio license. This is an open repeater and available for amateur use. The repeater is part of the Alameda ARES organization and as such would request priority communication during an activation. The repeater is in the city of Alameda about 120 feet above ground and was built for use mainly in the city area. We have a Emergency Net operational test weekly, on Thursday evening at 1900 hours. Everyone is invited to participate. It is on 444.575 receive and 449.575 transmit frequency. The pl. is 88.5 Hz. It transmits at a power of 7 watts, and covers our intended area without any problem The repeater call is K6QLF. Additional contact information can be found on our web site.

ACCESS THE NET CONTROL SCRIPT HERE

History of ARCA

The History of the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda by Allen Sweet

The idea of a radio club in Alameda began in 1996, when Al and Fran Sweet moved to Alameda, and joined the Disaster Task Force at the Alameda Chapter of the America Red Cross. This working group within the Red Cross was charged with the task of making plans for how the city of Alameda could handle a severe earth quake which cut the island city off from the rest of the bay area. Everyone quickly realized there was great need for emergency communications within the city of Alameda which did not depend on commercial land lines of cellular communications which were likely to be disabled by the quake. Since Al was a long time radio amateur, he suggested that amateur radio could fill this need. Of course the first problem that had to be faced was to train a crew of operators to pass the exam to obtain FCC licenses. To this end, Al organized a class to prepare attendees to take the FCC exam for technician level amateur licenses. Two of the first group of students received there technician licenses. Fran Sweet was one of the first to pass the exam. The license preparation course was given several more times over the next three year, by Al and Fran, with the more than 15 new hams receiving their tickets. Many young people were among the new hams.

In 2000, a number of new ham friends joined Al and Fran for a field day exercise in Lincoln Park. Out of this field day experience came the desire to form a club for Alameda's hams that could support activities such as field day, while at the same time train operators who would be available in case of disaster. In 2001, the East Bay Section of the ARRL asked Al to serve as the emergency coordinator (EC) for the city of Alameda. Al accepted this role, feeling that his major contribution would be organizing the radio club. He and Fran searched for a meeting location for 6 months, finally Captain Rick Zombeck of the city's disaster preparation office offered a meeting room at 522 West Midway for this purpose. Regular monthly meetings began in February 2002. By June, the new radio club was able to organize a field day which was held in the field adjacent to 522 West Midway. This field day was highly successful and kept close to the spirit of field day by operating exclusively QRP using battery power. The 2003 field day was much bigger in terms of the number of transmitters, but remained QRP and battery powered. The radio club was also invited in 2002 and 2003, by the city of Alameda, to participate in a drill for testing the city's ability to respond to disaster.

By 2004, the club was in the process of organizing itself in order to apply for ARRL affiliation. Bill Lawson, Sandy Lavine, and Joe Kohler were very helpful in driving this process forward. As a direct result of this process, the club's constitution and bylaws were created, dues collected, and officers elected. Al, KG6HM was elected president, Sandy, KO6JF was elected vice president, and Joe, KL7IDY was elected secretary/treasurer.

In 2005 the club has successfully obtained ARRL affiliation, has obtained the club call sign K6QLF, has participated in the ARRL Worldwide DX Contest in March, and is preparing for participation in its fourth Field Day contest in June.