W3Z Special Event Station

I received an email from my friend, Walt KB3SBC, last week. His group needed a CW operator for a special event station they were going to run at a local college. I volunteered to come out to work a few hours of CW for them and had a fun morning.

The event was the 150th anniversary of the founding of Ursinus College. Ursinus is a liberal arts college located in nearby Collegeville, PA.

Walt’s group, the Education Alliance for Amateur Radio (EAAR) is a non-profit corporation established in 2016 that promotes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education through youth and community education and collaboration with other Amateur Radio organizations. The group obtained the callsign, W3Z, for the event at Ursinus College.

I arrived at Ursinus yesterday morning, as the group was unloading and setting up two outdoor stations near the festivities. The antennas included a fan dipole for 40M & 20M and Walt’s 32-foot military vertical.

I had the honor of leading off the event, operating CW. We were in the midst of a G2 geomagnetic storm, so it was rough going at times. After a couple of hours, we managed to put more than a dozen stations in the log, including Germany and two Belgian stations. (This was the first time I operated at 100 watts in more than 20 years!) Walt then took over and started making contacts with FT8, while the other station operated SSB.

I wasn’t able to stay for the whole event, so I don’t know what the final tally was. However, if you worked W3Z yesterday, see QRZ.com for QSL information.

I’d like to thank EAAR for the opportunity to be a part of the event. Be sure to visit the EEAR website and follow them on Facebook to find out more about their important work promoting STEM education.

73, Craig WB3GCK