September / October 2026
Penn Wireless Association Club Newsletter · W3SK · Serving Lower Bucks County, Pennsylvania
From the President’s Desk
W3M is in the log. Over the last weekend of August, seven of our members put the Myers family’s story on the air 181 times, reaching stations across North America, Europe, and South America. Every one of those contacts ended with an operator somewhere looking up W3M on QRZ and reading about Daisy and William Myers, which is exactly the point. To everyone who took a slot: thank you. You did the club and Levittown’s history proud.
And now the honest part. Seven operators. Our Special Event Station series is the most visible thing this club does on the air, and it is being carried by the same handful of members each time. Talking with members, it’s clear the hesitation isn’t about willingness. It’s not being sure what the job actually involves, or whether your station is good enough for it. So in this issue we clear that up for good: the operator’s role is simple, your station is almost certainly fine, and you can do the whole thing from your own shack. No travel, no special gear, no experience required.
Your next chance is days away: N3S, our Star Trek Day special event, runs Monday through Wednesday, September 7–9, and open slots remain on all three days. Read the field guide below, then go grab one.
Club Elections: Cast Your Ballot
Elections for your Board of Directors are happening right now, and voting stays open through Sunday, September 20. Every member in good standing gets a vote, and casting it takes about a minute.
Log in to the members area at pennwireless.org and click “Vote” in the left member navigation. Your ballot is secret: the site records that you voted, but never which choices were yours.
This club runs on the people who step up to lead it. Take the minute, and make your voice count.
Beacon Award Winners
Congratulations to our two most recent Beacon Award winners. Thank you both for the light you shine on this club.
Welcome, New Members
Four new members have joined the Penn Wireless Association since the end of July. Welcome aboard! Introduce yourselves on the nets, come out to a General Meeting, and jump into a special event slot early. This club is at its best when new voices are on the air.
Hams in the Park: An Instant Tradition
On Saturday, August 1, the first-ever Hams in the Park filled the Hickory Nut Picnic Grove at Tyler State Park with radios and good company. Members and hams from around the region spent the afternoon together: portable stations on the air, wires in the trees, and plenty of eyeball QSOs with friends old and new. The good pizza and individually wrapped donuts were a hit, and our new club banners got their first day out in the sun.
Best of all, the radios did their own recruiting. More than one visitor wandered over to the grove because they heard us on the air from the park and decided to come find the source of the signal. You cannot ask for better advertising than that.
The verdict from everyone who came out was unanimous: this one is a keeper. Hams in the Park will return as an annual outing. If you missed the first one, you will have plenty of chances to be part of the tradition. Watch the club calendar for next summer’s date.
W3M Results: The Myers Family & Levittown Civil Rights
In August 1957, Daisy and William Myers and their three children became the first Black family to move into Levittown, at 43 Deepgreen Lane. The hostility they faced, and the dignity with which they met it, made national news and earned Daisy Myers the name “the Rosa Parks of the North.” It remains one of the early civil rights fights of the era and the most nationally significant event in Levittown’s history.
On Saturday, August 29, W3SK operated as W3M to make sure that story got told: 181 contacts with 170 unique stations on five bands, running CW, SSB, and FT8 from members’ home shacks. The pileups reached well beyond the U.S. and Canada, with W3M landing in logs across Europe and South America, from Luxembourg and Germany to Argentina and Brazil.
The operators who put W3M on the air, and how the QSOs broke down:
| Operator | QSOs | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| K3PJH | 102 | FT8 |
| KU3TEK | 32 | FT8 |
| N3FEL | 16 | CW |
| AA3RT | 13 | CW |
| N2US | 7 | CW |
| N3JAM | 6 | SSB |
| KC3INP | 5 | SSB |
FT8 carried the day with 134 contacts, CW added 36, and SSB 11, with 20 meters doing the heavy lifting and 40 meters taking over after dark. Every log has been merged into the master W3M log, and QSL confirmations are on their way out.
Special Events Need You
Here is the thing about those W3M numbers: they came from seven operators. Imagine what fifteen could do. These events are how W3SK shows up on the national stage. Every activation puts our club, and a piece of Lower Bucks County history, in front of thousands of operators. And they are genuinely the easiest way there is to try something new in this hobby.
No travel, no field setup. Your own shack, your own chair, your own coffee. If you can call CQ, you can run a special event station.
Pick any open 2-hour block between 9 AM and 9 PM Eastern, on SSB, CW, or digital. Take one slot or several. It’s your call.
The slot grid lives in the Members Area under Special Events. See what’s open, click, done.
One rule: sign up for your slot. No freelancing.
If you plan to put the event callsign on the air (even casually, even for twenty minutes), claim that slot on the website first. There is a very specific reason we allow only one sign-up per 2-hour slot per mode: it guarantees two members are never running the same mode at the same time. Two stations both signing the event call on SSB at once means split pileups, confused callers, and a mess in the log.
The slot grid is the frequency plan. If your name is on the slot, the air is yours. If it isn’t, grab it. There are plenty open.
N3S: Star Trek Day
This Monday through Wednesday, September 7–9, W3SK activates N3S for Star Trek Day, commemorating the first broadcast of Star Trek on September 8, 1966, fittingly in the franchise’s 60th-anniversary year.
Much like amateur radio, Star Trek is built around the idea of reaching beyond our own world, connecting with others, and exploring new frontiers. Trek-themed special events draw big, enthusiastic pileups. Expect callers who are fans first and hams second, delighted to find the anniversary on the air.
Open slots remain on all three days across SSB, CW, and digital. If you have been waiting for a low-stakes first special event, a weekday evening hour on N3S is it. The section below walks you through the whole job, start to finish.
Field Guide: Operating N3S From Home
The operator’s role is simple, and your station is almost certainly fine. Here is the entire job.
What you do
- 1Set up with as much power and the best antenna you reasonably can. A home station is fine.
- 2Spot yourself on the DX Cluster as SES N3S.
- 3Get on an authorized frequency and call CQ for N3S.
- 4Thank the caller and point them to QRZ for QSL info.
- 5Keep it short, complete the contact, and go back to calling CQ.
- 6On SSB, every few minutes drop in a brief Star Trek Day fact as a lure for more callers.
- 7Repeat.
Keep the exchange minimal
The on-air exchange stays minimal: 59 or 599 and PA, nothing more. If a caller asks for an honest signal report, give them one as a courtesy. Otherwise, keep it moving. A short, clean contact is the whole product.
Sample SSB exchange
Every few minutes, work in one of these:
Sample CW exchange
Every so often:
Logging: please don’t skip this
Log your contacts and email your log as an ADI file to vp@pennwireless.org when your slot is done. Any logging program will export ADI: N3FJP, Log4OM, N1MM, HAMRS on a tablet, whatever you already use. We combine everyone’s logs into the master N3S log for QSL confirmation, so a missing log means callers who never get their card.
That’s the whole thing. If you can call CQ, say thank you, and hit save in your logger, you can run this station, from your own shack. If you’ve been on the fence, grab a slot. Questions about any of it, reach out to Paul K3PJH or Chris K0CJH.
Looking Ahead: W3B & W3S
Two more chapters of Lower Bucks County history take the air before the year is out, and both need operators. Same format, same 2-hour home-shack slots, same sign-up grid.
Historic Bolton Mansion: the Phineas Pemberton House, built beginning in 1687 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The U.S. Steel Fairless Works and Levittown “Opening Day”: the industrial engine behind Levittown’s growth, which began producing steel in December 1952.
Slots for both are open now in the Members Area. Sign up early, and the frequency plan takes care of itself.
See you on the air, 73!