Clubhouse Storm Damage
We Will Rebuild!!!
Rebuilding Club Station W2MMD
The Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, W2MMD, on September 1, 2021, suffered extensive damage to two of its towers and multiple antennas, during a EF3 tornado spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Many nearby homes and several farms were severely damaged or destroyed. The W2MMD Club Station Building, a 14 x 70 mobile home, miraculously was undamaged despite being directly in the path of the twister, and the radio equipment remained safe and dry, but is unusable now without the towers and antennas.
The GCARC was founded in 1959, and has been an ARRL affiliated club since its founding. The Club is one of the most active general interest ham clubs in the region, and has about 150 members. We are heavily involved in education and community service, and operate 3 repeaters and a very popular SATNOGS station. Our HF station is, or was, completely remote controllable including antenna rotation and legal limit power. The station in its current form was the dream project of many Club members past and present, and has taken some 40 years to build, as time and funds permitted.
In order to rebuild the antenna systems promptly and get the station back on the air as quickly as possible, we will need more funds than we have available at this time. We are therefore appealing to our fellow hams, friends, family, and community to help us in any way that you can. Your donation, no matter how small, will get us back on the air, serving our community and helping friends around the world with vital HF and VHF communications.
Thanks and "73" from W2MMD!
Tony Starr K3TS, President GCARC
The GCARC was founded in 1959, and has been an ARRL affiliated club since its founding. The Club is one of the most active general interest ham clubs in the region, and has about 150 members. We are heavily involved in education and community service, and operate 3 repeaters and a very popular SATNOGS station. Our HF station is, or was, completely remote controllable including antenna rotation and legal limit power. The station in its current form was the dream project of many Club members past and present, and has taken some 40 years to build, as time and funds permitted.
In order to rebuild the antenna systems promptly and get the station back on the air as quickly as possible, we will need more funds than we have available at this time. We are therefore appealing to our fellow hams, friends, family, and community to help us in any way that you can. Your donation, no matter how small, will get us back on the air, serving our community and helping friends around the world with vital HF and VHF communications.
Thanks and "73" from W2MMD!
Tony Starr K3TS, President GCARC
W2MMD Clubhouse Status Report - September 20, 2021
By Al Arrison, KB2AYU - Club Site Chairman
As most of you know, we were informed of major damage to our Club Site during our September 1 Zoom meeting. We lost both the VHF tower and the HF tower along with all the high performance antennas on them. This represents thousands of dollars of equipment and hundreds of hours of labor. In my case, dozens of hours of tower climbing. As bad as it was (is), we were lucky not to lose the Clubhouse building itself and the two smaller towers next to it. Some of the VHF/UHF antennas may be salvageable with some effort but the HF antennas, probably not.
I am pleasantly surprised by the response to our fund raising efforts to rebuild the station. Thank you to the many Club members who have so generously donated. I take that as a vote of confidence that you believe having a high performance station is a useful incentive for the Club as well as a source of pride. We have also gotten donations from hams all around the country and the world!
We are in the early stages of planning the rebuild and hope to build back even better than before. Like all good hams, we will try to keeps costs to a minimum and get the best value for the dollar. As this is a Club, all expenditures will be presented to the membership for approval. We already have some leads on towers appropriate to our needs.
To temporarily get the station back on the air on HF, I have volunteered my tower trailer and a medium sized tri-bander which, along with a dipole or two, we give us 10,15,20,40 and 80 meter capability. I hope to get this done in the next couple of weeks.
By Al Arrison, KB2AYU - Club Site Chairman
As most of you know, we were informed of major damage to our Club Site during our September 1 Zoom meeting. We lost both the VHF tower and the HF tower along with all the high performance antennas on them. This represents thousands of dollars of equipment and hundreds of hours of labor. In my case, dozens of hours of tower climbing. As bad as it was (is), we were lucky not to lose the Clubhouse building itself and the two smaller towers next to it. Some of the VHF/UHF antennas may be salvageable with some effort but the HF antennas, probably not.
I am pleasantly surprised by the response to our fund raising efforts to rebuild the station. Thank you to the many Club members who have so generously donated. I take that as a vote of confidence that you believe having a high performance station is a useful incentive for the Club as well as a source of pride. We have also gotten donations from hams all around the country and the world!
We are in the early stages of planning the rebuild and hope to build back even better than before. Like all good hams, we will try to keeps costs to a minimum and get the best value for the dollar. As this is a Club, all expenditures will be presented to the membership for approval. We already have some leads on towers appropriate to our needs.
To temporarily get the station back on the air on HF, I have volunteered my tower trailer and a medium sized tri-bander which, along with a dipole or two, we give us 10,15,20,40 and 80 meter capability. I hope to get this done in the next couple of weeks.
Storm Damage to GCARC Antenna Towers
By Chris Prioli, AD2CS
As almost everyone in the area knows by now, a force EF3 tornado struck the Gloucester County area during the early evening of September 1st. Millions, if not billions, of dollars of damage was incurred as a result of this tornado and the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, only minor injuries and no deaths were reported in our area. Hardest hit in New Jersey was the Mullica Hill portion of Gloucester County, including extensive damage to the Eachus family’s Wellacrest Farms, a dairy farm, and the Grasso family’s Grasso Farms, a vegetable growing and packing operation. Also hit was the W2MMD Clubhouse complex of the Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, located at the Gloucester County 4-H Fairgrounds on Bridgeton Pike in Mullica Hill.
While the Clubhouse itself and its outbuildings were left largely intact, our antenna farm took some major damage, effectively destroying the antenna towers and damaging the antennas that were mounted there, some beyond repair. In the words of Club President Tony Starr, K3TS, via e-mail to the general Club membership : “The antennas and towers of course are probably not easily salvaged, but who knows what we might be able to do.”
We were able to restore our EchoLink® capability by remounting the affected antenna, but our 2-meter WINLINK Global Radio Email® capability is still compromised. Our HF phone and CW capability is non-existent as of this writing.
Our 90' tower with our VHF/UHF antennas and the 54' tower with our HF antennas are both broken off at a height of approximately twenty-five feet above their bases.
Club treasurer Alan Arrison, KB2AYU said : “Not only were thousands of dollars of hardware lost, but hundreds of hours of work as well. Even with this loss, we can count our blessings because buildings that were just a thousand feet to the west were shredded.”
Some skirting was blown off the Clubhouse, as well as some minor roof damage. Some more extensive roof damage occurred to the shed located near the Clubhouse building. Temporary roof repairs were made by a work party that included Frank Romeo, N3PUU and Tony Starr, K3TS as well as several other members.
By Chris Prioli, AD2CS
As almost everyone in the area knows by now, a force EF3 tornado struck the Gloucester County area during the early evening of September 1st. Millions, if not billions, of dollars of damage was incurred as a result of this tornado and the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, only minor injuries and no deaths were reported in our area. Hardest hit in New Jersey was the Mullica Hill portion of Gloucester County, including extensive damage to the Eachus family’s Wellacrest Farms, a dairy farm, and the Grasso family’s Grasso Farms, a vegetable growing and packing operation. Also hit was the W2MMD Clubhouse complex of the Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club, located at the Gloucester County 4-H Fairgrounds on Bridgeton Pike in Mullica Hill.
While the Clubhouse itself and its outbuildings were left largely intact, our antenna farm took some major damage, effectively destroying the antenna towers and damaging the antennas that were mounted there, some beyond repair. In the words of Club President Tony Starr, K3TS, via e-mail to the general Club membership : “The antennas and towers of course are probably not easily salvaged, but who knows what we might be able to do.”
We were able to restore our EchoLink® capability by remounting the affected antenna, but our 2-meter WINLINK Global Radio Email® capability is still compromised. Our HF phone and CW capability is non-existent as of this writing.
Our 90' tower with our VHF/UHF antennas and the 54' tower with our HF antennas are both broken off at a height of approximately twenty-five feet above their bases.
Club treasurer Alan Arrison, KB2AYU said : “Not only were thousands of dollars of hardware lost, but hundreds of hours of work as well. Even with this loss, we can count our blessings because buildings that were just a thousand feet to the west were shredded.”
Some skirting was blown off the Clubhouse, as well as some minor roof damage. Some more extensive roof damage occurred to the shed located near the Clubhouse building. Temporary roof repairs were made by a work party that included Frank Romeo, N3PUU and Tony Starr, K3TS as well as several other members.