Amateur Radio at UC Santa Cruz

Sign posted at the base of campus during fire season at UC Santa Cruz.

The UC Santa Cruz Amateur Radio Club (UCSC ARC) is a student club sponsored by the School of Engineering to promote amateur (ham) radio among  students and the larger campus community. The School of Engineering and the UCSC ARC operate a repeater located on the Engineering 2 building at 145.310(-) PL 94.8. Full membership in the club - which is required to serve as an officer - is restricted to students, however faculty and staff can join the club as advisory members.

Amateur radio activities within the School of Engineering began in 2002 via the IEEE Student Chapter and the club was formed in 2010.  In 2014, the club was recognized as an Affliated Club with the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), the largest amateur radio membership organization in the United States and the primary representative organization for amateur radio issues. The club is in the process of partnering with the Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) organization to become part of the emergency communications capabilities within the county.

For the past several years, the School of Engineering has also sponsored a campus Field Day exercise as part of a nationwide event sponsored by ARRL. Field Day is the nation's largest amateur radio emergency communications exercise which requires the use of radios in a remote location operating from  various off-grid power supplies including generators, batteries, and solar power. Operators attempt to make contact with as many other stations as possible on a variety of different frequencies and radio communications methods. Field Day takes place the last full weekend in June each year from 10:00 AM PST Saturday to 4:00 PM PST Sunday and the campus location for the event is the south-east corner of the Upper East Field.

The Office of Emergency Services works closely with UCSC ARC and the School of Engineering on amateur radio issues pertaining to campus emergency communications and is working to more fully integrate the club into emergency operations on campus.

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