This is the club callsign for the Cleveland County Amateur Radio Service. CCARS is located in Shelby, NC. We welcome all hams and non hams alike. Our goal is to help those interested in ham radio to get started with whatever their interests are. Most new hams are lost when it comes to all the different aspects of our hobby and we are here to help.

We have members who are very active in the emergency services aspect of amateur radio including ARES and SKYWARN as well as Fox Hunting. Maybe your interest lies in the Digital Modes such as PSK31. There is also the National Traffic System that uses hams to route information worldwide. Maybe you just need help understanding what all these things are and what all is available in this great hobby.

For the past 3 years, we have held our ARRL Field Day at the Moss Lake Campground.  This year (2011), we operated 2 stations on solar/battery power and 1 station on a small emergency generator.  Bill Morine (N2COP), the NC Section Manager said that our location is what Field Day is all about - being in the field on emergency power with antennas strung between the trees. 

Recently our club has been encouraging the youth that are members of the Boy Scouts through Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) and in instructing Scouts for the Radio Merit Badge. Participating scouts get to experience ham radio hands on. This has turned out to be a lot of fun for all who participate and will hopefully lead to some future hams.

We have just erected a 110' self-supporting tower to provide 2 meter and 440 MHz coverage for Cleveland County. This tower allowed us to locate our 2 meter repeater in the center of the county. It is located at 404 Double Shoals Road just south of Lawndale.  Our 2 meter repeater operates on 147.045 MHz with a PL tone of 127.3 with an output power of 140 watts.  We are in the process of installing a 70 cm repeater that should be available sometime in September 2011.  In addition, we hope to add Echo Link capability in the near future.

We have a 2 meter repeater net that meets on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th Mondays at 9 PM on our repeater at 147.045 MHz with the 127.3 hz tone turned off.  Our Simplex net meets on the 1st Monday of each month at 9 PM on 147.505 MHz.  Please join us if you can.

CCARS meets on the third Tuesday of each month at Christ Covenant Church, 1050 Sam Lattimore Road which is located just east of the Shelby Airport off of College Avenue. (NC 150). Additional information about CCARS can be obtained at our website:www.ccarsnc.org.