WELCOME TO THE CORONA NORCO
AMATEUR RADIO CLUB


When our club was founded in 1986, one of the original By-Laws was to hold an elected office, it was necessary for the member to be a resident of either Corona or Norco.  One positive result, the club's gavel was donated by 4 members who lived in Riverside.  This same gavel is still in use today, and it bears a brass tag reading:

 Presented to:                  The Corona Norco

                                     Amateur Radio Club

                                     October 6, 1986

By Riverside Members:   AH6CL, N6HOJ, W6TKV, W6UBQ

  That plaque was donated 22 years ago and it is still used today.  And, only one of the four donors is still a CNARC member.

 
Those familiar with Corona will know of its nickname - Circle City, and when one looks at a local map, the perfect circle can be seen.  It seems that in 1913, the city fathers resurfaced its absolutely circular, 70 foot wide Grand Avenue in anticipation of using the city street as a racetrack.  The race sanctioned by the American Automobile Association drew a crowd of over 100,000 people.  Racing drivers included Barney Oldfield, Earl Cooper, Terrible Teddy Tetzlaff, Ralph De Palma, Felix Magone, and many others.  The fastest lap was 102 mph, and newspaper headlines across the nation proclaimed the high speed race.  These races lasted for 3 years before being discontinued.  Grand Avenue is still in use today, however, there is a posted speed limit of 30 mph.
While Corona is Circle City, Norco is generally known as horse country.  Most homes are on large pieces of land complete with horses, fences and accessories.  And, did you know the name Norco was created from "North Corona", its original name tag. 

              Early on, our club was active in Corona's community events such as Holiday Parades, Bicycle Races, Foot Races and similar events.  Our participation in these events disappeared with the advent of cell phones and "no license required" GMRS and FRS multi-channel radios (450-470MHz).   

            The presence of ham radio for emergencies and disasters, however, has become more prevalent and has even moved into EOCs,  CNARC meeting location is in the Norco Fire Station EOC with a dedicated HF, VHF and ATV Station.  Most interesting is that the ARRL Annual Field Day now takes place in the EOC - with the benefit of zero set-up time - and the down-side of two station operators sitting right next to each other. 

            Years ago, our club created a Special Event which takes to the airwaves in the fall of each year as Barney Oldfield Days.  Members are assigned "time and band assignments" which allows operation from the EOC, as well as from home and mobile stations.  QSOs are confirmed with a handsome QSL card which features the 1913 races.

            Our club also holds a monthly 2M Hidden Transmitter Hunt aka T-Hunt - an event described to those who ask, "What's up?" that "We are playing grown-up hide and seek".  

            Our monthly meetings are held in the Norco Fire Station located on 6th Street at Hillside Boulevard.  Our meeting place is in the EOC which includes a rather nifty ham station featuring HF and VHF radios, ATV and is designed to be a message center in an emergency situation.  Members have access to and may use the station for normal amateur purposes.

            Our club call sign is W6PWT.  This call belonged to the first club member of our club to become a Silent Key.  On the air, his phonetics were always, "Wisky Six Polecats Wild Cats and Tom Cats".

            A focus and obligation of our club is to serve in the EOC in times of need, be it an earthquake or other disaster.  As a result most club members are also RACES members, although that is not a mandatory requirement for club membership.

            For those living in Corona, Norco or adjacent areas, we urge you to stop by and see if we match your needs for a ham club.  We are a general interest club and have members with many different interests including - those who get things to work, those who enjoy contesting, those who chase DX, those who favor emergency and disaster work, and so on.  We have young hams and old hams, and those in between. 

            In a word, we have a little bit of everything so why not stop by and say hello.  If you have any questions, there is always e-mail  froberts@aceweb.com .

73-

Fred Roberts, W6TKV

Chairman

 

 

This site was last updated 07/24/08

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