The Southern Pennsylvania ARC was established in 1979 in Columbia, PA, going by the name of Columbia Area ARC, Inc.

The club has always devoted much of its efforts to serving the community. In March, 1995, we established The School for Amateur Radio Operation and Technology and have continued licensing classes to this day. We provide the equipment and personnel for ARES/RACES in Lancaster County. The County Emergency Management Coordinator exercises operations control over the operation.

The SPARC Field Support Van (FSV) is a complete, self-contained communications center that can be quickly brought to the site of an emergency situation.

In May, 1998, SPARC and the County Emergency Management Agency formed a partnership to develop a Field Support Van (FSV) to work in the vicinity of a declared disaster or emergency area and to send vital emergency communications back to the County EOC via the SPARC base station. This is now the main project of SPARC. Now in its second year is a program for teaching Amateur Radio in our local schools in the Lancaster/Lebanon Districts.

For more information on our club, please visit our Web site.

James E. Bear, WB3FQY