In the early Spring of 1980, there appeared a notice in "The Chronical Express",

the weekly newspaper for Penn Yan and the surrounding area, that enquired as to

whether there was interest among the amateur radio community in meeting to possibly

initiate a local radio club. The notice had been placed by Vincent Scotto, N2ALI,

the Pastor of the St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Penn Yan.

An initial meeting was held with approximately 12 amateurs attending. It

was decided that a Yates County radio club was something worthwhile working towards,

so additional meetings were planned to create drafts of a constitution and necessary

by-laws.

The By-laws and Constitution were adopted by vote at a meeting held

May 6th, 1980 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Penn Yan, Yates County, New York,

and signed by Vincent Scotto-N2ALI, Roland Hundley-N2BIJ, John J. Stine-K2DXE,

Pat Sacco-K2LLP, Harry Jones-KA2IOL, William H. Reiter-WA2UKX, Albert Kopec-KB2NG,

Charles F. Swarts,Jr.-WA2MPX, and Francis Orcutt-W2GWT. The name of the organization

would be "Yates Amateur Radio Club" [YARC].

One of the principal goals of the fledgling club was to provide service to

local organizations, e.g. American Red Cross, Salvation Army, County Public Health

and Emergency Management Office. This would entail providing primary or back-up

communications during emergencies or events. To best accomplish this, membership in

the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service [ARES] and FEMA-sponsored Radio Amateur

Civil Emergency Service [RACES] by all members would be encouraged.

A total of sixty amateurs eventually belonged to YARC at one time or another.

Unfortunatelly, many no longer are living;- others have moved out of the area or lost

interest in remaining active in amateur radio. One Charter member, Pat Sacco, K2LLP, who

died early in life, had his radios and antennas donated to YARC by his wife. The club

still possesses the equipment.

Through the years, YARC members, functioning as either ARES or RACES members

depending on the situation, have assisted in Public Health vaccination clinics held as

disaster drills, triathlons in Yates and Ontario counties, and EMO emergency drills.

An interesting episode was when Soldiers and Sailor's Hospital lost their telephone

and radio communications for a day and YARC provided service between hospital floors

and to/from the ambulance corps.

YARC members, continues to provide public service communications to local groups who believe that they can benefit from our services.

Of course, in keeping with our FCC license requirements, no compensation can be accepted for

such activities.