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The Pickens County Communications Group (PCCG) is a group of volunteers for the Pickens County
Emergency Management Agency in Pickens, South Carolina. We are also members of the Radio
Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), and we have ties to the South Carolina State Guard.
We are not a radio club. We are, however, a group of amateur radio enthusiasts with similar interests,
dedicated to providing emergency communications for public service, public safety, and commercial communications
for local agencies in Pickens County. In addition to our Radio Amateur Repeaters in the 2-meter, 220Mhz,
and 70cm bands, we also support two publically accessable GMRS repeaters, along with additional specialized repeaters
for use by our local Search and Rescue groups.
Some of the Amateur Radio repeaters that we maintain are participants in the WARNS system that covers
parts of Northeastern Georgia, Southwestern North Carolina, and Northwestern (Upstate) South Carolina.
Our connections to the Wide Area Repeater Network System (WARNS) are used on a regular basis to provide
Skywarn communications for Pickens County, while the entire WARNS system is used by all of the surrounding
areas to provide extended SKYWARN services to the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C.
The WARNS system can also be used to link one or more counties in it′s coverage areas when needed
to support emergency communications. Areas can be connected or separated on an individual basis as needed.
While the Pickens County Communications Group has been providing Skywarn communications for many years
now in support of the National Weather Service′s local office in Greer, South Carolina - we are
more than happy to transition some of our SKYWARN support efforts into the full support of the WARNS network.
For instance, one of our 2-meter repeaters (147.195) will automatically link to the WARNS system whenever a
Severe Weather Alert is broadcast by the National Weather Service. When conditions dictate, additional
repeaters in the PCCG network will also be manually linked into the WARNS system by the system operators.
The Pickens County Communications Group Meets monthly in a Pickens County Emergency Management Agency (EOC)
conference room located on the lower level (rear) of the Pickens County Administration Facility
at 222 Mcdaniel Avenue, Pickens, S.C. on the 1st Tuesday of every month from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Our April Monthly Meeting will be on Tuesday, 4 April 2023 at 7 pm.
The Pickens County Communications Group has a net every Tuesday night at 8:00 pm
on the
PCCG linked network repeaters
(147.195 MHz and 443.450 MHz).
All amateurs are invited to check in.
(The Tuesday night net is NOT held on the 1st Tuesday of the month because of the
group meeting.)
A Skywarn net is activated in case of severe WX in Pickens County.
Additional information about the PCCG group can be found here.
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