Noon Wed.
This is a repeat of a post from early April. If you haven’t visited in weeks, please use the archives (on the right) to go back over posts I made back in early April.
With the VHF contest season starting next weekend (ARRL June VHF on June 11-12), this is a good time for readers to join one of the regional VHF/UHF contest clubs, if you haven’t already done so.
As of June 2015, I know of 5 VHF/UHF clubs in and near WI. When I say “VHF/UHF Club”, I’m talking about clubs where the emphasis is on SSB/CW/Digital modes on bands like 50, 144, 222, 432 MHz, clear on up to microwave bands like 902, 1296, 2304, 3456 MHz, and even into 5 and 10 Gig and beyond.
If you are even a casual VHF’er, but would like your contest scores to go toward a club total, consider joining any of these clubs. All the info you need to get started is below.
1) My club is the Badger Contesters. Their website is at www.badgercontesters.org. If you are within 175 miles of Oshkosh, WI, you are in the BC circle. A graphic showing our territory is available at: http://www.badgercontesters.org/club_area.html The BC’ers are a low-key, low-stress, no-dues club. If you want more info, go to the website or contact me.
2) NLRS stands for Northern Lights Radio Society, which covers MN, and probably adjacent parts of W and NW WI and N IA. Their website is at www.nlrs.org.
3) SMC stands for Society of Midwest Contesters, based in IL and parts of adjacent states. SMC is a very active HF club, with a decent number of V/UHF contesters, too. Their website is at www.w9smc.com SMC has done some amazing things, getting their HF contesters to try 6 meters in the June ARRL contest (when sporadic E skip usually opens up 6m across the country)
4) CVVHF stands for Chippewa Valley VHF and they are pretty much centered on EN44. I’m sure their territory covers most of NW WI and plenty of the U.P. of MI. CVVHF’s website is at www.k9cvc.org.
5) As of late summer, 2014, Michigan is now represented here. Several motivated guys got together and have created the Michigan VHF-UHF Society or MIVUS. Their website is at http://mivus.org/ Check them out.
If you enjoy V/UHF contesting, these clubs would like very much for you to join and then submit your contest scores as part of the club’s aggregate score.
I am not aware of any active V/UHF clubs in IN or IA. If I’m mistaken, someone set me straight.