Club Gets Double Duty from Minnesota QSO Party 2021 Operation 02/10/2021
The Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio Association (
MVARA) fielded a team to the parking lot of a local TV station to take part in the Minnesota QSO Party over the February 7 – 8 weekend. Not only did the group get some emergency exercise training but garnered positive publicity for amateur radio from the station’s news team. Using special event call sign W0M, 10 radio amateurs including one newly minted General-class ham who’s still awaiting his call sign pitched in. The operation took place in an emergency communications bus, with everything set up like a Field Day operation, although in the Minnesota winter.
LA CRESCENT, Minn. (WXOW) - The Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio Association set up camp in the WXOW parking lot on Saturday for the day.
Vice President Bill Klein-Schmidt explained they can set up anywhere they want and they try to do it as often as they can. Basically what we are doing today is what they call the Minnesota QSO party and what that consists of is us trying to contact as many counties in the state of Minnesota that we can in a certain period of time, said Klein-Schmidt.
He said trainings also help them practice setting up their gear quickly and in cold, bad weather. It is important because if communication were ever to go down, they would still be able to communicate with people through ham radio.