Another ARES event has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Marathon, a staple in Des Moines for 20 years has been the largest event for Polk County ARES.  Over the years we have seen this event develop into a premier Iowa running attraction.  Hopefully we’ll see a normal schedule in 2021.

The July meeting presented by John, KCØRAM was quite successful.  The topic was use of the Radio Spectrum for UHF and VHF. Most uses of this portion of the bands were discussed.  This included FRS and GMRS as well as CB and Amateur Radio uses.  12 members joined in the discussion.  The result was a […]

The DMRAA Education Committee is pleased to schedule two fall classes.  Saturday October 3rd,2020 will be the 1-Day Technician class.  Class begins at 8am and finish at 6pm.  The General class will be Thursdays beginning October 8th, 2020 and ending November 19th, 2020 More information, including online sign-up (mew this year) can be found on […]

Plans are still being made for  the 2020 DMRAA Field Day.  The planning illustrates the optimism that in Iowa Governor Reynolds will allow gatherings of more than 10 people in time for Field Day.  Board members Dennis O’Brien KAØDOS, Bob Johnson,WØSMS and Tom Weaver, WØFN along with Dean Madsen, NØXR are planning the 2020 event […]

The normally scheduled DRMAA club meeting of April 28 is cancelled due to limiting gatherings of more than 10 people.  Since this is normally the meeting that nominations are accepted for the following month elections, the board wishes to conduct the nominations via the static sheet.   There is currently one member of the club […]

The Hamvention Executive Committee has been monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. We have worked very closely with our local and state health Departments.  It is with a very heavy heart the Hamvention Executive Committee has decided to cancel Hamvention for this year.  This decision is extremely difficult for us but with around two months until the […]

·        IASPOTA-2020 is now on Facebook. Thanks to the efforts of Joe KD9HAE, IASPOTO-2020 now has a site at https://www.facebook.com/IASPOTA  ·        Al Fry, KB0VGG is organizing a major IASPOTA-2020 push in May—trying to get as many Iowa amateur radio clubs and individuals from across the state to activate as many of state parks as possible on the same weekend—about […]

More news;  The bill has been moved to the Ways and Means Committee. The Ways and Means Committee considers things where money is involved. With this committee involved, the bill was renumbered as HF2234. Yesterday, February 12, a subcommittee of Ways and Means recommended that the bill be passed. Yesterday, January 30, the Iowa House of […]

At the end of 2019, the U. S. had 775,037 licensed amateur radio licensees.  That was an increase of 2.6% from the previous year.  Iowa had 6,582 licensees, and an increase of 254 from the previous year. Details of the number of amateur radio operators by license type, state, and expiration date may be found at https://sites.google.com/site/amateurradiodata/   This […]

January 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the CW Operators’ Club (CWops). In our ten years of promoting the use of CW in amateur radio communications, we’ve grown to more than 2,400 members worldwide. To honor our members’ devotion to CW and the efforts of many volunteers toward promoting its use and educating new devotees, we’re […]