In 2019, Dennis KAØDOS, Bob WØSMS and Tom WØFN created a HF, VHF and UHF station at the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center. Our goal this year is to make significant improvements and make the station available to all DMRAA members.

The Museum is in Des Moines at 75 East Army Post Road, and their board has been extremely generous in making a room in the Museum available for our use.

We have a Kenwood HF rig and a 2-meter VHF/UHF rig with two antennas deployed on the top of the Museum at approximately 45’. One is a VHF/UHF antenna and the other a 7-band HF OCF dipole covering 80, 40, 20, 17, 12, 10 and 6 meters. Dennis loaned his Kenwood HF rig, and Bob loaned his VHF/UHF rig for the station. We have had QSOs with the Ukraine and many other countries so far – as well as in North America.

We have a couple of vintage rigs in the shack as well and look forward to getting them up & running so we can participate in some contests for vintage radios.

A new 50’ tower and beam installation is scheduled for this spring, along with the addition of a linear amplifier and much more. We have set up a Club Station User Group and invite interested DMRAA members to join us in making these improvements. We will break ground for the new tower and beam antenna project in late March, and it’s scheduled for completion by the end of May. Come join us

Tom WØFN is the chairman of our new Club Station Initiative Committee which had its first meeting at 6:30PM just prior to the DMRAA’s February Storm Spotter meeting. We reviewed our progress so far and had an excellent discussion on planning and scheduling for the new tower project. Committee members are Bob WØSMS, Den KAØDOS, Tom NØVPR and Mike AEØMW.

We welcome any interested DMRAA members to sit in on our next meeting to contribute their thoughts and ideas. The next Club Station Initiative Committee meeting time will be published on DMRAA.com.

As you may know, I really enjoy working stations directly (rig-to-rig, person-to-person) on HF frequencies all over the world. I’ve had nearly a thousand 80, 40, 20 and 17 meter CW QSOs since getting my new license in August of 2018 and have met many new friends. It’s amazing what 100 watts can do on CW and SSB with a good antenna.

We all know DMRAA club members who are unable put up a tower and an HF antenna at their QTH, but who would enjoy having access to an excellent club station covering all HF, VHF and UHF frequencies. We also needed a way to introduce new Hams to the fun of HF in addition to their VHF/UHF privileges. Last year we enjoyed creating that station.

To sign up for the Club Station Users Group, email [email protected] with your schedule of availability this spring and the type of activity you would enjoy. Help us with our station improvements this spring! It’ll be fun to have a club station with powerful antennas for VHF/UHF, HF rag chews, CW contests, SSB contests; whatever you enjoy.

Click below for Club Station initiative

FORT DES MOINES MUSEUM CLUB STATION