Only a few days away!  The time to clean out the shack before winter sets in.  Bring all those extra items to the DMRAA’s annual ChiliFeed / Auction.  The chili is plentiful as well as the fellowship.  The diner begins at 6:00PM with the auction at 7:00PM. This is a great opportunity for the new […]

Over sixty cub and boy scouts and their parents came out to get on the air during Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) at the Ankeny Outdoor Education Center on Saturday, October 15, 2016. This was the 59th year of scouts making international ham radio contact with other scouts during JOTA. This year 8,358 stations registered […]

Over 140 scouts in grades 1-12 participated in amateur radio activities at Camp Mitigwa on October 8, 2016 as part of Scout Jam, a camporee-style event celebrating 100 years of scouting in central Iowa. Activities included a Morse Code learning station with practice Morse code oscillators, a VHF station which was active on several local […]

Polk County ARES Emergency Coordinator Scott, NØOOD has announced that Polk County ARES is now in possession of a new EMCOMM trailer. The new trailer is a tandem 7’ by 16’ trailer.  It is larger than the previous trailer which is 6’ by 10’.  The new trailer will be called “EMCOMM 1”.  This trailer is […]

The DMRAA conducted another very successful Field Day.  The weather was typical (hot with a rain event).  A nice group assembled and erected two towers and three guyed masts.  The operating started at 1:00 PM and was in full swing a little later.  We had several visitors and operators.  Initial stats indicate over 1200 contacts.The […]

  Yellow Banks County Park is the location for the 2016 edition of the annual ARRL Field Day.  The location this year has been changed.  Due to construction of new shelters at Fort Des Moines County Park the Location has been changed to Yellow Bank County Park, shelter #1.  This beautiful Polk County Park just […]

The weather was great and the bargains were plentiful at the 2016 Des Moines Radio Amateurs Association’s Hamfest.  Several new friends entered Amateur Radio after they passed their Technician’s exam.  Forums included the Iowa Repeater Council meeting and the ARRL Iowa Section forum.  We saw hams from four states as well as Iowa.  Door prizes […]

The 2016 version of the DMRAA Hamfest will be held on Saturday, April 16th, from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Elwell Family Center located on the Iowa State Fairgrounds.  There will be a lot to do at this year’s Hamfest.  First, several vendors are on tap to help you get your radio gear […]

11 new hams attended the technician follow-up class Thursday March 11th, Topics for the meeting included basic operating procedures, use and understanding the Baofeng radio, and proper net protocol.  Many of the attendees had just received their call signs.  The group practiced checking into an impromptu net on a portable repeater.  Many questions were answered.  […]

The first meeting of the year saw several presentations on handheld radios.  Multiple presenters and even more HTs provided the large group at the January DMRAA meeting with many ideas.  The subject was very timely with the large group of recently licensed hams, many of whom were at the meeting.  Kenwood, Icom, Baofengs and Yaesu […]