About Us

Details

Written by Shawn Rung

The Anoka County Radio Club is a group of Amateur (Ham) Radio enthusiasts that support each other and our community in Anoka County. 

Fun Ham Radio Facts

• We communicate locally, regionally, and internationally using only the atmosphere and our equipment.

• Ham operators have their own satellites for our own use in earth orbit!

• We can hear, and communicate with, the ISS.

• We experiment with electronics and antennas

• We use voice, data, and morse code.   In data modes, we can see where our signals go on a world-wide google map!

• We can send/receive pictures via radio, including from the ISS.

• We have competitive contests testing our skill to make contacts, trace signals, or pass messages.

• Our equipment ranges from the ancient to the state-of-the-art, from homemade to store-bought.  Antennas could be simple wires, fiberglass poles, or entire tower trailers.

If any of this sounds fun to you, you should consider becoming a ham radio operator.   The Anoka County Radio Club is authorized to administer FCC exams; and the questions and answers are online.  www.arrl.org would be a good resource to start out.   Also www.anokaradio.org for testing dates and locations.  Ham Radio is a fun hobby for all ages or budgets 

We also aspire to help out any new hams in our service area with equipment selection, operation and/or installation - look up our board member call-signs on qrz.com for email contact information.

About Us

Originally founded in 1955, Anoka County Radio Club and Emergency Services is a group of ham radio enthusiasts who live in and around Anoka County, Minnesota.  Affiliated with the Amateur Radio Relay League, we teach classes, host radio and social events, maintain a repeater and volunteer our services at several community events every year.  We also sponsor V.E. (Ham Radio) Testing and Skywarn Training. 

Club History

The Anoka County Radio Club has its roots in the organization created at the home of Bernt Westeren (W0SER) on January 10, 1955.  Mayne Menke (W0DXZ) was President, Bernt Westeren (W0SER) was Vice-President and John Lonsky (W0BSI) was Secretary and Treasurer. You can read the first club newsletter (Feb 29, 1956) or Phil DeJarlais' (W0JHS) account of the first club field day operation and the June Civil Defense Drill.  After the exercise it was decided that Anoka was too close to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and that the Civil Defense station had to move to Mankato.  You can read correspondence regarding the drill and see the logbooks from the event.  From the beginning, the Anoka County Radio Club has made helping the community a priority.

Today

Each year, our club hosts a number of events.  Some are brand new to the club, while others have been done each year.  Our Christmas Banquet has been held annually since 1958.  Many of our other events have been held 10 or more years each. Anoka Count Radio Club Members help with communication at parades, festivals marathons, and community events.  Every event we do serves at least three purposes - having fun, refining our communication skills, and helping the community.  As it was throughout our history any time the communications of hams are needed the Anoka County Radio Club will be ready.

The most frequent locations we use for meetings and events are: 

Blaine City Hall
The Blaine City Hall is at 10801 Town Square Dr, Blaine, MN, at the corner of 109th Street and Radisson Road in Blaine.  From Hwy 65, go east on 109th St. Continue on 109th Street until you cross Radisson Road.   The city hall is located behind the apartment complex and Walgreen's store.

Centerville City Hall
The Centerville City Hall is located at 1880 Main St, Centerville, MN.  Take Main Street into Centerville to Shad Ave. 

Our mailing address is:

Anoka County Radio Club
P.O. Box 982
Anoka, MN 55303

Field Day

Details

Plans

Each year the Anoka County Radio Club participates in ARRL Field Day.   This tradition started in our club back in 1955, and pictures for the last decade or two are in our photo gallery.   

Normally we use the club callsign, W0YFZ, although a few years we've used other callsigns (W0ANA in 2008).   Scores for years since 2002 are available on the ARRL contest database. 

We begin each year with a planning meeting to determine who is interested in participating, and what each person is interested in doing.  

We ask that all persons be present or represented in this meeting if they plan to have a full-time presence at the field day site.  

Each person should be prepared to represent

• The planned schedule and shelter for their station
• Station logging setup (N3FJP)
• Their planned power source
• Their location within the club site
• Their planned radio, modes of interest, feedline, and antenna
• RF and physical safety regarding their setup

We then try and and create a combined plan for Field Day operation that most meets the needs of everyone.   We monitor for lightning and severe weather and have plans in place for disconnecting antennas and/or seeking shelter. 

In the past most years we've ended up with 3 stations, (3A-MN) - one station doing voice modes, one doing CW, and one doing digital modes (FT4/FT8).   The most consistent parts of the plan tend to be:

• Setup on Friday for station/logging testing
• Pot luck dinner on Saturday
• Tear down and cleanup on Sunday

Nature also tends to add a decent thunderstorm or two in there somewhere. 

During the June general membership meeting, we present the overall Field Day plan to club members, as the main topic of the meeting.   

If you are interested in joining our Field Day activities, feel free to reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and watch the website for FD planning meetings in the April/May timeframe. 

Fridley Parade

Details

Written by Tim Neu

On Thursday, June 13 the Anoka County Radio Club will be running a tower trailer through the Fridley 49'ers parade. Volunteers may help decorate, walk and hand out candy, or ride along (seats limited).   

Baofeng

Details

Written by Tim Neu

Some of my fellow ACRC'ers own Baofeng HTs.  Before I bought my F8HP unit, I watched Youtube
installments mentioning how the squelch was really BAD on Baofengs.  After setting up my radio
I found that it, too, exhibited awful squelch characteristics, namely, OPEN squelch, and CLOSED
squelch.  The problem lies in the squelch curve settings.  It is my SWAG (Scientific Wild A@@
Guess) that these factory settings were due to too much electromagnetic interference at the
factory.  Just my thoughts.
 As you may know, audio control is non-linear, rather (somewhat) semi logarithmic in nature.
After re-writing the squelch settings in CHIRP's SERVICE SETTINGS page, I believe this to be
about "as good as it gets" for these critters.  The revised settings are as follows:

VHF - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 26, 33

UHF - 0. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 14, 19, 22

 This really helped my little radio.  I hope it works as well for yours, too.

73
Russ Emerson - AEØPX

2024 Fishing Opener SE station

Details

Written by Tim Neu

On Saturday, May 11, 2024 8AM-4PM the Anoka County Radio Club will be having a picnic / special event station at Ham Lake park (how appropriate).  We have the shelter reserved and plan to operate two HF stations during the day, break for a picnic lunch, and then clear out in the afternoon.  The club will provide hotdogs, buns and water.  Bring any beverages you prefer or any other food to share.

Centerville Fete Des Lacs

Details

Written by Tim Neu

July 16 - 21, 2024 is the Centerville Fete Des Lacs festival.   The radio club helps with three events: 

Friday, July 19 - We will meet at Laurie Lamotte park for the fireworks at 6:30 (some food/rec time before deployment)

Saturday, July 20- We will meet at Laurie Lamotte Park at 5:30 AM <yawn> for the morning run activity. 

Saturday, July 20 - We will meet at 1806 Main Street in Centerville at 9:30 for deployment to help with the parade.   We should be done around 1:00PM.