MVARA participated in the Simulated Emergency Test (SET) on October 4 - 5, 2025. This nationwide exercise is the chance to test our emergency-operating skills and the readiness of our communications equipment and accessories in a simulated emergency-like deployment. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), the National Traffic System (NTS), the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), SKYWARN, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network...

Sunday September 28th, 2025 The Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio Association was formed in 1990. To celebrate our 35th Anniversary, the MVARA hosted a celebration picnic on Sunday, September 28th, 2025, from 1pm-5pm.  The picnic took place at the Weiser Memorial Park Community Building at 1817 County Road 6 in La Crescent, MN. All current and past MVARA members and their families were invited to attend. Brats, hot dogs and cake was provided by the club, with members providing additional dishes...

Touch-a-Truck event at Hintgen Elementary School: MVARA participated in the La Crosse "Touch a Truck" event (AKA "Night of Wheels") at Hintgen Elementary School, at 3505 28th Street S, La Crosse, WI., on Thursday Sept 18th from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, with our "B1" Emergency Communications Bus. Attended by Craig N9ETD, Tom WA9TS, Rob W9LUP & Jason N0MOE, with Bill N9FDE working his radio from his house. We had good traffic on the bus and many kids were able to get on the air with Bill. Overall a...

2025 Old Fashioned Gravel Ride - Communications Assistance On September 13, 2025, from about 5:30am to 3pm, MVARA provided communications assistance at each of the 7 stops on the "Old Fashioned Gravel" bike route in SE Minnesota.  Wayne Oliver, K0WLO coordinated our assistance with the bike ride leadership.  Some notes from that day: Wayne said we did well, no one was injured. The mapping App for this year did not work as well as the year before. The Decorah repeater does exist! Paul Reardon...

MVARA attended the Holmen National Night Out (NNO) on Tues Aug 5th, 2025. It ran from 5 to 8 pm, and was located at the Halfway Creek Park and the Holmen Public Library grounds, on 1st Ave W and S Roberts St, by the Holmen American Legion Post. Setup started around 3:30pm, although Greg KD9TMZ and Tom WA9TS started early in the morning, making it a mini work day, doing a bunch of little projects on the bus.  Big thanks to Greg and Tom!! Photos from the event, as well as the original...

MVARA participated in the 2025 ARRL Field Day, on June 28-29, 2025.  This was our second time operating outside Prairie View Elementary School, located at 1201 Newport Lane in Holmen, WI (just north of Holmen).  See the bottom of this page for photos of our setup. MVARA entered Field Day in the 2A category using the callsign W9MVA, with two full-time HF stations, plus a 'free' VHF station on 6 meters, and a "Get On The Air" (GOTA) station using the callsign of W9FCC.  We utilized two HF...

Thank you to everyone that participated in the 2025 MVARA Raffle Fundraiser. Proceeds from this fundraiser make it possible to help cover some of our expenses, including the maintenance of our emergency communications bus. The Prize Drawing was held on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at 6pm, at the Onalaska American Legion. A video of the drawing, as well as a list of prize winners, can be found on the 2025 Raffle Fundraiser Page!

The MVARA Spring Fever Swap Meet took place on March 1st, 2025, at the Sparta American Legion. I want to thank everyone wholeheartedly that helped make this event a success. I'm especially proud of the team from Steve and Kelley Becker on down. Having been told under 2 weeks from the event that our venue wasn't available, the Chair and team did a great job saving what could've been a disaster. Also, the group of people who pitched in today to bring the bus, the tower trailer, setting up inside...

Merry Christmas!!! (Ok, inside joke,... you had to be there... lol) The MVARA 2025 Christmas party was held on Saturday afternoon, February 1, 2025, at Fox Hollow in La Crosse.  Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the party. Fun was had by all! Special thanks to Wayne KØWLO for handling the arrangements with Fox Hollow.  Thanks Scott KA9FOX for being emcee, and planning the gift exchanges.  And thank you to Dan W9FCC for taking photos (see below) 73, Craig N9ETD MVARA President...