The Six Meter Club of Chicago(SMCC) promotes interest in the Amateur Radio Service by fostering activity on all radio bands(HF, VHF, and UHF), provides emergency communications, community radio services, and technical assistance related to radio and its use in communications.

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SIX METER CLUB of CHICAGO

** NOTE THE DATE CHANGE **

The next meeting of the Six Meter Club of Chicago
Friday  May 15, 2026 at 7:30

St Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran

Church 9035 Grant Ave. Brookfield IL.

Our Club Activities
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Download Flyer Table Reservation

Certificates of Appreciation


SMCC President Will Sperling, W9WSS (far left), and Vice President Scott Gercken, KB9LCD (far right), present certificates of appreciation to Steve Rauter, N9ATO (inside left), and Dave Atkerson, N8IQV (inside right), for their work to bring AllStarLink and improved EchoLink connectivity to K9ONA/R.  Photo by KD4SLL.
Will Sperling, W9WSS, presents a certificate of appreciation to Vern Schultz, K9LAE, for his work with the repeater committee.  Photo by KD4SLL.

"He's dead, Jim!" K9ONA/R UHF-1 Gives Up the Ghost

On or around March 30, 2026, the Motorola Quantar serving as K9ONA’s UHF-1 repeater outputting at 443.300 MHz failed.  The technical committee is currently weighing options for how to proceed with restoring service to the 70cm portion of our multicast repeater system.  At time of publication, the 2m and 1.25m repeaters are operating optimally. 
The Six Meter Club of Chicago’s Motorola Quantar (top) at the hospital in Hinsdale, pictured with the Editor’s Yaesu VX-6R, on January 11, 2026.  The repeater has since suffered another failure at the end of March.  Photo by KB9LCD.

Course Monitors Needed for
Western Springs 5K/10K on
May 23

The Six Meter Club of Chicago provided amateur radio-enabled course monitoring for last year’s annual Tower Trot 5K/10K race in Western Springs.  Organizers have reached out to the Club again to return to the May 23, 2026, edition of the event.  At monthly meetings since January 2026, SMCC membership meeting, a sign-up sheet was circulated for those wishing to participate as a course monitor.  Course monitors are stationed at checkpoints in Western Springs north of the railroad tracks, providing boots-on-the-ground reporting of runner progress, reporting of needs at first aid & water stations, reporting of vehicle intrusion into the course, and other course conditions.  Course monitors will not move barricades or direct traffic.
SMCC’s Course Monitor team will have one or more Zoom meetings before the event to discuss procedures, frequency use, and answer questions.
Although the organizers of the event have a supply of orange vests, radio crews may wish to provide their own safety vest to ensure proper fit.  Volunteers may wish to bring a hat, sunscreen, lawn chair, and umbrella in addition to primary and backup handheld transceivers.
If operating from one’s vehicle, considering using the “ARES Magnetic Sign” from the ARRL website to mark your vehicle for “Radio Communications.”

IN OTHER NEWS

We are always looking to expand our library of amateur radio resources. If you have an article, a photo story, or a technical tip you would like to share with the global ham community, we’d love to feature it. No contribution is too small—help us build the ultimate resource for operators everywhere by submitting your content today.
Your contribution may appear on the website or in the HALO or both!
Repeater Committee Report
Repeater Committee report: The 220 MHz and 2m repeaters are active, but we suspect that the 2m repeater's receiver may be losing sensitivity. A date will be set to inspect the machine in the near future. We are still (slowly) negotiating the purchase of a high-power Power Amplifier (PA) for our 70cm repeater. Tonight's presentation will be about the new All-Star Link node for our multicast repeaters, which is now fully operational. Steve Rauter, N9ATO, and Dave Atkerson, N8IQV, both received certificates of appreciation for their hard work in maintaining our repeaters and EchoLink/All-Star Link nodes. The latter received a dinner certificate to DJ's Sports Bar and Grill. Vern Schultz, K9LAE, also received a certificate as a thank-you for his advice and ideas regarding the same.
Swap Meet Report
The Swap Meet and Grumpy Social will be hosted by the Six Meter Club on June 20, 2026, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church and School at 9035 Grant Ave. in Brookfield, IL. The VE session at the Swap Meet will be led by captain Dick Lieber, WA9NNN. After this session, we hope to start a regular VE team. Several members have volunteered to help with various aspects of the Swap Meet, and we are looking for more! More advertising opportunities for the event will be taken up in the near future. During our recent Board of Directors meeting, we discussed ticket prices, and they will be as follows: General admission (one ticket+one prize stub): $8 before the event, $10 at the door. Vendor admission: $15/table. Vendor admission (ticket+stub): $20/table. We are still on the hunt for more door prizes. Bob Jarosik, KE9CAC will bring donuts, and we will have several talented chefs in the kitchen serving breakfast sandwiches. Food will be served by “suggested donation.”

Coming Events

We have curated the following events from the ARRL Central Division calendar to help you stay connected with what is happening across the region. However, the best resources are built by the community.  If you are organizing an event or know of a local gathering that fellow operators should know about, we invite you to contribute it to our list so we can share it with everyone.  Send your event information to "webmaster@k9ona.com"
Saturday April 25, 2026
Sullivan Hamfest
Sullivan American Legion
2 E. Strain Street
Sullivan, IL 61951
More Information
Sunday May 3, 2026
Dekalb Hamfest
Sandwich Fairgrounds
1401 Suydam Rd.
Sandwich, IL 60548
More Information
Sunday June 7, 2026
Starved Rock Radio Club
Hamfest
Mendota Tri-County Fairgrounds
503 1st. Ave.
Mendota, IL 61342
More Information
Sunday July 19, 2026
KARS-Fest
Will County Fairgrounds
710 S West St.
Peotone, IL 60468
More Information
Sunday August 1, 2026
West Central Illinois Hamfest
Three Sisters Park
17189 IL-29
Chillicothe, IL 61523
More Information
Sunday & Sunday
September 19 & 20, 2026
Midwest Superfest
ARRL Illinois Section Convention
Three Sisters Park
17189 IL-29
Chillicothe, IL 61523
More Information
Saturday March 28, 2026
Wabash Valley Amateur Radio Association, Inc.
Clay County 4-H Fairgrounds
6550 North State Road 59
Brazil, IN 47834
More Information
Saturday July 18, 2026
Auburn Hamfest
 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum
1600 Wayne Street
Auburn, IN 46706
More Information
Saturday August 1, 2026
Elkhart East Hamfest
Northern Indiana Event Center
21565 Executive Pkwy
Elkhart, IN 46514
More Information
Saturday August 8, 2026
Hendricks County Tailgate Fest
Avon United Methodist Church
6850 East Hwy US 36
Avon, IN 46123
Saturday April 25, 2026
ORC 46th Annual Spring Indoor Swapfest
Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Expo Center
(Milwaukee Curling Club)
W67N890 Washington Avenue
Cedarburg, WI 53012
More Information

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