vhf plus

LaCrosse, Wisconsin. might seem an out of the way place for a “central states” convention, until you realize it lies along the great Mississippi River, which winds its way south and touches many of the states considered to be in the central part of the United States. Recently, I made my way north from my location in west Tennessee, along the same Mississippi River, to LaCrosse to attend the Central States VHF Conference where I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the CSVHF folks. This is a well-planned conference, with outstanding speakers and outstanding topics. Among the presentations I heard were a treatment of FSK441 vs. MSK144 on 222 MHz, an excellent discussion of software and hardware tools available for the VHF/UHF enthusiast, and a DXpedition that featured Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) work. The Friday evening swap meet was filled with goodies for sale, trade, even for giving away. One ham took some of the free items with the intent of giving it to a ham in his community who he is mentoring. That’s the ham spirit. I’ve included a few pictures (Photos A, B, and C) to give you a sense of the event.

This was my first CSVHF but it will not be my last. In addition to the camaraderie present at many ham events, this was a serious conference focused on for an example and visit the Ham Radio Rovers Facebook page for a number of photos provided by Jeff, K9YR.