Welcome to the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club – W9MQB

We operate in south central Wisconsin to provide supplementary communications in times of emergency and to lend support to all Hams as they enjoy and develop the hobby.
Hams from Jefferson, Rock and Walworth Counties volunteer their talents and equipment to serve other agencies and the public to provide reliable communications for local emergencies, assist the National Weather Service during times of severe weather, as well as the Tour de Fort Bicycle Ride, Jefferson County Literacy Council Bike Ride, and Great Midwest Relay Race.

TCARC maintains a VHF repeater on 145.49 MHz, negative offset, with a CTCSS tone of 123.0.

Want to talk with about about joining into one of the area events, or just have a question? Email us at TCARC (at) W9MQB (dot) org and we’ll get right back to you.


TRI-COUNTY NEWS AND UPDATES

  • Ozaukee Radio Club’s 44th Spring Swapfest
    The Ozaukee Radio Club presents its 44th Annual Spring Indoor Amateur Radio, Electronics & Computer SWAPFEST featuring TOWER ELECTRONICS, Saturday, April 27, 2024 from 8 AM to 12 PM at the Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Center (Milwaukee Curling Club), W67 N890 Washington Ave., in Cedarburg, WI. Vendor…
  • Um… what’s a SwapFest?
    Quick Links for this story: So, what is a SwapFest? You might be new to Amateur Radio, so let me introduce you to the idea of a SwapFest. Most are short, half-day events, but some national events (such as the Dayton HamVention) can last for several days.…
  • Madison Area Repeater Association 2024 Hamfest
    The Madison Area Repeater Association 2024 Hamfest will be on April13th and features vendors of new and used equipment for Amateur Radio, Electronics, Computers, computer parts and software. Come their huge Flea Market in the Mandt Community Center’s spacious 26,000 sq ft main hall. VE testing starts…
  • FREE Club table
    As a Club, we know that this is a difficult time for many ham clubs. The costs of running a swapfest or repeater increase every year but the funds we have to work with don’t. It’s hard to keep current members, as many move to new digs…
  • Rescheduled Jan 2024 meeting
    Our rescheduled January 2024 meeting of the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 6:30 pm in the upstairs meeting room at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions). Given the snow…
  • JAN 9, 2024, MEETING RESCHEDULED DUE TO SNOW
    Isn’t Wisconsin good at helping us stay flexible and open to change? By dumping snow on us when we least expect it? Yeah, sorry, that’s all the optimism you’ll get from me until the driveway is cleared! Yes, it’s rare to hear to hear me tell you…
  • How do I vote for the changes?
    There have been a number of questions about the upcoming changes to the Club constitution, so I wanted to answer some of those questions. What are we changing? To read what we approved for consideration, the changes are listed here and a ballot form is included. For…
  • January 2024 Club Meeting
    The next meeting for the Tri-County Amateur Radio Club will take place on Tuesday, January 9, 2023 at 6:30 pm in the Community Room (downstairs) at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson (map and directions). For those of you who…
  • 2023 Christmas Party
    Forget the agendas and Zoom credentials: next week is the TCARC Christmas Party, and we’re all about cookies, chips, pizza, and snacks! We’ll be meeting in the Community Room (downstairs) starting at 6:30 at the Dwight Foster Public Library, located at 209 Merchants Avenue in Fort Atkinson…
  • Constitutional Changes
    At our last Club meeting, we tackled some long-overdue updates to the TCARC Constitution and By-Laws, which were last changed in April of 1985. The dawn of 1985 opened in the era before email, websites, packet, APRS, AREDN, National Incident Management System (NIMS), ICS-213, heck, even before…

NETS

The “Frequency of Knowledge” Net is held every Monday evening at 8:00pm. This net is open to all amateur operators. 

On Wednesday evenings the Jefferson County ARES/RACES Net is held at 8:00pm. All amateur operators are encouraged to participate in this net.

2 Meter AM gatherings at 8:00PM on most evenings – except on Fridays. If you have either new equipment or vintage equipment capable of AM look for us on 144.144Mhz around 8:00PM.


Club Meetings On The Air

Club meetings are held monthly (except June, July, August) on the second Tuesday of the month. 2024 dates include: Jan 16, Feb 13, Mar 13, Apr 9, May 14, (June 22-23, Field Day) Sep 10, Oct 8, Nov 12, and Dec 10. Our June “meeting” will be our Field Day activities on June 22nd and 23rd at the Watertown Airport.

Due to Covid restrictions, in 2020, we moved our meetings from the Fort Atkinson Police Department to the the Dwight Foster Public Library, 209 Merchants Ave, in Fort Atkinson at 6:30 p.m. We offer an online option for those of you who can’t make our meetings in person, via Zoom or Jitsi. Check the posts above for the meeting for the next meeting, or join or mailing list to have the details sent to you each month. Check in and join into the fun!

Check the News Feed above for updates if our in-person meetings are cancelled.

You are always welcome to join in! Yearly dues are $10 per person or $15 per family. Download a membership form or pay online here.

Want to keep up with all of the fun? Join out monthly mail list.


HAMFEST 2025 IS COMING – MARCH 16, 2025

TCARC sponsors an annual spring swap meet for amateur operators, computer enthusiasts, and the resourceful public at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Jefferson, Wisconsin. The Swapfest is an area tradition, bringing people from Illinois, Central, and South-Eastern Wisconsin.

The date is set! Join us for Ham Fest 2025 on Sunday, March 16, 2025, from 8 AM through Noon.

Click here for the Fest Flyer or go to our live SwapFest page to buy discounted tickets, order tables to sell your stuff, or search to see what everyone is bringing! Admission is $10 in advance or $15 at the door, with around 100 tables of everything imaginable.


Keep up with the fun!

Sign up for our monthly mail list! Don’t worry about getting a bunch of junk: typically, we send around 3 messages a month. We send out a reminder about our monthly meeting a week before and a day before, and will pass along other news of interest about once a month. Want to leave the list? Each message has a link to allow you to unsubscribe whenever you wish.

Get started here:

First:     Last:


,