Minnesota Wireless Association Mission Statement
The Minnesota Wireless Association (MWA) is a club that promotes Radiosporting (Radio Contesting) in the geographic region in and near Minnesota. Members in MWA range from the new or inexperienced contester to the veteran top ten contester. The primary objective of MWA is to compete against other radiosporting clubs in North America in events that have a club competition and in the process promote Amateur Radio Contesting including assisting contesting newcomers. To support this objective, MWA recruits new members within our region and assists all members to improve their score, skill and enjoyment of the sport.
Officers
The current officers of the Minnesota Wireless Association are:
- President – Bill ACØW (mwa-pres@w0aa.org)
- Secretary/Treasurer – Chuck KA8HDE
- Directors –
- Al KØAD
- Rich NØHJZ
- Phil KBØNES
- Randy NDØC
- John NIØK
- Jon WØZQ
- MN QSO Party Chairman – Bill ACØW
- To reach the full board of directors use directors@w0aa.org.
MWA Documents
MWA Membership Requirements
MWA members are amateur radio operators interesting in radiosporting and reside in Minnesota or in the region surrounding Minnesota. This region includes the following states and provinces: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Manitoba, and Ontario stations west of 88° west longitude.
Members are expected to be active in club affairs and in radiosporting. Active participation is considered one or more of the following: participation in radiosporting events, submitting contest logs to contest sponsors with Minnesota Wireless Assn in the log as your contest club, attend Club meetings, contribute financially to the Club or be considered a contributor to Club affairs by an officer.
The MWA Board of Directors may designate someone who does not qualify for MWA membership as an Honorary MWA Member. Reasons for recognizing someone with Honorary MWA Membership could include the following: a former MWA member, someone who has preformed special services for MWA or someone who has generally supported or helped MWA in some way. Honorary MWA Members are not eligible for the MWA Club Competition Team or the MWA Pizza Challenge.
Note: Only MWA members that reside or operate within MWA’s Club Competition Circle are eligible to submit scores for MWA and to include MINNESOTA WIRELESS ASSN on the log as their affiliated contest club.
MWA Club Callsign WØAA
The MWA maintains two club callsigns that can be used by its members upon approval by the trustee, Mark WAØMHJ. Please send an email to Mark at w0aa@w0aa.org if you want to use either call for a contest or special event. After using the callsign please submit an ADIF (preferred) or Cabrillo formatted file of the log from your activation to Mark. The callsigns are:
- WØAA Acquired in 1947, first trustee Art Anderson WØZMQ
- KØLD Acquired in 2009, first trustee Glenn Johnson WØGJ
MWA Club Competition Team
MWA Club Competition Team consists of MWA members who reside or operate within MWA’s CQ club competition circle for CQ sponsored contests and within MWA’s ARRL club competition circle for ARRL sponsored events. The CQ club competition circle is a 250 mile radius centered on 46.223° N, 93.540° W (in Lake Mille Lacs). The ARRL club competition circle is 175 mile radius centered at 45.1484° N, 94.0480° W (center of Wright County). Questions about the competition circles can be directed to Bill, ACØW.
When submitting contest logs, Club Competition Team members must list MINNESOTA WIRELESS ASSN as their affiliated contest club for contests that have a club competition. Exception is the Minnesota QSO Party, members shall not list MWA as their affiliated club and instead may list a local club.
MWA Club Competition Team members must operate and submit at least one log each contest season to one of the events in the MWA Pizza Challenge. Failure to submit the minimum one log in a season will result in removal from the Club Competition Team the following season. When the individual becomes active again they can petition MWA’s score keeper or President for reinstatement to the Club Competition Team.
MWA Pizza Challenge
To help improve MWA’s club competition score, to encourage participation in contests, and to have more fun while contesting, MWA hosts the MWA Pizza Challenge. The Pizza Challenge is centered around select contests that have a club competition and the Minnesota QSO Party. For the competition, MWA Club Competition Team members are placed on internal teams to compete against each other during the contest season in select contests. The team winning the Pizza Challenge will have its pizza paid for by the other teams at MWA’s annual fall meeting.
Currently only MWA Club Competition Team members are eligible to participate in the MWA Pizza Challenge. Club Competition Team members must submit their score and log to ARRL, CQ or Minnesota QSO Party for their score to count in the Team Competition.
Contests currently included in the MWA Pizza Challenge are:
CQWW RTTY
CQWW Phone
ARRL SS CW
ARRL SS Phone
CQWW CW
ARRL 160 Meter
ARRL 10 Meter
ARRL RTTY Roundup
Minnesota QSO Party
ARRL International DX CW
ARRL International DX Phone
MWA Email Reflector
The MWA Email Reflector is open to all MWA members and all members are encouraged to join the reflector.
Individuals who do not meet MWA’s membership requirements and are considered friends of MWA, or who have interest or other ties to MWA, may request access to the MWA reflector. The reflector moderator, or MWA’s Board of Directors, will review non-member requests individually for their merit.
The MWA Email Reflector is the primary method for MWA members to communicate with each other, and is the primary method for distributing news and information to MWA members. For details on joining the Email Reflector, go to the Email Reflector subscription page.
Guidelines for MWA Email Reflector Usage.
MWA Meetings
MWA has one major meeting each year. The main meeting is held the Tuesday preceding the CQ WW RTTY Contest in September. This is typlically the 3rd Tuesday of the month. A second meeting is held on a Saturday in early April. The primary method MWA members stay in touch is through the email reflector, mentioned above.