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:
(Date in parenthesis is when current term ends)
- President – Bill ACØW (mwa-pres@w0aa.org) (9-26)
- Secretary/Treasurer – Chuck KA8HDE (9/27)
- Directors –
- John NIØK (9/25)
- Rich NØHJZ (9/25)
- Jon WØZQ (9/26)
- Randy NDØC (9/26)
- Dan WØCN (9/27)
- Al KØAD (9/27)
- 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 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 club competition circle for CQ and ARRL sponsored events. The club competition circle is a 250 mile radius centered on 46.223° N, 93.540° W (in Lake Mille Lacs). 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 contest club for contests that have a club competition.
MWA Club Competition Team members must operate and submit at least one log each contest season to sponsors of one of the events in the MWA Team 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 Team 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 Team Challenge. The Team Challenge is centered around select contests that have a club or team competition and the Minnesota QSO Party. For the competition, MWA Club Competition Team members are placed on five internal teams to compete against each other during the contest season in select contests. Members of the team winning the Team Challenge will receive a first-place medal prior to the start of the next contest season. To qualify to receive a medal team members must submit logs for at least two events to contest sponsors listing Minnesota Wireless Assn as your contest club.
Currently only MWA Club Competition Team members are eligible to participate in the MWA Team Challenge. Club Competition Team members must submit their score and log to the appropriate contest sponsor for their score to count in the Team Competition.
Contests currently included in the MWA Team Challenge are:
- CQWW RTTY
- CQWW Phone
- California QSO Party
- ARRL SS CW
- ARRL SS Phone
- CQWW CW
- ARRL 160 Meter
- ARRL 10 Meter
- ARRL RTTY Roundup
- NAQP CW (January)
- NAQP SSB (January)
- Minnesota QSO Party
- CQ WPX RTTY
- ARRL International DX CW
- ARRL International DX Phone
- CQ WPX SSB
- CQ WPX CW
MWA Get-A-Life Award
The MWA Get-A-Life Award recognizes individuals who operate all contests that are part of the MWA Team Challenge, and therefore really need to get a life away from ham radio. To qualify the individual must make at least 50 QSO’s in each event and submit their log to the contest sponsor with Minnesota Wireless Assn listed as your club. When you participate as part of a multi-operator station you will be assigned a percentage of the Q’s based on the total number of operators at the multi-op. Example 4 operators you will be assigned 25% of the Q’s, 5 operators only 20% of the Q’s. Special consideration may be given if you participate in a multi-op that has a large number of operators and the QSO number assigned falls below the 50 minimum required. The award is a certificate that can be presented in person at the fall meeting or a document that is emailed to the recipient.
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 meeting each year on the Tuesday preceding the CQ WW RTTY Contest in September. This is typically the 3rd Tuesday of the month. The primary method MWA members stay in touch is through the email reflector, mentioned above.