On May 4, 8, and 9, 2020 SEMARC commemorated the USS Ward with a special event NØW (Navy zero Ward).
The USS Ward fired the first shot by the United States in the Pacific War prior to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.

A QSL certificate for stations contacting NØW will be available here soon.

For more information about the special event NØW and the USS Ward visit click here.

The Volunteer Examiner test session scheduled for Saturday, May 16 is CANCELED.

Please check back to this page again for the latest information about our test sessions in the future.

SEMARC is a general interest amateur radio club based in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, devoted to serving its members and the amateur radio community in general. It is affiliated with ARRL (The National Association for Amateur Radio) and supports the programs of that association.

The club has programs that support the community as with our youth education and student scholarship program, public service and emergency communications, participating with the Washington County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) organization as a partner with the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association (SARA), and providing testing opportunities to get your amateur radio license with our volunteer examiner teams.

Our public service participation includes special events for the city of Cottage Grove. In the past our members have participated in "Darien's Dash", "The Woodbury Country Mile", "Strawberry Fest", National Night Out and other charitable events requiring radio communications.

The club maintains three repeaters on the 2 meter band. The first is 146.985 with standard (-) offset and no access tone. The transmitter is located in Hastings, MN and the receiver is in Cottage Grove, MN. The second is 147.180 with standard (+) offset and access tone of 74.4 Hz for FM and DCS 023 for digital. The third is 147.180 with a standard (+) offset and access tone of 100 Hz located in Forest Lake. The pair of 147.180 repeaters is used during ARES callouts and may not be available for general amateur use during those times. Otherwise all amateur operators have use of our repeaters.

For fun, we have special events like Fox Hunts, an annual Special Event commemorating the U.S.S. Ward naval ship, and we operate during the annual amateur radio "Field Day" in June.

Meetings are held at 7:00 p.m. on the last Tuesday of the month from February through November at the Zion Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove. The club draws members primarily from South Washington and Northern Dakota Counties but everyone is welcome. Our meetings include a short business meeting and programs that are either educational or entertaining.

Join us for our monthly breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on the 3rd Saturday at the North Pole Restaurant in Newport.