SEMARC Home Page

SEMARC members: Join us for a new activity known as the "Fireside Chats". We meet virtually on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays. For more information, click here.

Announcing a new event named "Fresh Air Radio" on Saturday, July 31 from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM . We will gather at Fire Station # 3 in Old Cottage Grove located at 7500 75th St. South. This will be our third field event of the season, and an opportunity to gather up your go-kits, ready your portable antennas, charge up the batteries, show up and have some fun with your fellow club members.

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 sponsoring testing opportunities to get your amateur radio license with our volunteer examiner team.

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 operate during the annual amateur radio "Field Day" in June. We also have special events like Fox Hunts, and Special Events such as commemorating the U.S.S. Ward naval ship

SEMARC is proud to offer a $1000 scholarship in support of a local high school senior who is a licensed amateur radio operator and will be attending a two-year or four-year technical school, college or university. For more information visit our Scholarship page.

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 educational or simply entertaining.

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

*Meetings are currently conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visitors should contact the Secretary to be notified of meeting access. In-person meetings are planned to restart in August.

You can follow us on Twitter at WØCGM.

Link to Membership Application