What Amateur Radio Clubs are Most Recommended?

[K9RNW]

Howdy everyone. I am in the NW suburbs (Palatine), and wondering what local clubs are most "worth" joining. I shuffle between my home in Palatine, and my long-term girlfriend's in Mundelein, so either area is OK. I haven't been an active ham for going on nearly 10 years. I received my license in 2008, had a brief stint of operating, because as fate would have it, my freshman year roommate was the only other license ham in the dorm

I am really considering getting back into amateur radio as a hobby, because I am regaining some interest now that I am a young professional a little over 30 years old. I am also pretty interested in emergency management and weather type (SkyWarn) facets of radio. Always having been a Civil Defense, outdoor warning siren, and radio nerd, the Palatine and Lake County RACES organizations have caught my eye. Although it looks like the biggest clubs are the NSRC, and Schaumburg ARC, at least according to ARRL numbers. Would prefer it if there were a decent number of fellow members in my age bracket. Interested in hearing what everyone has to say.

 

[KC5AKB]

Did you keep your license renewed?
Would be my first question. You can look it up many ways the fcc www.qrz.com and many others. I can not help with a club recommendation. I am in Texas.

 

[K9RNW]

Did you keep your license renewed?
Would be my first question. You can look it up many ways the fcc www.qrz.com and many others. I can not help with a club recommendation. I am in Texas.

Hello! Yes, I renewed it before it was set to expire.

 

[KC5AKB]

Nice !!

 

[W9WSS]

If you haven't already used this utility, it will be worthwhile to find something local to you:

Search for ARRL Affiliated Clubs

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.

www.arrl.org

 

[K9RNW]

If you haven't already used this utility, it will be worthwhile to find something local to you:

Search for ARRL Affiliated Clubs

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.

www.arrl.org

Thanks! Saw that actually. Still interested in the subjective opinions of the crowd, though!

 

[N9JCQ]

I was a member of NSRC for many years. It is/was a great group of people who have varied interests in different aspects of ham radio. You might pop in to a few meetings to gauge how you like them. The also have a weekly net on Thursday evenings. I cannot speak tp the age range as I have not been to the meetings in a while. I wouldn't let age be an issue. It never was for me even when I was in my 30s.

 

[kk9h]

Hi. I am a current member of the NSRC. I agree with N9JCQ’s recommendation. Come to a meeting and meet us. Our meetings are held at the Heller Nature Center off Ridge Rd. just north of Rte. 22 in Highland Park. We meet there around 7:00pm on the second Tuesday of each month with two exceptions, July and September. In July we have our annual Fox Hunt starting at the Starbucks at The Glen in Glenview. In September we have our QRP night in Emily Oaks park in Skokie. Our weekly net is on 442.725+ (PL 114.8) on Thursday nights at 8:00pm. The club website is www.ns9rc.org and brief information can be found by looking up NS9RC on QRZ.com.

 

[Awesomeman92]

I'm a member of the Hoffman Estates EMA and we're working on getting our emergency radio team better equipped and bigger. We're currently working on getting HF capability in the EOC which has been years in the making, we're just waiting on a couple parts to come in and finding time to get up on the roof. We also do the typical EMA things like damage assessments, public education events, some traffic control, etc. whenever the police department requests us (our still relatively new chief is a huge supporter of our group). We have a great group of people and even though she isn't a ham herself a super supportive coordinator. EMA itself meets mostly monthly typically on a Tuesday night (although it fluctuates with people's availability), and we're going to try to do monthly emergency radio team meetings on a Saturday morning.

 

[K9RNW]

I'm a member of the Hoffman Estates EMA and we're working on getting our emergency radio team better equipped and bigger. We're currently working on getting HF capability in the EOC which has been years in the making, we're just waiting on a couple parts to come in and finding time to get up on the roof. We also do the typical EMA things like damage assessments, public education events, some traffic control, etc. whenever the police department requests us (our still relatively new chief is a huge supporter of our group). We have a great group of people and even though she isn't a ham herself a super supportive coordinator. EMA itself meets mostly monthly typically on a Tuesday night (although it fluctuates with people's availability), and we're going to try to do monthly emergency radio team meetings on a Saturday morning.

Very cool. Do you know how active the Palatine RACES/ARES group is compared to HE's? Do they work together closely, or not so much?

 

[Awesomeman92]

Do you know how active the Palatine RACES/ARES group is compared to HE's? Do they work together closely, or not so much?

From what I’ve been told Palatine’s team has effectively been disbanded. IIRC there was a change in leadership and that function was no longer seen as necessary and equipment removed. Again, take that with a grain of salt, but that’s from a source who would know. I don’t have any inside information beyond that. We do still have some contacts from up that way and work with them occasionally on bigger things like the Chicagoland Marathon in May.

I’m not sure if their ham repeater is still active or not. Actually not sure if their part 90 repeater is either, it’s low power and I have trouble getting it at home so I don’t think I have it scanning in my radios.