Greetings!

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Did you know we are getting high numbers of new licensees in OR lately? From March 17 through April 20, there were 85 new licensees. What a great time to get on the air locally and welcome the new ops and give them a chance to test out their new equipment, meet other ops and elmers, overcome some mic fright, and just have fun. As many of you know, I do a lot of portable operations. One struggle in S. OR is trying to reach anyone locally on 2m simplex such as 146.52. It's basically dead in much of S. OR. Why? This is typically the starting point for new operators and a great way to keep in touch with locals as well as see what your equipment can do, be it an HT or base station, instead of what a repeater can do for you. I see announcements of the excitement of recent youth getting their license, but did you know some of them have? been calling into space with little response, not because of their equipment, but no one is listening? Let's change this!

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I present "Battle of the Band" Summer 2m Challenge to all of the S. OR clubs. June 1- August 31st lets take on the challenge of trying to reach more ops on 2m and show our friendly ham community to the newcomers, young and old. Attached are a few details and a score sheet for everyone willing to participate. All you have to do is listen more, get 146.52 in your scan, call out more at home or mobile, respond more-even if it's just an RST and your name. How many unique ops can you get? How many qsos can your club get? Did you work a new mode on 2m? What is your furthest 2m contact during the summer 2025? A great activity if going on a trip too! I look forward to seeing the results! If you have any questions let me know.

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73 and Good luck,

Amy-AG7GP

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You can use any 2m frequency but these are the most common:?

2m FM 146.52, 146.58???? 2m SSB 144.200????? 2m CW 144.100

Net Control Operator qsos from a simplex net are excluded, but nothing wrong with doing a round robin after to see who wants to talk to who! Great Practice!