Special operating events are a lot of fun, both for the station operators themselves and other hams who work them. The 13 Colonies Special Event, for example, attracts thousands of participants, who search the bands for stations operating from the 13 original U.S. colonies.
If you or your club are looking for an opportunity to set up a special event, consider the International Museums Weekends (IMW), which takes place on the third and fourth weekend in June every year. That makes this year’s dates June 19-20 and June 26-27.
According the event’s website:
The intention of the event is to set up amateur radio special event stations at as many of the museums as possible throughout the whole of the world. I would hope for an HF, VHF, and if at all possible, a Ui-View (APRS) packet station to be set up at each museum site, but the scope of your station is entirely up to you. The choice of museum is also left very much up to you, however aim for the largest and/or most unusual site you can find.
The museums taking part over the years have included ships, castles, air museums, Napoleonic forts, pumping stations, wireless museums, racing museums and many others. For the purposes of the event, the word ‘museum’ is loosely interpreted. There really is no shortage of venues in which such an event can be staged, no matter where in the world you might live.
During the first IMW in 2002′ over 80 museums from all over the world took part. The museums varied from tiny local village museums manned by a single lone operator, to some of the worlds most prestigious ones. These were accompanied by a great number of military museum sites, such as HMS Belfast in London, RAF museums, and the Battleship New Jersey in the U.S.
Setting up your IMW special event stations
There are several web pages that have information on how to set up special event stations in general, including:
I won’t cover that here, but I will say a few words about setting up a station for this event in particular:
- The intent of International Museums Weekend is to set up your station at a museum. Your museum of choice may not yet be open to the public, though. That being the case, you can operate your special event from your home. Not only that, you may have multiple operators, all operating from home.
- If you have a museum that you or your club are already affiliated with, choosing a museum is easy. Our club has a station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, so our special event station will be set up to promote the Hands-On Museum. If you’re not affiliated with a museum, you could approach a museum in your area, and propose the special event station to them. If they’re open, you could set up at the museum. If not, then you can still operate from home.
- Apply for a special-event call sign. FCC rules allow you to obtain 1×1 call signs for special event stations. Five coordinators (ARRL, W5YI Group Inc, Western Carolina Amateur Radio Society/VEC Inc, W4VEC Volunteer Examiners Club of America and the Laurel Amateur Radio Club Inc) are authorized to assign these call signs.
- To register your special event station, go to the IMW website. One reason that you’ll want to register is so that stations that contact you are eligible for IMW awards.
Often, you hear special event stations working chasers one right after the other, DX style. I’d suggest that you’ll have more fun if you take a few minutes to actually chat with each station you contact. Mention something about the museum that you’re representing and about the awards that are available to them if they work at least 5 museum stations.
Let’s make this event bigger and better than ever. For more information on the International Museums Weekends, visit their website.
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