Spring 2007 Issue

The Central States
VHF Society
What It Can Do for You

Former Central States VHF Society president and AMSAT-NA president Bill Tynan, W3XO, tells the fascinating story of the history of the grandfather of regional VHF societies. He concludes his story with an invitation to this summer’s annual conference.


By Bill Tynan, W3XO

Erv Beemer, K8EB, checks his 2.3 and 3.4 dish on the CSVHFS antenna range.

Are you active on 6 and 2 meters or the higher bands? Are you just beginning to think about venturing into these fascinating portions of the RF spectrum? In either case, the Central States VHF Society (CSVHFS) can be of great help to you. Its annual conferences provide a wealth of information for anyone involved in the VHF, UHF, or microwave frequencies.

CSVHFS is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the organizations dedicated to promoting activity on the bands above 50 MHz. Groups that have been around even longer include the Mount Airy VHF Society (otherwise known as the “Pack Rats”) and the Rochester VHF Society in western New York. Other regional groups in the northeast, southeast, and West Coast hold VHF conferences. In addition, Microwave Update has become popular with those with a special interest in the upper reaches of the radio spectrum. All of these organizations and their meetings are worthy and deserve support, but this article will feature the Central States VHF Society and its upcoming 2007 conference.

CSVHFS Through the Years

The Central States VHF Society began informally in the mid-1960s with a relatively small group of Midwest VHF hams who regularly got together on 75 meters to commiserate about their separation from the rest of the VHF fraternity on the east and west coasts of the U.S. and to discuss the greater distances they had to span to make QSOs and collect states.

In the summer of 1965, Bill Smith, KØCER, invited a group of these Midwest VHFers to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Those who attended this first get-together didn’t call it a conference and didn’t form an organization. It was merely a bunch of hams with similar interests and problems meeting to swap ideas and stories about operation on what was then considered the really high bands, 144 and 432 megacycles. They hadn’t yet started calling them megahertz.
The following year, another informal gathering was held, this time in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. Again, no thought was given to forming a permanent, formal organization. However, by 1967 it was perceived that regular annual gatherings should be held and an organization, to be called the Central States VHF Society, should be formed. A general chairman and several committee chairmen were selected and a conference was called for August 19 and 20 at the Western Hills Lodge, Sequoyah State Park, near Wagoner, Oklahoma. Those dates were selected to follow the Perseids meteor shower so attendees could swap stories about what they worked and didn’t work during this major meteor shower. Some 125 hams from 19 states and seven call areas descended on that beautiful location. Technical talks were supplemented by antenna tests, laying the groundwork for one of the most popular activities at succeeding CSVHFS conferences.

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