St. Charles in Winona County, Minnesota, opened itself to the world Aug. 6 representing the state and its volunteers in the ARRL Volunteers On The Air (VOTA) event. Winona Amateur Radio Club operated once again as W1AW/Ø as part of VOTA that runs throughout the year.

The club had two two hour time slots on Sunday afternoon from 2000-2200z (that’s 3–5 p.m. for you local types) operating 20 meter digital and 40 meter phone at WØVTT’s marvelous station just outside St. Charles. At least half a dozen club members expressed interest in the event but when the time came, only two showed up, Bob Seaquist, W9LSE, handled
40m SSB with WØVTT while Dan Goltz, WKØW, ran 20m FT4 and FT8.

Contacts were a little slow on phone, but Dan had a steady stream of callers on digi with many calling in from Europe. The team had a total of 172 QSOs, evenly split with 86 each on phone and digi.

No event at WØVTT is complete without food! After operating, we headed to the Good Sport Bar & Grill in St Charles for a celebratory meal with some cold 807s.