Southwest Iowa Amateur Radio Club (SWIARC Inc.) is just the current name of the guys in Council Bluffs. Leo Meyerson WØGFQ (SK) recalled the club doing Field Day up at Fairmount Park, a 140 ft Loess Hill in the middle of town overlooking the Missouri River and Omaha to the West, before the war. Leo ran Scientific Radio during the war, later to become World Radio Labs; and started making GLOBE radios in the 1950s (sold to Textron Bell in Chicago). Then he made GALAXY radios (think Galaxy V Mark II, the Amateur equivalent of a COLLINS KWM-2) and sold that to Hy-Gain in 1970. The other Leo – KØJIU – put up the first repeater in this area using Motorola parts, and ran the transmitter from his house on South 1st St with a receiver, also a Motorola, at the base of the 120 ft blue water tower near St. Albert High School on Gleason Ave where our UHF .225 is now. (That’s the way they did it in the old days, used Motorola equipment with wires shoved in here and there to make it work like a repeater instead of transceiver.)

SWIARC used to be called – take a breath – the Radio Communication and Electronic Training Club of Southwest Iowa when Don WAØDEI who taught out at Iowa Western Community College was a key member. Let’s not forget Fred KØFG ex WBØBLR and younger Paul WBØGXD who also helped with the club. And Terry KSØL, oh we could go on and on . . .

We’ve always met at the Red Cross wherever that was, and since Leo KØJIU relinquished the frequency to us, run the 146.82 R- KØSWI (ex WRØACE) 2M repeater. He used to run 220-250 watts on a 2 ceramic tube Motorola turned down from 500. After Leo relinquished it to us, the repeater was at Paul WBØGXD’s house on a high hill North of Broadway, and then out at IWCC at 170 on their 330 foot tower. We’re using a 50 watt Yaesu 7000 Vertex turned down to 7.5 watt into a 100 watt Henry amp, soon from John KBØQKH’s house near the previous Simms St site. The system is open for use by all licensed Amateur radio operators except during ARES and club nets.

We currently are sponsoring two additional repeaters in addition to the 146.82 repeater. They are 442.225 located in Council Bluffs, and 442.075 located near Minden. The 442.225 repeater is a Yaesu fusion system with internet connectivity via WIRES X. The Minden site also supports an APRS station.

Dues are $20 per calendar year for adults and $10 for students.  Our repeaters have always been free to all. If you are interested in joining please contact any of our members.