July General Membership meeting
The July General Membership meeting is Friday July 10 at 7:30 PM at Oakton High School in the main cafeteria.
This month’s General Membership Meeting topic: Growing Amateur Radio in Malawi
This month we are fortunate to be joined by Don Jones, 7Q6M (K6ZO) who is supporting efforts to grow the amateur radio hobby in Malawi. Don will talk to us about the work of the Jeffrey Dahn Memorial Foundation to enable the youth of Malawi to Get on the Air! This is a heartwarming activity in the amateur radio world, and you will really enjoy Don’s talk. See below for more details, and for information on how you can help with their goal.
We will also give recognition to those of you who helped make Field Day 2026 a success!
Join us at Oakton High School on Friday July 10 at 7:30 PM in the cafeteria, or via Zoom if you cannot attend in person.
The Zoom link is:
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82991785201?pwd=ZJp0tFWtvXQa5w0zilnBQDRorETsux.1
Meeting ID: 829 9178 5201
Passcode: 385178
Don’t miss it!
Lou
KN4IJC
Here is more info on the Foundation’s efforts:
Jeffrey Dahn Memorial Foundation has been helping grow an amateur radio community in Malawi from the ground up. Bill Perkins KC4D (7Q7WW) has been traveling to Malawi on mission trips with the Presbyterian Church since 2001. In his travels, Bill met Junior Nyirongo, who worked at Embangweni Mission Hospital. In 2009, Bill and Brian Pool 7Q7BP helped Junior Nyirongo become the first Malawian amateur radio operator in the country. In 2017, Bill introduced Don Jones, K6ZO (7Q6M), to Junior Nyirongo, 7Q7JN, and to Embangweni Mission Hospital. Don Jones has made 17 trips to Malawi since 2017. He started teaching amateur radio and STEM to youngsters in 2023. In 2024, the Jeffrey Dahn Memorial Foundation was established to honor Jeff Dahn, KB3ZUK. The foundation educates African youth in STEM and amateur radio. As a result, twenty-four new amateur radio operators have been licensed in Malawi in the last two years. The Foundation is helping these youngsters with school and tuition fees for secondary school and university. The Malawi Amateur Radio Society has been established and will become an IARU member Society later this year. The call sign of the headquarters station will be 7Q0HQ. The CCAP Church in Embangweni, Malawi, has offered us an abandoned cellular radio site for our station and learning center.
Our project this summer is to ship a 20ft sea container full of donations from Baltimore to Malawi. We are looking for radio tower, aluminum tubing, antennas, transceivers, amplifiers, hardline, coax, computers, ham radio accessories, and donations to help cover the cost of shipping the container. Our target ship date is sometime between August 15 to September 15. The costs of shipping a container to Malawi is approximately $5000. Please contact Don Jones at 7q6m.599@gmail.com if you have anything to donate. Donations towards the shipping costs may be made online at https://dahnfoundation.orgor by mail to
Jeffrey Dahn Memorial Foundation
Attn: Don Jones
3130 Wisconsin Ave NW, #723
Washington, DC 20016
Jeffrey Dahn Memorial Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Anyone interested in joining us in Malawi is certainly encouraged to participate!