Detroit Lakes Amateur Radio Club installs commemorative plaque to Mark Knutson on their Detroit Mountain radio repeater

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – This summer the Detroit Lakes Amateur Radio Club installed a repeater on the top of Detroit Mountain, which extended the local ham radio operators reach four fold.

On Thursday, Oct. 26, local radio club installed a commemorative plaque on that repeater dedicated to Mark Knutson, the Detroit Mountain general manager who was killed in a bicycle crash in July, since he was instrumental in cooperating with the group to allow them to install their antenna at the Mountain.

The local amateur radio club was established in 1975 by Robert John of Detroit Lakes, who’s radio handle was WB0FVL

John was a Motorola repairman and his initial repeater was installed on the mountain nearly 50 years ago. That repeater has moved to various locations over the decades, but, in March 2023, members of Detroit Mountain, the city of Detroit Lakes and members of the DL Amateur Radio Club met to see if the mountain would be willing to let them install their mountain top repeater once again.

On July 13, the new repeater was installed on the Mountain’s west peak.

Derek Oldenburger, president of the amateur radio club, said, before they moved the repeater, the operators were only able to reach a broadcast radius of about 15 miles. Now, with the repeater placed back on top of the mountain, local ham operators can reach past Fargo, Wadena, Brainerd and even Hilsboro, N.D.

He said he got into amateur radio in high school and loves fixing up old WWII radio equipment.

“I got interested in high school and I’ve always enjoyed refurbishing old WWII radio equipment,” said Oldenburger. “Ham radio is a very diverse hobby. There’s a lot of things for different people. Some people like to talk to stations in Europe and that’s called D-X-ing. Some people like to work with equipment, that’s what I like to do and some people like to operate radios in their car. Many different things.”

Shaun Carlson, club member and alderman first ward in Detroit Lakes, said he got into amateur radio because of his father in-law, but what really set the hook on him was when he was able to contact an extraterrestrial one afternoon.

“Last summer, we were driving up to Wirt, my father-in-law and I, and one other guy,” said Carlson. “So I had put my mobile rig into my father-in-law’s car and that day the space station was flying over. And I don’t know if you know this, but there is an amateur radio repeater on the space station … the third pass that day, it was the middle of the afternoon … but I heard callsign NA1ISS, welcome to the ISS, and I was like, that’s the space station. And there was a pause for a minute and then I went NA1ISS, KF0IBC and it came back KF0IBC, NA1ISS, welcome to the space station, five by nine, good signal, and I said, ‘great, thanks for being there, that’s awesome.’ KF0IBC clear, 73, that’s kind of the short code. And off we went … and people try to do this all the time and here I am just driving down the road in a car by chance. So that’s my favorite story.”

The group said starter ham radio sets can be purchased for as little as $50, but, they warned, the hobby can get addictive, which can lead to bigger radio sets and equipment very easily.

The Detroit Lakes Amateur Radio Club meets in-person on the third Saturday of each month at the Holiday Inn at 9 a.m. Anyone with questions about ham radio, or looking to join the club, is encouraged to stop by the meeting.

The group also holds a weekly squawking session on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on the club’s net channel of 147.195 MHz. Any ham operator or visitor is encouraged to check-in during their Sunday night sessions.