Sangamon Valley Radio Club to Sponsor Radio Orienteering Activities

San Diego, CA, August 04, 2022 --(PR.com)-- Radio orienteering, also known as amateur radio direction finding (ARDF), is an international sport in which participants use handheld directional radio receivers, a compass, a map, and radio direction finding skills to search for transmitters operating in the 2-meter and 80-meter bands. Relying on their athletic, orienteering and technical skills, they attempt to locate up to 5 low power transmitters and get to the finish line first.

While the sport is very popular in Europe, as well as parts of Asia, growth in the United States and Canada has been slow. There are two main reasons for this: the lack of youth involvement and the availability of affordable equipment. With a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the Sangamon Valley Radio Club in Springfield, IL hopes to remedy that situation. With a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the club will purchase transmitters, controllers, receivers, maps, and other items needed to conduct successful radio orienteering events.

In addition, the club will hold several events for SVRC members and local youth groups such as Scouts and Civil Air Patrol. The events will allow the participants to learn the technical and outdoor skills needed to succeed in radio orienteering. The club plans to conduct at least two events this summer and fall and conduct a full series of events in 2023.

Once the club has held several successful events, they plan to publish a list of equipment other clubs would need and offer some guidance on how to hold radio orienteering events. This information will help clubs that want to get involved in radio orienteering. They are also exploring the possibility of establishing and maintaining a pool of equipment that can be made available to other clubs wanting to conduct their own events.

About the Sangamon Valley Radio Club
Headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, the Sangamon Valley Radio Club (SVRC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that draws its membership primarily from Sangamon County in Central Illinois and from nearby communities. The club offers a wide range of activities and services, including monthly meetings, amateur radio license classes and testing, technical information, nets, social events, mentoring programs, and emergency and public service communications. For more information about SVRC, go to http://svrc.org.

About ARDC
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is a California-based foundation with roots in amateur radio and the technology of internet communication. The organization got its start by managing the AMPRNet address space, which is reserved for licensed amateur radio operators worldwide. Additionally, ARDC makes grants to projects and organizations that follow amateur radio’s practice and tradition of technical experimentation in both amateur radio and digital communication science. Such experimentation has led to advances that benefit the general public, including the mobile phone and wireless internet technology. ARDC envisions a world where all such technology is available through open source hardware and software, and where anyone has the ability to innovate upon it. To learn more about ARDC, please visit https://www.ampr.org.