By Special Invitation from BRARA
BART JAHNKE W9JJ
ARRL LEAD PERSON FOR Logbook of The World (LoTW)
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2025
6:30 PM (SPEAKER AT 7PM)
Henry Seidner WA2ROA has invited GCARA to attend in person or on ZOOM, their monthly meetings.
Here is a link for a new user guide for LoTW https://www.g4ifb.com/LoTW_New_User_Guide.pdf
BRARA meets at:
WEST BOCA BRANCH LIBRARY
18685 STATE RD 7
BOCA RATON, FL 33498
ZOOM INFO: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86552555294?pwd=Q0FWTFhXT3NMbXhkSzVaRzJNYUlrdz09#success
Meeting ID: 865 5255 5294
Passcode: 123456
Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, started Amateur Radio in his late teens in 1978, becoming a Novice as KA9DLH in January 1979. Taking all the remaining license exam levels at the FCC Field Office in St Paul Minnesota, he upgraded to Tech, Tech Plus, General, Advanced (with call sign change to KB9NM), and to Extra by late 1980. Perusing the Callbooks for unassigned 1×2 calls (didn’t everyone back then?), he later became W9JJ in FCC Vanity Gate 2 in November 1996. W9JJ was the secondary call of local club friend, Bob Baird, W9NN.
Bart grew up on a Dairy Farm in Wausau WI, from a high perch on the hills outside of town. Finding that VHF Weak Signal operating was an exciting challenge and finding that the farm hilltop location afforded extraordinary line of sight, tropo, meteor scatter, aurora and EME opportunities on the horizon, Bart was hooked on VHF/UHF and above DXing. Bart worked many states on VHF on 6, 2, 220 and 432 MHz back then – with 43 states worked on 2 meters in just a couple years from the farm.
My HF’ing was reserved for Field Day, Sweepstakes. But HF and VHF operations continued as guest op visits to the Wisconsin W0AIH/9 & W0AA Farm, as well as the K9IMM and AD9W VHF Multiop Teams.
In 1985, after graduating from Tech School with an ASEE, Bart saw an ad in QST for the position of Repeater Directory Editor which paved a road to his future at ARRL. During his early days at ARRL Bart traveled with the W1XX VHF Hill-topping Team (including operating from the roof at 4U1UN) and he has participated in several VHF/UHF Hilltop Contests with W2SZ/1 FN32 Mt Greylock Team (www.mgef.org), as well as operations from W1AW.
Since these earlier years, building a home station at 3 different locations over time never got me to the station configuration I desired. BUT with the advent of more automations, even remote operations are available to me today. Consider remote operations for your own station challenges (from HF to low microwaves).
Bart has been with ARRL in several different roles. Primarily:
- 1985-1989 Repeater Directory Editor and Contest/Regulatory Assistant
- 1989-2005 ARRL VEC Manager
- 2016-2019 Contest Program Manager
- 2019-present, Radiosport and Regulatory Information Manager (interim Field Services Manager), then more recently Radiosport and Regulatory Information Manager. My present role also includes extensive lead LoTW support.
Bart has been a presenter at several VHF Conferences, Hamfests and Conventions discussing Contesting, Regulatory Information (Volunteer Monitoring) and Radiosport, and enjoys working the Hamfest Booths to assist ARRL Members (and prospective members) in their enjoyment of Amateur Radio.
Bart W9JJ, and his wife Sabrina (KC1JMW), live near Willimantic, CT