Special Event Station K2V at the National Speleological Society Annual Convention

21-28 June, 2025
Cobleskill, NY, USA
The National Speleological Society (NSS) is the preeminent organization in the US supporting scientific and recreational cave exploration. Interesting caves are often located in areas with poor to non-existant communications infrastructure, so Cavers have long had a close association with Amateur Radio. From casual "I'm out of the cave, should be home in three hours" messages to full SAR EmComm callouts, Hams and Cavers are a natural fit.

The NSS has an annual convention in different locations each year, and at each convention the National Speleological Society Amateur Radio Club, K7NSS, runs a SpecialEvents Station to try to make the caving and amateurradio communities more aware of each other. We contact Hams on air and chat with them about caving, and we have 'eyeball QSOs' with many of the thousand-plus convention attendees. We tell them what we are doing, show them the equipment and QSL cards, and talk with them about how having a few properly equipped Hams on their exploration teams can make them safer and more effective in the field. And of course we nudge them to get certified themselves.

Our station is usually the busiest on the first Saturday and Sunday of convention (21 and 22 June this year), but we try to get on at various times over the following week. We can't really predict the times or exact frequencies we'll be on; we mostly use SSB phone on 20M and 40M, but we have some folks who will set up for CW or digital modes. Take a look on 7.050, 7.195, 14.050, and 14.285, but please check the spotting clusters for real-time details.

We also have a tradition of sending Caving-themed physical QSL cards to all on-air contacts that have their information posted here, and we really like receiving QSL cards to show cavers the wide variety of Hams we contact.