The idea for the Masonic Lodges on the Air Contest grew out of the realization that many Freemasons have a love for Amateur Radio. Our own lodge has at least 5 HAMs who are active members of the lodge as well. Inspired by what the folks over at the Portage County Radio Club did with the Ohio State Parks on the Air, we crafted an idea to start a new contest to see how many Masonic Lodges we might be able to contact in a day. We first thought it would be limited to Ohio, but why stop there? 2021 is the first year for this event, and hopefully not the last!
Submitted by mastermason on Sun, 02/12/2023 - 09:04
Long delay in getting this update pushed out. I'll definitely be seeking more help in the coming year to review and post updates:
Multi-Op/Multi-Transmitter operating from a Masonic Lodge
WC3PS - Westmoreland Emergency Amateur Radio Service, Inc. operating from King Solomon Lodge No. 346 in the Grand Lodge Of Pennsylvania
Multi-Op/Single-Transmitter operating from a Masonic Lodge
Submitted by mastermason on Sun, 09/25/2022 - 09:45
The antennas, radios, and power supplies are all stowed away until the next field event, and I honestly feel like the event grew tremendously this year. Through everyone's hard work at promoting the event through social media, news outlets, both Amateur Radio and Masonic publications, and word of mouth, we saw an amazing spike in the number of lodges being reported in some of the DX clusters and spotter networks. It was a great feeling to have contacted so many more lodges than last year.
Submitted by mastermason on Tue, 08/30/2022 - 21:46
For the benefit of everyone not on facebook, I have stood up a mailing list for the MLOTA event. At the present time, I have everyone joining initially flagged as moderated. I'll open those accounts up as people post (to weed out spamming). The mailman reflector is here: https://webhost1.aktionhosting.com/mailman/listinfo/mlota
Submitted by mastermason on Sun, 08/28/2022 - 08:27
Thanks to Bob Holstrom for sharing this event his group is hiolding at the historic DeWint House in Tappan, NY. Is you lodge planning an openhouse or special event for the day? Let us know!
Submitted by mastermason on Sat, 08/27/2022 - 12:45
We are just under 4 weeks out from the second annual Masonic Lodges on the Air event, and the brothers of Fulton Lodge 248 are starting to get excited about participating. A quick shout-out is in order to John over at the ARRL for showcasing our event in the League newsletter as well (ARRL article here). I will be working to get a few updates to reporting after the event very shortly here.
Submitted by mastermason on Sun, 02/06/2022 - 16:34
The posting on this is long overdue as we wanted to give as much time as possible for log files to roll in. Many lessons were learned as part of our first time hosting a contest, and we are already preparing for electronic submission of scores to make it more convenient.
On that note, we want to congratulate the MML category winners WC3PS The Westmoreland Emergency Amateur Radio Service for activating Philanthropy Lodge #225 in Greensburg PA, part of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania and making 109 QSOs, including 4 lodges for a combined score of 436.
Submitted by mastermason on Mon, 10/11/2021 - 22:07
Hi folks, sorry for the delay in update, we have received several logs so far, and I would be glad to accept a few more through October. If you have an opportunity to send in your entries to logs@cqmorelight.com please do. Examples of the summary file can be found here http://cqmorelight.com/resources
Submitted by mastermason on Sat, 09/25/2021 - 21:33
Well, mostly in the books anyhow. We have a few weeks to get logs submitted and results posted. The group at Fulton 248 had a splendid time setting up and spending the day running radios, band conditions could have been more in our favor, but all in all, I think the first year for this was better than we hoped for. There are ideas in the works to continue to promote the event. We'll also be standing up a mail list/reflector to keep people better informed, as well as offer a platform to share ideas.
Submitted by mastermason on Sun, 05/09/2021 - 17:36
This contest is still very much in the early planning stages, but we have marked a date we want to attempt this on. September 25, 2021 will be the first ever (that we know of) Masonic Lodges on the Air contest, a.k.a. CQ More Light!
The goal is simple, activate as many Masonic Lodges as possible and try to log a QSO with them. More rules and scoring will be forthcoming, but for now, know that the date for this is intended to be the Saturday of (or immediately following) the Autumnal Equinox. You do not need to be a Freemason to participate in this contest, in fact, we would encourage any Masonic Lodge to open their doors (or property) to host an event with local HAMs.
Keep checking back as we expand into Social Media and provide further content related to the upcoming contest.
