K5MI
Marco Island Radio Club
Who we are
About the club
Our mission
MarcoHams is dedicated to community safety and technical excellence on Marco Island. Our mission is twofold: to maintain a resilient communication network prepared for emergency deployment, and to preserve radio skills by fostering innovation, technical education, and mentorship for amateur radio operators.
History
MarcoHams got its start the way many good things on Marco Island do — over lunch.
Around 1997, a few hams on the island got acquainted: Steve Kahn (later K5MIF), Karl Geng (N1DL), and Paul Paulsen (KJ5CB), along with Steve's wife Donna (later K4MIF). Wondering who else on the island shared the hobby, Donna wrote to every licensee in the FCC database with a Marco Island address, inviting them to gather. The first meeting was held at Porky's restaurant, and the group kept meeting every two weeks from there.
In those early days we were never really a club — just "the lunch bunch." We exchanged ideas, helped one another with antenna and tower projects, and slowly found more hams by publishing the time and place of our lunches in the island's free newspapers. There was talk once of forming an official 501(c)(3) tax-exempt club, but most of us weren't eager for the red tape and tax filings, so we chose to stay informal and keep doing what we enjoyed.
The lunch bunch accomplished plenty anyway. Our Technician and General license classes, held at the Civil Air Patrol building on Marco Island Airport, licensed more than a hundred new hams over the years before our schedules got too busy to continue. We set up Field Day stations in parks around the island, and staffed a booth at the Marco Hurricane Awareness event at Mackle Park.
Today, MarcoHams is still meeting every Thursday for lunch and still on the air, mentoring islanders in ham radio and licensing — carrying the lunch bunch tradition forward.
Get involved
Meetings and membership
Meetings
We meet every Thursday at 11:30 AM for lunch, presently at the Speakeasy, located at 1106 N Collier Blvd, Marco Island.
Membership
Show up to the MarcoHams lunch and see Jim K3AVR or Mike KM4MI for membership details.