JULY 2012 SECTION NEWS – Eastern Massachusetts ARRL

ARRL EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION  

Section Manager (SM) - Phil Temples, K9HI 
Assistant Section Manager (ASM) – Jeremy Breef-Pilz, KB1REQ 
Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC) - "Bo" Budinger, WA1QYM 
Official Observer Coordinator (OOC) - Ed Parish, K1EP 
Public Information Coordinator (PIC) - Bob Salow, WA1IDA 
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) - Rob Macedo, KD1CY 
Section Traffic Manager (STM) – Marcia Forde, KW1U 
State Government Liaison (SGL) - Shawn O'Donnell, K3HI 
Technical Coordinator (TC) - Eric Falkof, K1NUN  


JULY 2012 SECTION NEWS

Field Day is now history. I hope that everyone had an opportunity to
participate from a site, or to get on the home station and make some
contacts. Field Day is our time to shine, to "strut our stuff" to the
general public. 

Many clubs took advantage of good opportunities to obtain media
coverage on local radio, TV, print, and online newspapers. In the
coming weeks, my Public Information Coordinator and I will tabulate a
list of the stories to share with everyone. In the meantime, I've
prepared a brief report of my personal visits to the various Field Day
sites, complete with photos. See <http://ema.arrl.org/node/1959>.

The Eastern and Western Massachusetts ARRL Sections owe a debt of
gratitude to Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, N1UIU, and LGL W4RIG
for securing from Governor Deval Patrick's office an official document
proclaiming June 23-30, 2012 as Amateur Radio Week in the
Commonwealth!

During the summer months, many radio clubs take breaks and cancel their
July and August meetings. Could you please confirm your meeting
schedules with my Affiliated Club Coordinator, WA1QYM and me? We'd like
to make sure that meeting information is current on the Eastern MA
Events Calendar, located at <http://tinyurl.com/37kk64y> also located
on the ema.arrl.org home page. (Sorry, it's only editable by a few web
administrators.)

Quannapowitt RA members were saddened to hear of the recent passing of
Aubrey "Randy" Bishop, Jr., KB1EDJ of Georgetown.

KB1OIQ has released version 11 of his remastered Ubuntu Linux 11.10 CD,
customized for Amateur Radio users. Andy says, "The CD can be booted as
a live CD, and it also contains programs to install the software onto a
hard drive or USB thumb drive for future booting." He's included a wide
variety of useful Amateur Radio software. To download, visit
<http://tinyurl.com/3pxtznf>.

An ARRL Affiliated Club application was received and approved this
month for the Walpole Emergency Communications Association.

Boxboro Convention is looking for volunteers to assist the organizing
committee during the weekend of August 24-26.  Volunteer shifts are
limited to two hours, leaving plenty of time to enjoy the convention. 
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Tom Walsh at
<k1tw@arrl.net>.

His fellow members awarded a personalized gavel and gift certificate to
long-time, outgoing Framingham ARA president Gordy Bello, K1GB.
Congrats, Gordy, for your many years of service to FARA!

K1KI reports "really good progress" for the testing of WRTC-2014 during
the upcoming 2012 IARU HF Championships, July 13-15. Says Tom, "The plan
is to put 15 stations on the air the full 24 hours from 12 different
properties, all close to I-495 around Boston." They will be evaluating
each of the sites compared to each other. The effort has fielded
approximately 100 volunteers from a wide variety of clubs.

Southeastern MA ARA members mourn the loss of Silent Key Carl Bredberg,
K1KID of Wareham.

W1DAN recently gave an excellent presentation to members of the
Wellesley ARS on the National Radio HRO-7 (circa 1948). Dan explained
the unique mechanical features of this locally made radio series.

Massasoit ARA members will help provide communications for a Triathlon
at Camp Yomechas on July 8.

N1ZZN and KB1MOC have been busy setting up radio equipment for use in
the Hanson Emergency Operations Center.

The Town of Bridgewater is in the process of renovating its EOC in the
Academy Building within the coming year – an 18- to 24-month process.
All equipment will have to be moved to a temporary location at the old
McElwin Elementary School. N1FY plans to install an antenna there for
the MEMA transceiver in the interim. Other antennas will be erected
later. Thanks, MARA News.

This SM was once again privileged to serve as a volunteer instructor at
the 2012 Courage Center Handiham Radio Camp in Maple Lake, Minnesota.

The South Shore Hospital ARC seeks additional Amateur Radio volunteers
for the "Run To The Rock" road race on September 8 in Plymouth. Details
at <http://ema.arrl.org/node/1956>.

Nashoba Valley ARC printed Field Day postcards and posted them around
in nearby towns. They contained a QR-code created by KD1SM that linked
directly to the N1NC Field Day site! In case you're wondering what a
QR-code is, see <http://tinyurl.com/4f4zvo>.

We reported recently on the donation of five 2012 editions of the "ARRL
Library collection" books by the Algonquin Amateur Radio Club, N1EM (see
<http://ema.arrl.org/node/1945>). The ARRL has also printed a story
about AARC's generosity on page 88 of the July, 2012 issue of QST! 

Algonquin ARC members mourn the loss of Silent Key John "Peter"
Simoneau III, KD1QS, of Marlborough.

Metro Boston DEC KB1NCG has designed some attractive business cards for
use by the ARES staff. 

The South Shore Hospital ARC will host the Eastern MA Hospital Net on
July 7 at 10AM ET. The net will commence on the Plymouth 146.685
repeater, and then move to ten different area repeaters and two simplex
frequencies in sequence before concluding on the Plymouth machine.
Repeaters/frequencies/PL tones include: Plymouth 146.685, tone 82.5; W.
Bridgewater 147.180, tone 67.0; Sharon 146.865, tone 103.5; Attleboro
147.195, tone 127.3; Danvers 145.47, tone 136.5; Norwood 147.210, tone
100.00; Dartmouth 147.000, tone 67.0; Salem 146.88, tone 118.8;
Wrentham 147.09, tone 146.2; Norwell 145.390, tone 67.0; Fairhaven
147.490, tone 67.0; Simplex 147.420; Simplex 146.565.

The Cape Ann ARA gang is preparing for its W1T special events operation
from Thacher Island, off the coast of Rockport, on August 3-6. According
to Committee Chair WW1N, CAARA is looking for a few more volunteers. 

You've all seen slingshots and fishing rods used to launch antennas in
the trees, right? Well, wait til you see N1JOY using his pneumatic
antenna launcher to shoot a line over a tall tree. Video at
<http://tinyurl.com/cxr7fkd>.

Taunton ACG is holding a "BBQSO Party" at the QTH of KB1TEE in
Middleborough on August 18. According to club president W1VFB, they'll
have the usual potluck cookout, but with a twist: there will also be
several radio stations set up outside for folks to use. Greg says they
hope to make this a traditional summer event.

Amateurs across New England -- and the world -- mourn the recent loss
of Silent Key Morton "Mort" Bardfield, W1UQ/PJ7UQ of Brookline. Mort
was instrumental in the very first YCCC DXpeditions to St. Marten
beginning in 1977. He was a director in the Old Old Timers Club. Mort's
career in the broadcast industry in Boston is legendary. If listed here,
his commercial and ham radio "bio" would go on for pages. To learn more
about Mort's life, visit his website at <http://www.w1uq.com>.

73,

Phil, K9HI

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ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section
Section Manager: Phillip Temples, K9HI
k9hi@arrl.org
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