Month: December 2006

Hello CLIMAX Event Dec 29 – 30

http://www.arrl.org/pio/contact/2006/10/#hello

Reginald A. Fessenden 100th Anniversary Event, Hull, Massachusetts.

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the First Voice Broadcast.

W1AA (Marconi Radio Club) will represent and operate from near the Station Point Allerton Life Saving Station in Hull, Massachusetts on December 30, 2006. The W1AA operation will recognize the contributions to marine safety at sea made by Reginald A. Fessenden’s invention of voice communication.

W1AA is a member of the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, and has activated 54 lighthouses and lightships in Massachusetts and Rhode Island over the last three years. http://arlhs.com/

Operation will be from 7:00 AM EST(2000 UTC) to 4:00 PM (2100 UTC). W1AA will start on 80 SSB, check 3996.0. Look for W1AA between the nets, most likely below 7270, down to 7225. Check “7234”. 20 phone later in the morning above 14310, or 17 meters above 18150. We will return to 40 phone about 1530 to 1600 UTC, about noon local time. CW operation will be conducted roughly on the half hour but could happen any time, 7035, 10116, 14035 and 18080 kHz, plus or minus QRM.
A special photo QSL will be provided. DX QSLs are via the W1 Bureau and stateside are via W1AA please with an SASE.

Watch the DX Summit for W1AA spots on December 30th.
See http://oh2aq.kolumbus.com/dxs/hfdx25.html

Bob “Whitey” Doherty K1VV / W1AA
Marconi Radio Club
http://www.qsl.net/w1aa/w1aa_1001.htm

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Station Point Allerton, Hull, Massachusetts

Point Allerton Lifesaving Station is one of the oldest remaining lifesaving stations in Massachusetts. Also known as Old Point Allerton Coast Guard Station, it was established in Hull in 1889. Designed by architect Albert B. Bibb, it replaced a nearby station established by the Massachusetts Humane Society prior to 1874. The Massachusetts Humane Society was the third oldest lifesaving society in the world and the precursor to the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the one-and-one-half-story, Queen Anne style clapboard building (with a later two-story rear ell attached to its southeast corner) rests on a modern concrete foundation. A small, one-story boathouse stands directly behind the ell. The original portion of the station is rectangular in plan. The rear ell is the most prominent addition, which was built to house the station chief.

The Massachusetts’ coastline at one time featured 32 lifesaving stations of which only 11 remain. Only two of the existing stations are older than Point Allerton, and both have been converted into private residences. Known as the most active lifesaving station on the East Coast, Point Allerton is famous for the central role it played in Massachusetts maritime history, as well as its associations with Captain Joshua James (1826-1902). James was born in Hull and devoted 60 of his 75 years to saving over 1,000 lives from shipwrecks in Boston Harbor. He received several lifesaving medals and other
acknowledgements throughout his illustrious career.

In the late 1960s, the new Point Allerton Coast Guard Station replaced Point Allerton Lifesaving Station. The historic building was converted into the Hull Lifesaving Museum, the museum of Boston Harbor Heritage, whose mission is to preserve the region’s lifesaving tradition and maritime culture through collections, exhibits, experiential and interpretive education, and research. The museum traces the history of organized lifesaving from its 18th-century roots to the modern Coast Guard, celebrates the life of Joshua James, displays a variety of lifesaving equipment and houses a collection of books and manuscripts by noted author Edward Rowe Snow. Point Allerton Lifesaving Station is located at 1117 Nantasket Ave. in Hull.

It is owned by Boston Harbor Heritage and is open to the public year round, Wednesday-Saturday, 10:00am to 4:00pm. For further information, please call 781-925-5433 or visit the Hull Lifesaving Museum’s website.
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Life-Saving Service &
Coast Guard Lifeboat/Lifesaving Stations
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/USLSS%20Station%20List.html
Hull Lifesaving Museum
http://www.lifesavingmuseum.org/
Hello CLIMAX Event Dec 29 – 30
http://www.arrl.org/pio/contact/2006/10/#hello

The Framingham Amateur Radio Association has a prominent link on the Knox Trail Council Boy Scouts of America web site promoting the upcoming Kid’s Day event on Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. at W1FY at the Danforth Museum in Framingham.

The colorful PDF poster, entitled Framingham Amateur Radio Assoc. offering opportunity for Scouts to acquire ham radio license! also promotes the club’s upcoming VE Session as well as its License-In-A-Weekend class on March 16-18, 2007. All costs for the class will be waived for scouts.

James Cahill, KB1LOY spearheaded the effort to promote Kid’s Day open house and other club activities to the Scout Council.

“I drafted the announcement, stuffed the envelopes this morning, got permission to place the package in Troop mail slots from the Council, and met Scott Harvey who graciously posted it onto their website,” Cahill writes.

For additional information, contact the Framingham ARA at 508-879-8097 or visit http://www.fara.org.

The Whitman 2006 Winterfest, held on Sunday December 3, 2006, was visited by an estimated 10,000 people throughout the day. Gallons of free hot chocolate and mounds of cookies were enjoyed by visitors while watching the ice sculpting or riding through the park in a horse drawn wagon or having a picture taken with Santa. December fire works topped off the event at 6:00 pm.

Behind the scenes were dozens of volunteers helping to make this a safe and successful event. Whitman Amateur Radio Club members helping out with various duties, including additional security and communications included: Bob Schmitt, KB1MTY; Erika LaFlamme, KB1MTV; Jeff Tracy, N1SOM; Mike Supple, KB1OEP; Bill Hayden N1FRE; Frank Hayes N1OGP; and Gloria Chiaramonte, KB1OAV.

A new set of commercial hand-held radios and a base station were put in use for the first time at the Whitman 2006 Winterfest activities. This allowed town officials to monitor the volunteers reporting in to the Net Control Station.

[Shown, above: Gloria Chiaramonte KB1OAV and Frank Hayes N1OGP]

–Thanks, Whitman ARC Spectrum, December 2006

The night before the 2006 Cape Cod Marathon, rains flooded roads, heavy winds had blown sand over many other roads, and downed power lines posed dangerous hazards to runners and wheelchair participants who would start the following morning. In fact, the Marathon itself was nearly “blown away.” But members of the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association rose to the occasion, providing very timely assistance to the race course officials.

Hams were positioned at net control, in a lead police cruiser, “tired runner” vehicles, at a location of a downed line, and many other locations along the course, handling close to 250 pieces of traffic on 2 meters and 440 MHz. The wind and blowing sand made communications challenging. More than one operator dumped a lap-full of sand stepping out of his or her car.

Participants who assisted at the world-class event included: KB1DOS, K1DYO, N1LNB, N1TB, N1WAT, N1DGO, N1GJ, KA1IOR, K1GM, W1DO, K1PE, KB1NNO, W1RBF, AB1BX, W1HIV, N1BLR, KB1LQQ, K1QLG, KB1CZB, KB1MLP, K2LYE, K1WCC, K1BI, N1EZL, N1LNE, and WX1K.

–Thanks, Falmouth ARA Newsletter, November, 2006 and N1LYN

A Newton ham was profiled in the December 14, 2006 Boston Globe‘s “Globe West” regional section. In “Supervisor, inmates on the same page” Matt Chao, N1IBB describes his work supervising inmates in the Braille production shop at the Bay State Correction Center in Norfolk, MA. Blind himself, Chao works with inmates alone, without the help of a correction officer.

“I’m providing a service–through what my inmates do–to kids who need Braille material. I like and believe in what I’m doing,” N1IBB is quoted as saying.

The article describes Chao’s extracurricular activities which include swimming at the YMCA, as well as his winning several national championships in blind sailing. Chao is shown with his guide dog, Wafer.

[Full story on Boston.com]

In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission today adopted a Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235. [Full story from ARRLWeb]

The Framingham Amateur Radio Association is continuing its tradition of collecting toys during the holiday season to donate to kids in need.

“We decided to continue the tradition of the ARRL toy drives which took place the last two years due to Hurricane Katrina,” writes FARA President Gordy Bello, K1GB. [See Framingham ARA Members Give To ARRL Toy Drive.] “And although there was not an ARRL directed toy drive this year, we thought we could still brighten the holiday season for kids by donating toys to the Toys for Tots/Toys for Teens drive.”

Steve Barreres, K2CX writes on the YCCC reflector:

I believe you are aware of the League’s final plans for their HELLO Campaign that will take place on December 29-30.

The Peconic Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring one of the Special Event stations: W1F will be operated from the same location (Brant Rock, MA) that Reginald Fessenden made his Christmas and New Year’s Eve voice broadcasts in 1906–the 100th anniversary of a great radio event.

ICOM, Stepp IR as well as Heil Audio have graciously donated loaner facilities for this event. Additionally, there is a good chance that “Good Morning America” will do a live segment from our station the morning of December 29. It would be nice if you could notify the membership of your club of the festivities, many might like to contact us.

As in any event this large, there will be plenty of work to do. Would you please distribute this information, along with the request that anyone interested in assisting/setting-up and/or operating W1F, to please contact me at my ARRL E-mail address.

Best regards,

Steve Barreres, K2CX
k2cx@arrl.net

[See also: http://www.hello-radio.org/event/, http://w1f.k2cx.us/]

The Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association is making significant progress in organizing its emergency communications capabilities, according to CAARA President Curtis Wright, AA3JS.

“On November 15th we had the organizational meeting for the Emergency Communications Group. And we met with the Cape Ann Major Disaster Committee on the 17th.”

Wright reports that the City of Gloucester is very pleased with the club’s willingness to prepare for emergencies.

“It is very clear that FEMA, MEMA and the City of Gloucester are all counting on us if things get bad.”

–Thanks, CAARA News, December 2006

[See also: CAARA Considers Forming Emergency Communications Team]

The Whitman Amateur Radio Club has produced a special edition of its newsletter, The Spectrum, highlighting the club’s special event operation from the Plimoth Plantation November 25-26, 2006.

According to WARC President Bruce Hayden, NI1X, 26 WARC members along with four area hams helped set up and operate three HF and two 2-meter stations using portable antennas at the famous re-creation of the 17th century Pilgrim settlement and Wampanoag Indian homesite.

“The crew exchanged contacts with 243 other amateur radio operators in 35 states, 6 foreign countries and 2 Canadian provinces,” Hayden reports.

[See also: Whitman ARC To Operate Plimoth Plantation Special Event Station]