Month: November 2008

The November 26, 2008 issue of the ARRL Contest Update newsletter carries this interesting item about the MIT Radio Society, W1MX and other old school club stations:

In the last issue, W1MX’s Sweepstakes check of “09” was projected to “lap the field” next year as the new 2009 licensees discover radiosport. Steve W3HF points out that the first actual licenses were not issued until 1912, so “a strict interpretation of the Sweepstakes rules would therefore say that the oldest check would be ’12’.” Checking further (so to speak), Steve found 1MX in the 1916 call book, but listed as “Calley” – MIT came later in the 1922 edition. Stations associated with educational institutions were considered “Special Land Stations” in 1913 and received call sign suffixes beginning with Y. There were ten: 9YI, 8XA, 3ZH, 9XB, 1YH, 9YN, 6YL, 2YN, 3XJ, and 9YC. The station holding its call continuously since the 1913 call book, at least, is present-day W0YI at Iowa State. Then 9YI, the W was likely tacked on in 1928 and the number converted to 0 in 1947 when the tenth district was formed. It would be great to hear some of these seminal calls on the air!

Rich Zack, K1RJZ writes on FraminghamARA-L:

W1KAB and the Algonquin Amateur Radio Club were helping with [the City of Marlborough’s] Health Dept flu shots today. What makes it really interesting was that this was actually a training exercise for a city-wide pandemic inoculation protocol. Hospital staff, hams, The Lions Club and city employees all participated. The fact that the hams had portable radios was inconsequential. The fact that the ham club was THERE to produce bodies and volunteers in quantity was the key for today anyway. Staff and volunteers clearly outnumbered those in need of flu shots.

This was exceedingly well organized to handle a civilian population volume much larger than today’s exercise. I was impressed. Something to think about.

The Boston Center for the Arts announces artist Cindy Bernard’s exhibition entitled “Silent Key”–“photographs and pigment prints inspired by the artist’s grandfather Bill Adam’s experience as a ham radio operator from 1923 until his death in 1999.” [Bill Adams was W6ANN.]

Bernard uses the “concept of sound as subject, exploring the communication between her grandfather and other ham operators across time and space.”

The exhibition will be on view at the Boston Center for the Arts from December 12, 2008 until February 15, 2009. The Center is located at 527-551 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End. It is easily accessible via MBTA subway and bus lines.

To schedule a group tour of a Mills Gallery exhibition, email Nova Benway at nbenway@bcaonline.org two weeks in advance. The BCA will contact you to confirm your reservation. Tours are free and are led by Visual Arts interns. All ages are welcome.

Mills Gallery Hours of Operation: Wednesday: 12 – 5 pm; Thursday – Saturday: 12 – 9 pm; Sunday: 12 – 5 pm. For more information about programming at the Boston Center for the Arts visit http://www.bcaonline.org.

Members of the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club held their annual QSL sorting party last month to support the W1QSL Bureau.

Club members sorted 18-20,000 QSL cards at the meeting in less than two hours. “We have been keeping to that schedule for several years and it seems to be working fine.”

After the cards were sorted and collected from the sorting boxes, everyone had an opportunity to look through all the cards in the appropriate letter for their own incoming cards, saving wear and tear on the letter sorters. Afterward, the sorters enjoyed pizza and drinks.

Participants included: K1LGQ, K1LK, K1YTS, KB1KEF, KA1VOU, KB1ESR, KB1JKL, KD1LE, KD1SM, N1PQ, N1SV, N1ZRG, W1JMM, W1LTN, WA1TAC, KB1LRL, N1MGO, KT1I, K1BG, KB1JZU, W1AHM, N1UZ, K1NKR, WA1GON, W1TRC, W1LLB,
W1BYH, and W1HFN.

Photo courtesy KD1SM. Thanks, NVARC Signal, November 2008

According to Falmouth Amateur Radio Association‘s Ralph Swenson, N1YHS, the club is considering holding a Tech-In-A-Weekend course “around the end of the year” in response to the tremendous interest generated by the club’s Boy Scout Jamboree-On-The-Air activity October 18-19 in Yarmouth.

–Thanks, FARA Newsletter, November 2008

Jim Ward, N1LKJ, Eastern MA Section Traffic Manager writes:

If you like CW or want to improve your Morse Code Skills, the NTS Traffic Nets is a great place to do it. We are looking for operators to join us on the East MA. & Rhode Island CW Net (EMARICW).

The Net meets daily at 7:00 PM on 3.565 MHz. If you think it is too fast, just send QNS and they will slow down to anyone’s speed. Try it and enjoy the fun of sending and receiving traffic. Help is available for all who want to learn.

73,
Jim Ward N1LKJ STM-EMA

[For more information about the National Traffic system and traffic nets, please visit http://nts.ema.arrl.org]

Science on Screen at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline explores the possibility of life beyond Earth with a screening of CONTACT, Robert Zemeckis’s 1997 big-screen adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel, on Monday, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. Before the film, astrophysicist Paul Horowitz (W1HFA) will give a talk on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). A true pioneer in this field, Horowitz and his work are believed to have been the inspiration for Sagan’s novel.

In CONTACT, Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a free thinker seeking evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life by listening for contact via radio astronomy. [As a very-YL ham operator in the movie, Arroway makes HF radio contacts as W9GFO.] Many years later, when Ellie discovers an intelligent message from deep space, her assumptions regarding science and spirituality are challenged, and she must decide whether to play it safe or risk her life in order to make first contact. (1997, 2h33m)

Paul Horowitz is Professor of Physics and of Electrical Engineering at Harvard. His research group is focused on several problems in experimental astrophysics, including the search for intentional radio signals or laser flashes from extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations. The group’s evolving SETI effort has inspired groundbreaking experiments at Harvard, including a 250-million-channel radio receiving system and a pair of optical searches that process a trillion measurements per second (the equivalent of the contents of all books in print, every second). Also renowned for his work in electronics design, Dr. Horowitz is the co-author of the bestselling book, The Art of Electronics.

With Science on Screen, the Coolidge presents a feature film or documentary with a basis in science, paired with exciting introductions by notable scientific figures. This monthly series is co-presented by The Museum of Science, Boston and New Scientist magazine.

Science on Screen programs are $9.75 regular admission or $7.75 for seniors, students, and Museum of Science members. Members of the Coolidge Corner Theatre get free admission to these shows. Tickets are available in advance at the box office, located at 290 Harvard Street in Brookline, or on-line at http://www.coolidge.org/showtimes .

For more details, visit: www.coolidge.org/science or call 617/734-2500.

“Bo” Budinger, WA1QYM writes on PART-L:

Just another reminder that PART is supporting the Lowell Youth Soccer Group with their “Fall Freeze” Tournament. We will be providing communications and helping with logistics. This will take place on Saturday and Sunday November 15th and 16th. Charles (AA1VS) is the “point man” for this activity. Charles has set up 4 hour shifts so that we don’t have to spend the whole weekend communicating. We do have several volunteers already and could use a few more. So if you can spare a few hours of your time it would be greatly appreciated. You can contact Charles at: aa1vs@arrl.net.

Bo Budinger
WA1QYM
President
PART of Westford

It reads:

ARL SIXTY SEVEN:
YOUR MESSAGE NUMBER ___ UNDELIVERABLE BECAUSE OF ___. PLEASE ADVISE.

Message to be sent would read:
ARL SIXTY SEVEN 123 WRONG PHONE NUMBER

Gil W1GMF

 

 

It reads:

ARL FORTY SEVEN:
REFERENCE YOUR MESSAGE NUMBER ___ TO ___ DELIVERED ON ___ AT ___ UTC.

Message to be sent would read:
ARL FORTY SEVEN 123 N1ABC FEB 22 2100

Gil W1GMF

---

 

Hello to all….

North Shore ARES and Beverly Emergency Management are sponsoring the following workshop. See below:

Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Workshop Saturday November 22nd, 2008:

There will be an Emergency Communications Workshop on Saturday November 22nd, 2008 from 9:00 AM-4:00 PM at the Beverly Emergency Management Headquarters in Beverly, Massachusetts.

This session is being put on by the ARES Section Staff through the efforts of Essex County ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC), Eric Horwitz, KA1NCF, Essex County ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC), Jim Palmer-KB1KQW and the cooperation of Beverly Emergency Management. This Emergency Communications Workshop will provide the background and information to serve Amateur Radio Operators when they need to respond to a communications emergency or when supplemental communications via Amateur Radio is required. It will feature an Introduction and Conclusion to Emergency Communications, and five 1-hour training sessions on topics including:

Overview of Eastern Massachusetts ARES-RACES-SKYWARN Programs
Net Operations
NTS Traffic Message Handling
Basic Overview of ICS
Go Kits

This training will also feature a 1-hour lunch that will be provided at no coerced cost to any Amateur who attends the session.

The presentations will be given by other Amateur Operators well versed in the topics listed above. The training will be a worthwhile endeavor not just for emergency communicators but for anyone who is an Amateur Radio Operator, and wants to learn more about the hobby.

Preregistration is requested but is not required in case anyone would like to attend at the last minute. Please try to preregister by Monday November 17th, 2008 to assure the meeting place is setup properly and we have enough refreshments for breaks between lectures and for the lunch break. We will, however, accept any last minute preregistrations after that day or any walk-ins as long as space permits.

Directions to Beverly Emergency Management Agency (BEMA) Headquarters:

Take Route 128 North to exit 20A towards North Beverly. You will proceed a short distance to a set of lights where you will take a Left onto Conant Street. Follow the signs to the Beverly Airport – East Entrance which is off of Route 97 in Beverly. Once you reach the entrance on L.P. Henderson Road, be prepared to take a right into the Beverly EMA facility. If you enter the airport parking lot, you have gone too far.

There will be talk-in on the Danvers Repeater 145.47 PL: 136.5 and Beverly Repeater 147.390.

For any additional information and to preregister for the workshop, please contact:

KA1NCF-Eric Horwitz ka1ncf@nsradio.org
KB1KQW-Jim Palmer kb1kqw@nsradio.org
KD1CY-Rob Macedo rmacedo@rcn.com

This training should be a worthwhile endeavor for anyone interested in learning more about emergency communications and amateur radio in general. Please forward this on to anyone you feel may benefit from this workshop.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Pager #: (508) 354-3142
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org 1