ALS Bike Run, Wayland, Sept. 29

Rob Capizzio, KC2EMA writes:

I apologize for the late notice, the Worcester Emergency Communications Team (WECT) and MMRA have been asked to help out with the communications for a Bicycle ride to support ALS on the 29th of September in Wayland.

The organization running the ride has more information available at http://web.alsa.org/site/TR?fr_id=9550&pg=entry.

I will be working to organize the communications operators for the event, and I can be reached at 631-403-0127.

I will not be on site for this event, Michael Fagan, KI6RKZ will be taking that role, and can be reached at 650-793-8887.

Thank you in advance, please let me know if there is any other information you need, or if there are any issues.

Thanks,

Rob Capizzio
KC2EMA
WECT President

Fox Hunting Training Session in Westford, Sept. 28

Andy Stewart, KB1OIQ writes on PART List:

Hi everybody,

On Saturday, September 28th, 2013, there will be a Fox Hunting Training session on the common in Westford Center at 11:00 AM until 12:00 noon. The common is super close to the Westford Police Station, where we hold our monthly meetings.

Any and all who are interested in Fox Hunting are invited to attend. The focus will be to train people in the techniques of finding a hidden transmitter (the fox). This is intended for novices but experienced folks will probably learn something, too. Please join us!

On the Common we will have a Fox Transmitting, and in view so you will know right at the start the correction direction the signal is coming from. We will also place the Fox behind a tree to show how a tree fades the signal.

Specific techniques that will be taught:

a) body fade
b) using different (harmonic) frequencies to locate the fox
c) demonstration of objects that block or reflect the signal
d) use of a directional (yagi) antenna (and maybe offset attenuator)

If you have a 2m HT, please bring it. That’s all you need. If you have other fox hunting gear, feel free to bring it, but none is required.

John (KB1MGI) will lead the training by both explanation and hands-on activities. He has been very active with our club’s fox hunting activities and most recently has been hiding the fox every weekend for the last several weeks.

After the training session, one or two Foxes will be on the air in the area so you can hunt them down if you like.

Have a lot of fun, and I look forward to seeing you there!

73,

Andy

KB1UKU Fox QRV in Lowell Today

John Salmi, KB1MGI writes on PART-L list:

Russell, KB1UKU has reported to us that his fox will be out today, Sunday from 09:00 to midnight, output a full 12 to 15 mW. It will be in or around the Lowell area.

[K9HI note: Presumably, it will be transmitting on 146.565 MHz.]

CF Cycle For Life – Saturday October 5, 2013

David Wolfe, KG1H writes on MMRA Public Service Events List:

CF Cycle for Life 65+ (Metric Century⁺)_, 30 & 12 mile routes, Saturday, October 5, 2013 http://mass-ri.cff.org/cycle Fatima Shrine, 101 Summer Street, Holliston, MA The CF Cycle for Life to benefit Cystic Fibrosis The event is a one day, fully supported bike tour through the metro west area including the towns of Dover, Holliston, Hopkinton, Medfield, Medway, Milford, Millis, Natick, and Sherborn, on picturesque 65+ (Metric Century⁺), 30 and 12 mile routes.

Amateur Radio support for October 5, 2013

***** Contact: Mark Richards, K1MGY 617 592 4392 markr@massmicro.com *****

This is a cycling event whose purpose is to funds raise for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We hope to gain permission to use the FARA Repeater on 147.15. Rather than tie up the machine we will operate as an open net, meaning that regular repeater use will be encouraged with short QSO’s and a sufficient listening watch to allow event net activity. However, we may establish a closed net should an emergency arise.

This event will begin at 0800 for amateurs and has a hard stop at 1530. Free lunch and a T shirt will be offered for your service. Beer following the event is not free, but instead is available at a nominal cost.

The primary purpose of Amateur Radio service at this event is to assure participant safety. Rapid dispatch of emergency services is our priority. Where practicable, Amateurs will call 911 directly and then report the incident to net control, otherwise NCS will dispatch based on your report.

8 SAG vehicles will be in service throughout the event and we hope to have an operator riding shotgun in each. At least one rest stop which will change location as the ride progresses will have an operator, plus an operator at the event start (who will likely be re-deployed to the event finish). All assignments are still in work at this time.

This is a wonderful opportunity to support a very worthy cause, to gain good experience in Amateur Radio Public Service, meet new people, and be of service to others. Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before. It’s easy, sometimes exciting, and always fun.

As this is being put together at the last minute, accommodating your schedule is important. If you can’t commit to the whole event, consider giving what time you can, and I am certain you’ll be well employed and come out the other side knowing you have helped others.

CF Cycle For Life, October 5, 2013

David Wolfe, KG1H writes on MMRA Public Service Events List:

CF Cycle for Life 65+ (Metric Century⁺)_, 30 & 12 mile routes, Saturday, October 5, 2013 http://mass-ri.cff.org/cycle Fatima Shrine, 101 Summer Street, Holliston, MA The CF Cycle for Life to benefit Cystic Fibrosis The event is a one day, fully supported bike tour through the metro west area including the towns of Dover, Holliston, Hopkinton, Medfield, Medway, Milford, Millis, Natick, and Sherborn, on picturesque 65+ (Metric Century⁺), 30 and 12 mile routes.

Amateur Radio support for October 5, 2013

***** Contact: Mark Richards, K1MGY 617 592 4392 markr@massmicro.com *****

This is a cycling event whose purpose is to funds raise for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. We hope to gain permission to use the FARA Repeater on 147.15. Rather than tie up the machine we will operate as an open net, meaning that regular repeater use will be encouraged with short QSO’s and a sufficient listening watch to allow event net activity. However, we may establish a closed net should an emergency arise.

This event will begin at 0800 for amateurs and has a hard stop at 1530. Free lunch and a T shirt will be offered for your service. Beer following the event is not free, but instead is available at a nominal cost.

The primary purpose of Amateur Radio service at this event is to assure participant safety. Rapid dispatch of emergency services is our priority. Where practicable, Amateurs will call 911 directly and then report the incident to net control, otherwise NCS will dispatch based on your report.

8 SAG vehicles will be in service throughout the event and we hope to have an operator riding shotgun in each. At least one rest stop which will change location as the ride progresses will have an operator, plus an operator at the event start (who will likely be re-deployed to the event finish). All assignments are still in work at this time.

This is a wonderful opportunity to support a very worthy cause, to gain good experience in Amateur Radio Public Service, meet new people, and be of service to others. Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before. It’s easy, sometimes exciting, and always fun.

As this is being put together at the last minute, accommodating your schedule is important. If you can’t commit to the whole event, consider giving what time you can, and I am certain you’ll be well employed and come out the other side knowing you have helped others.

REMINDER: Metro-Boston ARES District Meeting & Special Presentation 9/14 10am

Hello!

This is a reminder about the Metro-Boston ARES meeting being held on September 14th at 10am.  Talk in will be on W1BOS 145.230- PL88.5 as well as 146.580 MHz simplex.

We realize the meeting falls on Yom Kippur and apologize for the conflict with the holiday. We will be scheduling more meetings in the future and hope to see those who could not make it this month at a future meeting.

The meeting will be held in the Josephine A. Fiorentino Center Community Room at the Charlesview Residences located at 125 Antwerp Street, Allston, MA.  Antwerp Street was just extended to Western Ave. during the construction of the new complex and does not show correctly on Google or Apple maps!

If you are coming by car, please park in one of the lots marked on the map.  The closer parking lot is located at 367 Western Ave. and is behind the Allston-Brighton Resource Center.  The other parking lot you can use is located behind 356 Western Ave and is accessible off of Telford St.

Also, Western Ave will be under construction and you are asked not to park on Western Ave.

If you are coming by MBTA, the 70, 70A, and 86 bus lines all service Western Ave.  The closest bus stop is in front of the Shaw’s supermarket.

A map of parking and the bus stop can be found at: http://ares.ema.arrl.org/local/Metro-Boston-ARES-Meeting-Parking.jpg

From the parking lots or bus stop, walk west and turn left onto Antwerp Street and the entrance will be just before the bend in the road on the left side.  Signs will be posted to help guide the way.

Feel free to come to the meeting even if you have not RSVPed! Current ARES membership is not required and we encourage you to come to see what we’re about! We know sometimes you don’t know right until the day of if you can make it, we’d rather see you than not!

We will have some coffee and snacks for the morning and will be ordering some pizza for lunch. We cannot accommodate any food allergies so please plan appropriately.

Our Metro-Boston ARES Survey is still open and we’d like to see more feedback from our members: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8V26FBB

Please email kb1ncg@gmail.com with any questions or additional RSVPs!

The original posting is included below for reference.

—–

This is Marek, KB1NCG, the Metro-Boston ARES District Emergency Coordinator.

You are receiving this email because of your interest in supporting ARES in Eastern Massachusetts.  I have met some of you but not as many as I would like. One of my primary goals is to set up a strong robust ARES team in the Metro-Boston area and the first major step is to have a group meeting to get to know everyone.

We will be holding an all hands meeting, which includes anyone in the Metro-Boston and surrounding areas interested in supporting Metro-Boston ARES, on September 14, 2013 at 10 am.  Current ARES membership is not required! The meeting will be held in the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center, 125 Antwerp Street, Brighton, MA.  Mrs. Fiorentino son, Lawrence, is a ham and wanted to provide meeting space for hams and plans are underway to install antennas on the roof and a radio station in the computer center.

Parking information will be finalized next week and detailed instructions will be forthcoming.

I am very pleased to also announce we will have a special presentation from two members of the Massachusetts State Police on the Boston Marathon bombing, manhunt, and MIT police officer memorial service.

Please RSVP to myself so we can estimate how many people will come to kb1ncg@gmail.com.

I have created a survey for everyone to fill out to better get a sense what you, our membership, want to get out of this group:

Metro-Boston ARES Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8V26FBB

Please complete this by September 10, 2013, it should not take more than about 5 minutes to complete.
All HAMs from the Eastern MA section are welcome to fill out the survey!

Our meeting agenda will be:

1.) Introduction of Eastern Massachusetts ARES Staff

2.) Eastern Massachusetts ARES Overview

3.) Eastern Massachusetts ARES Goals

4.) Training Requirements

5.) Massachusetts State Police presentation on the Boston Marathon Bombing, Manhunt and MIT Police Officer Memorial Service.

Blair Sutherland is the Director of Telecommunications for the Massachussets State Police.  Blair’s unit provides the infrastructure for the statewide 800 MHz system which served as the backbone for communications for more than 1,100 users during these chaotic events.

John Ruggiero is an electrical engineer with the MSP and has worked on the system design and implementation and growth of the Statewide 800 MHz system.  He also serves as the APCO frequency coordinator for Massachusetts.

5.) Open discussion about future plans, training and other activities.

6.) Future meeting dates.

Look forward to seeing you all at the meeting!

Marek Kozubal
Metro-Boston District Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
kb1ncg@gmail.com

Taunton ACG Needs Ham Help for Two Road Races

Greg Glynn, W1VFB writes on the TACG Facebook page:

 

The Taunton Area Communications Group is providing comms for two road races in the next two weekends: one this Saturday in E. Taunton at Holy Family Church; the second, next Sunday starting at Hopewell Park. We are still looking for volunteers to help man the courses with radio operators. Please let us know if you can help us out.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give us.

 

 

 

NESMC Seeks Comments on New 2-Meter Band Plan

Bob DeMattia, K1IW writes:

At its annual meeting on August 24, New England Spectrum Management, the amateur radio repeater coordinator for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine, announced a proposal to modify the 2m band plan to include new repeater channels with outputs from 146.41 to 146.49 and inputs 147.41 to 147.49. Also included was a test pair at 147.505 with a 146.505 input. In the near future, there will be a vote by the NESMC membership on this band plan. There is no doubt that some existing simplex users may be affected by this change.

In order to gauge the impact of this change, NESMC has attempted to find as many simplex users as it can. We are also seeking additional input from the amateur community. If this interests you, you may find additional information about the change at http://www.nesmc.org/2013-2m.pdf. You may be interested in joining a discussion group set up for this purpose http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nesmc.

* Please feel free to redistribute this notice to other group or individuals – we are trying to reach as many people as possible.

* In our attempts to reach as many people as possible, we are posting this to several mail! ing lists. Please accept my apologies if you receive this more than once.

73,

Bob DeMattia, K1IW
NESMC 2m Coordinator

Reminder: Monthly Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net for September 2013

Hello to all…

A reminder that the monthly ARES Net for September is rapidly approaching. The monthly ARES Net for September is Monday September 9th, 2013, at 8:30 PM on the MMRA Repeater system. This is after the MEMA Nets earlier in the evening. For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:

http://www.mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_index_by_linkstate.html

In addition, if the Echo-IRLP node on the MMRA hub is available, we will likely link that to the New England Reflector system on IRLP 9123/Echolink Conference *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123.

Make this second Monday of the month due to Labor Day on the first Monday of the month, “Emergency Communications Night” and check into your local RACES Net and then check into the ARES Net on the MMRA Repeater System. We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net.

We will have several interesting announcements for the net that evening and we look forward to everyone’s participation. Updates will be posted via email and on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Web Site at http://ares.ema.arrl.org

Thanks for your continued support of ARES!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org