Month: January 2017

The Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association has a full slate of activities planned for Saturday, January 28, 2017. According to CAARA’s Jon Cunningham, K1TP, the club is hosting a CW class; conducting an emergency communications drill under emergency power; and also, participating in the annual Winter Field Day festivities.

According to K1TP, “CW class is at 10 AM with Rick Maybury. Everyone is welcome.” The class is conducted at a relaxed pace and open to all–from beginner to expert.

“Winter Field Day starts at noon and will run as long as you want to operate. Make fun contacts on CW, SSB, OR CW on all bands and learn how to use the many radios available to you that are included with your membership,” adds Cunningham.

The clubhouse is located at 6 Stanwood Street in Gloucester.

Stan Stone, W4HIX writes:

Tonight in a public hearing at the Gloucester City Council, the application for historic restoration of 6 Stanwood Street by reshingling and repairing and painting the trim of the remainder of the build was unanimously approved. The value of the grant is $26,174, which is the combination of the quotes from Zac Smith (who did the front wall) for the shingling and trim repair and his brother-in-law Peter O’Neil for the painting. The council members spoke glowingly of CAARA’s contribution to Gloucester and Cape Ann.

This process took about a year between preparing a report and presenting it to the Gloucester Historical Commission to get the building deemed historically significant in order to qualify for the CPA grant (copies of the 6 Stanwood Street Historical Background of are now filed at the Cape Ann Museum and the Gloucester City Archives and will be placed on the CAARA website), preparation of the grant application (50 pages), plus a presentation at the Budget and Finance committee and tonight’s City Council meeting. Also involved was getting multiple quotes for the work. These efforts were shared by myself and Hank McCarl. Hank’s position on the Community Preservation Committee was enormously helpful and though he could not vote, he shepherded our proposal through the process. Also Hank’s contacts within the GHC and the City Council were enormously helpful.

I will be turning over the quotes to the house committee and contact information to Stefan our treasurer to schedule and monitor the work and handle the payments.

I sincerely believe that this resolves one of the biggest projects facing CAARA and its maintenance of 6 Stanwood St. Hopefully the board can come up with longer range planning of projects and acquire the funding to implement those projects to preserve and maintain one of the most important physical assets that CAARA possesses.

Applications are now being accepted for the annual Framingham Amateur Radio Association (FARA) Scholarship.

“The scholarship is open to any high school senior who will be attending college the next academic year, or anyone currently enrolled in a college program,” according to FARA’s Richard Cosma, AA1VI.

Applicants with a current Amateur Radio license will receive preference; however, non-licensed relatives of FARA members will also receive consideration. Membership in FARA is not required.

All applications must be postmarked by April 15, 2017. Contact Richard Cosma, AA1VI at rcosma@rcn.com or call 508-877-8241.

 

EMA PIO Dean Burgess, KB1PGH writes:

The Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association (CAARA) will be sponsoring a multi-week CW class starting on Saturday, January 21 from 9 AM to noon. The class, taught by CAARA member Rick Maybury, WZ1B, will be held at the CAARA clubhouse on 6 Stanwood Street in Gloucester.

Held every Saturday until the end of April, the relaxed-paced class is open to all, from beginner to expert level of CW operator.

To find out more, please contact course instructor Rick Maybury, WZ1B at rmaybury@ppg-i.com.

 

John Flood, N1JAF posted on Waltham ARA list:

Greetings,

See the message below and try to work these scouts and help them earn a badge!

Hi Tim,

You are more than welcome to use our repeaters. They are open to anyone. I will post a message on our club email reflector. Good Luck!

 

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Hello,

My name is Tim Gray (W1TMG). I will be in Waltham with the Falmouth Girl Scouts from Friday February 3 – Sunday February 5, 2017. I would like to ask permission to use your repeater to help the girls get their Radio & Wireless Technology Patch. In addition if any club members would be interested making contacts with us, we would greatly appreciate it.

Please let me know if this would be a problem.

Thank you,

Tim Gray, W1TMG

Hi All,

Knox County will be having its quarterly emcomm exercise on Saturday
January 28. There are a number of internal goals for the county
ARES-RACES team but we would like to solicit the participation of other
groups by sending Winlink messages with flmsg ICS-213 attachments to the
Knox County EMA. Here is the relevant information:

1/28/2016 0800 to 1200 ET

The scenario is a statewide blizzard.

Winlink messages will be addressed to the Knox County EMA Winlink
address, KX1EMA (kx1ema@winlink.org)

The message body will include the method by which the sender accessed
the Winlink system (HF, VHF packet, telnet). While RF is preferred, the
intent is to get more groups using the Winlink Express client and the
Winlink system. Telnet (internet) is perfectly acceptable for this
exercise. All you need is an internet connected PC. No credit for
sending from a commercial email address.

Also in the message body, state the ARES/RACES team with whom you are
associated. Multiple messages from a single team are fine as long as the
sender call signs are different.

Winlink messages will include an attached flmsg ICS-213 form addressed
to KXEMA, Rockland, ME. Your ICS-213 will ask a simple question to which
the EMA will reply. Ideally the message should be from an agency person
but that's optional. You should prepare the message in advance of the
exercise. If you are not able to participate at the time of the
exercise, you may post your message the day before.

Be sure to include "TEST MESSAGE" in your message body and in the flmsg
ICS-213 attachment.

KXEMA will respond to each message using the Reply section of the ICS-213.

If you are not set up for Winlink, it's a relatively simple process.
Start by reading the Winlink section at
http://maine-ares.org/digital.htm. Then follow the link to the "RMS
Express Exercises." Flmsg may be downloaded from
http://www.w1hkj.com/files/flmsg/

Any questions on the exercise or the Winlink system, please contact me
(kb1tce@maine-ares.org or kb1tce@winlink.org)

73,

Steve KB1TCE