Rob Macedo, KD1CY writes:
WX1BOX, the Amateur Radio Station at NWS Boston/Norton, will conduct an Amateur Radio VHF/UHF Communications Test this SaturdayAfternoon/Evening 4/14/18 to test out the VHF/UHF Amateur Radio Gear at the NWS office..
Over the last 2 weeks, NWS Boston/Norton Electronics Technician staff installed and connected up the 2 VHF/UHF antennas for the WX1BOX Amateur Radio Station. On Thursday 4/14/18, a very brief test was run and proved that one of the antennas is in proper working order for at least VHF if not UHF.
For Saturday Afternoon into early this evening, two Amateur Radio Operators will be at the NWS Boston/Norton office. The purpose will be to do a full communications test and to look for any problems with the current installation and assess capabilities. An initial assessment is that there will be a slight reduction in coverage due to the fact that the new NWS office facility is at a somewhat lower elevation. The original facility was on top of a hill in the Myles Standish Industrial Park. The newer facility does not have the same height above sea level. The antenna tower is the same height (if not higher) than the prior facility. The antennas are on the top of the antenna tower.
We will be doing a rotation around various SKYWARN Amateur Radio repeaters to conduct testing. Due to the fact that we will likely be doing radio programming, potentially debugging any issues with the setup and doing other setup work as part of the communications test, we can’t commit to a set schedule for this testing, however, the rough time window of testing will likely be from 3-8 PM this evening. Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters are encouraged to monitor local SKYWARN frequencies per the WX1BOX Amateur Radio frequency listing via the link below:
We will announce that we are testing and feel free to answer back to us and give us signal reports. We will also try and post to our Facebook/Twitter feeds the frequencies we will be moving to as part of this testing.
The HF antenna installation is not complete yet. This will likely take place some time in May. When that is completed another communications test will be done specifically for the HF capability.
Depending on any issues detected in this VHF/UHF Communications test, we could potentially run another test once any issues that we cannot address on the Amateur Radio side is completed. Communications Test results will be posted if not over the weekend/Monday timeframe, by Thursday 4/19/18.
We appreciate everyone’s support of the NWS Boston/Norton overall SKYWARN program and the Amateur Radio component of the SKYWARN program.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant 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
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