December, 2018 Section News Now Available
The December, 2018 Section Newsletter is now available at https://ema.arrl.org/december-2018-section-news/.
Read MoreMonth: December 2018
Eastern Massachusetts Hospital Net – Saturday January 5th, 2019 at 1000 AM
Good Morning Everyone, Net Control for the January 5, 2019 Eastern MA Hospital Net will be W1SSH the South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club. The net will commence at the usual time of 10:00 AM using the following repeaters in the order listed. 1. Plymouth 146.685 Tone 131.8 2. Boston 145.230 Tone Encode 88.5 Tone Decode 100.0 3. Norwood 147.210 Tone 100.0 4. Simplex 147.42 The Net will then return to the Plymouth Repeater for final comments and Net closing. NET Protocol: Please wait for Net Control to ask for Check-ins. When asked to check in please use the standard …
Read MoreNew England Sci-Tech Amateur Extra Course, Take Any 9 Sessions
New England Sci-Tech is offering ongoing Amateur Extra study sessions for high school students, homeschool students, and adults who already have a General level license. This slower-paced course will get you ready to take the Amateur Extra license exam. You may jump into this course at any time, pay one course fee, and take nine weeks worth of classes. A different topic group is covered each week; all topics covered in nine-week intervals. Take the exam whenever you are ready. The course runs most Thursday evenings, 6-9 PM from November, 2018 until March, 2019 as a combination “study group” and keynote presentations …
Read MoreYCCC 1st Place in WPX CW US Club Category
According to YCCC member Jack Schuster, W1WEF, the Yankee Clipper Contest Club achieved first place among US Club scoring in the CQ WPX CW. “We had 92 entries and 166 million points versus the number 2 Potomac Valley Radio Club with 143 entries and 144 million points.” Kudos to YCCC members for their achievement.
Read MoreFessenden Commemorative Transmission Set for Christmas Eve
From the ARRL Letter, December 20, 2018: As he’s done in years past, Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, of Forest, Virginia, will commemorate what may have been the first radio broadcast [from Brant Rock, Massachusetts] to include speech and music by experimenter Reginald Fessenden on Christmas Eve 1906. Justin will fire up his vintage-style transmitter operating on 486 kHz under Experimental license WI2XLQ to mark the 112th anniversary of Fessenden’s accomplishment. Justin will begin his transmission on December 24 at 1700 UTC and continue until December 26 at 1659 UTC. [Full story] See also: Fessenden’s Christmas Eve Broadcast
Read MoreFCC Releases Plan in the Event of a Partial Government Shutdown
ARRL reports “the FCC has released its Plan for Orderly Shutdown in case funds become unavailable to continue operation.” [Full story] UPDATE: FCC to Suspend Most Operations on January 3 if Government Shutdown Continues http://www.arrl.org/news/view/fcc-to-suspend-most-operations-on-january-3-if-government-shutdown-continues
Read MoreCountdown to Third Annual AM Rally Has Begun
Townsend amateur Steve Cloutier, WA1QIX, and others are spearheading the third annual AM Rally in February. The event is sponsored by Radio Engineering Associates (REA), in cooperation with ARRL. From the ARRL Hq. web site: The third annual AM Rally is on the near horizon — just about 6 weeks away — getting under way at 0000 UTC on February 2 and continuing until 0700 UTC on February 4. The event aims to encourage the use of AM on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, and 6 meters while highlighting the various types of AM equipment in use today. The event is open to …
Read MoreNew England Sci-Tech Technician Course, December 21, 2018
New England Amateur Radio, Inc. is pleased to offer as part of the school vacation-week workshops, a radio Technician license class course for adults, children, and child-parent pairs to facilitate their successful completion of the FCC radio license test on December 21, 2018 from 9 AM to 12 noon. This course is appropriate for children 4th grade and up. Details are at <https://www.ne1ar.org/event/amateur-radio-course-for-kids-tech-5>.
Read MoreNew England Sci-Tech Technician Course, December 20, 2018
New England Amateur Radio, Inc. is pleased to offer as part of the school vacation-week workshops, a radio Technician license class course for adults, children, and child-parent pairs to facilitate their successful completion of the FCC radio license test on December 20, 2018 from 9 AM to 12 noon. This course is appropriate for children 4th grade and up. Details are at <https://www.ne1ar.org/event/amateur-radio-course-for-kids-tech-4>.
Read MoreNew England Sci-Tech Technician Course, December 19, 2018
New England Amateur Radio, Inc. is pleased to offer as part of the school vacation-week workshops, a radio Technician license class course for adults, children, and child-parent pairs to facilitate their successful completion of the FCC radio license test on December 19, 2018 from 9 AM to 12 noon. This course is appropriate for children 4th grade and up. Details are at <https://www.ne1ar.org/event/amateur-radio-course-for-kids-tech-3/>.
Read MoreChina and Russia band together on controversial ionospheric heating experiments
The South China Morning Post carried this story, “China and Russia band together on controversial heating experiments to modify the atmosphere” December 17, 2018, describing the continuing military “race to control the ionosphere.” The experiments are similar to the US program’s super-power High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program ( HAARP) transmitters in Gakona, Alaska.
Read MoreKC1DKY Fox Deployed, Billerica, December 14, 2018
Nick Mello, KC1DKY writes on the fox-hunting list on December 14, 2018 at 1:37 PM: The KC1DKY fox is hiding in Billerica on conservation land. Fox is on 146.565 MHz. Send a DTMF of 1 to activate the fox. If the fox does not seem to be responding, send a couple DTMF # and then a 1 to possibly whack it back into shape. The fox will signal for 30 seconds and be silent for 15 sec, and repeat for 15 minutes. The fox is located around a third of a mile from the trail head and about 20 ft …
Read MoreN1SV QRV on 630 Meters for the Weekend
Les Peters, N1SV, in Townsend, MA writes: Finally got my 160m inverted-L loaded up on 474.2 kHz using the variometer and impedance transformer I built. I can only get about 1 mw out of my K3S so real QRPP! So far only W1XP hears my flea signal (-20 SNR) but I’m hoping for more reports after dusk. I’ll keep the signal on both Friday and Saturday nights and would appreciate any reports.
Read MoreExperimental Station Heard on 30 Meters
From the ARRL Letter: IARUMS has received reports of short “beeps” exactly 1 second apart, as well as frequency hopping between 10,108 and 10,115 kHz and 18,834 and 18,899 kHz. The signals are believed to emanate from a site near Chicago associated with an FCC-licensed experimental operation involved with low-latency exchange trading on HF (see “Experiments Look to Leverage Low-Latency HF to Shave Microseconds off Trade Times <http://www.arrl.org/news/experiments-look-to-leverage-low-latency-hf-to-shave-microseconds-off-trade-times>”). Although Amateur Radio is secondary on 30 and 17 meters, Experimental licenses may not interfere with Amateur Radio operations.” YCCC member Fred Coelho, WX1S writes on the YCCC reflector: “More on our …
Read MoreMASSACHUSETTS TRAFFIC REPORTS FOR OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2018
Time has flown by and Christmas is now only two weeks away. Apologies for not getting the October Traffic Report out until now. Your STM takes the full blame for that. Thanks to KC1CIC who has consistently provided the monthly report in a timely manner. Winter conditions on the HF nets have been creeping in requiring us to get creative. For those who have the capability we have found 160 meters to work when we’re too close to copy one another on 80 meters. The MARI CW net has as it’s alternate frequency 1810 Khz. We always begin on 3565 …
Read MoreWSJT-X with FT8 Support Now Available
Randy Thompson, K5ZD, writes on the YCCC reflector: There is a big event happening in ham radio today. The new release of WSJT-X is out and it will require a major migration for FT8 users. The new WSJT-X support for FT8 is incompatible with the old one. I don’t think we have seen this kind of dramatic change in a mode before. I installed the new version and got on 30 meters. Lots of signals, but not many decoding. But, this is day 1. I am sure people will upgrade quickly. https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html The current General Availability (GA) release is WSJT-X …
Read MoreEmergency Antenna Platform System Tool
A fusion of robotics, amateur radio, and emergency service the Emergency Antenna Platform System (E-APS) is a tool for Amateur Radio operators (ARES, RACES) as well as First Responder organizations to turn any parking lot lamp post into an instant antenna tower. See: <http://wc2fd.com/index.php?title=Emergency_Antenna_Platform_System> for details.
Read MoreNovember, 2018 Section News Now Available
The November, 2018 Section Newsletter is now available at https://ema.arrl.org/november-2018-section-news/.
Read MoreJoe Reisert, W1JR, Wins Third Place in the 2018 QST Antenna Design Competition
Congratulations to Joe Reisert, W1JR, on winning third place for his design of “The3/8-Wavelength Vertical for 20 Meters, a Hidden Gem”. Steve Ford WB8IMY described the “requirements for the 2018 QST Antenna Design Competition included an antenna for one or more bands between 2200 meters and 10 meters that could fit within a 30×50-foot area and be no taller than 30 feet above ground at any point.” A former resident of Chelmsford, Joe lives in Amherst, NH. He is a regular presenter at Boxboro. The full story is found at <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2018-12-06#toc02>
Read MoreKC1DKY Fox Deployed, Billerica, December 6, 2018
Nick Mollo, KC1DKY, writes on December 6, 2018 at 1:13 PM: The KC1DKY fox is hiding in south west Billerica on conservation land. Fox is on 146.565MHz. Send a DTMF of 1 to activate the fox. If the fox does not seem to be responding, send a couple DTMF # and then a 1 to possibly whack it back into shape. The fox will signal for 30seconds and be silent for 15 sec, and repeat for 15minutes. The fox is located around a quarter to third of a mile from the parking area and about 30ft or so in from …
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