a field organization of the National Association for Amateur Radio®
Bob Glorioso, W1IS, writes on the PART of Westford list:
Thanks to all who voted for our article on the 40M beam in June QST.
We just received notice that we won the Cover Plaque Award!
Thanks & 73,
Bob W1IS
Bob KC1DSQ
Barry Fox, W1HFN, writes on the NEMassFoxHunters list on June 17, 2021 at 1:50 PM:
The W1HFN fox is out, 146.565 MHz with a 20 second voice ID every minute.
Location clues: what was the name given to the ALL CAPS typewriter used by professional CW ops?
And if you elevated one to higher than average terrain, where would it be? Major hint: Littleton.
Good luck,
Barry – W1HFN
From nediv.arrl.org:
Earlier today, ARRL life members received an email from the Membership Department asking them to verify that their membership ID and address information were correct. Many people were rightfully suspicious, thinking the message was a possible phishing attempt.
ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, confirmed late this afternoon that the message was, in fact, legitimate and there was no need for concern. ARRL asks that you reply to the email with the appropriate response.
Bruce Blain, K1BG, writes:
The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club’s June meeting is Thursday, June 17th at 7:30 PM. This meeting will be conducted via ZOOM. Meeting details are below. Thanks to Jim Hein, N8VIM, and Medtronics for the Zoom conference.
We’re very pleased to announce the speaker: Mindy Hull KM1NDY, whose topic is portable operations.
Summary: Portable radio operation is becoming an increasingly prominent pursuit of amateur hobbyists, made practical by the advent and availability of lightweight batteries. Structured programs such as Parks-On-The-Air (POTA) and Summits-On-The-Air (SOTA) provide enticing opportunities for hams to get outdoors. While experienced hams may have plenty of technical radio experience, portable radio requires an intersection with the skills of the outdoorist. This talk focuses on gear choices (both radio and outdoor), portable op strategies, and a bit of philosophy to hopefully give you all the information needed to get out there and do it yourself!
We’ll also have a rundown on the club’s Field Day plans.
Thanks and 73. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
[Contact Bruce, K1BG, for Zoom details at 978-772-2773 or bruce.blain@charter.net ]From New England Sci-Tech Leadership Team news:
Bob Phinney and Rusty Moore have cleared their schedules for summer Thursdays 5:00-7:30pm to be in Natick Common to meet families and provide educational and entertaining STEM topics. We have activities planned for kid’s nights, family nights, history nights, art walk, and more. Thank you to Steve Palmer, Greg Moore, and David Kahn as well as teens Nolan Palmer, Jonathan Godfrey, and David Camaforte for helping at various times at the last two events. We welcome more helpers, so come and see us.
The KD1D Fox is out and about Friday JUNE 11, 2021, operating on 146.565 MHz FM and is expected to be transmitting through Sunday, at least.
It is located on LITTLETON Conservation land and can be heard from Great Road (Rt. 119) between Lake Nagog and Littleton Common.
The logbook is hidden nearby and should be easy to find. Enter your Callsign, Name, and Time & Date found or email me a (small) photo at the address below.
A cryptic clue (for those who enjoy these things) is “Happy Herder.” Email me at kd1d@arrl.net if you need additional hints.
73 and Happy Hunting from Alan, KD1D
From ARRL Special Bulletin 006:
International Space Station to be in Cross-Band Repeater Mode for Field Day
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) cross-band repeater will be available for ARRL Field Day, June 26 – 27. Contacts will count toward Field Day bonus points as satellite contacts and Field Day contacts.
Field Day rules limit stations to one contact on any single-channel FM satellite. Note that contacts made during Field Day by ISS crew would only count for contact credit, but not for satellite bonus points. ISS cross-band repeater contacts are also valid AMSAT Field Day satellite contacts.
The ARISS cross-band repeater uplink is 145.990 MHz (67 Hz tone), with a downlink of 437.800 MHz.
ARISS suggests that those unfamiliar with the ISS repeater may want to practice with it prior to Field Day. ARISS had planned to switch modes to the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) during the second week of June, but this won’t happen until after the first ARISS school contact following ARRL Field Day.
The ARISS ham station will be off-air during spacewalks on June 16 and June 20.
From Nashoba Valley ARC’s Signal, June 2021:
Dan [Pedtke], KW2T, received an inquiry at work from some young engineers about getting a ham radio license. He got permission from the company to offer a class, and was surprised to get 11 people signed up.
With coaching from Bruce, K1BG, he ran eight 2-hour sessions on-line, using Google Meet, and following the latest Tech license manual. They finished up last Wednesday, June 2. Through arrangement with Dan, MIT offered on-line testing sessions on June 3, 8, and 10 .
Two of his students signed up for June 3, and passed the test with flying colors (34 and 35 out of 35!) Dan informs us that a third has now taken the test and again and aced it–35 out of 35!
So far, there are three new hams in the area from the class: KC1PKB, KC1PKC, and KC1PKJ. Dan is hopeful he will get all eleven through testing over the next couple of weeks. Dan is a W5YI VE himself, and has gotten over 30 new people licensed over the years.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we all did that–the hobby would come alive!
From Algonquin ARC QRZ Newsletter, June 2021:
Please note the time change for the DMR New England Digital Swap Net:
WHEN: MONDAY NIGHTS at 7:30 PM for 1 hour
WHERE: NEDECN “NEW ENGLAND WIDE” 3181 TALK GROUP
NET CONTROLS: K1NR, WA1NVC, N1JAF, NE1B
https://groups.io/g/NewEnglandDigitalSwapNet
You can read the For Sale items and if you join, you can post For Sale items.
Barry Fox, W1HFN, writes on the NEMassFoxHunters list on June 4, 2021 at 1:11 PM
My father was a 30 year vet of the Army and I (knowing better) joined the Air Force. If that is not enough of a hint, email me for more. Standard 146.565 MHz TX with a voice ID every 40 seconds or so. There is a log to sign nearby. Good luck to all!
73,
Barry, W1HFN
p.s. — I forgot to mention–it’s in the Westford area.
“Pi” Pugh, K1RV, writes in the K1USN Happenings, June 3, 2021:
Upcoming K1USN Zoom session on Tuesday, June 8th @ 7:30 PM EDT with Anthony, K8ZT. Anthony will be doing a presentation on Software Defined Radios (SDR). Please spread the word about Anthony’s presentation and encourage people to sign up for a Zoom invitation to the June 8th session.
We have enjoyed previous presentations by Anthony which now reside on our K1USN Radio Club YouTube channel.
As mentioned before, If you have previously been receiving Zoom invitations you are already on our (separate) K1USN Zoom email distribution list so it’s not necessary to submit a new request. We use a separate list to try to maintain better control and discourage potential “Zoom Bombing”. For that reason, although all are welcome, we ask that you do NOT share the Zoom invitation once you receive it. Please tell any other interested parties to contact me (k1rv@arrl.net) directly to be added to our Zoom list. It’s really that simple.
PART of Westford President George Allison, K1IG, writes on the PART mailing list:
The dynamic duo of PART member Bob, W1IS, and Bob, KC1DSQ, have another article published in CQ Magazine. In the May 2021 issue is their article titled “A New Design of a 40-6 Meter Off-Center-Fed Dipole,” that describes a dipole antenna covering the 40, 20, 15, 10, and 6-meter bands.
Reminder: The two Bobs wrote an antenna article that was published in the June issue of QST, and voting is still open for the cover plaque award. ARRL members can vote for their favorite article.
“Pi” Pugh, K1RV, writes in K1USN Happenings, June 3, 2021:
The K1USN club station will be on the air this weekend beginning on Friday [June 5, 2021] @ 8 PM EDT (0000 UTC) @ 85 Quincy Ave, Braintree, MA. We expect to have three HF stations running on SSB/CS as well FT8/4. Operators will be needed to enable us to remain on the air as much as possible during the weekend.
As many of you already know, Museum Ships Weekend was begun by the K1USN Radio Club back in 1997 and has become a very popular annual event. All organizational details are now handled by the NJ2BB crew aboard the Battleship New Jersey and we are pleased to continue to support their efforts by activating K1USN each year.
Activity on the bands has grown over the years and there are many home stations competing to make contacts with as many of the participants as possible during the weekend. Larry, W1VP, has created a cool DX Summit search tool which will go live this weekend.
This search tool will show a real time flow of MSW participant cluster spots to enable you to track them down. The DX Summit filtered feed will be available from www.k1usn.com.
As I said, we will be needing operators so please let me know if you have some available time to either operate or just to drop by to check out K1USN in action during this weekend. […] Please drop me a note to let me know that you plan to operate and what day/hours/modes you wish to operate at pi.k1rv@gmail.com.
Locally, Mike, W1USN, WA1MD & Bob, AA1M plan to activate the USS Cassin Young as WW2DD. [See: USS Cassin Young WW2DD QRV for Museum Ships Weekend, June 5-6, 2021]
Rick, KB1TEE , WI1G, WA1MAD and crew will be activating the USS Massachusetts from Battleship Cove using the callsign NE1PL. Watch for all of them on the Cluster.
The USS Cassin Young, WW2DD, will be among the museum ship stations on the air for Museum Ships Weekend. Volunteers will activate the famous Fletcher-class destroyer, DD-793. Plans are to operate on 20 and 40 meters SSB and some digital modes.
According to Wikipedia, the Cassin Young served as a part of the Fast Carrier Task Force. On April 28, 1944, this force sortied for air attacks on Japanese strongholds at Truk, Woleai, Satawan, and Ponape, during which Cassin Young operated as a picket ship, assigned to warn her group of possible enemy counterattack.
The ship is on permanent loan to the National Park Service. She is berthed at the Boston Navy Yard, part of the Boston National Historical Park in Charlestown.
Bob DeMattia, K1IW, writes:
HamXposition September 10, 11, and 12, 2021 at the Best Western Royal Plaza in Marlborough, MA
You’ve probably heard by now that all COVID restrictions in Massachusetts are lifted as of May 29, and the state of emergency is lifted as of June 15.
What this means is we are a go for HamXposition 2021!
Phil, K9HI, our forum chair has already begun seeking out guest speakers – You can sign up to be a speaker here: 2021 Early Speaker Signup.
In the coming weeks, we will be enabling volunteer signup, and will begin announcing program details, so come visit this website often.
Online ticket sales will begin on August 1.
Discounted room rates of $99 are available now by calling the hotel directly – (508) 460-0700. Tell them you will be attending the HamXposition. This rate is only available through the local hotel phone number and will not work with their online reservation system or their national reservation number.
I look forward to seeing you there!
Bob DeMattia, K1IW
President, FEMARA
The Norfolk County Radio Association is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a special event operation from 0000 UTC June 5 to 2359 UTC June 12, 2021 on the suggested frequencies of 3.825, 7.225, 14.235, 21.285, and 28.325 MHz as well as other frequencies at the discretion of club members. Club members will operate their own stations using the club call W1AGR during this operating event. A special QSL will be available with an SASE to the club station trustee, K1HC, 422 Everett Street, Westwood, MA 02090.
The club had its beginnings in Norwood, MA in 1921 when a group of young radio amateurs gathered to exchange ideas and help each other build their home-made radio equipment. It originally became affiliated with the ARRL two years later, in 1923. The club grew to include hams from local area towns and then re-organized in 1932, calling themselves the Norfolk County Radio Association. The spirit of those early years continues today; its members are always ready to help others and mentor new hams getting started in amateur radio. NCRA members have made memorable contributions to amateur radio in technology and communications, including support for various public service needs such as municipal events, SKYWARN reporting, Red Cross, and local disaster training.
Congratulations to the Norfolk County Radio Association for reaching this historic milestone.
The June, 2021 Section Newsletter is now available at https://ema.arrl.org/june-2021-section-news/.
Doug Bruce, N1WRN, writes on the Billerica ARS website:
The feature speaker this month is Terry Snyder, WB3BKN, an expert on a lot of different wire antennas for any application in ham radio that you can think of. Terry will do a presentation centered on a number of different antenna designs, from the vertical, to the loop, to the quad, to the j pole, to the dipole, and beyond. He will discuss the pros and cons of each design, along with the basic design theories of these antennas. Please join us for a very informative and interesting presentation! Hope to see everyone there!
Ray Cord, K2TGX, writes on the Sturdy Memorial Hospital ARC mailing list:
Just to let you know that the K1SMH 147.195 Sturdy Memorial Hospital repeater has returned to the air as of about 1330 today [March 28, 2021] thanks to the efforts of: Pierre Guimond, N1EZT; John Bellissimo, KA1EWN; Steve, N1LEO and Bill, WB1DJM. Bill rebuilt the Super StationMaster that the repeater is now using while the damaged JAG 4 element folded dipole array was rebuilt from the damage it received in the tower fold-over. We lost about five feet in elevation and we are on a different antenna so you may notice some difference in coverage on the fringes.
It is good to get it back on the air and hope to hear activity soon. If I missed anyone who helped in this endeavor, please accept our thanks.
73,
Ray K2TGX
Secretary/Treasurer
SMHARC
From the ARRL Letter, May 27, 2021:
CWops has designated the K1USN Radio Club as the 2021 recipient of its Award for Advancing the Art of CW. As CWops noted in making the announcement, the K1USN Radio Club has created and managed the K1USN Weekly Slow Speed Test (SST) that provides a place for new and unpracticed CW operators to gather and operate at relaxed speeds in a friendly and encouraging manner that helps them continue to improve their CW skills.