a field organization of the National Association for Amateur Radio®
The Whitman Amateur Radio Club will hold its Winterfest on January 18, 2020 from 9 AM until 1 PM at the Knights of Columbus Hall, Route 18, in Whitman. A VE testing session will be conducted at the event. Admission is $5; tables cost $15. Raffle prizes will be drawn at noon. Talk-in will be provided on the Whitman ARC repeater: 147.225Mhz+ PL67. For vendor information, call: 781-523-5010 or visit http://www.wa1npo.org/WF/WinterfestFlyer2020.pdf.
Three Eastern Massachusetts amateurs appeared January 13, 2020, on Bradley Jay’s “Jay Talking” on WBZ-AM (1030 kHz) to discuss Amateur Radio.
Jim Idelson, K1IR, Bruce Tinkler, N9JBT, and Marty Sullaway, NN1C, described the hobby, history, types of equipment, DXing, radiosport, and how to obtain a license. They also described their own experiences getting started in the hobby.
NN1C emphasized the fact that the hobby allows one to make friends with people all over the world. Through Amateur Radio, Marty had the opportunity to meet with a number of other hams on his first trip to Israel.
Bradley took several callers’ questions during the hour-long show, including one from a Michigan caller who was blind.
According to Wikipedia, “WBZ (1030 kHz) is a Class A clear channel AM radio station licensed in Boston, Massachusetts. Formerly owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting and CBS Radio, the station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia… Its signal can be heard at night across most of Eastern North America.”
Left-right: Bradley Jay; Bruce Tinkler & Jim Idelson. Photos courtesy Marty Sullaway.
You can listen to an over-the-air recording of the show on Jim Idelson’s blog, The Driven Element.
Brian McCaffrey, W1BP, writes on the PART of Westford mailing list:
Winter Field Day is here! WFD will be held at the Westford Sportsmen’s Club on starting at 2 PM on 25 January and running until 2 PM on Sunday, 26 January. We will begin setup on Friday, 24 January.
We will be operating one station outdoors in a heated tent. We can operate any mode except FT8. It will be operator’s preference the mode and band for the time you operate.
We need volunteers to help with the following:
– Setup on Friday and Saturday
– Operating starting at 2 PM on Saturday
– Westford Sportsmen’s Club members to take shifts as escorts for PART members
– Kitchen crew
– Tear-down starting 2 PM Sunday
Come to the PART meeting on Tuesday, 21 January, to hear all the details and get your questions answered.
Please sign up by email direct to me for anything you’re interested in. If you can only help for a short while, that’s ok too. The more the merrier, we can have shorter shifts in the cold. If you’ve already told me you’re interested in helping, thank you. Please let me know times you could help and what you’re interested in.
I hope to see you there!
73,
Brian
W1BP
The Pilgrim Amateur Wireless Association will hold its next business meeting on January 17, 2020 at 7:00 PM in the Margaret Stone Conference Room, Morton Hospital, 88 Washington Street, Taunton. Raffle tickets go on sale at 6:30 PM.
We will have discussions on new events, activities, and new ideas you may have along with items for sale by club members and new radio gear you may have.
Stop by to see what we have planned for the new year. New members are always welcome. Check in for talk-ins along the way. You can find us on our club repeaters:
Have a safe week everyone, talk to you soon. Be safe in your travels.
73 de
P.A.W.A
Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O, writes:
The Cape Cod and Islands District Amateur Radio Emergency Service will conduct a winter operations exercise on Saturday, January 25, 2020, to test its capability in establishing communications with stations within its district and outside it under emergency conditions.
The operational exercise, dubbed “Ice Show” will test the ability of several field stations to communicate. This will also be a drill to test some of our hospital stations, primary stations, EOCs, shelters and other ARES member home stations.
Version 1.2 of the exercise scenario and guidelines are available online.
Setup will begin at 8:30 AM, with a start time of 10:00 AM lasting until 12 Noon.
Phil Erickson, W1PJE, writes:
In January of this year, Puerto Rico was struck by another natural disaster in the form of frequent significant earthquakes and aftershocks. Although quake epicenters were in the southwest island corner, tremors were felt all across the island in what has been described as a 100 year class series of events. Earthquake impacted areas included the landmark Arecibo radio telescope and ionospheric radar facility, previously a victim of the August 2017 devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria.
In response to the situation, members of the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club rapidly stepped up to assist in support and recovery efforts for the world’s largest radio and radar facility. In particular, NVARC members Phil Erickson, W1PJE; Rod Hersh; WA1TAC; and Jim Wilber, AB1WQ, participated in daily scheduled QSOs with Angel Vazquez, WP3R, the lead Arecibo telescope operator and spectrum manager. WP3R’s longtime ham radio credentials include the 2019 Yasme Foundation award for his work in disaster relief on the island during Hurricane Maria. NVARC members Bill Blackwell, AB1XB, and Les Peters, N1SV, also quickly volunteered time on their home stations as backup possibilities for contacts.
The daily 20 and 40 meter group skeds from eastern Massachusetts to Puerto Rico employed a variety of systems including end-fed wire antennas, Yagis, with transceivers operated both barefoot and with amplifiers. Combined with the powerful kilowatt class station at WP3R, these efforts provided support and inquired about potential assistance during a period of several days when no commercial power or water was available near Arecibo. Power and water have now been restored to San Juan and Arecibo, but the observatory itself is awaiting structural engineering inspections that cannot occur until seismic activity subsides. Although conditions are slowly improving on the northern portion of the island, WP3R reports thousands of people displaced from their homes and camped outside in the south due to extensive structural damage and ongoing aftershocks.
The efforts of NVARC members also provided support messages directly to Arecibo from the large observing facilities at MIT Haystack Observatory in Westford, MA, and also from program officers in Washington DC at the National Science Foundation’s Geospace Facilities division. NSF funds observing programs and scientific research at the Observatory. Contacts will continue as recovery proceeds in Puerto Rico.
Bruce Blaine, K1BG, writes:
The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club’s January meeting is Thursday, January 16th at 7:30 PM at the Pepperell Community Center (in Pepperell).
This month’s program will feature “Homebrew Night.” Come in and show off what you’ve been working on over the past year. No project is too small—or too large. If your project is physically too big, don’t fret. Bring along some pictures, JPEG files, or anything else. We’ll find a way to project or display graphics. homebrew, kits, restoration, innovative solutions. Come. Brag. Converse. Have coffee. This is one of the best “social” meetings of the year…
Remember, HB Night and the upcoming Short Subjects Night (the February meeting) both rely on member participation. It’s your hobby; brag about it.
Need directions? Click here and put your own address in box “A”.
Thanks and 73. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Bruce, K1BG
978-772-2773 or bruce.blain@charter.net
Tony Sarracino, AB1XK, writes on the CAARA list:
We encourage all members and their guests to participate. Current plan is to have three transmitters: SSB, PSK31, and CW.
More to follow so save the date.
[See also: Area Radio Clubs QRV for Winter Field Day, January 25-26, 2020]
From the NU Wireless Club mailing list, January 13, 2020:
Welcome back to all of our returning members and new members. After a short winter break, NU Wireless Club is starting back up for the Spring semester. We plan on having bi-weekly general meetings, ham nets, workshops, and project groups.
Our first meeting is this Thursday, January 16th. We will be introducing new members to the club and talking about the upcoming semester. Come join us for pizza and refreshments. Hope to see all of you there!
Our first ham net will be held Monday at 8:00 pm by our resident ham guru, Connor Northway. Here is the information needed to participate:
Output Frequency: 145.31 MHz
Offset: -0.6 MHz
CTCSS (PL) Tone: 123.0 Hz
Nick Magliano, KC1MA, writes on January 18, 2020 at 3:42 PM:
The meeting scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, January 19 has been CANCELLED out of concern for safe travel and a storm too close to call.
Nick Magliano, KC1MA writes:
The December meeting of the Mystic Valley Amateur Radio Group will be held on Sunday, January 19, 2019 @ 9 AM.
The meeting location will be the Milton Auxiliary Fire Dept. Station, 2nd floor, 509 Canton Avenue, Milton. The building is a little beyond the gazebo to the right of the Milton Fire Headquarters where we’ve held our Field Day Operations in past years. Local map is attached below as a post script.
We will be monitoring the 145.43 Belmont repeater for talk-in. Please feel free to email me with any questions. kc1ma at arrl dot net
https://www.townofmilton.org/sites/miltonma/files/uploads/towncommontrafficdirectionfinal.pdf
There will be no Boston Amateur Radio Club meetings for the months of January and February. The next general meeting will be held on Thursday, March 19, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. at a location still to be determined. Stay tuned to The SPARC for details.
From Framingham Wicked Local,
Filippov is an amateur ham radio operator who lives at 273 Prospect St., which is where he wants to build the tower. The city issued him a building permit, and Filippov started to pour the foundation.
Then his neighbors found out.
Since then, those neighbors have been mounting a vigorous campaign to halt the project, which they argue would be a dangerous eyesore that scars the neighborhood and hurts families’ nest eggs. On top of all that, the tower as proposed is illegal, they said.
[Full story][See also: Neighbors are fighting a Framingham man’s OK to erect an 80-foot ham radio tower”]
The North Shore Radio Association will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 2020, in the Peabody Municipal Light Plant auditorium, 201 Warren St Extension, in Peabody (talk-in 145.470 repeater).
From QRZ.com, W1HUD:
Founded in April of 2019, the Hudson High School Ham Radio Club went on the air with a new club station license as KC1LFV. Within a few weeks, the FCC issued our new club vanity callsign: W1HUD.
Hudson High School is a public school enrolling about 950 students in grades 8 – 12. It is located in the New England town of Hudson, MA, about 27 miles (43 km) west of Boston. We offer a broad general education curriculum, including about 155 elective courses to meet widely varying student interests. Included among these are courses in digital electronics, robotics, and an advanced AP Physics course in calculus-based electricity and magnetism.
Unlike in years past, most teens today have never even heard of amateur radio, let alone seen a ham station in operation. The HHS Ham Radio Club was formed to address this gap in knowledge, and hopefully to inspire young people to become interested in amateur radio.
The first “shack” for W1HUD is located right inside the Honors and AP Physics classroom/lab at the high school, where students can try their hand at listening and operating under the close supervision and operational control of the club’s founding trustee Reed Prior (W1TF), who is a physics and astronomy teacher at the school.
The club currently is using a borrowed Kenwood TS-590S transceiver feeding a donated 18 ft tall Hy-Gain 5-band vertical antenna mounted on the building roof. The roof is made of membrane coated steel, so it provides an excellent counterpoise.
Most operations since inception have been on FT-8 digital using WSJT-X software running on a loaned teacher’s laptop. Operating in digital mode has proved especially appealing to the students in our situation, since:
1) Digital operations are “quiet in the shack” (with the burbling tones turned down on the AF control), so students and the controlling operator can operate the station while other classes are running in the same room.
2) Young people these days are . . . well . . . shy about speaking live with strangers. They’ve grown up in an SMS texting world, where even dating is often done as much by texting each other as by interacting in person! They seem naturally fascinated by the power of digital communications sans the internet infrastructure.
3) With the club’s modest “Little Pistol” station of just 100 watts feeding an omnidirectional vertical antenna, students are amazed by the range of DX stations they can reach this way, even during the day. Strong signal reports from 10,000 miles away in Australia come to us on 40m and 30m almost every morning.
The Minuteman Repeater Association meeting will feature a presentation by Paul Topolski, W1SEX, entitled, “Heath History, the GI Bill, and Economics of Restoration” on Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 7:30 PM. MMRA meets this month in the Leominster Emergency Management Agency Amphitheater, 37 Carter Street, in Leominster, MA 01453. Directions
“Heath Company was a major player in the electronics industry with hundreds of Heathkit products that educated customers and provided the satisfaction of building and enjoying their own equipment. Heath started with aircraft and transitioned to electronics with test equipment after World War II. Heath added HiFi and ham radio gear within a few years.
“Paul Topolski, W1SEX, of Gardner, Massachusetts will speak about the interesting and colorful history of Heath Company. Paul will speak about the company founder and the subsequent owners of Heath and how the Company’s rapid growth was bolstered by numerous economic factors that came to fruition at the close of World War II. Paul will outline these intertwined factors which lead to tremendous success and the ultimate failure of the company. Finally, Paul will show why Heathkits are among the best ham radio products to restore from both a practical and economical basis.”
The Wellesley Amateur Radio Society will meet on January 21, 2020. Tom Kinahan, N1CPE, will present on “Today’s MARS.”The meeting location for the January meeting at 7:30 PM will be the Wellesley Community Center Hoffman room, 219 Washington Street (at the corner of Route 16 West and Route 9 West). http://www.wellesleycommunitycenter.org/
See YOU there!
The next Pentucket Radio Association meeting will be held on January 16, 2020 at 7:30 PM at the West Newbury EOC/Fire station, 401 Main Street, West Newbury, MA.
Talk-in will be on our repeater: 146.625 MHz PL 131.8.
PRA meets on the third Thursday during the months of: January, March, May, September, November.
Several area radio clubs have explored plans, or indicated they will participate in the upcoming annual Winter Field Day exercise, January 25-26, 2020.
The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society Amateur Radio Society (STARS) will operate in the event on Saturday, January 25, 2020 from 2 PM to 10 PM. “Open to all licensed amateur radio operators worldwide, Winter Field Day is both a contest and a practice exercise of radio skills. There are hardy individuals who brave the snow and cold and get more points. We will stay warm and take a points loss but still have fun! Non-licensed adults and children can get on the air with one of our control operators. The contest runs 2 pm Saturday to 2 pm Sunday, but we plan to operate publicly only until 10 pm Saturday. Properly licensed radio operators are welcome to continue on their own through the night and into Sunday.”
PART of Westford plans to conduct a Winter Field Day effort led by W1BP at the Westford Sportsmen’s Club on West Street.
The Falmouth Amateur Radio Association discussed the possibility of a club effort in Winter Field Day at a recent monthly meeting. It’s not known whether FARA will actually participate in the event.
The Winter Field Day event is sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association (WFDA) is a dedicated group of Amateur Radio Operators who believe that emergency communications in a winter environment is just as important as the preparations and practice that is done each summer but with some additional unique operational concerns.
Dan Pedtke, KW2T, writes:
TechNight is this Thursday, January 9, 2020, at the usual time and place: 7 PM, Grady Research building [in Ayer]. See the website www.DansTechNight.com for info and directions.
Our guest speaker will be physicist Bob Jackson, KE1JH. Bob’s talk is “Infinity, Q, and Transmission Lines, a Physicist’s View.” This will be about energy flowing in a transmission line, and characteristic impedance, among other things.
I will not be here for the meeting, I’ll be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.
The Algonquin Amateur Radio Club meeting on January 9, 2020, will feature Marcia Forde, KW1U, who will present on “Message Handling: An Important Skill in Emergency and Disaster Situations and the Role of the National Traffic System.”
AARC’s January newsletter can be read at: <https://www.qsl.net/n1em/QRZ/A
Club meetings are held at 7:30 PM in the library of the 1st Lt. Charles W. Whitcomb Middle School in Marlborough, 25 Union Avenue. Use Door #1 at rear of building.