Clubs

Doug Bruce, N1WRN, writes on the w1hh.org website:

Our next [Billerica Amateur Radio Society] meeting will be Wednesday, July 7, 2021 via Zoom and our guest speaker will be Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC. He will have a presentation entitled “Programs Helping Hams to Develop New Skills and Get On The Air.”

Fred is a great speaker and we are fortunate to have him talk to our Club. Please join us for this interesting and informative talk featuring the President of the Nashua Area Radio Society. Hope to see everyone there.

“Pi” Pugh, K1RV, writes in K1USN Happenings, July 1, 2021:

I want to remind everyone that we have resumed our regular K1USN Saturday morning breakfast gatherings. We meet @ 7 AM at the Mad Hatter Restaurant on Route 53 in Weymouth overlooking Whitman’s Pond.

After breakfast we open up the K1USN club building by 8:30 AM and remain open (with free Starbucks coffee!) until noon. Drop by and say hello.

This week our upcoming K1USN Zoom session on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 7:30 PM will feature Anthony Luscre, K8ZT, on “Ideal Callsign Selection & Amateur Radio, Field Day & Trains.

Anthony has quite a resume and some of you may have seen some of his presentations during the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo. Anthony is an Ohio Assistant Section Manager for Education Outreach.

Eric Horwitz, KA1NCF, writes on the NSRA mailing list:

 

Bob Weller (KA1HAH) goes over highlights of a 40-year career as an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He worked at sea one to three months each year making measurements in the ocean and at the sea surface.  More than once knowledge of radio communications and radio frequency interference were important, once alerting people ashore that the research vessel he was on was in distress.

Notice:  We will be back to in-person meetings as of September at PMLP! More info to follow.

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.

“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.

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!

New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society Online Meeting: Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 7:00 pm: “CubeSatSim: The AMSAT CubeSat Simulator” by Dr. Alan Johnston, KU2Y.

George Allison, K1IG, writes on the PART of Westford mailing list:

Voting for the June QST cover plaque award has begun, and ARRL members can cast their votes.  Among the articles this month is “A Portable Two-Element 40-Meter Wire Beam” by PART member Bob, W1IS, and Bob, KC1DSQ, who presented their design at the May PART meeting.

Don’t delay… cast your vote now!

The North Shore Radio Association will hold its next meeting on May 17, 2021 at 7 PM.  Bryan Gudzevich, WO1VES, will present on Fusion.

Zoom conference information will be sent via the NSRA groups.io mailing list.  Contact Eric, KA1NCF, at ka1ncf -at- nsradio -dot- org to be added to the groups.io list.

Gordon West, WB6NOA, will will be the guest speaker at the May 13, 2021 Algonquin Amateur Radio Club meeting at 7:30 PM online via Zoom.  Other club business topics include election results, updates on May’s Hazmat Day and 2021 school watch, and discussion of hardware upgrades on the club K3.  

Gordon West has been teaching radio and electronics for more than 40 years. His fun approach to the material helps make learning a pleasure and easy to recall for testing. He is a convention speaker, DXer, teacher and author. WB6NOA has received the Hamvention,“Man of the year for 2006″ and also, “Instructor of the Year” by the ARRL. He is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America.

Ham Radio and Software Defined Radio – An Overview, Some History, and a Demonstration
Charles Miller KC1JUO

May 19, 2021 at 7:30 PM

Location: ZOOM — Members: login to the Minuteman Repeater Association webpage for the link; Non-members: send an email to contact@mmra.org

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Charles will share a bit about how he sees Ham Radio and Software Defined Radio as not only being connected but also fundamentally similar and complementary.  He will present an overview which is essentially his journey and perspectives of the topic.  The hope is to share why he finally got licensed, why he thinks the hobby is so fantastic, talk about a few radio frequency bands and describe how they are being used.  Charles will wrap up the talk with a demonstration of using software and hardware to compose and view frequency bands discussed.

Charles has been licensed since 2017 with the call sign KC1JUO.  During his many decades of tinkering, he has built and broken much.  He is a Gordon Engineering Fellow with a Computer Science degree from Boston University and a Master of Information Systems from Northeastern University.   His current career focus is on Cyber Systems Engineering, receiving his CISSP certification in 2019.  Having spent most of his career as a Technical Consultant prior to 2005, he joined Raytheon in 2005.  Raytheon has a long history of Ham Radio relevant technology:  Percy L. Spencer (W1GBE) was a critical part of Raytheon’s history and has been an inspiration for Charles for both Ham Radio and the exploration of Software Defined Radio.

Our feature presentation [on May 15, 2021 at 11 AM] will be from Dom Mallozzi, N1DM. He will present FT8 and FT4 as digital modes. Dom has been a ham for 48 years starting out in RI as WN1RFT.  He is currently active on CW during some contests and still likes to build equipment and is active on DMR, FT4, FT8 and satellites. Also, he is the radio consultant for Natick Police and Fire Departments for the past 30 years.

He retired in 2019 from Raytheon as a Principal Electrical Engineer specializing in the design and maintenance of test equipment. He worked at Raytheon plants in Waltham, Andover, Sudbury, and Marlboro over his 38 years with Raytheon.

After our feature presentation we will socialize and enjoy a virtual Spring lunch together.