Clubs

The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 7 PM and feature: “Winter Field Day” by Marvin Turner, WØMET.

Description: In this engaging and timely presentation, Marvin will share insights into the annual Winter Field Day event that brings together amateur radio enthusiasts in a unique cold-weather setting. Winter Field Day is not just a contest—it’s a community-building experience that challenges operators to set up temporary stations in winter conditions, fostering camaraderie and testing one’s skills. As the president of the Winter Field Day Association, Marvin provides a firsthand look into the planning, activities, and the sense of adventure that makes Winter Field Day a highlight on the ham radio calendar. Please join Marvin on a journey through snow-covered landscapes and radio waves, where passion for communication meets the beauty of winter.

Bio: Marvin has been active in amateur radio for over 25 years. In 2022, he became the president of the Winter Field Day Association. As the host of “The Ham Radio Guy Podcast,” he shares his insights, experiences, and interviews with fellow ham radio enthusiasts. By day, Marvin serves as the IT Support Manager for a prominent healthcare company in Nashville, leveraging his technical skills to ensure the smooth operation of critical systems. Marvin loves to travel and explore, is happily married to his wife Heidi, and is accompanied by Otto, his loyal canine companion, on his ham radio adventures.

Brandon Hockle, NQ1W, writes on the Cape Ann ARA mailing list:

Just a quick note to remind everyone that Paul Krueger [N1JDH] has been kind enough to come back for the second in our lecture series on antennas!

Last time he gave an excellent overview of some of the horizontal antenna systems we commonly work with as hams and a look at computer models of them at various heights. This month we will get to enjoy a similar treatment for vertical antenna design!

Paul has put together a fine presentation with models of some the most common vertical design cases and models of their radiation patterns.

We hope that you can come to the presentation and follow up discussion during the January CAARA members meeting January 13th at noon.

Regards,
Brandon Hockle NQ1W

The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on December 19, 2023 at 7 PM and feature: “Factors Affecting Small Transmitting Loop Antenna Performance” by Augie “Gus” Hansen, KBØYH.

This presentation is an updated version of one given in the first QSO Today Academy in September 2023. A Small Transmitting Loop Antenna (STL) of diminutive size can perform very well on both transmission and reception if care is taken in the design, material selection, and construction phases. The program STLcalc is used to reveal the performance impacts of main loop conductor material, size, shape, and length, as well as the type and quality of the tuning capacitor. Performance is gauged by efficiency, which is maximized by increasing radiation resistance while reducing loss resistance. In addition, some suggestions are provided on ways to obtain good coupling to the transmission line over a wide tuning range.

Augie “Gus” Hansen, KB0YH, is a semi-retired electrical engineer, computer programmer, author, and technical trainer. Although he has deployed numerous types of antennas for broadcast and ham radio use, he has worked on STL (a.k.a., magnetic loop) antenna design, construction, and operation for three decades, primarily to help those who are prevented from using visible antennas. This latest project, STLcalc, started as a Python language programming exercise. A forced march to produce something useful is a great way to quickly learn a new language!

Please join us at the Billerica Amateur Radio Society meeting on December 6, 2023 at 7:00 PM. Frank Garofalo, WA2NDV, on Basic Satellite Tracking.

 

Bio:

Frank was originally licensed in 1970 in Corona Queens, New York by way of the Electchester Amateur Radio Club and his cousin, Hugo (SK). He was in 8th grade at the time and it gave his life a direction.

Amateur Radio has allowed him to work in many diverse places including 18 years at NBC-NY and 15 years as a VoIP Engineer for the cable company with 3.5 million voice customers. It all started at the proverbial 5 kW three-tower directional AM radio station! Now he is retired. He asserts that the ham license and First Class (General now) Radiotelephone licenses have been more useful over the years than any college degree.

He uses an IC-9700 for satellites with an InnovAntennas on a G- 5500 AZ/EL rotor. Rig and rotor are computer controlled with S.A.T. a stand-alone satellite tracker.

His satellite contacts on LEOs and MEO as of Nov 21, 2023, 92 countries, 771 grid squares worldwide, 50 states, 4017 QSOs with 1446 unique stations and three NA1SS astronaut contacts through 41 satellites.

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BARS will announce the link to join the Zoom meeting before the meeting, but it will be posted to the BARS email list and should not be shared outside our Club. Are you on the email list? If not, please send an email to bars-subscribe@w1hh.org and then simply reply to the robot response from the server and you will be subscribed.

Observing our Zoom meeting requires only a web browser and headphones/speakers. You do not need a webcam or microphone unless you want to speak or be seen.

Before our meeting date, please go to https://zoom.us/test and see if it will function for you. If you have problems, we can try to assist – feel free to ask questions on the BARS email list.

We are looking forward to “seeing” many of you on Wednesday 12/6 on the Zoom session at 1900.

Doug, N1WRN

Rich Comer, K1RBC, writes on the Waltham ARA mailing list:

I hope you all have fully recovered from Turkey Day!

The next meeting of the Waltham Amateur Radio Association will be this Wed at 7:00pm via ZOOM. (Zoom opens at 6:30 PM.)

We will have a short business meeting and then a presentation from Fred Cirera, W6BSD, entitled “Radio Shack Myths and Fairytales.”

It should be interesting.

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

The November PART of Westford meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 21, 2023, beginning at 7:30 PM at the Cameron Senior Center, 20 Pleasant Street, Westford, MA, and via Webex video conference. For those attending via video conference, a meeting link is below; just click on the green button to join in. You can join the conference any time after 7:00 PM to check out your gear or just rag chew until the meeting starts. Bear in mind that internet connectivity from the senior center may be unreliable.

The meeting topic is Parks On The Air (POTA). POTA is the fastest growing ham radio activity, and Eric, N1JUR, an active POTA-ist, will give us a presentation on how to get started and how to operate as both an activator and a hunter. Other agenda items include election of officers for the coming year and plans for the December dinner party.

All attendees are encouraged to bring donations of non-perishable food for the Westford Food Pantry.

See you Tuesday!

73,
George, K1IG
President, PART of Westford

Bruce Blain, K1BG, writes:

The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club’s November meeting is Thursday, November 16th at 7:30 PM, at the Pepperell Community Center (in Pepperell MA). We start gathering at 7 PM to socialize before the meeting starts.

This month program will feature our annual “QSL sort” for the W1 QSL bureau. It’s personally my favorite meeting of the year. Catch some incoming cards with your callsign on them, converse with other local hams, have some refreshments, and of course, sort a few cards! If you haven’t done this before and it sounds like a lot of work, you’ll find that this is actually the club’s most social meeting of the year. Pizza and soda follow when the sorting is finished.

As a side benefit, NVARC offers a FREE outgoing ARRL QSL bureau service to our members. Outgoing cards must meet the requirements of the outgoing ARRL bureau: You must provide proof of ARRL membership (such as a copy of the mailing label of a recent QST) and sort the cards according to DXCC country. NVARC will cover the outgoing QSL bureau fees. Please click on the above link to make certain that you have met the requirements.

For the November meeting, guests participating in the QSL sort can also submit cards as part of the NVARC’s outgoing QSL program!

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

Please visit NVARC on the web:

www.n1nc.org

https://www.youtube.com/@nvarc

https://www.facebook.com/NVARC

The Minuteman Repeater Association (MMRA) will hold its membership meeting on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 from 7:30—9:30 pm.

Dom Mallozzi, N1DM, will present “A Smorgasbord of Radio – the People Places and Incidents.”

This is a Hybrid meeting: Marlborough Central Fire Station + ZOOM. (Members: log into your account on MMRA.ORG to obtain the ZOOM info. Non-members: send an email to contact@mmra to request the ZOOM info.

Do you know what the most powerful radio station in New England is? Let’s find out. Dom will discuss some of the less known contributors to the development of radio, the operational sites in New England that brought radio from a laboratory oddity to a functional system along with discussing the affect of the sinking of the Titanic on radio regulation.

Licensed initially as WN1RFT in 1972 and now holds an Amateur Extra class license and FCC “General Radio Operators License” Dom started as a shortwave listener when young and eventually found his way through a local ham, Jim K1CBF, to the Providence Radio Association, W1OP. He took his licensing classes at the club in high school and eventually obtained an amateur extra class license. He also built a lot of Heathkits, many of which he still has and uses.

Dom received a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Rhode Island which led to a 38-year career as an electrical engineer at the Raytheon Co. in various Massachusetts locations specializing in measurement systems.

His ham radio interests are: CW, Antennas, 160 meters, satellites, homebrewing and DMR.

Ken Horton, KA1GFN, writes on the Algonquin ARC mailing list:

Reminder of tonight’s club meeting at the 1LT Charles W. Whitcomb Middle School, 25 Union St, Marlboro. Enter from Agoritsas Drive next to police station and use Door #1 at rear of building.

Doors open at 7 pm and meeting starts at 7:30 pm. Note that in the past there has been a couple of instance where members arrived later than 7:30 and the doors were locked. We have asked them if they can leave them unlocked until 8pm. If you think that you might be arriving late then I do also monitor the 446.675 PL 88.5 repeater prior to and at the meeting.

Dom, N1DM will present tonight on the topic of Digital Mobile Radio (DMR).

The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on November14, 2023 at 7 PM and feature: “Open Headset Interconnect Standard” by Mark Smith, N6MTS.

Ham Radio has standards for connections between the radio and power source (13.8vDC), and between the radio and the antenna (50 ohm coax). There is, however, no such standard for the connection between the radio and the user. This makes it challenging in a multi-user environment like a club shack, contest station, or EOC, for a user to connect their own headset (with their own ear goobers (technical term)) to any radio, without carrying a full-mesh of adapters between all types of headsets and all types of radios. The Open Headset Interconnect Standard (OHIS) is an open standard (free like speech) that allows any OHIS compliant User Device (e.g., headsets) to connect to any OHIS compliant Radio Device.

Bio: Mark Smith, N6MTS, aka Smitty, has been a nerd of various types his whole life. He added Amateur Radio to his list of nerdy hobbies in 1992. In 2021, he left his career of 25 years in IT (some blend of Network and Systems Engineering, Software Development, and Information Security) to start Halibut Electronics, a company that designs and makes Amateur Radio and Audiophile hardware devices and kits. He is also a co-host of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast.

Please join us at the Billerica Amateur Radio Society meeting on October 4, 2023 at 7:00 PM.  Sierra G. Harrop, W5DX, from ARRL Headquarters, will present on ARRL Public Relations and Outreach.

Speaker: Sierra G. Harrop, W5DX, Public Relations and Outreach Manager for the ARRL.

Bio:

I spent a 20-year career as a TV storyteller, and now I work full-time to grow amateur radio! I started on January 16, 2023, as the Public Relations and Outreach Manager for ARRL. It is a tremendous honor to be a part of this organization. I have lofty goals for my work for our league. I want to increase public understanding and appreciation of ham radio to levels never before seen.”

Both my parents were hams. My dad, Paul, was W5DX from 1996 until he passed in 2019 and had been WB5NDN before that. My mom, Carolyn, was KB5IDV until she passed away in 2008. My younger brother, Seth, is KK4MYZ. I grew up with a tower next to my swing set, and a ham shack down the hall from my bedroom. I’ve never known a world without amateur radio being a significant part of my life.

I was first licensed as KD5IUT in 1999 at the age of 15. I changed call signs to WX5USA in 2006, when I was employed as a storm chaser for a TV station in Oklahoma. I upgraded to General in 2013 and Extra in 2020. In July of 2020, I filed for my dad’s old call sign, W5DX. If there’s one callsign I liked more than my vanity, it was his.

“Why and How of Simple Antennas That Work” by Bob Glorioso, W1IS and Bob Rose, KC1DSQ, October 5, 2023

Bob and Bob will introduce some basic concepts that are applied to antennas that don’t cost a King’s ransom to build and work well. Topics covered include, resonance, Voltage and Current distributions, RF Feedback, End Effect, Dipoles, Verticals, C-poles, Wire Beams and Stacked Dipoles.

Meeting will start at 7 pm. This meeting is hybrid, meaning on Zoom and in person, and will be held at the Framingham McAuliffe branch library. Members will receive a zoom invitation. Area hams and those not yet licensed but interested in amateur radio are welcome to attend. Non-members may request an invitation by sending an email to John president@w1fy.org.