Organization

ARRL EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION

Section Manager (SM) – Tom Walsh, K1TW
Assistant Section Manager (ASM) – Phil Temples, K9HI
Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC) – Arthur “Bo” Budinger, WA1QYM
Official Observer Coordinator (OOC) – Ed Parish, K1EP
Public Information Coordinator (PIC) – Bob Salow, WA1IDA
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) – Mike Neilsen, W1MPN
Section Traffic Manager (STM) – Marcia Forde, KW1U
Section Youth Coordinator (SYC) – Jeremy Breef-Pilz, KB1REQ
State Government Liaison (SGL) – Hank Mc Carl, W4RIG
Technical Coordinator (TC) – Dan Brown, W1DAN

February 2015 SECTION NEWS

As this edition of the EMA Section News is sent out, I will have
finished my first month as ARRL Section Manager (SM) for Eastern
Massachusetts. This past month started quietly enough but it certainly
has proved to be anything but quiet during the final week as the section
experienced yet another great Blizzard. I have witnessed first hand our
well organized Section Emergency staff in action. Their skillful
response is a tribute to the many dedicated Section Emergency staff.

Rob Macedo, KD1CY, ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton
Massachusetts, provides this summary of the response to the blizzard.

WX1BOX, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Weather Service in
Taunton, completed a 27 hour activation for the Blizzard of 2015. The
station handled several hundred reports of snowfall, coastal flood
reports and damage reports from around the region. Widespread snowfall
of 15-30″ with higher amounts up to 36″ (3 feet) occurred in the
Eastern Massachusetts section and surrounding ARRL sections. Eastern
Massachusetts ARES was placed on stand-by and Cape Cod ARES led by
District Emergency Coordinator Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O, were active
staffing 6 shelters for communications and Amateurs on Nantucket Island
were active when the entire island lost power and for a time lost
landline and cell phone communications. ARRL HQ picked up the story as
well and a complete story can be seen at the following link:
<http://www.arrl.org/news/ares-skywarn-volunteers-stand-down-in-wake-of-massive-east-coast-winter-storm>

Congratulations to Marcia Forde,KW1U, EMA Section Traffic Manager
(STM)for attaining Brass Pounders League (BPL) recognition in December
2014. Marcia’s total of 885 BPL points for December far exceeds the
minimum needed. Marcia also reports regularly on the activities of
Massachusetts traffic nets and the dedicated traffic handlers in our
area. You can find her reports and lots of other interesting material
on the Eastern Massachusetts NTS webpage at <http://nts.ema.arrl.org/>.

There is a new registration process to volunteer as an amateur radio
operator for the Boston Marathon. The deadline to signup as a volunteer
for the 2015 Boston Marathon is February 10.

This year, the Boston Athletic Association is requiring all volunteers,
including the hams, to register on their website.
More information about registering as a volunteer can be found at
<http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/event-information/volunteer-information/volunteer-registration.aspx>.
Following that you can proceed to the MMRA site at
<http://www.mmra.org/marc/> and provide additional information.

One of my first duties as the new Section Manager was to represent our
Section at the January 10th gathering of the ARRL New Division Cabinet
hosted by Tom Frenaye, K1KI New England Division Director. Tom holds
these twice-yearly meetings to share information about ARRL, and to
gather input on subjects of concern to New England hams for the ARRL
Board meetings. Invitations are also sent to ARRL affiliated clubs in
our section to send a representative. This is one of many mechanisms
that K1KI employs to stay well informed prior to an ARRL Board meeting.
For me, this afforded an opportunity to talk with leaders from EMA
clubs and also to meet with other New England Section Managers.

Another important aspect of the SM role is to support our ARRL
affiliated clubs. I hope to visit as many of our clubs as possible
over time and I welcome clubs getting in touch with me to arrange a
formal visit to a club meeting or other activity such as Field Day.

It was my pleasure to visit the PART of Westford meeting on January 20
featuring three mini talks on auto rallies, the Boston Marathon, and
the third one from me. PART is a general interest radio club that has
served the Town of Westford and surrounding communities for over 30
years. PART operates the WB1GOF repeater on 146.955 and members engage
in frequent fox hunts year round.

Kathy, KB1LPW, and Rick, KB1LYJ, will be running a CERT (Citizens
Emergency Response Training) on January 31, plus four evenings
(February 11 & 25, March 4 & 18) at the Winthrop EOC. Guest lecturers
for the training include Brittany, KB1ZPS, and Jim, KB1KQW. More
information can be found at <http://www.region4bvolunteer.org>.

NEWS FROM EMA CLUBS

MMRA is reporting that on December 27th, the crew of W1BRI, KG1H, N1DDK
and K1IW installed the club’s second D-STAR repeater at Sligo Hill in
Marlborough. Rob Macedo, KD1CY, gave a talk to the January meeting of
MMRA on New Roles for Amateur Radio in Public Service and Emergency
Communications.

The Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association (CAARA) has completed the
acquisition of its club site. After almost 35 years, CAARA has
purchased the building that has been its home from the City of
Gloucester. The property had been owned by the City of Gloucester since
1867.

Almost everyone knows about the ARRL Field Day in June, but word from
CAARA is they were gearing up to participate in the SPAR Winter Field
Day held for 24 hours from 1700 UTC (noon EST) Saturday 1/24 thru 1700
UTC (noon EST) Sunday 1/25 using the call sign W1GLO. Kind of puts a
nice “GLO” on a winter’s day!

The January meeting of the Framingham ARA was their annual “Show and
Tell”.

The Boston ARC has installed a new antenna (since October) on its
145.23 repeater and is seeking signal reports from the community.
They’d also like reports on their relatively new 443.55 machine.
Please direct your reports, including your location and operating
conditions (portable, mobile, base, what antenna used, etc.) to Joe
Harris, N1QD, at <n1qd@n1qd.org>.

The Wellesley ARS enjoyed a presentation at its January meeting from Bo
Budinger, WA1QYM, on “DXing with a dipole”.

PART of Westford members during January were sure keeping the local fox
hunters on their toes in and around Westford, Chelmsford, Concord and
Carlisle.

The Billerica ARS (BARS) will feature a presentation on the Elecraft K3
by club member Erik Kramer, KE1V, as BARS tries out a new meeting
location in Bedford.

The Walpole Emergency Communications Association, (WECA), held an
NBEMS/fldigi workshop on Thursday, January 29, in preparation for
commencing NBEMS training nets starting Tuesday, February 3.
NBEMS/fldigi is a set of Amateur Radio digital communications software
supporting amateur digital communications via computer soundcard
technology. WECA plans to use NBEMS as part of their emergency response
portfolio.

UPCOMING FLEA MARKETS

The Algonquin ARC of Marlborough MA is holding its annual ham radio
flea market on Saturday, February 14, 2015. Information may be found
at <http://www.qsl.net/n1em/2015FleaFlier.pdf>

Interested in Antique Radios? Then you may want to look into the NEARC
Greater Boston Antique Radio Show XVLI to be held on Sunday, February
15, 2015 at the Westford Regency Inn, 219 Littleton Rd, Westford, MA
(Rt. 110). More information is at the following web page
<http://www.nearc.net/swapmeetinfo.htm>.

ARRL NEW ENGLAND DIVISION HAMFEST – BOXBORO 2015

To close this month’s news is a look ahead to Boxboro 2015 which will
be held from August 21-23 at the Holiday Inn, Boxborough, MA. Boxboro
deferred its usual 2014 convention until 2015 to focus on the ARRL 2014
centennial convention. The website <http://www.boxboro.org> is up and
running with new material added regularly.

The keynote speaker at the Saturday banquet is Gordon West WB6NOA. More
information and tickets are now available on the website.

Congratulations to Dennis Egan, W1UE, who is the latest addition to the
Boxboro Convention Committee. Dennis will be planning both the Friday
evening contest/DX banquet and the special event station.

The Boxboro convention website can point you to who to contact should
you be interested in becoming a convention speaker, volunteer,
exhibitor or have any other questions.

And on that look ahead to summer, while still in the middle of a New
England winter, continue to enjoy ham radio in Eastern Massachusetts.
See you next month.

73,

Tom, K1TW

——————————————————————–
ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section
Section Manager: Thomas D Walsh, K1TW
k1tw@arrl.org
——————————————————————–

ARRL EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION

Section Manager (SM) – Phil Temples, K9HI
Assistant Section Manager (ASM) – Jeremy Breef-Pilz, KB1REQ
Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC) – “Bo” Budinger, WA1QYM
Official Observer Coordinator (OOC) – Ed Parish, K1EP
Public Information Coordinator (PIC) – Bob Salow, WA1IDA
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) – Rob Macedo, KD1CY
Section Traffic Manager (STM) – Marcia Forde, KW1U
State Government Liaison (SGL) – Shawn O’Donnell, K3HI
Technical Coordinator (TC) – Eric Falkof, K1NUN

NOVEMBER 2012 SECTION NEWS

Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern Seaboard this past weekend leaving
massive devastation in its wake across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
states. According to the Washington Post, “The powerful storm has
claimed at least 51 lives and caused up to $20 billion in damage.

Closer to home, it’s hard to believe that with almost 400,000 power
outages across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts caused by Hurricane
Sandy at the height of the storm that we would be saying, “we were
lucky” but compared with portions of New York City and New Jersey, we
were indeed lucky. According to Eastern MA SEC Rob Macedo, KD1CY,
“Hurricane Sandy prompted an Eastern MA ARES stand-by and the staffing
of the MEMA Region Two Bridgewater facility, various city and town
Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), shelters, and Red Cross chapters as
well as SKYWARN activation with operations at the Amateur Radio Station
at the National Weather Service in Taunton, WX1BOX.”

Hurricane Sandy also claimed a historic replica of the HMS Bounty along
with the lives of some of her crew on October 29. According to ARRL:
“Built in 1960 for a remake of the 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty –
she sank off the coast of North Carolina as Hurricane Sandy made its
way toward New Jersey. Of its 16 crewmembers, the US Coast Guard
rescued 14. Bounty Captain Robin Walbridge, KD4OHZ, never made it to
one of the two deployed life rafts and is presumed dead. Claudene
Christian, who claimed to be a direct descendent of Fletcher Christian,
was unresponsive and passed away at a North Carolina hospital on Monday
evening.” The full story is at <http://tinyurl.com/ararx3w>.

Roland Daignault, N1JOY fondly recalls his adventures with the Bounty:
“Farewell to an old friend. When the Bounty called Fall River home, I
led several ham radio events on board this great ship. I sailed up and
down Mt. Hope Bay many times, got to know the crew as friends, scoured
nearly every square inch of this ship from the top of the rigging down
to the engine room, stern to the tip of the bowsprit, and once was on
board during one hellacious lightning storm so bad we had arc flashes
jumping between our pieces of radio gear!”

Hurricane Sandy has blown by us now, leaving destruction and pain
behind in parts of our section. Public Information Coordinator Bob
Salow, WA1IDA asks this question: “Hams are known to have supported
much of the preparation, duration and recovery, but how do we get the
general public to know this?” If you know that ham activity associated
with this storm was covered on TV, radio, online, in newspapers, or any
of the public media, please email Bob at wa1ida at arrl dot net with
links or copies of such publicity. Bob adds, “If press releases were
sent and actually used in informing the public, please note this as
well.”

YCCCer W1KM suffered damage to his Marstons Mills antenna farm from
super storm Sandy. His 20-meter yagi was “dangling from the tower and
two of his 80-meter verticals were knocked down. Greg says, “The tidal
surge came within about 6 inches of submerging the 40-meter and
80-meter 4-square phasing/control boxes. These boxes are mounted on
poles about 6 feet above the marsh.” It was the highest tide Greg has
seen at his QTH since Hurricane Bob.

The airwaves were certainly buzzing with reports about the magnitude
4.0 earthquake that struck approximately 30 miles outside of Portland,
Maine on the evening of Oct. 16. The tremors were felt throughout the
Eastern MA section and much of New England.

The Cape Ann ARA is renovating the second floor of its club house in
Gloucester.

The Barnstable ARC reports that David E. Moran, W1BSG, South Dennis
has become a Silent Key.

The South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club has been asked to help
provide communication support for a marathon in Plymouth on November 18
to benefit the Plymouth Area Coalition Food Pantry. Contact K1JRO at
oneilljr at gmail dot com if you can assist.

This SM visited some friendly folks at the October Mystic Valley ARG
meeting in Milton.

The Eastern MA ARRL staff will meet for its final 2012 quarterly
meeting on November 12 in Hopkinton.

Word on the grapevine: W1OD has spent quite a bit of time developing a
nifty shoulder patch design for K1USN!

Eight members of the Whitman ARC set up an Amateur Radio exhibit at the
Middleboro Fire Department’s Open House on October 14. According to
Bruce Hayden, NI1X, activities included: Morse code instruction for
kids, QSL card collecting, helping visitors to make on-air contacts,
sending radiograms, and a SKYWARN presentation. The group also
demonstrated foxhunting for project Life Saver, a wristband transmitter
for people with Alzheimer’s in conjunction with a receiver and a
directional antenna located at the Fire Station. Approximately 300-400
Middleboro residents attended the Open House event. (Thanks, Whitman
ARC Spectrum)

The Sturdy Memorial Hospital ARC will again provide communications
support for the annual North Attleboro Santa Parade on November 25,
2012. KA1IG is organizing the event for SMHARC and he’s looking for
volunteers. You can contact Bruce at ka1ig at verizon dot net, or on
the air on 447.975 or 147.195.

The Nashoba Valley ARC held its annual W1 Bureau QSL sorting party on
Oct. 22 in Pepperell.

FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in WT Docket No. 12-121 seeks to
change the Amateur Radio licensing rules, especially as they concern
former licensees. If you haven’t already, be sure that you (and your
radio club) file comments on this important NPRM. Details are at
<http://tinyurl.com/95u6xro>.

A hearty thanks goes to Mike Neilsen, W1MPN for his dedicated service
as Acting RACES Officer to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Mike
resigned from the position on October 16. He is “heading to new
volunteer challenges and retirement.”

KM3T presented this past month on the 2014 World Radiosport Team
Championship festivities at meetings of the Boston ARC and the Taunton
ACG.

At the request of the Braintree Historical Society, the K1USN Radio Cub
set up and operated a portable HF and VHF station at Heritage Day in
Braintree.

A Plymouth Evacuation Drill will occur on November 7 as part of the
Plymouth Nuclear Power Plant Evacuation Plan. The exercise will involve
EOCs in the Towns of Braintree, Bridgewater and the City of Taunton.
Participants in this FEMA-graded exercise transmit formal and tactical
messages between the EOCs and the MEMA Region II Headquarters. The
145.39 Norwell machine will serve as the primary repeater for the
exercise.

Ten PART members provided communications support for the Grace Race in
Chelmsford. According to PART of Westford President Andy Stewart,
KB1OIQ, “The event was a complete success, and the race director was
very pleased with the quality of our service.g Andy said that several
people “stopped by the NCS table to visit and ask about our
activities.”

How’s this for a great fundraising idea? The Cape Ann ARA held a “two
meter repeater benefit movie night” on Oct. 20. They showed the movie
“Frequency,” starring Dennis Quaid in which a father and son solve a
murder mystery through time travel and Amateur Radio. CAARA asked for a
modest $5.00 donation per person for admission that included popcorn and
soda. Wow. You can’t get that kind of a deal in the movie theaters!

The Whitman ARC mourns the loss of long time club member and Silent Key
Walter A. Johnson, W1HA of Abington.

W1KM, W1HIS, and W1MJ were just a few of the many Eastern MA stations
operating in the CQWW SSB contest Oct. 27-28. N1SV of Townsend operated
as /VP9. The CW weekend will run Nov. 24-25.

W1NP will give a presentation and demonstration on Slow Scan TV at the
November 13 meeting of the Pilgrim Amateur Radio Club in Truro.

Dana Henrique, WA1KYU, will teach a Technician license class on
November 23-25 at Chatham Marconi Maritime Center. See
<https://web.archive.org/web/20121118111822/http://pilgrimarc.org/Classes.html>.

The Epoch Times carried a very informative story about a project to
interface iPhones using ham radio at a Makers Fair in Queens, NY, at
<http://tinyurl.com/cm89foj>.

You can read a fascinating story about the life of Samuel FB Morse
entitled “The Man Who (Almost) Never Succeeded” at
<http://tinyurl.com/cn2rjl5>.

73,

K9HI

——————————————————————–
ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section
Section Manager: Phillip Temples, K9HI
k9hi@arrl.org
——————————————————————–