Public Information

From nediv.arrl.org:

Amateur Radio will be on public display like never before at The BIG E in West Springfield, MA from September 16 – October 2, 2022. Over a million people will visit the Fair over the 17-day period. We need ham radio “Goodwill Ambassadors” to staff the booth and promote our hobby-service to the public and potential licensees.

Who: Amateurs like you who enjoy interacting with the public

What: You’ll be demonstrating ham radio contacts and sharing Amateur Radio information with the public (talking points will be provided)

When:

Two shifts per day, 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM (first session) and 3:30 PM -10:00 PM (second session) on some days

Dates/times available:

• September 16 (Military Appreciation Day), second session, 1-2 more people needed
• September 17 (Maine Day), second session, 2 more
• September 19, first session, 2 more
• September 20 (Rhode Island Day), first and second sessions, 3-4 more
• September 22 (Massachusetts Day), second session, 2 more
• September 24 (Vermont Day), first and second sessions
• September 25, second session
• September 26, first and second sessions
• September 28, first and second sessions
• September 29, first and second sessions
• September 30, first and second sessions
• October 1, first and second sessions
• October 2, first and second sessions

Where: Booth #103 inside Door 6 of the Better Living Center

How:—Sign up via the following link, which will list currently-available sessions:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9_iH1ZucHuCFCNwreEuVPWnmLOT5D_s92vHPuEUASS78Tew/viewform

SEE YOU THERE!

The Whitman Amateur Radio Club will sponsor a ham radio booth and special events station at the Annual Marshfield Fair August 19-28, 2022, from 1200-2000 ET. The booth will located behind the grandstand, just up from the first aid station and next to the blacksmith.

The club will operate under the call sign NN1MF on 20 meters. The station will also be active on the Whitman ARC repeater (147.225 MHz +PL67) and on EchoLink . 

“We will also be conducting a program at 15:00 (3pm) and 18:00 (6pm) on “Introduction to Ham Radio, how to get on the air,”  writes WARC’s Jack Foley, N1QE. “Stop by and find out all that is available to you with your NEW ham radio license! Licensed hams stop by and inquire about our educational licensed advancement classes. Or just to talk Ham stuff.”

Larry Krainson, W1AST, writes:

I’m starting a weekly Zoom meeting every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm EDT to discuss all things for the Big E Booth. 

We will start with organization and planning the booth layout as well as the continuation of getting the word out to clubs and volunteers and more. 

Please urge your club presidents to join us too and everyone is invited. I hope to see you on. 

Boston Amateur Radio Club Secretary Joe Chapman, NV1W, will present about Amateur Radio and “The Computer in the Shack” to the Boston Network Users group on June 7, 2022. The meeting will start at 7:30 PM.

The  Boston Network Users Group (BNUG)  provides education and technical forum for anyone interested in computer networking and related technologies. BNUG was founded in 1986.

Our Speaker: Joseph Chapman

Description of the talk: In 1976 I submitted decks of punched cards as homework for my first Fortran class, and earned my entry-level amateur radio license. Over the course of my adult life, as both computer and radio technologies have evolved, the computer has become an essential part of the amateur radio “shack.” I’ll talk about how it’s gone from being used for station control and logging, to supporting digital modes; finally, with Software Defined Radio (SDR), it’s become the radio itself! I’ll also describe some Internet sites used for reporting space weather and making propagation predictions, and online logging, including the public-key signature system used by 112,000 users for the American Radio Relay League’s Logbook of the World.

 Presenter Bio:

Joe Chapman, NV1W, has been fiddling with radios and computers since he was a teenager in the 1970s. After graduating from MIT, he has been involved in more hardware and software startups than Zsa Zsa Gabor has had husbands. His most recent startup having been acquired by Red Hat, he now works on storage optimization in the Linux kernel. In amateur radio he generally works with low power, using Morse code or weak-signal digital modes. He has done two solo cross-country bicycle tours, plays the pipe organ, does calligraphy, and cooks.

Barry Rector-KB1VBE from Nantucket Mass was featured in his local newspaper, the Inquirer and Mirror as an Amateur Radio Volunteer from the 2022 Boston Marathon. He shared his experiences with the newspaper and Amateur Radio was highlighted for providing communications during one of the blizzards that affected the island and was the only path to communication off island for a time when this occurred. The article can be seen here:

Inquirer & Mirror Article – Front Row Seat to the Marathon

Members and friends of the Whitman Amateur Radio Club will operate amateur radio at the Plimoth Patuxet [formerly known as Plimoth Plantation]. Setup time is scheduled for 10 AM on Friday, November 26. The group will operate on Saturday and Sunday from 9 AM to 3 PM.

“We really need anyone who is going to please email us this weekend the days and times you can be there,” writes WARC president Bob Azanow, WA1Q. “I would like to submit the schedule to Plimoth Patuxet on Monday [November 22].”

The Barnstable Amateur Radio Club (BARC) will conduct a special event this Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and 19, 2021 at the Harwich Cranberry Festival in Harwich Center on Cape Cod.  BARC will operate W1MA, the club’s new callsign, honoring BARC member Ed Lajoie who became a silent key on February 3, 2021. 

Operation is expected on 10, 15 and 20 meters with a tri-band beam on a tower.  The operators will engage the public at the entrance to the event.  Talk-in for any hams who would like to drop by will be on the W1MA 146.955 repeater (88.5 Hz tone).

Due to a scheduling snafu, Fred Kemmerer will not be appearing on the Morgan White show on September 18.  A new date is currently being negotiated.

Amateur Radio will be the topic of discussion on the Morgan White show on Boston’s WBZ radio 1030 kHz, on Saturday, September 18 between the hours of 10 PM and midnight.

“With thanks to Cory Golob, KU1U [Sabattus, Maine], he put me in touch with another ham who has us on the Morgan White show–right in the middle of our WBZ special event operation,” writes Hampden County Radio Association President Larry Krainson, W1AST.

The Morgan White interview was organized in conjunction with a special event commemorating the 100th anniversary of WBZ radio. From September 17-19, New England amateurs will use the 1×1 callsigns W1W, W1B, and W1Z, in addition to the Hampden County Radio Association’s club callsign, WB1Z. 

The 50,000 watt, clear channel station is the oldest commercial radio station in New England. It began operations on September 15, 1921 at the Westinghouse Works building on Page Boulevard in East Springfield, Massachusetts broadcasting with just 100 watts. 

The special event is a joint effort of the Billerica Amateur Radio Society and the Hampden County Radio Association (HCRA). It’s being coordinated by W1AST. [See <https://nediv.arrl.org/wbz100>.]

Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, President of the Nashua Area Radio Society, has been invited to speak on the show along with prominent Boston-based radio historian Dr. Donna Halper from Lesley University in Cambridge.

Topics to be discussed will include the history of WBZ, the WBZ ham radio special event, and Amateur Radio in general. At this time, it is not known how many minutes of air time will be alloted to Kemmerer and Halper.

“Fred is an excellent speaker. He’ll be a great representative of the ham community,” adds Krainson.

Frank O’Laughlin-WQ1O writes:

Our Cape Cod ARES district exercise “Operation Big Blow” made the Barnstable County web site news page. Thanks to Chip Reilly who is the Barnstable County Emergency preparedness and sheltering lead for being at our exercise. Article link below:

https://www.barnstablecounty.org/2021/08/10/local-volunteer-ham-operators-integral-part-of-regions-emergency-response-complete-summer-field-exercise/

From Southgate Amateur Radio Society News:

The Daily Item reports on a collect of QSL cards going back to the late 1950’s that was donated to the Peabody Historical Society in Massachusetts.

The newspaper says:

Ham radio operation might seem like a blast from the past but, according to the Peabody Historical Society, the pastime is actually still quite popular.

In fact, according to the Historical Society’s Associate Curator, Nora Bigelow, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided people with a perfect opportunity to kindle — or rekindle — their fascinations with it.

To get started with this hobby, one simply has to be a non-professional radio operator. Still, these radio enthusiasts still need to pass an FCC test to become licensed. After that, they are assigned a call sign — in other words, a group of identifying letters and numbers that serves as an address for the radio station’s transmission signal.

Operators also need to have a radio, transmitter and receiver in order to get started. If you were to balk at the price tag of such an endeavor, never fear — some beginners even start by building their own equipment.

The Peabody Historical Society recently received a donation from the estate of longtime resident Michael Schulze, which included a collection of call-sign cards from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Of the peculiar properties of the ham radio, Bigelow noted that it’s interesting that people from bygone eras were able to communicate with both locals and those from farther afield depending on the range of their radios.

“So it’s sort of like Facebook,” she said. “I mean it’s a connection between two people.”

Bigelow said that while people usually conjure up images of the American Revolution when they imagine our country’s history, the call-sign cards offer a more intimate look into Peabody’s own past. She added that by studying ham radio use, we can begin to understand more of how people choose to communicate.

Read the full story at:
<https://www.itemlive.com/2021/08/02/peabody-historical-society-scores-a-ham-run/>.