ARRL EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION Section Manager (SM) - Phil Temples, K9HI Assistant Section Manager (ASM) – Jeremy Breef-Pilz, KB1REQ 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) - Rob Macedo, KD1CY Section Traffic Manager (STM) – Marcia Forde, KW1U State Government Liaison (SGL) - Shawn O'Donnell, K3HI Technical Coordinator (TC) - Eric Falkof, K1NUN (SK) DECEMBER 2013 SECTION NEWS Get in on the action for the 15th annual SKYWARN Recognition Day, December 6, from 7 p.m. until December 7 at 7 p.m. For more information on this national event, check out <http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/hamradio/>. Locally, the Boston ARC plans to operate W1BOS during SRD from the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton. The Taunton SKYWARN ARC, WX1BOX, will be QRV from the National Weather Service station in Taunton. Details on WX1BOX operations can be found on the <http://www.wx1box.org> web site. As this report is being prepared, members of the Whitman ARC are conducting a special event operation from the Plimoth Plantation as WA1NPO. Details can be found at <http://www.wa1npo.org/ppse.htm>. Sturdy Memorial Hospital ARC members are assisting the Town of North Attleboro for the 58th Annual Santa Parade on December 1. Be sure to mark your calendars for the ARRL-affiliated Marlboro flea market on February 15. More info is available by contacting KA1OS at <president@n1em.org>. PART of Westford's President, Andy Stewart, KB1OIQ has announced the release of Version 14 of his "Andy's Ham Radio Linux" based on an Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS remix. The download is free and can be gotten at <https://sourceforge.net/projects/kb1oiq-andysham>. PART of Westford members put their foxhunting skills to work on November 9 to track down an open transmitter on the input to the 146.955 Westford repeater. The source was eventually tracked to the home of an area ham. The November Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Cabinet meeting included two special guests: Falmouth ARA President Dick Wiklund, K1MGH, and FARA Director Henry Brown, K1WCC. W1PL conducted antenna work this past month on behalf of the Harvard Wireless Club. The 145.27 MHz Harwich repeater is now QRV, according to Pilgrim ARC's WA1KYU. Says Dana: "It's filling in our coverage of the Harwich area very nicely and is getting excellent audio quality reports." Members of the Fairhaven Repeater Weather Net met recently at the Southworth Library in South Dartmouth. The Net has met daily, Monday through Friday, at 8 p.m. since 1992. Speaking of weather nets, the Cape Cod and Islands Weather Net celebrated its 25th anniversary of service to the Cape Cod region. WA1KCC serves as Net Manager. This SM enjoyed a recent visit with members of the Wellesley ARS. Their November meeting featured a presentation by N1ZCE on "Programming HTs With a Computer." Wellesley ARS mourns the loss of Silent Key Robert A. Jeffery, N1KCX of Needham. Pentucket RA awarded its updated repeater license to the club's technical committee at its November 17 meeting in Haverhill. The 56th Jamboree On The Air operation on October 19 was a tremendous success, according to Taunton Area Communications Group's KB1LXH. "Nearly 265 Scouts made contact throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and across the country." Adds Don, "to all the volunteers that came out to Camp Norse and supported our efforts--your participation was outstanding!" South Shore foxhunters turned out for a scheduled hidden transmitter hunt on November 16 in Middleborough, according to Whitman ARC's N1ZZN. The foxhunters in the Chelmsford/Westford vicinity have added a new twist to their hunts. Says KB1MGI, "I shortened the time [to] 15 seconds between transmissions." John adds, "But by doing this, it could take a lot longer to find." Nashoba Valley ARC members recently toured the MIT Haystack in Westford. KA1BTK and K1LDL have been sponsoring Open House Tuesday evenings at the Cape Ann ARA's clubhouse, W1GLO, in Gloucester. K1USN RC may soon conduct a CHIRP programming session led by K1LJK, according to K1RV. Incidentally, many of the K1USN crowd meets on Saturday mornings at 7 a.m. for breakfast at Jamie's Restaurant in Braintree before heading over to the club shack. Plans are underway to hold the Massasoit ARA's Holiday Party at the new Emergency Operations Center in Bridgewater in January. According to N1EZH, the Party will feature a SKYWARN presentation by KD1CY. MARA reports that the new EOC is much larger (and nicer) than the old facility. OOC K1EP had the privilege of operating CQWW CW as a part of a Multi-Operator, 2-Transmitter team at 4U1ITU in Geneva, Switzerland! Ed sends thanks to K1ZZ and N4QX for their assistance in arranging the opportunity to operate. Minuteman RA's November 20 meeting in Dedham featured Tony Souza, NN1D, who presented on operating on the millimeter bands: 2.3 GHz and up. The Waltham ARA has announced a change of location and meeting dates. Beginning in January 2014, the club will meet at 201 Jones Road in Waltham on the last Wednesday of each month. Framingham ARA members were saddened at the recent passing of William F. Richardson, W1JIT, of Framingham. The Cape Ann ARA holds a Scholarship Breakfast on the third Sunday of each month at its clubhouse in Gloucester, according to CAARA President W4HIX. Stan says funds raised from the breakfast go to a scholarship fund "which is distributed to graduating seniors from Gloucester, Rockport, and Essex/Manchester for students going on to study in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics." CAARA typically awards four $250 scholarships. Looking for a good source for bulk parts and electronic components? Seen on a club mailing list: Dan's Small Parts and Kits in Montana. See <http://danssmallpartsandkits.net>. KB1MGI points out a little-known feature of the QRZ.COM web site: "When you type in a call sign and click on the details tab, you see a map of that station's location. At the bottom of the map is a clickable link, "Explore on Gridmap." Click this link, and the call sign shows the Grid square box and all the other hams in that grid square. Move your cursor over the dot locations on the map and that ham's name and call sign pop up. You can also check on any place on the map and that grid square will pop up with all the hams in that location." It is with sadness that I announce the passing of Silent Key Eric Falkof, K1NUN. Eric served for many years as our section's Technical Coordinator. He was a mentor and friend to many and a familiar presence throughout Eastern Massachusetts, attending radio club meetings and giving talks on stealth antennas and stealthy hamming. In recent days, Eric devoted much of his time to mentoring new hams at the Zola Center for Persons with Disabilities in Newton. (See <http://tinyurl.com/oughfpl>.) He touched many lives, and he will be sorely missed. On a positive note: WA1IDA reports that Bob Drukman, WA1UIY has volunteered to lead the ham radio activities at the Zola Center, replacing Eric. Finally: engineers have created what they are billing as the world's smallest FM transmitter. It transmits at 100 MHz, and is made from a sheet of carbon atoms bonded together in a thin film that is only one atom thick. N1HTS asks, "Would you call this QRPpppppp?" Read about it at <http://tinyurl.com/q5phubz>. 73, and Happy Holidays! K9HI -------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Section Manager: Phillip Temples, K9HI k9hi@arrl.org --------------------------------------------------------------------
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