ARRL EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS (EMA) 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 May 2015 SECTION NEWS Welcome to the May EMA section news. Quite a few EMA ARRL-affiliated radio clubs were seen at Near-fest in early May. I helped my fellow NH Section Manager Peter Stohrer, K1PJS, all-too briefly at the booth he was manning for the ARRL so he could see some of the sights. Unfortunately, my time this year was very limited as I had to leave early Friday afternoon. The weather was great and it looked to me that folks were having a good time. The same weekend and right after the end of Near-Fest, the New England QSO party began. From what I could see, there was decent activity and it’s a lot of fun to be the focus of the pile up. I found some interesting openings on 20 and 15, when I called CQ on what seemed at times a quiet band otherwise. Special thanks to our NE Division Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI, who is one of the key guys involved in promoting NEQP every year. Brass Pounders League (BPL). Section Traffic Manager Marcia Forde, KW1U, reports the following EMA amateurs qualified and will be recognized in QST: KW1U, N1IQI. ARRL Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR). Section Traffic Manager Marcia Forde, KW1U, reports the following EMA amateurs qualified and will be recognized in QST: KW1U, N1IQI, N1TF, KB1CIC, N1LKJ GET READY FOR ARRL FIELD DAY Field Day weekend, June 27-28, is not so far away. Clubs should be well along with their plans and I hope by now have contacted Bill Ricker, N1VUX, <n1vux@arrl.net> to be included on the EMA Section Field Day Locator Map <http://fd.ema.arrl.org/>. So far I have plans to visit the Framingham ARA, PART of Westford, Billerica ARS, Phillips ARC Andover, NSRA Danvers, and Cape Ann ARA Gloucester. Would your club appreciate a visit from the Section Manager during the field day weekend? If so, please contact me at <k1tw@arrl.org>. I will be concentrating on the northern area of the section this year and hope to respond in kind next year for our southern locations. If you are looking to participate in Field Day this year, or if you never have been to a Field Day, don’t miss out. This is a great way to find a club you might want to join and for new hams to learn in a very supportive environment. And it’s fun too. ARRL NEW ENGLAND DIVISION HAMFEST - BOXBORO! 2015 Boxboro! 2015 will be held from August 21-23 at the Holiday Inn, Boxborough, MA. There will be a great selection of speakers, vendors, banquets, a flea market, fox hunts, QSL Bureau, and lots of good times. Gordon West will be the keynote speaker at the Saturday evening banquet. Jeff Jolie, NM1Y, a member of the K1N 2015 Navassa DXpedition will be the keynote speaker at the Friday DX Dinner. Tickets for both banquets are now available at the BOXBORO! 2015 website, <http://www.boxboro.org>. FLEA MARKETS 17 MAY Flea at MIT in Cambridge MA: The MIT Radio Society, in conjunction with the MIT UHF Repeater Association, the MIT Electronics Research Society, and the Harvard Wireless Club, sponsors a Swap fest on the third Sunday of each month, April through October. More detail is available at <http://w1mx.mit.edu/flea-at-mit>. MAY 30 and 31: The Whitman Amateur Radio Club Flea Market is from 8am-3pm at the Knights of Columbus Hall, Route 18, Whitman MA. Call 781-523-5010 for more details. CLASSES MAY 15-17: LICENSE IN A WEEKEND CLASS This class is offered by the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association. More information and registration details can be found at <http://www.falara.org>. SKYWARN The 2015 SKYWARN Training Class schedule has been posted at http://www.wx1box.org/. Thanks to Rob Macedo, KD1CY. CLUB NEWS Minuteman RA will be holding a special "town meeting" format meeting at the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline on June 16 at 7PM. According to MMRA, the meeting is open to all, but they would especially like feedback from those who participated as ham volunteers in the 2015 Boston Marathon. An Eastern Massachusetts amateur was the subject of an online story in the Winchester Star, entitled “Winchester ham radio operators love to make contact”. The story can be found at <http://tinyurl.com/mqbh4ty>. The Falmouth ARA conducted a special event station using the call sign W1BSA at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds May 8-10 in celebration of the Cape and Islands Council, Boy Scouts of America's 100th anniversary. Over 800 scouts were expected to attend. According to FARA’s K1WCC “a portable tower was erected with a tribander and a 40-meter dipole.” Falmouth ARA is offering a License in a Weekend class on May 15-17. Details can be found at <http://tinyurl.com/mqx6wz6>. Museum Ships Weekend on-air festivities will take place from 0000 UTC June 6 to 2359 UTC on June 7. Among those groups planning to participate is the K1USN Radio Club. They’ll be QRV from their club shack for the entire weekend. The Algonquin ARC is organizing a School Watch coinciding with the end of high school classes in Marlborough from May 24-June 6. KA1PON is recruiting volunteers for the event. Eastern MA amateurs assisted with communications for Boston’s annual Walk for Hunger on May 3. More than 40,000 walkers and 2,000 volunteers help to raise over $3 million to fund area food banks. The Framingham ARA set up a Field Day station at the Town’s Earth Day celebration on April 25. Framingham ARA’s K1GB announced that the club’s annual scholarship has been renamed to the Beverly Lees Memorial Scholarship, in honor of a FARA stalwart and Silent Key, Bev Lees, N1LOO. Sturdy Memorial Hospital ARC and CERT members plan to be involved with the Norton Founders Day operations on June 20. Yankee Clipper Contest Club members have been discussing on their listserv the pros and cons of using quad copter drones to accurately place antenna support lines. The Northeastern University Club W1KBN was heard on the air for the New England QSO Party (NEQP). W1KBN was giving out contacts for the much desired and rare county of Suffolk (i.e., Boston and surrounding towns) And finally… From the “Don’t-You-Just-Love-It-When-A-Plan-Comes-Together-Department”: KE1U (ex-KB1CJ) reports that he had a very special first-contact recently on the Waltham 146.640 repeater--with his brother: “Thanks to the several stations that were in QSO this evening [April 13] at 8:30, who very kindly allowed me to barge in to use the repeater's Echolink function to have a QSO with my brother in Houston, K5VVS. He just got his license and (thanks to the vanity call sign system) the general version of his old call after a 54-year hiatus. Because I got my first license after his original license had lapsed, this was our first QSO ever. It was a lot of fun, and until I nudge him back onto HF, was the only way I had to make the QSO.” Acknowledgement: My sincere thanks and appreciation to Assistant Section Manager (ASM) Phil Temples, K9HI, who co-authored this month’s section news. See you next month. 73, Tom, K1TW -------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Section Manager: Thomas D Walsh, K1TW k1tw@arrl.org --------------------------------------------------------------------
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