November 2021 Section News – Eastern Massachusetts ARRL

November 2021: EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS (EMA) SECTION NEWS

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Welcome to the ARRL Eastern Massachusetts (EMA) section news

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Visit <https://ema.arrl.org/> for frequent updates to the news

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UP FRONT

ARRL ANNOUNCES NEW ENGLAND ARRL DIVISION DIRECTOR ELECTION RESULT

The ARRL New England Division will have a new Director on January 1, 2022. The results of the three-way contested election for Director were announced on November 19, after ballots were tallied for two division elections at ARRL Headquarters. In the New England Division, incumbent Fred Hopengarten, K1VR, received 1,054 votes, past Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI, received 1,026 votes, and challenger Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, received 1,147 votes. Mr. Kemmerer was declared the winner.

Kemmerer has a long history of helping individuals to become licensed, learn new skills, and become active in the Amateur Radio Service. Fred has also served as President of the Nashua Area Radio Society, a club that has provided many hams licensing and development programs over the past six years.

“I believe that Amateur Radio clubs and interest groups play an essential role in bringing new hams into the Amateur Radio Service and in helping hams to develop new skills,” said Kemmerer. “As New England Division Director, I will work with clubs and individuals in New England to help them expand their role as mentors and create a world-class environment for learning based upon Amateur Radio.”

Fred, AB1OC, also serves as an ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Mentor and Ground Station, helping schools around to world to participate in STEM learning based upon Amateur Radio.

“I will help groups and individuals in New England to create projects and programs to bring Amateur Radio to young people across the division,” said Kemmerer. “Amateur Radio provides a tremendous opportunity for youths to learn about technical topics and to develop valuable skills that they can use throughout their lives.”

Kemmerer has been an active amateur for over 10 years with a broad range of Amateur Radio interests. “I enjoy many aspects of the hobby, including DXing, contesting, EmCom activities and Field Day, satellites, station building, and weak signal operating on the VHF and higher bands. One of Amateur Radio’s most important strengths is its tremendous diversity and range of interests and activities. We need to work across New England and the ARRL to grow our hobby and protect our spectrum by encouraging our hobby’s broad use.

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“TECHNICIAN CLASS” PARKS ON THE AIR EVENT, GREAT BLUE HILLS, MILTON

As this issue of Section News goes to press, the Boston Amateur Radio Club is hosting a Technician Class POTA day on November 20th at Chickatawbut Hill. All hams are welcome to attend.

“We will attempt to activate the park according to POTA rules using VHF, UHF, and the Technician segments of the HF bands,” writes BARC club president Brendan Baldonado, NW1S. “Bring your handheld and any other radio you want to try out on the summit. The club will provide some power sources and a few different antennas for you to experiment with.”

Baldonado adds, “You will also have an opportunity to operate on six and ten meters. Brendan, NW1S, and Joe, NV1W, will be on hand to answer questions and help introduce you to amateur radio in the great outdoors. There will even be prizes for accomplishments things like most contacts made, farthest contact, and most Technician bands used.

The participants plan to convene afterwards for food and drinks at the 110 Grill in Braintree.

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WHITMAN ARC TO OPERATE AT PLIMOTH PATUXET, NOVEMBER 27-28

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].”

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NEW ENGLAND SCI-TECH CUBES IN SPACE™ BEGINS SOON

New England Sci-Tech is once again starting one of its popular programs called Cubes In Space™ (CIS) in December. CIS teaches students ages 11-17 about the atmosphere, rocketry, high-altitude balloons, general laws of physics, and space science.

According to New England Sci-Tech’s Bob Phinney, K5TEC, “Students work in teams to design and propose experiments to launch into space or a near space environment on a NASA sounding rocket and zero-pressure scientific balloon. Students then submit their proposals and could have a chance to fabricate and fly their projects.”

Students attend regular educational CIS curriculum workshops and team meetings in the fall, winter, and spring. The first group meets on specific Friday evenings 6:30-7:30 PM, while the second group meets on specific Saturday afternoons 3:30-4:30 pm. Regular meetings are usually every other week from December through March.

For teams with projects that have been selected to fly, there will be additional prep and build meetings in April and May. The rocket flies in June. The hi-alt balloon flies over the summer, usually in August. According to Phinney, students in the 2019 Cubes In Space program had their projects accepted for flight.

One project flew on a NASA rocket in June, and one flew on a high-altitude balloon in September. The 2020 program was cancelled due to COVID. The 2021 project did not fly because of a shipping problem with the carrier, so that project will fly in June 2022.

For more information, visit <https://nescitech.org/product/cubes-in-spacetm/>.

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EMA-OUTDOOR-HAMS LISTSERV

Boston Amateur Radio Club member Joe Chapman, NV1W, has announced the creation of an email reflector for local hams who participate in the “On The Air” operations (POTA, SOTA, IOTA) and similar programs, or who just operate outdoors while backpacking or the like.

“I did a minimum amount of fussing with the account settings, and I have no idea how much traffic the list will get,” writes Chapman. “We’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m a member and a former officer of the Boston Amateur Radio Club, but this is an independent project.” NV1W asks that people forward information about the listserv to anyone who might be interested. To sign up, visit <https://groups.io/g/ema-outdoor-hams>.

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RECENT OUTDOOR FOX ACTIVITY

Several hidden transmitter hunts occurred this past month in the northern portion of Middlesex County as well as the Waltham Metro 128 area.

Mike Cormier, K1MJC, placed his fox box somewhere within the city limits of Waltham on November 5. Not to be outdone, Alan Hicks, KD1D, rallied the troops with a hunt in Westford on November 6.

The hunts are great fun and can be conducted solo or with other individuals. The hidden transmitters are small and sometimes quite challenging to find when you are close to them. They generally stay deployed for at least 48 hours and beacon briefly every minute or so.

For more information, visit <https://groups.io/g/NEMassFoxHunters>.

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K1USN QRV FOR VETERANS DAY

The K1USN Radio Club was on the air November 11, 2021, to celebrate Veterans Day and show their appreciation to those who have served. Station K1USN used SSB, CW and FT8 on the HF bands beginning at 1300 UTC, November 11 and ending at 2100 UTC. The club station is located at the Watson Museum & Research Library, 85 Quincy Avenue in Braintree.

Anyone working K1USN on Veterans Day 2021 can request a certificate at: <https://forms.gle/eUkWe4QviHV1qBRx8>. K1USN QSL cards will be available for all contacts with K1USN. Send # 10 SASE to K1RV or DX stations QSL via bureau. QSL via K1RV; URL: http://www.k1usn.com; Contact: Pi, K1RV; Email: k1rv@arrl.net.

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NEW ENGLAND CW FRIENDS ONLINE MEETINGS AND LISTSERV

Two clubs are collaborating on a project to help amateurs develop their Morse code skills. Bruce Blain, K1BG, president of the Nashoba Valley ARC and Tom Walsh, K1TW, Eastern Massachusetts Section Manager and Billerica ARS member, are spearheading the effort.

“Bruce and I have talked a number of times over the past year about helping those who have expressed an interest in learning CW or further developing their CW skills,” writes Tom. The group had its kickoff meeting on November 2. They meet Tuesday nights at 7 PM via Zoom.

For more information, visit <https://groups.io/g/ne-cw-friends>.

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ARRL LAUNCHES CLUB NEWSLETTER

Mike Walters, W8ZY – ARRL Field Services Manager sends us the following announcement.

“This Tuesday will be the first edition of the newly re-launched Club News newsletter. The format is similar to the ARES and Contest newsletters and will come out monthly. The current Target is the third Tuesday of each month. This is not a club calendar events.”

Mike continues “This is a chance to show what clubs are doing, how they do it, and the lessons learned.”

To receive the new monthly club news, go to your online ARRL profile at <http://www.arrl.org/> and make sure that the Club News subscription is checked.

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NTS NEWS

Section Traffic Manager – Marcia Forde, KW1U

Visit: <https://ema.arrl.org/national-traffic-system/>

Here is a partial excerpt of Marcia’s November section traffic report. There is so much good material every month in her report and this excerpt is just a small piece, so I urge you to visit the EMA website for the full report every month and see what an amazing job she does as our Section Traffic Manager.

“Holiday greetings to all. For those who are traveling I wish for safe travels, and to all a happy Thanksgiving.

As we look forward to the December holidays, I wish to remind folks, as I do every year, that radiograms are a unique way to send holiday greetings. Not only do we share our thoughts with family and friends, but we keep the nets active and let others know about Amateur Radio and what it can mean to them.

I am sure you have heard that Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, has been elected as ARRL New England Division Director whose term will begin January 1, 2022. I look forward to working with Fred who has shown an interest in the role of NTS particularly where it relates to emergency communications. It appears NTS will finally have a voice at ARRL, and I am greatly encouraged. Congrats to Fred!

The nets continue to function well with multiple nets operating on any given day with opportunities to relay traffic to anywhere in the US and Canada as well as internationally where either third-party agreements exist or anywhere from ham to ham. We have a great group of dedicated people who keep this system in operation every day of every week throughout the year. A special thanks to all those folks.

This month I wanted to focus a little on the CW nets. There has been a real surge of interest in CW especially with the likes of the CWOPS CW Academy, the Long Island CW Club (LICW) and Eastern Mass’s K1USN Club. To all of those getting excited about using CW I would like to introduce you to CW with a purpose, which is training and experience in formal message handling on CW nets. Check out the following link on our section website: https://ema.arrl.org/basic-cw-net-procedures/. CW operators are a friendly and helpful group always welcoming new people, and our MARI is no exception.”

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ARES NEWS

Section Emergency Coordinator – Rob Macedo KD1CY

Visit: https://ema.arrl.org/ares/

In an email to his EMA section staff, SEC Rob Macedo writes “I want to congratulate Fred-AB1OC on the victory and we look forward to working with him over the next three years. Congratulations Fred!”

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FINAL WORD

On Friday, ARRL announced the results of the election for the next New England Division Director. I have been holding distribution of this November section news until now so we can help get the word out and congratulate the winner.

As you have read earlier in this section news, Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, has been elected as our next ARRL New England Director starting on January 1. Congratulations to AB1OC as he prepares for this important role in ARRL.

My thanks also to both Fred Hopengarten K1VR and Tom Frenaye K1KI, although unsuccessful in their election bid, for their interest in serving the ARRL.

As section manager, I always expect a great deal from our Division Director. As members, we entrust the future of the ARRL and our wonderful amateur radio service to the ARRL Directors.

While no one can predict the future, AB1OC has an ambitious program. There is much that AB1OC has already communicated about what we might expect. For example, he believes in “a dual approach that includes working both within the ARRL to solve problems and with clubs and ARRL members in the New England Division to create effective Amateur Radio programs.” AB1OC continues that “My plans to implement this approach include a combination of improved communications with New England ARRL Members, outreach to ARRL Directors and Leaders, and the appointment of Assistant Directors.”

Note: Assistant Directors (AD) are part of the Director’s staff or team, similar to the staff members of a Section Manager. Assistant Directors are not elected but are appointed by the Director to handle various duties or act as advisors.

As a section manager, I too am a strong believer in this team approach. I have written previously about the excellent staff we have in the Eastern Massachusetts section. You can see the list of EMA staff members at <https://ema.arrl.org/organization/#Section_Leadership>.

I am supportive of Director-Elect Kemmerer’s plan to engage with members throughout all seven New England sections and create a strong Division-wide team going forward.

Congratulations to Director-Elect Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC.

73,

Tom K1TW

EMA Section Manager

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EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION LINKS

Where to find stuff:

New England Division website: https://nediv.arrl.org/>

Section website: https://ema.arrl.org/>

Section Facebook page: <https://www.facebook.com/easternmaarrl/>

Section Leadership: <https://ema.arrl.org/organization/#Section_Leadership>

Section Public Service List: <https://ema.arrl.org/eastern-ma-public-service-list/>