EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS (EMA) SECTION NEWS – October 2017
Find more EMA Section News and the contact information for the EMA staff on our website <http://ema.arrl.org/>.
New WMA Section Manager
Congratulation to Ray Lajoie, KB1LRL who assumes the role of Section Manager for Western Massachusetts effective January 1, 2018. I am looking forward to continuing our mutually supportive relationship with WMA, much as we enjoyed under Ed, W1KT who is stepping down. All our best wishes to both Ray and Ed.
Amateur Radio – MARS interoperability exercise (November 4-6)
Elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will conduct a “communications interoperability” training exercise November 4-6, once again simulating a “very bad day” scenario. Amateur Radio and MARS organizations will take part.
“This exercise will begin with a national massive coronal mass ejection event which will impact the national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication, including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,” Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, explained in an announcement.
During the exercise, a designated DOD Headquarters entity will request county-by-county status reports for the 3,143 US counties and county equivalents, to gain situational awareness and to determine the extent of impact of the scenario. Army and Air Force MARS organizations will work in conjunction with the Amateur Radio community, primarily on the 60-meter interoperability channels as well as on HF NVIS frequencies and local VHF and UHF, non-Internet linked Amateur Radio repeaters.
Again, this year, a military station on the east coast and the Fort Huachuca, Arizona, HF station will conduct a high-power broadcast on 60-meter channel 1 (5330.5 kHz) on Saturday from 0300 to 0315 UTC. New this year will be an informational broadcast on Sunday, on 13,483.5 kHz USB from 1600 to 1615 UTC. Amateur Radio operators should monitor these broadcasts for more information about the exercise and how they can participate in this communications exercise, English said.
“We want to continue building on the outstanding cooperative working relationship with the ARRL and the Amateur Radio community,” English said. “We want to expand the use of the 60-meter interop channels between the military and amateur community for emergency communications, and we hope the Amateur Radio community will give us some good feedback on the use of both the 5-MHz interop and the new 13-MHz broadcast channels as a means of information dissemination during a very bad day scenario. (Thanks Tom, N1CPE)
NTS
KW1U conducted a Meet and Greet session at the ARRL convention in Boxboro where traffic handlers from all over New England enjoyed an informative discussion. Also in September, Marcia was invited to PART of Westford where she gave a presentation on message handling that was well received. Marcia welcomes the opportunity to visit other clubs to talk about the importance of learning message handling and net operation skills. Contact her at <kw1u@arrl.net>
ARES
Marek, KB1NCG, EMA SEC reports 17 active ARES Nets in the EMA section with 670 total ARES members in the section.
Marek has been helping the local ARES group based out of Stow to determine coverage in their town and surrounding areas from the EOC. Stow has a monthly simplex net on 147.435 PL 110.9 every second Tuesday at 1900 ET. During the September and October nets, after the normal simplex net was completed, several volunteers drove routes specified by Bob Glorioso, W1IS, EC to Stow, and conducted simplex communications tests from multiple locations. During the September net, Eric Williams, KV1J, EC to Marlborough, supported relay through his home station to the Stow ARES base. October’s net had a practical aspect to it, as a report of a downed tree reached the Stow police. The call on the police radio came about 15-20 seconds after it was reported by one of the mobile units during the simplex test.
FLEA MARKETS
November 4, 2017 – 9:00 AM – Noon
FARA Fest
Upper Cape Regional Technical School, Bourne MA
http://www.falara.org/
LICENSE CLASSES
The Nashua Area Radio Club
General Class: November 4 – 5
Amateur Extra Class – December 1 – 3
More information: http://n1fd.org/license-classes/.
ON-LINE COURSE
If you prefer to study alone, try this on-line course:
<https://sites.google.com/view/kd2eom/licensing-course-on-lumalearn>
(information from Tobias J. Park, KD2EOM)
CLUB NEWS
Jamboree on the Air (JOTA)
The annual Boy Scout Jamboree on the Air took place on October 21 with participation from many EMA amateur radio clubs.
Barnstable ARC (BARC)
The Barnstable Club held a special event at the Harwich Cranberry festival in September. Visitors could see contacts on a large screen television at the entrance to the event. Club members made four hundred contacts from Hawaii to Europe and all over the US and Canada. Many visitors stopped to ask questions about Amateur Radio and some to sign up for a Technician course planned for November 1-2 and 8-9 at the Lighthouse Charter School in East Harwich. All participants enjoyed the event. BARC plans to continue this practice at other similar events whenever possible.
Billerica ARS (BARS)
BARS meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month in Chelmsford. BARS will elect club officers at its November 1 meeting. Guest speaker Kelly Beatty from Sky and Telescope will present “The Sputnik Years”; details at <http://www.w1hh.org/?p=1599>.
Cape Ann ARA (CAARA)
CAARA announces that “All are welcome to join Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 4-6 Cape Ann to operate in the Coast Guard Auxiliary Special Event Radio Day on Sunday, November 12th from 10:00am – 4:00pm. We will be operating under the callsign K1G from the Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association’s Communications Center at 6 Stanwood Street in Gloucester MA, 01930. If you can’t make it to CAARA, please listen for our call-sign near 14.060MHz., CW; and 28.330MHz., 15.330MHz., and 14.270MHz., SSB.” (Contact: Gardner H. Winchester II gardiw2@gmail.com)
Clay Center ARC
The Clay Center ARC presented a short tutorial on the operation of the Icom 7300 at its recent October 10 meeting at the Dexter Southfield School in Brookline.
Falmouth Hams participate in Jamboree on the Air
Members of Falmouth Amateur Radio Association (FARA) combined activities at the annual Falmouth Safety Fair and set up a Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) station at the Fair. Since JOTA coincided with the weekend of the Fair, FARA decided to set up HF, VHF and digital stations and invite local Boy and Girl Scouts to participate. Members set up two portable HF antennas and a VHF antenna, and digital operations were conducted via remote connection to a member’s shack.
The Barnstable Amateur Radio Club also had a JOTA station active at Camp Greenough in Yarmouth, and both clubs arranged to provide comms on VHF between the sites. This allowed Falmouth Scouts to talk to other Cape Cod Scouts via a VHF repeater link, and proved very popular. Forty meters was the most active HF band. Scouts worked stations from the New York QSO Party. They were very cooperative and helpful to the on-the-air newbies.
The Falmouth Amateur Radio Association also presented a key building educational activity by Brent, W1NCH. Participants got to build their own hand key using a common clothes pin. This event proved very popular among many young people. They walked away knowing more about how Morse code is used for communications in Amateur Radio.
FARA members Glen Dowden, KC1GKT and Henry Brown, K1WCC did the bulk of the organizing, with assistance from FARA members Gerry Campbell, KB1NNH); Gene Bradeen, KX1C; Jay Sherlock, WB4KYW; Brent Putnam, W1NCH; Charlie Bresnahan, K1CB; George Jones, N1GJ; and Larry Gray, W1IZZ. (Contact: Henry Brown, K1WCC)
Harvard Wireless Club
Bill Collins reports “a terrific turnout for the Harvard Wireless Club VE test session. Fifteen Harvard students tested, resulting in eleven new Tech licenses”. Bill send his thanks for a terrific recruitment effort resulting in 15 new members to: President Benjamin Lee, W7JS; Vice-President Nicolas Weninger KC1GLF; and Secretary/Treasurer Allen Liu, KC1HBB.
Quannapowitt Radio Association (QRA)
QRA meetings start at 7PM, on the third Thursday of the month in Reading MA. Information on meetings at <www.w1ekt.org>
PART of Westford
Part of Westford is again planning its traditional Pumpkin Patrol for Halloween. Late news from Terry, KA8SCP reports this has been postponed until Friday, November 3 due to storm damage in town.
Members also volunteered to support the Bay State Half-Marathon held on October 22.
PART of Westford is changing the location for its monthly breakfast. Starting on Saturday, November 4th, 2017, at t 8:00 AM, they will have their first breakfast at the Boxborough Regency. (via Andy, KB1OIQ).
Wellesley ARS (WARS)
At least three members of the Wellesley ARS spoke at the Boxboro Convention forums. Charlie, WA3ITR, spoke about JT65; Gary, N1ZCE, spoke about public service events; finally, Dan, W1DAN presented on vintage amateur radio restoration.
Here are the upcoming WARS meetings:
November 21: Agostino’s dinner, 6:30 PM
December 10: Holiday party at WCC.
January 16: PS Events Gary, N1ZCE
February 20: Digital Modes Part 2 Charlie, WA3ITR
March 20: Agostino’s dinner, 6:30 PM
April 17: Digital Mobile Radio Dan, W1DAN
May 15: Ham Radio from EMA list or Don, KB1OTQ
June 19: Field Day planning and elections
South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club
The next Hospital net will be on November 4.
FIRST REGION NET (1RN) REPORT (NTS)
Bill, W1KX, 1RN Net Manager reports 60 sessions of the First Region Net handling 163 pieces of traffic in September.
NTS NETS (COMBINED EMA/WMA)
Marcia, KW1U, serves both Eastern and Western Massachusetts sections as the Section Traffic Manager (STM).
EMA/WMA NTS Nets are listed below. Please support the nets and check in.
EM2MN 145.230 MHz 8 PM Daily EMA 2 Meter
Net
MARIPN 3978 KHz 6PM Tu, Th, Sa MASS/Rhode Island
HHTN MMRA Repeaters 10PM Su, M, W, F Heavy Hitters
CITN 147.375 MHz 7:30PM M, Tu, Th, Sa Cape & Islands
MARI 3565 KHz 7PM Daily MASS/Rhode Island
CM2MN 146.970 MHz 9PM Daily Central MA
WMTN 146.910 MHz 10AM Daily WMA
WMTN 146.910 MHz 1PM Daily WMA
WMEN 3944 KHz 8:30AM Su WMA
NEPN 3945 KHz 8:45 Su NE Phone Net
See the monthly “Public Service” column in QST for information about the BPL and PSHR recognitions.
SILENT KEYS
It is with extreme sadness that the Mystic Valley Amateur Radio Group has learned of the passing of Priscilla Richardson, N1VQY. A long-time member and club officer, Priscilla made many valued contributions to the club over the years.
Nick, KC1MA writes “I am comforted in remembering Priscilla’s participation in Field Day, charity support and other club events. I remember the special pleasure that Priscilla expressed in the retelling of her favorite bit of club lore, the great automatic lawn sprinkler fiasco from our first Field Day event. Just the mention of that episode would bring a smile to her eyes and a laugh to her voice. We will miss that especially.” (information via Nick Magliano, KC1MA, Vice
President MVARG)
FINAL WORD
During the night of October 29-30, many EMA area cities/towns suffered significant damage from a very fast moving high wind and rain event. It’s not totally clear in my mind if this was a Nor’easter or something even worse. Whatever it was, the storm caused tremendous problems with downed trees and live wires. Many EMA hams experienced significant damage to their property and stations/antennas. Check with your neighbors to see if you can lend a hand. Check with your ham clubs to see if you might help your fellow hams restore a damaged antenna. Hams are a very public service and helpful community. Now may be a time when you can be of help to others. I hope most of the readers of the EMA news got through this difficult event without serious impact.
Until next month
73,
Tom, K1TW
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ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section
Section Manager: Thomas D Walsh, K1TW
k1tw@arrl.org
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