testmainpage

The Minecraft ham radio mod “RadioCraft” will be introduced at the 2023 Northeast HamXposition / ARRL New England Division Convention in Marlboro, MA, on August 25-27, 2023. RadioCraft will enable simulation of ham radio in the Minecraft game. Game players will be able to build and operate a variety of radios on HF and VHF, with customizable antennas, and realistic simulations of propagation, QRM and QRN, diurnal solar effects, and band conditions. Eventually the project hopes to simulate the full range of ham radio activities including phone, CW, APRS, VHF repeaters, and even fox hunting. “There will be a continuous …

Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, writes on the SKYWARN_Announce list:   The regional Amateur Radio show known as Northeast HamXposition will feature many forums on Emergency & Public Service Communications as well as the traditional NWS Norton SKYWARN Training class for newly interested spotters and those seeking to update their SKYWARN training. The basic SKYWARN Class is Friday Afternoon 8/25/23 at 200 PM.   An Advanced Topics in SKYWARN Class on Saturday 8/26/23 at 300 PM is an Amateur Radio driven course on how Amateur Radio and non-Amateur Radio SKYWARN spotters can provide additional support during times …

Voting is underway to nominate an Eastern Massachusetts amateur as a Region 1 ARDF (“Radio Orienteering”) International Class Referee. Buzzards Bay, MA, resident Vadim Afonkin, KB1RLI, has expressed his desire to serve as an International Class Referee . The ARRL’s ARDF Committee is currently accepting votes from its committee members. According to co-USA ARDF Coordinator Charlies Scharlaus, NZØI,  “six ‘yes’ votes are required for his nomination to carry.” Ken Harker, WM5R, has indicated his support for Vadim’s nomination and his willingness to request that his nomination be put on the agenda for the 45th Plenary Meeting of the IARU Region …

Ken Horton, KA1GFN, writes on the Algonquin ARC mailing list: Algonquin ARC will provide radio communications for the Town’s Labor Day Parade along the parade route.  If you are able volunteer contact Ann, KA1PON. There will be a change to the parade route this year due to the road work along Main Street which therefore cannot be used. The parade will take the usual route down W. Main Street but will then turn onto the south side of Granger Blvd. It will then continue up to the Verizon building and then onto Maple Street. Therefore, volunteers will be needed at …

Are you interested in becoming an activator for the ARRL VOTA Fall operating week? The dates for the fall schedule are November 1 through 7. There are currently 14 ops signed up and room for more. We’re looking for people that can spend time getting on the air and making contacts. All modes of operation are welcome. During the Spring VOTA, Massachusetts made over 9000 QSOs. We’d like to beat that this time around. Would you like to be part of that? To find out more, contact ARRL VOTA MA State Manager Larry Krainson, W1AST, at W1AST@arrl.net by October 1st. …

Ethan Hansen, KC1OIP, writes on the Boston ARC mailing list: Dave Gilman, KC1DDH, is looking for volunteers to help out with the upcoming Cystic Fibrosis Cycle For Life on September 30th, 2023. Please see below and reach out to Dave directly with any questions. — The 26th annual Cystic Fibrosis Cycle for Life will be held on Saturday September 30, 2023. The Cystic Fibrosis foundation has raised millions of dollars toward finding a cure for this debilitating and often deadly disease and they are once again asking for our help. The Massachusetts Cycle for Life consists of 3 routes. 12, …

Beginning this month you will see the Massachusetts Rhode Island STM Report, as your STM has been appointed as interim STM for Rhode Island. Rhode Island amateurs have long been included in our section traffic nets. Find the July report at https://ema.arrl.org/massachusetts-rhode-island-stm-report-for-july-2023/. Note there information on “Event Happenings”, “Net News”, “NTS 2.0 Update” and “Traffic Handler of the Month”, along with a peek preview of an upcoming initiative.

The Big E is a 17-day New England fair that takes place from September 15th to October 1st this year. The start is just 4 weeks away! It attracts attendees from all over New England, northern NJ and eastern NY. The fair takes place in West Springfield, MA. Last year the Big E had over 1.6 million attendees from all over the northeast! In 2022, we ran a ham radio booth at the Big E and we are doing one again this year. Twelve clubs and over 100 individuals volunteered last year. We need your help again this year! We …

The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on August 15, 2023 at 7 PM and feature: “QRP Operating on the Microwave Bands” by Tommy Henderson, WD5AGO. Bio: Thomas (Tommy) Henderson, WD5AGO, of Broken Arrow, OK was first licensed at his high school ARC in Sand Springs, OK. Interest in EME developed and at 21, he made his first 2m EME QSO. He is currently active on 70, 23, 13, and 6 cm EME and HF QRP. Tommy has helped the CSVHFS since the early 90’s with their noise figure measuring contest. Professionally, Tommy is the associate …

Hello to all… The August Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday August 7th, 2023 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system. For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1: https://mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_linking.html (Click the ARES box to see the repeaters and other systems linked) We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. We will have several announcements for the net …

N1YLQ-Mike “Sparky” Leger – MEMA Region 2 RACES Radio Officer writes: Hello to all,       As we head deeper into the summer I hope this note finds everyone well! With particularly active weather patterns we have all had quite a few opportunities to remain “radio-active” with Skywarn activations in the last month or so. This email is the typical monthly message to let everyone know that Monday evening, August 7th, 2023 will be the next RACES/ACS/Preparedness Net night.       Last month the Sector 2A net did not occur as the net control (ME) got tied up at the last minute …

AB1PH-Don Rolph-Walpole area ARES Emergency Coordinator writes: The MEMA RACES nets are held on the first Monday of the month, unless the first Monday is a holiday, when it is delayed one week. For Aug., Mon Aug 7 is the first Monday of the month, so the RACES nets will be held on Mon Aug. 7. The RACES nets will be held on Mon Aug 7 at: ******************************************************************************** The HF net will start at 6:45 PM ET: using the following frequency plan: We will start at 3930 KHz moving up to 3955 KHz until there is a clear frequency, Marc …

K1JRO-John O’Neill – Eastern Massachusetts ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) – Hospital Liaison writes: Hi Folks, Sorry for the VERY late notice. We have some equipment issues at South Shore Hospital and thought it best if we did not use the equipment until we had a chance to thoroughly check out all the stuff we have on the roof and make any repairs necessary. We were going to cancel the Net but at the last minute, on short notice, Jeremy KB1REQ and the group at Mansfield EMA offered to step in and come to the rescue (once again). Tomorrow at …

Hello to all… For those ARES members and ARES groups interested, WQ1O-Frank O’Laughlin and the Cape Cod ARES team will be having their exercise from 1000 AM-1200 PM Saturday 8/5/23 and the district drill document is linked here -> ARESdrill#78V1.6Doc08-03-23. This exercise will be mostly Cape Cod ARES district focused but there are options in the document for other ARES groups and ARES members in the section to participate in the exercise if they are willing and able to do so. There is also a low probability of some thunderstorms early tomorrow morning at sunrise along the south coast that …

Doug Bruce, N1WRN, writes on the Billerica Amateur Radio Society website: I am excited to inform the [Billerica Amateur Radio Society] that I have secured Rob Sherwood, of Sherwood Engineering to be our Guest Speaker for the August 2, 2023 Club Meeting via Zoom. Here is Bob’s bio, which is quite impressive. Bob is the Gold Standard with regard to review and testing of all Amateur Radio receivers. Please join us on August 2, 2023 at 7:00 PM for this presentation, which is sure to be very informative! Ham radio began for me in 1961 in Cincinnati, Ohio, as both …

The New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on August 15, 2023 at 7 PM and feature: “QRP Operating on the Microwave Bands” by Tommy Henderson, WD5AGO. Bio: Thomas (Tommy) Henderson, WD5AGO, of Broken Arrow, OK was first licensed at his high school ARC in Sand Springs, OK. Interest in EME developed and at 21, he made his first 2m EME QSO. He is currently active on 70, 23, 13, and 6 cm EME and HF QRP. Tommy has helped the CSVHFS since the early 90’s with their noise figure measuring contest. Professionally, Tommy is the associate professor and coordinator …

Eliot Mayer, W1MJ, writes on the NEMassFoxHunters list on July 30, 2023 at 10:09 AM: The updated W1MJ fox is on the air from Beaver Brook Reservation North in Waltham, MA. It makes a transmission on 147.54 MHz every 60 seconds between the hours of 8:00 AM and 8:00PM daily. Parking is available at Rock Meadow on Mill St in Belmont and at Elsie Turner Field in Waltham. This second-generation fox is still running a Baofeng UV-5R at full power (4 watts), but has a few new features: It conserves battery power by only transmitting during scheduled daytime hours (above). …

The Massachusetts Rhode Island Digital NTS Net (MARIDN) is a Section-Level net of the National Traffic System (NTS) of the ARRL. MARIDN meets weekly for the purpose of passing NTS messages within, into, and out of the sections of Eastern and Western MA and RI. MARIDN is supplemental to the Massachusetts Rhode Island Phone Net (MARIPN) and Massachusetts Rhode Island CW Net (MARICW). MARIDN uses digital modes rather than voice or CW, particularly the fldigi suite of software. How to Participate in MARIDN Participants in MARIDN use the fldigi software suite, particularly fldigi and flmsg. This introduction assumes the user …

HamXposition 2023 (a.k.a. ARRL New England Division Convention) is coming August 25-26-27 – less than 30 days away.  Our forum schedule is now available!    Come visit our website to browse over 100 forums, seminars, and workshops available at the convention. Two new additions on Friday – an AREDN mesh networking workshop where you will be building your own working MESH node and a NanoVNA seminar – learn to use this small but powerful device to analyze antennas and other RF devices. Our Friday  DXCC dinner will feature Don Greenbaum, N1DG. Don will present “DXpeditioning with a RIB”. Don will describe the genesis of the “Rig …

Most of you have already heard of the ARRL board’s decision to increase membership dues and make changes in the way we receive magazines, such as QST. If not, I invite you to read ARRL President Rick Roderick’s (K5UR) letter dated July 23, 2023, in an ARRL bulletin. It is available on the ARRL web site. For the past year or so, our division director and other League officials have been warning us about the serious financial situation that the ARRL has been in the past few years caused primarily by inflation, especially the rampant cost increases of print media …