testmainpage

ARES SKYWARN Coordinator and Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, was awarded with a surprise plaque for 20 years of service to the Voice over IP (“VoIP”) Hurricane Net. [Full story]

I would like to announce that our Guest Speaker for the September 3, 2025, club meeting will be Ward Silver, N0AX, who will give a talk on End Fed Half Wave antennas and other relevant antenna topics. Ward has written several antenna books for the ARRL, so this presentation should provide valuable insight into antenna building and construction. You won’t want to miss this presentation! Below is Ward’s impressive biography. I was first licensed at age 16 in 1972 as WNØGQP, primarily Elmered by WBØDYV, now KJ7PC, then upgraded to Extra and NØAX in 1975. Ham radio led directly to …

Fellow Radio Amateurs, All are welcome to the First annual Amateur Radio Flea Market of the Providence Radio Association, being held Sunday, Oct 19, 9am-1pm, at the Smithfield Sportsman Club, 5 minutes off Rt 44 and Rt 295, in Greenville (Smithfield) RI, Rain or Shine! FREE Admission with unexpired canned goods, or a $5 donation to the RI Community Food Bank and the PRA Foundation Sellers set-up at 8AM, $10 at the door, indoor and outdoor spaces available on a First come, First serve basis. Please distribute to your club members, friends, and associates. Thank you and 73, The Providence …

Lemuel Skidmore, W1LEM, writes on the Barnstable ARC Mailing list that they are looking for volunteers for the Harwich Cranberry Festival – September 12-14:   We need people to help with setup and teardown, to meet and greet the public and discuss ham radio, to operate, and to have fun. Please let me know if you will be participating. Our location at the event is perfect: across from restrooms, next to the food trucks, and right at the entrance so we are very visible.   Event Location: Harwich Community Center, 100 Oak Street   Tentative schedule: Friday 9/12 10:00-14:00 (approximately) …

Bruce Semple, WA3SWJ, writes on the Barnstable ARC Mailing list that his Winlink node is back online after a brief outage: The WA3SWJ-10 RMS GW @ 145.030 is back online. I’ve tested the bulk message send of 10 messages in the out box. All 5 times WinLink Express would send them in groups of 5 at a time. The problem turned out to be the mast mounted pre-amps T/R relay. For some reason (still to be investigated) is was not staying in transmit mode as long as it should have been. I was testing with a dummy load connected to …

Meg (PreTechnician) and Oliver, KC1TCM, write on the Sci-Tech ARS mailing list: We’re hoping that we can get some extra hands and expertise for an upcoming event–Oliver, KC1TCM, will have a booth at the upcoming “Celebrate Holliston” event on 9/20/25 which is running from 10 AM-3 PM.  (setup 8:30, teardown after 3 PM). He’s planning on doing a “Get On The Air” station and perhaps some satellite demonstrations.  We got fairly well rained out last year, so hoping the weather holds for this year!  We’ve applied for a special event call, so fingers crossed.   <…> Thanks & 73, Meg …

K1IG on the PART of Westford mailing list posts: The August PART meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, beginning at 7:30 PM at the Cameron Senior Center, 20 Pleasant Street, Westford, MA, and via Webex video conference.   The topic for the August meeting is “Other Radio Services.” We’ll try to clear the air on the alphabet soup of FCC-designated services such as CB, MURS, FRS, GMRS, and even some others. We’ll also discuss how these services may (or may not) affect ham radio.   We should have time at the end of the presentation for a swap meet. If …

HAPPY SUMMER, AGAIN!   Well, we’re deep into Summer. Hot days, warm nights. Lots of sun. High humidity.  But we love it, ‘cause we know that in a few months we’ll be whining about cold weather and snow. Oh well! And we even have Patriots pre-season games to watch now (with apologies to those who think of those games as “fake football”)    * Barnstable ARC Activates Chatham Lighthouse US-0158  The Barnstable Amateur Radio Club (BARC) activated Chatham Light the weekend of August 9 and 10 using three operating positions, 1-VHF and 2-HF, for 8 hours both days.  Setting up on the grounds …

Tim Miranda, W1MWS, writes on the NEMassFoxHunters list at 3:44 PM on August 15, 2025:   My fox is on 146.565 MHz at the Bill Edge / Deep Brook reservation, 124 Dunstable Road, North Chelmsford, MA.   Settings got nuked so not sure how long it will run since it’s transmitting every 30 seconds.   You may not hear it from the parking lot on Dunstable Road; if you walk into the reservation on the main path you’ll hear it.   I’ll check on it tomorrow afternoon.   Tim Miranda W1MWS  (978) 331-0930

The July STM report is now available at https://ema.arrl.org/massachusetts-rhode-island-stm-report-for-july-2025/. Pictures of recent traffic handlers cookout courtesy of Phil Temples, K9HI. Note also NTS Traffic Handlers Meet and Greet get together at Northeast HamXposition, Saturday August 23 at 2:00 PM. Information available online at https://hamxposition.org/2025/08/13/nts-meet-and-greet-at-2025-northeast-hamxposition/ but not in the printed program. Check out the Virtual NTS Training Net (VNTN) which has been attracting folks from around the country.

Here is the new ham report as of August 1, listing newly licensed hams. Club officials, please review the list and reach out to those in your footprint and invite, welcome them. To all: please welcome these folks when you hear them on local repeaters. Offer assistance as well! Report for 2025-08-01 Mason P Gendron, KC1YAW – FCC 558 Pillsbury Rd Ashby, MA 01431-1721 Richard Sherrard, KC1YCC – FCC 28 Oxbow Rd Framingham, MA 01701-3692 Kurt L Rayner, KC1YAO – FCC 995 Pleasant St Framingham, MA 01701-8853 Greyson Schaefers, KC1YAC – FCC 4 Cider Hill Ln Sherborn, MA 01770-1400 Matthew …

Falmouth Amateur Radio Association (FARA) is offering an amateur radio license class in September.   Details of the class are shown below.   Technician Class License Course: Class Dates: Sept. 19 – 21, 2025 Class Schedule: Friday: Sept. 19, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM Saturday: Sept. 20,  8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sunday:  Sept. 21, 8:00 AM – Noon, Lunch break and Test Session (Please sign up by September 4th, to receive your study guides and materials in time for you to properly prepare for the class.) Exam: Sunday, Sep. 21 after class Location: Falmouth Fire Station, Main Street, 2nd Floor, EOC Room …

KA8SCP-Terry Stader, ARRL ARES Eastern MA District Emergency Coordinator for MEMA Region 1 RACES writes: Hello fellow Amateur Radio operators, The Baystate Marathon is now just over 70 days away…. Sunday October 19, 2025. This Lowell-centric event has been a great public service event for ham radio volunteers new and old. Rookie or long time veteran hams are needed. We are looking for approximately 25 volunteers to fully staff the event locations. Some locations are solo and others are a team effort. Our operational time period is from approximately 0700 until event completion (estimated 1400). Our assistance has been requested …

Drew Deskur, KA1M, writes: I am Drew Deskur, KA1M, and I am the Director of the Kopernik Observatory, a public observatory and Informal STEM Education Center in Vestal, New York, in the ARRL Western New York Section in south central New York State.    www.kopernik.org   On Wednesday, August 13, Kopernik Observatory will be running a High Altitude Balloon camp for local high school students.  On the payload of the balloon, we will be running APRS (K2ZRO-9) for tracking and we will also be flying SSTV on 145.600 throughout the flight. We plan to launch hopefully between 10 to 10:30 …

Volunteers are needed for the 2025 Cape Cod MS Challenge Walk from September 5th, to September 7th! There are three routes:  Friday, 9/5: Hyannis to Harwich Saturday, 9/6: Falmouth to North Falmouth Sunday, 9/7: Barnstable Loop Volunteers are welcome to assist with communications at water stops, etc. Contact John, N1YPM for further details.

The Billerica Amateur Radio Society will meet on August 6, 2025 at 7 PM. This is a Zoom-only meeting. In-person meetings will resume in September.   Topic: Our guest speaker will be Tom Harrell, N4XP, “2007 DXpedition to Scarborough Reef“, one of the rarest DX Entities in the world.   Here is Tom’s bio:   Tom was licensed in 1960 and found DX was and is still the only way to do ham radio.    Retired as a career firefighter with 36 years of service. He still provides consulting services to US Military firefighting operations and management worldwide.   Inducted 2009 …

Installing a mobile radio in your vehicle can be a challenging but rewarding project. Using examples from his own installations, Zachary Sherman, KC1NXK, will demonstrate techniques for cleanly installing mobile radios and other electronic accessories in vehicles. After the meeting, in-person attendees are encouraged to take a hands-on look at Zachary’s radio installation. Bio: Long before he heard of amateur radio, Zachary enjoyed playing with FRS walkie-talkies with friends. Sent home from Olin College due to Covid, he became a Technician licensee in September 2020. Zachary soon became a co-leader of the Olin Collegiate Amateur Radio Club, helping students earn their …

ARRL NEW ENGLAND DIVISION  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   NEW ENGLAND AND SECTION HAM OF THE YEAR NOMINEES ANNOUNCED  July 23, 2025—The ARRL New England Division is pleased to announce the results of the 2025 Ham of the Year Awards. The nominating committee and judges consisted of Section Managers:  Douglas Sharafanowich, WA1SFH, Connecticut  Jon McCombie, N1ILZ, Eastern Massachusetts  Phil Duggan, N1EP, Maine  Pete Stohrer, W1FEA, New Hampshire  Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, Rhode Island  Paul Gayet, AA1SU, Vermont  Ray Lajoie, AA1SE, Western Massachusetts  New England Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI, and Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, participated as non-voting members.   The judges considered one nominee …

Please join us for an ARRL update Webinar on Thursday, August 7th at 7pm. We’ll be able to give you a summary of actions taken at the July ARRL Board meeting as well as activities in Newington, and by some of the Board committees. We’ll also have plenty of time for your questions and input. Here is the link to use to connect to the Webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81014888314?pwd=Czx9fr3buMAoc8zM8PDiSY7agcPUXi.1 Hope you will join us next week! Tom Frenaye/K1KI ARRL New England Division Director Phil Temples/K9HI ARRL New England Division Vice Director ——————————————————————– ARRL New England Division Director: Thomas Frenaye, K1KI k1ki@arrl.org ——————————————————————–

 Gary Budiansky, WA1MCR, writes on the PART of Westford mailing list:   Clem Moritz, W1EVT, unfortunately became a Silent Key about 3 or 4 years ago.  Clem lived in Acton and had an array of Rohn R25 towers on his property off of route 2, just west of the Concord Rotary.  There’s about 15 of these 100-foot towers in the woods behind his old ham shack.  Some are still standing, some are broken or have fallen down.  I took a tour of the property over the weekend.  See photos, below.  Internet wisdom says that Clem used the towers to construct …