Serving ARRL members who reside in the New England sections
Jay Taft, K1EHZ, and Ken N1KWG announce there will be a mesh network training session on Thursday, Feb 2 at 7:00pm.
All those who are interested are welcome to join the meeting.
The slides to be used for the training can be found on the MVARA website:
If you are interested in participating in the upcoming session, please contact Jay or Ken at their qrz.com addresses.
The Barnstable ARC (BARC) held its first Winter Field Day (WFD) at Boy Scout Camp Greenough in Yarmouth, MA this weekend. The Club and the Boy Scouts are working together to put a permanent amateur radio station at the camp. As part of the close relationship being forged with scouting, BARC (W1MA) set up a 2O station in the camp and manned it around the clock with a dozen volunteers. Since the Administration building was winterized with no heat or water, it was an ideal location for an outdoor experience including temporary heaters and bringing in water. Although the effort was smaller than BARC’s summer Field Day, setting up the antennas and operating in cold weather gave both old timers and newer operators valuable experience. Don, KT1OK (foreground) and Lem, W1LEM were finishing the operation on Sunday afternoon, logging a few last-minute contacts on 15 and 40 meters.
665 contacts were made on 5 bands using emergency power with stations as far away as Hawaii. BARC is taking every opportunity to showcase amateur radio at Camp Greenough that hosts camp outs to scouts from all over Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Winter Field Day continues this effort that began with Jamboree on the Air last Fall and continues with WFD and the removal of trees in preparation for Eversource to install three donated poles for the permanent radio station antenna supports.
Our Technician In A Day Session is a study course. The course allows you to become licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
You should obtain a copy of the ARRL Technician Class License Manual. You may purchase this book at Ham Radio Outlet or any other amateur radio related store.
You should read the book. The information contained therein will allow you to answer questions on a 35 question test for obtaining your Technician License.
There are videos on Youtube at W4EEY that explain the theory and cover the questions to enhance your knowledge. You may also take practice exams at hamstudy.org for comprehension.
TECH IN A DAY CLASSROOM SESSION
You will be administered an examination of 35 questions of which you must score at least 26 out of 35 or better to PASS.
Upon completion and passing of your examination you will be handed a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination) (CSCE Form).
Your call sign should be process in 10-12 business days.
If you would like more information, you may email us at caarave@caara.net or Telephone (978) 504-9112 for more information.
The 65th Vermont QSO Party will take place during the first full weekend of February 2023, beginning at 0000 UTC Saturday February 4 and ending at 2400 UTC Sunday February 5, which is a 48-hour period.
In local time, this corresponds to a start time of 7:00 PM EST Friday night February 3rd and an end time of 7:00 PM Sunday night February 5th.
The Vermont QSO Party provides the opportunity for Amateur Radio operators to contact and exchange QSO information with Vermont Amateur Radio operators. All licensed amateur radio operators are invited to participate. Stations outside Vermont work Vermont stations. Stations within Vermont work everyone.
For more information, visit <http://www.ranv.org/vtqso.html>.
Larry Krainson, W1AST, writes:
VOTA Massachusetts is looking for more ops. As of January 27, 2023 we have 10 operators signed up to operate as W1AW/1 for the Volunteers On The Air (VOTA) and are looking for more for the April 12th to 18th week-long session.
If you are interested in learning more or becoming an operator, please contact Larry, W1AST, at W1AST@arrl.net.
A number of radio clubs throughout New England are gearing up for the annual Winter Field Day event this weekend.
Winter Field Day is sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association. Complete rules can be found on the WFD website, at Winter Field Day. According to ARRL, “Combining this with ARRL’s yearlong event, Volunteers On the Air, is a great way to make contacts that count for both activities and get new operators on the air. … Like the ARRL Field Day, bonus points are earned in several ways, including for using non-commercial power sources, operating from remote locations, making satellite contacts, and more.”
The Granite State Amateur Radio Association is QRV for Winter Field Day. They will operate as “3 Oscar” under the call sign N1QC at their summer field day site, “Mike’s Barn,” 972 Back Mountain Road, Goffstown, New Hampshire. Setup begins around 10:30 AM on Saturday morning. According to Eric Pfeifer, N1JUR, “One brave soul and station will operate for the full 24 hours.”
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Norwich Free Academy located in Norwich, CT. ARISS conducts 60-80 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.
Founded in 1854, Norwich Free Academy (NFA) is a secondary school in eastern Connecticut, with a student population of more than 2,100, and serving local communities as well as international students from China, Canada, and Finland.
Leading up to this ARISS contact, NFA integrated an array of topics into the science curriculums for all grades. Students investigated Newtonian gravitational laws and Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion using a hands-on lab, a PhET interactive simulation, and video lessons. Students learned about the systems in place to help keep astronauts alive while living and working on the ISS; one student used NASA resources for a research project to discover how basic human needs (air, water, sleep, exercise, etc.) are met on the ISS. The NFA Amateur Radio & Engineering Club (ham radio call sign W1HLO) members and advisors installed an amateur radio satellite ground station on campus last year, thanks to a generous ARDC grant. Students in the club now get hands-on learning at the ham station for how to communicate using amateur radio satellites and how to receive weather satellite images.
Students will ask their questions of Astronaut Josh Cassada, amateur radio call sign KI5CRH, who will use ARISS’s ISS call sign NA1SS. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ and audio may be heard by listeners within the ISS footprint that also encompasses the amateur radio ground station at NFA, call sign W1HLO. Club advisors and members will establish and maintain the amateur radio operations for this ARISS connection.
The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for January 30, 2023 at 1:55 pm EST (CT) (18:55:20UTC, 12:55 pm CST, 11:55 am MST, 10:55 am PST).
As announced in the January 2023 issue of QST, ARRL is celebrating a year-long operating event honoring all ARRL volunteers: Volunteers On the Air.
A Special Event station in NH (W1AW/1 Portable) will run the weeks of April 26th and Sept 20th. Our team is looking for operators who can activate a W1AW Station.
You can operate from your home station or a portable location, e.g., beach, park, or public area. You can use digital, voice, or CW modes on several bands (with certain exceptions, see VOTA Homepage for
more details). We aim to work as many stations as possible anywhere in the world.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Eric Pfeifer (N1JUR) at n1jur.nh@gmail.com or Peter Stohrer (W1FEA) at pstohrer1@gmail.com for more information, or if you would like to sign up as an op, you can use our form <https://forms.gle/jnNHmyS9G11YWMsr9>. We’ll then add you to our mailing list.
Thanks,
Eric Pfeifer
N1JUR
n1jur.nh@gmail.com
The week of May 10-16 and Sept 27-Oct 3, W1AW/1 comes to its home state, Connecticut! Our team is looking for additional operators who can spend as much or as little time representing W1AW and the VOTA effort. The operation is a DXpedition-like one where you will be working as many as possible. The operation will take place from your station or a station in Connecticut, not W1AW itself.
Operating will be on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2, and satellite. Modes include CW, Phone, or Digital. Repeater contacts are not allowed as are WARC Band contacts. Our goal is to work as many stations as possible anywhere in the world.
We have an email group to exchange information (only open to members) and we will use Slack for quick messaging.
If you would like to join our team, please fill out the form found here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrhdSMn2MiIv22DDAXwLassLkdzkArVpJ8qmR8GdTPRUhSVA/viewform
If you have any questions, please contact Pete Chamalian at W1RM@Comcast.net.
Pete Chamalian, W1RM
W1RM@Comcast.net
On January 21, the RFI teams from EMA, WMA and RI attended the 1st New England Division RFI training session, held at New England Sci Tech. The teams received information about some general team-related matters as well as information about the equipment features and techniques for its use. Nancy, KC1NEK, from the RI team has posted some photos at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Cy3nTJsdvka7YEwM7. These three teams now have the equipment funded by the ARDC grant in their possession to use for helping hams with their RFI problems. Hams needing that assistance should start with the rfi troubleshooting guide.
The guide and decision tree will direct you to the RFI team page when you use the tree to guide your investigation and find you need further help. You then will see who your team members are and have the opportunity to answer a few questions so they can help you.
Your information will become part of a record that will be used to identify likely RFI sources for future cases. Even if you find the RFI source yourself, let the team know what you found so that your information can be added to the record keeping.
Even before they received the new equipment, the teams have already been helping hams in the Division find and eliminate RFI and this new equipment will greatly enhance the teams’ capabilities.
The next training session is scheduled for Saturday, February 25, at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, CT. This session is open to the CT team members and members of the ME, VT, NH teams on request and by invitation.
The last session currently scheduled is Saturday, April 29, at Nearfest in Deerfield, NH.
