Serving ARRL members who reside in the New England sections
Cory Golob, KU1U writes:
The Providence Radio Association has chalked up some impressive accomplishments on the air: through its members’ efforts the W1OP club station has earned a 9-Band DX Century Club (DXCC) award and qualified for 9-Band Worked All States (WAS).
“Congratulations to all W1OP operators who added to these totals. An outstanding achievement,” said PRA President Dave “Tess” Tessitore, K1DT. Tessitore added that 95 percent of contacts for the 9BDXCC via Logbook of The World (LoTW), while the 9BWAS total as 100 percent.
PRA will celebrate its 100th anniversary of ARRL affiliation in 2021.
From Candlewood ARA (CT) “CARA Capers” newsletter, December 2020:
On the weekend of November 7-8, 2020, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary ran eight special event stations across the country to commemorate its 81st Anniversary. Created by the U.S. Congress on June 23, 1939, the “US Coast Guard Reserve Act of 1939” established a civilian volunteer component of the Coast Guard to promote boating safety and to facilitate the operations of the Coast Guard. Members had to be US citizens who were boat owners or had partial ownership of a boat.
As America’s unofficial involvement in World War II escalated, Congress recognized the need for a military Reserve similar to the Army and Navy, so in February 1941 the original act was repealed and a new act passed that established a military Reserve and Temporary Reserve and renamed the civilian organization as the “Auxiliary”.
Back in August a call went out to Amateur Radio operators in the Auxiliary asking them if they would participate in commemorating the anniversary by setting up and operating a Special Event Station. Since N1A was already assigned by the FCC, I chose N1R (“R” for Reserve, our 1939 name) and set up a “patio portable” station. I still don’t have a permanent antenna at my home.
So, with great anticipation of having a pile-up with dozens of stations answering my “CQ” call to get the special event QSL card, I got on the 20- meter frequency I had published on ARRL’s Special Event page and started calling “CQ”. And then… nothing. Antenna tuned to 1:1.03, 80 watts SSB, Saturday morning, dead silence. Moved to the 40 meter frequency that I had published… nothing again. Frustrated, I listened up and down the two bands and heard a few stations, not the usual chatter. Even the POTA stations seemed to be staying home. Time to change strategy. I started calling stations that were finishing their QSO’s and that helped get a few contacts in the log.
Was it a post-election distraction? Were the bands just shut down? Not sure. After the event I called Chuck, K1DFS, in Plainville, CT who was operating N1A for the event from his home station, and he had the similar experience over the two days.
But was it fun? Absolutely Yes! Since I run the same setup almost every weekend with really good results (considering the station and antenna) I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t much more I could have done. This was my first activation of a special event station, so the learning experience was worth it all… how to get a special event call sign from the FCC, set it up in QRZ.com, list it on the ARRL Special Event webpage, and even more importantly, anticipate next year’s event!
My station consisted of a Yaesu FT-891 running 80 watts with LMR400 UF cable to a 23 foot Diamond BB7V vertical antenna. An older MFJ 949D tuner and a RigExpert AA230 antenna connected to the tuner with a 2-way antenna switch. The most important component was a patient and understanding XYL.
For more information about the US Coast Guard Auxiliary and its history, visit the N1R page I posted on QRZ.com.
73, Ron Willson, N1IBQ
From PART of Westford website:
The [PART of Westford] December 15, 2020 meeting will be held online via video conference, starting at 7:30 PM. Login details will be sent to members via Groups.io. Our guest speaker will be Phil Temples, K9HI, ARRL New England Vice Director, who will talk about ARRL news and happenings.
[To request conference login information, contact George Allison, K1IG, at k1ig -at- arrl -dot- net]
Randy Dore, AI1G, writes on December 8, 2020:
The December, 2020 WMA Section Manager Report is now available at https://wma.arrl.org/blog/2020/12/05/section-manager-report-december-2020/.
Dec. 12: Unfortunately I had to cancel this event – a very unusual occurrence for me. Looks like the weather is a bit uncooperative too. -KM1NDY
Mindy Hull, KM1NDY, writes in the Wellesley (MA) ARS Spark Gap newsletter:
Hello Friends! You are all cordially invited to:
WHAT: 1st Annual Hams All-Holiday On Air Celebration (W1E Special Event Station)
WHEN: Saturday December 12, 2020. Two times: W1E on air from 11am to dusk. Everyone get together from noon to 2pm.
WHERE: Meet at Hopkinton State Park. Use the Main Entrance at 164 Cedar St., Hopkinton, MA 01748. Follow the map below. Same place as November’s POTA!
PARKING: Park in large lot at boat launch. We will meet in a grove of trees with picnic tables near the beach at the end of the parking lot that is the farthest from where you entered it. See maps. Park as close to the meeting spot as possible in case it’s real cold and we need to use our cars to warm up.
MONITORING: 147.555 FM
GPS COORDINATES OF EXACT MEETING SPOT:
42°15’30.7″N 71°31’01.8″W ( 42.258539, -71.517168 )
WHY: To take back some of what this year stole from us.
DETAILS: We will operate the special event station W1E from about 11am to dusk at Hopkinton State Park on December 12, 2020 for the 1st Annual “Hams All-Holiday On Air Celebration”. We will be celebrating every holiday that anyone missed because of this crazy year! Our goal is to have as many QSOs as possible and then send a greeting card to every contact. We will set up one portable radio station in a heated shelter and operate SSB on 20M early and 40M later. The shelter will only hold one to two people at a time given the pandemic, so expect it to be cold. Bring your own equipment for other bands if you want to operate simultaneously; we have 100-Watt RF band-pass filters available so we can operate on multiple HF bands at once (10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 40, 80M).
If some of you would like to help operate the main station, send me an email with the time you are requesting to be on air. Or just show up and we’ll see if we can get you on. Or bring your own station.
If you want to just come hang out with radio people, enjoy some non-Zoom companionship, make a few contacts, and celebrate the holidays in person, show up between noon and 2pm. We will be social distancing, wearing masks, and splitting into smaller groups if there are more than 25 of us. Be prepared for cold!
Also, Hopkinton State Park is a Parks-On-The-Air (POTA) site, so you can activate a park as well! Activation code = K-2440.
Bring as much festivity with you as possible! We all really really need it this year…
(I’ll send one more update next week!)
Yours,
KM1NDY
ARRL New England Division Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, will be the featured speaker at the Candlewood Amateur Radio Association (CT) online meeting on December 11, 2020. His presentation is entitled, “ARRL Update.”
To receive a Zoom invite, visit:<https://www.cararadioclub.org/images/documents/VirtualMeetings/CHECK_BACK_24HRS_BEFORE_MEETING.pdf>
From ARRL web:
12/02/2020 – Amateur radio licensees and candidates will have to provide the FCC with an email address on applications, effective sometime in mid-2021. If no email address is included, the FCC may dismiss the application as defective.
The FCC is fully transitioning to electronic correspondence and will no longer print or provide wireless licensees with hard-copy authorizations or registrations by mail.
A Report and Order (R&O) on “Completing the Transition to Electronic Filing, Licenses and Authorizations, and Correspondence in the Wireless Radio Services” in WT Docket 19-212 was adopted on September 16. The new rules will go into effect 6 months after publication in the Federal Register, which hasn’t happened yet, but the FCC is already strongly encouraging applicants to provide an email address. When an email address is provided, licensees will receive an official electronic copy of their licenses when the application is granted.
Under Section 97.21 of the new rules, a person holding a valid amateur station license “must apply to the FCC for a modification of the license grant as necessary to show the correct mailing and email address, licensee name, club name, license trustee name, or license custodian name.” For a club or military recreation station license, the application must be presented in document form to a club station call sign administrator who must submit the information to the FCC in an electronic batch file.
Under new Section 97.23, each license will have to show the grantee’s correct name, mailing address, and email address. “The email address must be an address where the grantee can receive electronic correspondence,” the amended rule will state. “Revocation of the station license or suspension of the operator license may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because the grantee failed to provide the correct email address.”
From ARRL Web [UPDATED 2020-12-02 @1609 UTC]
The 900-ton instrument platform of the 305-meter radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico fell some 400 feet Tuesday morning, crashing into the huge, already-damaged dish below, the National Science Foundation (NSF) reported in a December 1 Tweet. “No injuries were reported,” NSF said, adding that it is still assessing the situation. “Our top priority is maintaining safety.” The calamity not only was a final and fatal blow for the observatory but for the people of Puerto Rico. [Full story]