Maine Section Manager eNews, June 2022

Maine iconPhil Duggan, N1EP, writes on the Maine ARRL Members list:

Hermon Hamfest!

Hermon Hamfest is TOMORROW, Saturday, June 4 at the Hermon High School.  Don’t miss it! Gates open at 0800 and 0730 for tailgaters.  There will be amateur radio exams but you must be registered (no walk-ins). This will be one of the last opportunities to take the Technician Class exam under the current question pool, which expires on June 30. I understand there will be a drone demonstration at the hamfest, as well as cribbage games!

Field Day

Warmer weather is finally here and the opportunities for portable ham radio activities in the great outdoors will be ample. And the mother-of-all outside communications is ARRL Field Day, which is June 25 – 26, 2022!  As Section Manager, I will attempt to visit a couple Field Day sites in the southern part of Maine, as I will be on the way to a family event in Massachusetts that weekend. For Field Day participants, you can earn the 100 point section manager message a number of ways. As long as the message leaves the Field Day site via RF, you can send it to me via Winlink.  Also, on Saturday, Dennis Bosley WA1URS will be taking my messages for me on the Maine Seagull Net on 3.940 MHz at 5:00pm.  Additionally, Maine’s Section Emergency Coordinator, Keith Anoe, KE4UCW,  will be ready to receive either SM messages or SEC messages during the first 15 minutes of each hour on 3.940 MHz, as well as on various nets that weekend. So there will be ample opportunity to get those bonus points!

ARRL Kids Day

Inspire youth with amateur radio on June 18, ARRL Kids Day. Let your children, grandkids, nieces and nephews get on the air with your ham radio station and show them how much fun amateur radio can be. Try and arrange with other hams to have a QSO with them, especially with other kids. You can get more details of Kids Day at http://www.arrl.org/kids-day

New England Division Town Hall

The second New England Division Town Hall meeting with Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC and Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, is scheduled for June 15 at 7:30PM via Zoom. You can register for the meeting at this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zfiGGX_CTIK7xvq9vmuXzw

Club Grants & Webinar

Clubs may submit applications for grants that can be used for various ways to enhance their club and amateur radio. More information is available at http://www.arrl.org/the-arrl-foundation.  Also, ARRL Field Services Manager Mike Walters, W8ZY, has announced another webinar regarding the club grant program:

“We are planning another webinar for the Club Grant Program. This is planned to be a very short update on the program and a question-and-answer session. The schedule is as follows:

Thursday June 9th at 7PM Eastern Time. The video will be on YouTube the next morning. We are planning for a 1-hour event and hope to keep it at that time.

The registration link is https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_d8G7PlunRiGXDN0JJw5HBQ.”

Thanks For Membership!

Your ARRL membership helps the League to protect and work to expand our amateur radio frequencies and privileges, encourage and assist youth in pursing this great hobby, enhance our Amateur Radio Emergency Service and disaster preparedness activities, offer contesting and other radio sports events, and so much more. Thank you so much for your support and participation!

ARRL Affiliated Club Highlight

The Ellsworth Amateur Wireless Association has a rich history in the Downeast region of Maine. They are an active group routinely organizing fun amateur radio activities for their members and other folk, especially outdoor portable operations. Their club call sign, W1TU, was the call sign  of Charles Ellsworth, who was the radio operator in Newfoundland who received the Titanic’s distress call after it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The club meets on the second Thursday of each month at Meadow View Apartments Phase IV Dining Hall, 25 Tweedie Lane in Ellsworth at 7:00pm. They also usually have a video feed for members to join in via Zoom. The club president is Evie Sargent KA1BRA, VP is Chuck Liebow AC1BS, and Treasurer/Sec is Joan Hildreth W1DLC. The club holds a weekly on-air meeting on the Hull’s Cove Repeater (Bar Harbor) 147.030+ PL 100 at 7:00PM each Wednesday. This is a great bunch of folks. If you live in the greater Ellsworth area, consider joining this fun-loving group of amateurs. BTW, EAWA will be holding field day at the Trenton Elementary School this year.

Contact Section Manager

If you have any questions or issues regarding ARRL, amateur radio, etc, feel free to contact me at n1ep@arrl.org.

73

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ARRL Maine Section

Section Manager: Philip W Duggan, N1EP

n1ep@arrl.org

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New Quicklink for RFI Troubleshooting Now on Division Home Page

Some hams have had trouble finding the troubleshooting guide.  A Quicklink is now on the Division Website home page that will take hams directly to the guide.  There, hams will find a process for finding and fixing RFI, links to places to buy or build equipment, power company contact information, teams in each section that will assist when needed and videos and slide decks that discuss RFI finding techniques and experience.

AB1OC ARISS Contact With Suffolk County, NY Boy Scout Group Can Be Heard Across New England, June 4, 2022

AB1OC ARISS groundstationFrom ARISS:

June 2, 2022—Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the Matinecock District Boy Scouts in Centerport, New York.  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

The Boy Scouts of Matinecock District of Suffolk County Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA), is located in New York on Long Island, and composed of about 52 units made up of youth ages 5-18 years. In addition to teaching youth outdoor skills, the BSA also puts a strong focus on STEM initiatives in several Cub Scout and Scouts BSA activities dealing with the sciences, robotics, engineering, and exploring all aspects of life. The venue provided for this ARISS contact is the Vanderbilt Museum & Planetarium in Centerport, New York, which has hosted events during the previous year in order to foster interest in space and space exploration for the scouts. During the year leading up to this contact, the scouts have been learning through STEM-based projects about the ISS missions, and amateur radio (including morse code practice).

This will be a telebridge Contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of Astronaut Kjell Lindgren, amateur radio call sign KO5MOS. Local Covid-19 protocols are adhered to as applicable for each ARISS contact. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHZ and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the telebridge station.

The ARISS amateur radio ground station (telebridge station) for this contact is in Hollis, New Hampshire, U.S.. The amateur radio volunteer team at the ground station will use the callsign AB1OC, to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for June 4, 2022 at 1:56 pm EDT (New York) (17:56 UTC, 12:56 pm CDT, 11:56 am MDT, 10:56 am PDT).

As time allows, students will ask these questions:

  1. What do you have to study after HS in order to have a career as an Astronaut?
  2. Could the ISS ever be self-sustaining and not need care-packages of food/water/oxygen from Earth?
  3. Are ISS teams only picked based on skills, or does NASA try to match personalities as well?
  4. How does the ISS stay safe from all the “space junk” floating around the Earth?
  5. Do you only do experiments in your field of expertise on the ISS or because of limited resources do you find yourself assisting others doing things you’re not as comfortable with?
  6. Is automated piloting better than manual piloting in terms of flight controls and docking?
  7. What one thing did you do as a young adult that you felt was your first significant step to becoming an astronaut?
  8. I’ve heard being in space can change you taste buds. Have you created any interesting or creative recipes to make space food taste better?
  9. How do they supply the ISS with constant oxygen?
  10. We saw a video of a gorilla suit prank on the ISS a few month ago. Has there been any other funny pranks?
  11. What jobs do you have to do on the ship?
  12. Do the astronauts get to bring something from home with them to space?
  13. I’ve heard astronauts from different countries will trade food. What country has the most popular dish on the ISS?
  14. In your personal opinion, what is the best and least best thing about being on the ISS?
  15. Can you swim in space when you’re floating?
  16. Can you feel the affects being in space has on your body? If so, what’s it like?
  17. Can you yo-yo upside down in space?
  18. Does the ISS have technology installed that could capture Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)like the US Navy has recently? Have you seen anything up there that you can’t explain?
  19. What does it feel like to go to space?
  20. I read that there was once water on Mars. Where did all the water go?

ARISS logoAbout ARISS:

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the International Space Station (ISS). In the United States, sponsors are the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the ISS National Lab-Space Station Explorers, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) and NASA’s Space communications and Navigation program. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see www.ariss.org

Second New England Division Town Hall, June 15, 2022

Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC Speaking at the Dayton HamventionFred Kemmerer, AB1OC, writes on the New England ARRL Members list:

Hello Everyone,

We are planning our second New England Division Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, June 15th at 7:30 pm ET. All ARRL members in the New England Division are invited to attend. Our planned topics for this meeting include:

+ An ARRL Update – Fred AB1OC and Phil K9HI
+ Updates from our Assistant Directors – Anita AB1QB, Cory KU1U, Dan N0HF, and Rob K1UI
+ Q&A

We are planning 90 minutes for this meeting. Please register via the following link and we’ll send you a link to join our Town Hall Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zfiGGX_CTIK7xvq9vmuXzw

This is the second of our planned three Town Hall Meetings in 2022. You can view the recording from our last meeting here –

https://nediv.arrl.org/2022/02/17/new-england-division-town-hall-meeting-deemed-a-success/

We hope that you will join us on June 15th!

Best and 73,

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ARRL New England Division
Director: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ab1oc@arrl.org
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