Month: September 2023

Fox Hunt, Wallingford CT, October 1, 2023

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Dave Tipping, NZ1J, writes on the ctfoxhunter list on September 30, 2023 at 2:30 PM:

We’ll have a live Fox Hunt on Sunday from 9:30am until 11:00am.  The Fox will be hidden somewhere in Wallingford.

We’ll be using these three frequencies:  

There will be a 1 watt signal continuously on 146.565MHz.  It will make a short beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.

The 10mW transmitter is on 147.455MHz and will beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.

The 1mW transmitter is on 146.290MHz and beeps every three seconds and ID as W1NRG in Morse Code every minute.  Expect a range of only about 1/10 mile on this transmitter.

There is no central starting location.  And, there will be no check-ins prior to the hunt.  Hunters should be at a location of their own choosing and listening on 146.565 at 9:30.  

There may be a two second long test of the 146.565 transmitter at 9:25.

Other Fox Hunters can be contacted on the W1NRG repeater 147.360 with PL 162.2  Hunters with an extra radio available might do well to monitor 147.360 throughout the hunt.

Good luck.

Dave NZ1J

Housatonic Amateur Radio Club Balloon Test “Highly Successful”

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Members of the Housatonic Amateur Radio Club, Stratford CT, Dr. J. Pallis, KC1MHU, Gary Moyher, WE1M, and Larry Reed, AB1JC, along with University of Bridgeport and University of New Haven faculty and graduate students met at the University of Bridgeport’s Marina Park on September 22, 2023. There they put together the components of a balloon they will launch in Texas next month during the annular solar eclipse as part of NASA and Connecticut Space Grant Consortium’s 2023/2024 Solar Eclipse STEM projects. Here they tested the equipment with a tethered balloon full of helium.

It is estimated the balloon reached several hundred feet, which was sufficient to test the balloon, ground station, and the connections to University of Montana. The students practiced on the actual hardware they will use next month. All worked well, all was recovered and data was captured. This was a highly successful test. Students, university faculty and club members will fly to Texas next month to launch this payload during the annular solar eclipse and again fly to Texas in April, 2024, to launch another payload for the full Solar Eclipse.

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ARISS Proposal Window Opens, October 1—November 10, 2023

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ARISS logoARISS News Release No. 23-47

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Message to US Educators
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station Contact Opportunity
Call for Proposals

New Proposal Window: October 1 – November 10, 2023

September 25, 2023 — The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between July 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

The deadline to submit a proposal is November 10, 2023. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at www.ariss.org. An ARISS Proposal Webinar session will be held October 5 2023 at 7 PM ET and the Eventbrite link to sign up is: https://ariss-proposal-webinar-fall-2023.eventbrite.com

The Opportunity:

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.

An ARISS contact is a voice-only communication opportunity via Amateur Radio between astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the space station and classrooms and their communities. ARISS contacts afford education audiences the chance to learn firsthand from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space and to learn about space research conducted on the ISS. Students also have an opportunity to learn about satellite communication, wireless technology, and radio science. Because of the nature of human spaceflight and the complexity of scheduling activities aboard the ISS, organizations must demonstrate flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times of the radio contact.

Please direct any questions to education@ariss-usa.org.

About 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 American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. 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 http://www.ariss.org.

Find us on social media at:

X – Twitter: ARISS_Intl
Facebook: facebook.com/ARISSIntl
Instagram: ariss_intl
Mastodon: ariss_intl@mastodon.hams.social
Check out ARISS on Youtube.com.

Maine Section Update, September 2023

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Maine ARRL Section Manager Phil Duggan, N1EP, writes:

Legislation. LD-697, an anti-5G bill to study non-ionizing RF radiation of ALL sources, including amateur radio, was defeated in the Maine Senate. However, I spoke to my representative, who is for the bill, and she said it needs to be studied and will likely be reintroduced in the Legislature in the coming session this winter.

Tropical Storm Lee. Some counties activated their ARES/RACES teams last weekend, including here in Washington County where the storm left most coastal communities with widespread outages. Washington County ARES staffed the Emergency Operations Center in Machias in shifts, while other members operated from home. Statewide teams and individuals supported their counties, Maine Emergency Management Agency, and the Maine Emergency Communications Net on 40 and 75 meters. SEC Keith Anoe, KE4UCW, had been conducting exercises and drills the past 18 months, and his and other EC’s efforts paid off. The storm response by ARES/RACES was excellent.

The Maine State Convention has a new venue and date. It will be June 15 at the Civic Center in Augusta.

NTS nets and operators continue to perform outstandingly on a daily basis primarily on 75/80m and some VHF.

Maine VOTA Coordinator John Huffman, K1ESE, submitted Maine’s first week as W1AW/1. It was a great effort by Maine’s VOTA ops. We totaled 6,661 contacts, and of the 68 W1AW portable activations so far this year, Maine’s rating is the 12th highest!

Mesh Networking in New England Continues to Expand

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Jay Taft is leading an effort to expand mesh networking in New Hampshire in support of the NEDECN digital network.  The goal of network expansion is to provide a robust, commercially independent, emergency communications backbone as well as a commercially-independent general purpose amateur radio communications facility.  This effort is in parallel with similar efforts in RI and ME that are in progress.

The overall objective of the NH effort is establishing 5 GHz RF links among DMR and other sites in southern NH. During September the NH team established a 33-mile link from Crotched Mt to Walnut Hill which set up the potential to extend the mesh network to the east, north and south.

Participants in the September project were Bill Barber NE1B, Paul Blais KC1KMM, Bill Fortin KB1SGK, Ted Gamlin K1OX, Jen Herting KD2BEC, Bryan King KX1B, Wally O’Donnell N1GLT, and Jay Taft K1EHZ.

On September 9th, a joint team from New England Digital Emergency Communication Network and the Merrimack Valley Amateur Radio Association installed a 5 GHz mesh router on the K1OX tower on Walnut Hill in Chester, NH. (Photo of Wally N1GLT on the tower.) On September 21st the NEDECN and MVARA team updated the 5 GHz router configuration on South Uncanoonuc Mountain in Goffstown, NH. (Photo of Bill KB1SGK on the lift.)

The link from Uncanoonuc to the NEDECN site on Walnut Hill in Chester, NH (19 miles east of Uncanoonuc) turned out to be marginal due to obstruction by rock and foliage, and subject to RFI from other radios on the summit, however, the 5 GHz signal from the router previously installed on Crotched Mountain in Francestown, NH (14miles west of Uncanoonuc) is received at Walnut Hill (19 miles east of Uncanoonuc) with an excellent signal to noise ratio across the 33-mile path. The team is evaluating this path to see how it holds up over time.

These mesh expansion projects, eventually linking them in a New England – wide network, as well as others like them nationally are key to staking amateur radio’s claim to these frequencies and preventing encroachment by commercial interests.

The teams active in this effort meet semi-monthly on Zoom and communicate using nemesh@groups.io.  If you are interested in becoming involved, please consider joining the iogroup to get started.

Port City Amateur Extra Study Group Meets

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The Port City (NH) Amateur Radio Club is conducting a series of Amateur Extra study group meetings at the Piscataque Fish & Game Club in Greenland, NH. This past week, they met for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Students were asked to read several chapters from the ARRL Extra Class License Manual and come to class with one to two prepared questions for the group, “preferably a concept or idea with which you struggled during your reading.”

“The group is fortunate to have Dr. Mike Carter, K8CN, with us this week as their instructor,” writes Kirby Francis, KC1RWR. “Mike holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Information systems, and is an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UNH.  

“For those who already hold the Extra License, if you have ever wanted to really understand the principles covered in this chapter, you’ll never get a better chance.  Along the way, your attendance will encourage the students in the class to keep their resolve in face of some daunting concepts.

“We will then progress to students’ questions, and end each evening with a group trivia challenge taken directly from the exam questions on that week’s subelements!  Bring your cell phone to participate in the Trivia game.” 

According to KC1RWR, one of the goals of the study group is to “remove the apprehension and fear that may be preventing you from moving forward with your ham radio licensing, replacing it with a sense of community, fun, and self-confidence.”

New England QRP “Chowdercon 2023,” Portsmouth NH, September 23, 2023

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Carl Achin, WA1ZCQ, writes on the NEQRP mailing list:

Tomorrow, Saturday, September 23rd is the rain-date for this year’s Chowdercon 2023. It’s happening rain or shine due to last week’s cancellations because of Hurricane Lee. The announcement bulletin already went out, yesterday, this is just a reminder with additional information.

The diehards arrive at 8AM and park in the Four Tree Island Parking Lot on Pierce Island just past the Fish Co-op.

Here’s last year’s write-up for you to go over to catch-up on the “history of Chowdercon”:

https://nediv.arrl.org/2022/09/16/chowdercon-2022-september-17-2022-portsmouth-nh/

Brown-bag whatever you’d like for snacks. Lunch at Geno’s at 12-noon and our farewell banquet at Warren’s startling at 4:55PM for the usual fantastic seafood dinner.

I’ll be there, … will YOU?

All the picnic tables on Four Tree Island are rooftop-covered so if there is light precipitation you and your rig will stay dry.

SEE YOU THERE WHEN YOU ARRIVE. COMMS ON ” 5 2 ” DIRECT (The National Simplex Frequency).

This may be our last chance to eat at Warren’s!!!
(It’s being sold and most likely it’ll be ‘no-more’ next year.

Project BIG E—Urgent Request for Additional Volunteers, September 23, 2023

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Project Big E GrantLarry Krainson, W1AST, writes:

We need at least one extra person for the first session from 9:30 to 4:00 pm and the second session from 3:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

Can you please help? Saturdays are very busy days and at least three people are needed in the booth.

You will be reimbursed for admission and parking after the Big E has ended.

Contact Larry Krainson, W1AST, at <wb1dby@gmail.com>.

[See https://nediv.arrl.org/project-big-e/ for details]