Month: April 2024

MFJ Closing Down its Manufacturing Facilities

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From the YCCC mailing list:

April 25, 2024

Dear Fellow hams and Friends,

It is with a sad heart as I write this letter.

As many of you have heard by now, MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024.  This is also the same for our sister companies:  Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics.

Times have changed since I started this business 52 years ago.  Our product line grew and grew and prospered.  Covid changed everything in businesses including ours.  It was the hardest hit that we have ever had and we never fully recovered.

I turned 80 this year.  I had never really considered retirement but life is so short and my time with my family is so precious.

I want to thank all of our employees who have helped build this company with me over the years.  We have many employees who have made MFJ their career for 10, 20, 30, 40 and more years.

We are going to continue to sell MFJ products past May 17, 2024.  We have a lot of stock on hand.  We will continue to offer repair service work for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future.

Finally, a special thanks to all of our customers and our dealers who have made MFJ a worldwide name and a profitable business for so many years.  You all are so much appreciated.

Sincerely Yours, 73s

Martin F. Jue, K5flu

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HamXposition Radio Club Newsletter Competition

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HamXposition bannerFrom HamXposition.org:

Open to all New England Amateur Radio Clubs

  • Each club submits:
    • Club newsletter from the 2nd quarter of 2024 (April, May, or June)
    • Email newsetter to: cq-newsletter@hamxposition.org
    • Deadline to submit: Friday, July 5
  • Judging by someone impartial who resides outside of New England on the following:
    • Layout design
    • Content
  • The top three get a digitial sticker they can use on their newsletter for the next 12 months showing that they are #1, #2, or #3 best club newsletter in New England for the period September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025.
  • The top three winners for the 2024 HamXposition will be ineligible to participate in the 2025 HamXposition competition to allow other clubs to win.

SKYWARN Training Session, Wallingford CT, June 6, 2024

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Meriden ARC logoSKYWARN logoThe Meriden Amateur Radio Club (W1NRG) is pleased to announce W1NRG & the National Weather Service, Upton, NY (OKX) is holding a FREE in-person three-hour SKYWARN Training Session.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

Thursday Wallingford Public Library (Community Room)
200 N Main Street
Wallingford, CT 06492

7:00 -10:00 pm
June 6th, 2024

HOW TO REGISTER:

Weather.gov/nyc
Go to SKYWARN icon in lower left corner. Click on SKYWARN Training Schedule. Chose in-person event and fill out on-line form.

This program is free and open to the public – you do NOT need to be a licensed amateur radio operator. Registration will be limited to 125 attendees.

Ed W1YSM
President, W1NRG
Wallingford Amateur Radio Group/Meriden Amateur Radio Club
ARRL CT Affiliated Club Coordinator
EC SKYWARN NH/Middlesex Counties
W1YSM@arrl.net

New England QSO Party, May 4-5, 2024

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New England state mapThe New England QSO Party on May 4th and 5th is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries. You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.

Our goal is to get every one of the 68 counties in New England on the air so we hope you will encourage your friends to join in the fun! Even if you can only join us for a couple of hours, we’d appreciate it! Will you be QRV? Let us know with a message to info@neqp.org.

The New England QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep on Saturday night.  It runs from 4 pm Saturday until 1 am Sunday, then 9 am Sunday until 8 pm Sunday.  Operate on CW, SSB and/or digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters.  For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your state/county.  Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who sends in a log with at least 25 QSOs will be sent a certificate.  The goal is to work stations anywhere in the world – and their goal is to work New England stations, so you’ll be very popular!

Last year we received logs from 784 stations from around the country and world.   There were 808 stations from New England on the air!

The full rules are here -> http://neqp.org/rules/

Results from the 2023 NEQP were posted a couple of weeks ago – https://neqp.org/2023-new-england-qso-party/

The 2024 NEQP will take place in three weeks.  Please get on and make some QSOs even if you don’t want to send in a log!

Thanks!

73 Tom/K1KI

https://neqp.org/

 

ARISS Proposal Window Open April 8-May 19, 2024

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ARISS logoMessage to US Educators

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

Contact Opportunity

Call for Proposals

New Proposal Window is open April 8, 2024 – May 19, 2024

 April 8, 2024 — 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 contacts would be held between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2025. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for education organizations that will draw large numbers of student participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

The window opens April 8, 2024 and the deadline to submit a proposal is May 19, 2024.  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 April 17 at 8 PM ET.  The Zoom link to sign up is https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUodOGhqTsuEtBOfYY1vlVtoLQcqiQSLt4n 

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 communities. ARISS contacts afford education groups’ audiences the opportunity 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 will 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.

Amateur Radio organizations around the world with the support of NASA and Russian, Canadian, Japanese and European space agencies present educational organizations with this opportunity. The ham radio organizations’ volunteer efforts provide the equipment and operational support to enable communication between crew on the ISS and students around the world using Amateur Radio. 

Please direct 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.

Media Contact:

Dave Jordan, AA4KN

ARISS PR

                                                                              

Find us on social media at:

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

_______________________________________________
arrl-odv mailing list
arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org
https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

Nashua Area Radio Society Ham Bootcamp Coming Up on May 11th

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Ham Bootcamp

 

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be holding an online Ham Bootcamp on Saturday, May 11th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Eastern Time.

Ham Bootcamp is a program to help new, inactive, and prospective hams gain the skills and information that they need to Get On The Air.  It is open to any interested Ham or Prospective Ham in the US and Canada and there is no charge to attendees.

The morning session is geared toward operating on the VHF/UHF bands:

  • Putting together a Station for Repeaters – How to pick an HT or Mobile Radio and an Antenna
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites
  • Getting Started with Fox Hunting

The afternoon session is geared toward operating on the HF Bands:

  • Putting together an HF Station for SSB, CW, and Digital
  • Picking and putting up an HF Antenna, Feedlines, and Grounds
  • Operating on the HF bands using SSB Voice
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital

We will also have a breakout session where attendees can choose one of the following sessions:

  • Learning CW
  • Intro to EmComm
  • Finding DX, Logging and QSLing
  • Portable Operating

… and more!

Registration is now open for the May 11th session.

You can get more information about Ham Bootcamp, including a link to register at n1fd.org/bootcamp 

You must register to receive the link to join the web conference.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at bootcamp@n1fd.org.

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