Rob Leiden

AM Radio in Electric Vehicles (EV’s) – Why Do We Care?

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The national news has recently covered the decision by Ford Motor Company to continue to provide AM radios in their EV’s, after first announcing AM radios would be discontinued.  The noise from battery systems interfering with reception was the reason cited in the news. 

We hope that this means that the RFI shielding in these EV’s will be upgraded to suppress the RFI generated from these EV systems and that other auto manufacturers will follow suit.

Hams suffer from the RFI generated by the internet of things, solar energy systems, LED lighting, faulty power line components, motor controllers, electric fences and many other sources with more emerging all the time as technology delivers more and more devices that generate RF energy as a by-product.  EV’s are yet another example but the national commitment to replace the fleet of gas and diesel driven vehicles with EV’s in the next decade is an order of magnitude more of concern.

It is reasonable to question whether the FCC’s self-certification approach is sufficient for EV’s given the potential impact to the RF spectrum, not just to amateur radio but to public service frequencies as well.  The 60 meter band, for example, is used by government services with amateur radio secondary.  If EV’s are too noisy in the AM broadcast band for them to receive many AM stations, is it likely that strong harmonics will impact signals at 5 MHz?

Congressional hearings are underway to consider the impact of removing AM radios in vehicles.  The issue appears to be uniting both progressive and conservative senators for commercial reasons.  It seems to me that this is an opportunity to surface the issue of RF pollution of the spectrum to our lawmakers, not just for the sake of amateur radio but in the broader public interest as well.

Barnstable Club (BARC) Builds Amateur Radio Station for Scouts at Camp Greenough

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The ARRL Club Grant to BARC of $25,000 has enabled corporate and private donations of an additional $100,000 towards creating a platform for amateur radio in scouting.  Jamboree-on-the-Air events, licensing and merit badge classes and Field Days will make excellent use of the new facility.  Eversource, Xfinity, Mid-Cape Home Centers, Shepley Lumber and other Cape businesses, have donated utility poles for antenna supports, fiber-optic cabling for wiring up the entire camp for internet connectivity and building materials for the station itself.  Station equipment will be remotely operable allowing it to be used for training performed in a new camp Welcome and Education Center being constructed adjacent to the station.

The idea for the grant was originally conceived by BARC member Steve Boyson, N1VLG, a former BARC president and member of the local Scouting council.  Steve also helped source many of the donations received and continues to help using his extensive contacts in the community.

Good progress is being made on station construction.  The off center fed dipole antenna, to be placed on the already-erected utility poles with halyards, has been ordered.  All the old wiring in the station has been removed. Three of the four walls have been constructed and the materials to build the station interior have been acquired and staged inside the station.

New entrances and security features for the station and the other building spaces are being designed to allow secure outside entrance to the station.  Two operating positions are planned with both HF and VHF/UHF capabilities including satellite communication.

The current project plan calls for the station to be completed by the end of this year.

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Cape Cod Scout Camp Ham Station Starts Building its Antenna Field

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The Barnstable Amateur Radio Club (BARC) received a grant from the ARRL to establish a ham radio station for scouts at Camp Greenough in Yarmouth on Cape Cod.  The camp hosts scouts from all over New England and BARC participates in Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) events at the camp as well as, most recently, Winter Field Day.  Donations from local businesses have amplified the value of the grant many times. These included building materials for both walls and operating desks, volunteer professional labor and even fiber-optic connectivity from Comcast.  Following removal of 18 trees, Eversource installed three poles with pulleys to suspend wire antennas on March 8.  Heavy equipment arrived in the morning with a full crew.  The poles were rigged and lifted into position once the holes were dug.  They are now ready to lift wire antennas into position, once the station build is completed and the equipment is in place. The station itself has been framed on three sides and old wiring removed.  An ADA-compliant door will be installed for station access prior to completion of the framing.  

Two operating positions , some furniture and a workbench are planned and some equipment donations have been offered, in addition to that funded by the grant.  The station will be capable of remote operation to allow on-site classroom facilities to be used for amateur radio instruction including that for the radio merit badge using live demonstrations.  BARC will relocate its satellite antenna array to the new station that will be fully HF, VHF and UHF capable.

BARC is targeting this summer for project completion.

CT RFI Team Receives Equipment at ARRL HQ

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The CT RFI team met at ARRL HQ in Newington, CT on Saturday, February 25.  Training was performed by Rob Leiden, K1UI, New England Division Assistant Director, with the help of Ed Hare, W1RFI and Steve Anderson, W1EMI of the ARRL Lab.  A reference handout, developed with the assistance of EMA Team Lead Dan Brown, W1DAN, provided information about the use of the RFI team equipment.  Four of the seven sections have now been trained and received their equipment, funded by a grant from ARDC.  Another session is scheduled for Nearfest in Deerfield, NH on Saturday, April 29. RFI casework is already in progress with several cases already resolved. Interest in this effort continues to grow as the teams become better equipped and the success of their work becomes known.  If you are interested in helping out and have some experience finding and correcting RFI, contact the team lead for your section for more information.

MVARA to host Mesh Network Training Session

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Jay Taft, K1EHZ, and Ken, N1KWG, announce there will be a mesh network training session on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7:00 pm.

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:

http://merrimackvalleyara.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Merrimack-Valley-Digital-Network-Training-Presentation.pdf

If you are interested in participating in the upcoming session, please contact Jay or Ken at their qrz.com addresses.

 

Barnstable ARC holds Winter Field Day at Scout Camp

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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.

 

Three Section RFI Teams attend Training/Receive Equipment

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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.

New England Mesh Network Continues to Grow

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WZ0Z in MA and N2MH’s “Supernode” in NJ have added tunnels into the New England mesh system, bringing the number of states linked to 5; these include nodes in ME, NH, CT, MA and now NJ.  Recent ARDC and ARRL grants in ME and RI offer the potential for further expansion and the recent partnerships between the NH mesh and NEDECN nodes raises the possibility of seeing more such partnerships throughout New England.  These connections represent a first step towards linking New England with a system that can survive a commercial internet outage, whether due to natural disaster or cyber-attack.  The nodes, mostly on the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands, utilize frequencies under threat from commercial interests and represent an enhanced facility for emergency communications including email, chat, iphone, mapping, remote camera operation and monitoring and many other apps found on the internet and familiar to ARES served agencies.  

If you operate a mesh network in New England and would like to tunnel into the existing mesh system, please contact Rob Leiden, k1ui, Assistant NE Division ARRL Director, Spectrum Protection and Use at k1ui@nediv.arrl.org.

ME, VT and RI Looking for more RFI Team Members

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As the RFI Teams prepare to be trained and receive the equipment purchased with the $23.6K ARDC grant, additional team members are sought in ME, VT and RI.  Training and distribution of equipment will occur in early 2023.  This is an opportunity to help your friends and your club and learn something new with some very sophisticated equipment.  You can see who has already volunteered on the New England RFI Team page.  If you’d like to see your name and callsign on the team page, please contact your section team lead listed on the page.  RFI is a major concern for all hams and the knowledge you receive will help you and help others.  For more information, please email me at k1ui@nediv.arrl.org.

NE Division RFI Team Equipment Orders Placed

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The RFI team equipment is on order and delivery will begin this month.  When available, the equipment will be used to finalize training materials.  Following that, meetings with each team will be performed to train on and distribute the equipment.  New England Assistant Director for Spectrum Protection and Use, Rob Leiden, k1ui, will be contacting the team leads to establish meeting venues and dates.  Ordering of the two pieces of Division equipment is still in progress but will not directly affect the team equipment distribution.  With the arrival of this equipment, the RFI Team project now can leverage the web page process hams can use for hunting RFI by enlisting team support with more capable, standardized equipment.