Phil Temples

Maine State Convention and Hamfest

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From the Maine Telegraph, March 2023:

It is that time of year again… the Maine State Hamfest and Convention [in Lewiston] Friday, March 24th and Saturday March 25th. Talks on Friday night will be 7:00 and 8:00 PM. Vendor sales and talks will be from 8:00 AM until Noon on Saturday.

Admission for the Hamfest is $10.00 per person.

The Grand Prize will be a $200.00 gift certificate from Ham Radio Outlet.

There will be an additional $200.00 cash prize being offered for people wishing to participate in offering their contact information for Hamfest and Androscoggin Club communication. There are several talks already planned, with more to be featured. The talk schedule will be updated as speakers are confirmed.

Please go to http://www.w1npp.org/convention to keep apprised on any hamfest updates.

There will be a VE Test Session at 12:30 in the Classroom.

Project Big E 2023 is Ramping Up

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Project Big E logoLarry Krainson, W1AST, writes:

Project “Big E” is back again and plans are underway to staff an amateur radio display booth this year. Changes will be made to how the booth will be arranged and presented to the public.

 This year, the dates are Friday, September 15 thru Sunday, October 1. We will be applying for another grant and if we get one, we will be able to provide admission tickets and parking reimbursement again this year.

Last year was a lot of fun for everyone and we hope you will join again for another Big E.

Stay tuned for updates at https://nediv.arrl.org/project-big-e/ as we get closer.

The volunteer registration form is at: <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1YdW57tREYSlDdPp8YSKBYUqNkl6OVrAbpcVCclvT4Hw/>.

New England Division Town Hall Recap, February 23, 2023

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UPDATE: Town Hall video recording added

The first of three 2023 New England Division Town Hall meetings was held on February 23. Registrations for the Town Hall meeting set an all-time record with 204 registrants. 

Director Kemmerer reviewed the accomplishments from the January, 2023 ARRL Board of Directors meeting, and discussed his committee work as did Vice Director Temples. Three of the division’s assistant directors recapped their recent activities and accomplishments.

In addition, Kemmerer fielded questions on a variety of topics, including: possible HOA bylaw wording from ARRL favoring Amateur Radio antennas; malicious interference on 75 meters; help with Logbook of The World certificates; moving toward radiogram support for ICS-213 format; bandwidth versus baud rate, and so forth.

Powerpoint slides (in PDF format) can be viewed, below. The video presentation will be posted soon.

Image of Town Hall PP presentation 2/23/2023

 

 

  

ARRL New England Division Town Hall 2023-02-23 video recording

“Tune In: The WWV Frequency Celebration”

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WW0WWV logoDuring March 2023, Tune In: The WWV Frequency Celebration will be held in Fort Collins, Colorado to commemorate 100 years of standard frequency broadcasts from Radio Station WWV.

“So, why’s that important?”

Back in 1923, the Radio Broadcasting industry was in its infancy. More and more stations were crowding into a limited space as the popularity of the new technology grew. The commercial stations (and hams) needed a standard to keep their equipment tuned to their assigned place on the dial (frequency). WWV started these standard broadcasts on March 6, 1923, and that service continues today, along with the better-known atomic time standard and other services.

As stated in the October 1924 QST Article The Standard-Frequency Set at WWV :

Probably no radio station has ever rendered the American radio world so great a service as WWV in transmitting the standard wave signals. Before these signals began both broadcast and amateur waves were uncertain and often wavemeters disagreed violently. Since the signals began those in the East have been able to make precision calibration on their own wavemeters and pass the information on to the west.

The WWV Amateur Radio Club, along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery (FCMoD), and the HamSCI organization, are hosting Tune In: The WWV Frequency Celebration on March 2-4 at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, 408 Mason Ct, Fort Collins, Colorado, and throughout the month of March on air.

[Full story]

ARRL Year of the Volunteer: Ray Irwin, WA1FFT

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Ray, WA1FFTDouglas Sharafanowich, WA1SFH, writes:

Greetings:

2023 is the ARRL Year of the Volunteer.

It is my pleasure to introduce Ray Irwin, WA1FFT.

Ray recently stepped forward and volunteered to be the Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the town of North Haven (CT ARES – Region 2).

Ray is a person who gets things done. As a way to kickstart this new ARES team, and get some publicity, he contacted the local multi-town weekly newspaper. That paid off with an interview was published this week.
LINK:
https://www.zip06.com/person-of-the-week/20230221/raymond-irwin-ready-for-when-all-else-fails/

CT ARES NEEDS YOU!
We have several towns currently without an appointed EC, and need people to fill those roles.

“BE LIKE RAY”
Reach out to volunteer . . . just like Ray did.

Here is who to contact:
Regions 1, 4, 5: Phil – K1XFC (Section Emergency Coordinator) k1xfc@arrl.net
Region 2: Douglas – WA1SFH (District Emergency Coordinator) – wa1sfh@optonline.net
Region 3: Bill – AB1LZ (District Emergency Coordinator) – ab1lz@arrl.net
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73, Douglas Sharafanowich – WA1SFH
ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC)
Region 2 – Connecticut Section

Lobstercon2023, Brunswick Maine, Date Change

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Rex Harper, W1REX, writes:

My fellow Lobstercon campers,

I got a call from Mike Mulligan the other night and he tells me that due to a screw up, the Jam Festival festival also changed their dates to the same weekend that I scheduled Lobstercon2023! I set the date last fall and notified him but apparently that notice didn’t get written onto the calendar so now we have a problem. The Jam Festival needs the entire park and our lovely corner for their festivities…. Their numbers are much larger than ours so we really can’t take them on in a fight! Looks like it is up to me to change the Lobstercon date so that everyone is happy…especially Carl! So it looks like Lobstercon2023! will NOW be held on July 7, 8 and 9. I am sorry for the confusion. I elected to go to the alternate weekend so that early campers and long distance travelers wouldn’t have to put up with July 4th vacationers either in the park or on the road.

Mike says I can blame him, but really, it’s those music jam people taking over OUR campground on OUR weekend that I fault. I hope this change is early enough that it doesn’t cause anyone any vacation hardship….

Rex  W1REX

Rhode Island February Activity Report

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We surely cannot complain so far, about the winter we’ve had. Some weather people are saying that this is the kind of winter that we can expect in the future. I’m sure that many folks in RI who are skiers are not happy to hear that but for myself, this sounds great. There’s still plenty of time for a good old fashion snow storm and we could get one in the remaining weeks of winter and early spring. But the days are getting longer, Red Sox are in spring training at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers. Any bad stuff we get now will go away quickly. 

Just as I was preparing this report, the sun took our attention and popped a number of sunspots. The Solar Flux reading read an incredible 343!  A week ago, the index was about 140. A 200 point jump in a week is something I have never seen in my 70 years as a ham. The HF bands are jumping. The ARRL CW DX Contest weekend is going as I write this. I can imagine that participants will score very highly with these extraordinary conditions. Many have never seen 10 meters so wide open to so many parts of the world at the same time. The SF index dropped back to normal levels, about 160, within 24 hours, but the HF bands remain in super condition. 

The Volunteers on The Air or VOTA activity is rolling along. I have made several contacts with stations across the country. Rules and detailed information may be found at https://www.arrl.org/volunteers-on-the-air. The scoreboard at https://vota.arrl.org/leaderboard.php will show you how many contacts you have made. It doesn’t show your point score yet however. Maybe that’s one of the features under construction. 

Virtual Ham Expo will be held on March 25-26. See https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/?mc_cid=cfa50a6bb8&mc_eid=d3e32f2624 for details. There are lots of forums and presentations offered but you must register. 

The second most wanted DX entity in the world, Bouvet Island, was active for a few days this month. It was a far cry from an easy relaxing vacation type of operation. In fact, it was downright dangerous and miserable. See https://www.qsotodayhamexpo.com/?mc_cid=cfa50a6bb8&mc_eid=d3e32f2624 and read the latest news at https://www.dx-world.net/3y0j-by-wd5cov/. Their goal was to log more than 200,000 QSOs but they realized fewer than 20,000. Conditions were severe and tested the 13 participating operators to their limits. Happily, no one was hurt or worse. Bouvet will likely remain the second most rare on earth, second only to North Korea. 

ARRL Foundation Accepting Applications for Grants in February, until the end of the month. Go to http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-foundation-accepting-applications-for-grants-in-february for details. 

Our Air Force may have shot down a ham radio balloons in the recent Chinese balloon incident. See https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a42952566/air-force-shoots-down-hobby-balloon-ufo/.

I recently submitted the necessary forms and signatures required to permit me to run for re-election as Section Manager. If no one runs against me, I’ll receive a phone call and/or an e mail note from HQ informing me that I’m signed up for two more years. At my age, I hope I can fulfill that commitment, but I shall try. I was appointed to fill the remainder of K1FLD’s term as SM. That was in January, 2002. I honestly never intended to keep the job past the end of K1FLD’s term in 2003, but somehow I stayed. I’ve submitted the necessary papers every two years since then because many of you told me that you wanted me to stay. You should think about my successor because I can’t live forever. My Ass’t SM is Marc, W1MCX. He is a very good ham and will make a very good SM if he wants the post when I’m finished. That time might be years down the line.  73 and see you next month,

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ARRL Rhode Island Section
Section Manager: Robert G Beaudet, W1YRC
w1yrc@arrl.org
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Foxhunt in Wallingford CT, February 19, 2023

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Dave Tipping, NZ1J, writes on the ctfoxhunter list on February 18, 2023 at 3:13 PM:

We’ll have a live Fox Hunt on Sunday [February 19, 2023] from 9:30 am until 11:00 am. The Fox will be hidden somewhere in Wallingford, which is a 50 square mile area.

We’ll be using these three frequencies:

  • There will be a 1-watt signal continuously on 146.565 MHz. It will make a short beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.
  • The 10mW transmitter is on 147.475 MHz and will beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.
  • The 1mW transmitter is on 146.315 MHz 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