Hampden County (MA) Radio Association Auction, November 4, 2022

Hampden Co RA logoFrom the Hampden County Radio Association email reflector:

Ham Radio Auction

  • Free Yourself of Unused Gear
  • Discover the Classic You have longed For
  • Avoid High eBay and PayPal Fees
  • Meet old friends
  • Have Fun

When: Friday November 4 2022

Where: Holyoke Hospital Auxiliary Room: http://www.hcra.org/meeting-location

Five minutes from Route 91 Exit 14

Doors open At 7 PM

Rules:

  • 10 Percent of selling price or $1 minimum to HCRA.
  • Ham Radio related only. No Old PCS, Monitors, or Printers etc.
  • You must take home any items that were not sold.
  • Tag each item with your name call , phone and email

For additional info contact Larry, W1AST at w1ast@arrl.net club president

Ghosts in the Air Glow Project

Bill Arcand, W1WRC, writes on the Granite State ARA mailing list:

This is an interesting project that is taking place in the shortwave spectrum.

https://ghostsintheairglow.space/node/643

Ghosts in the Air Glow is a transmission art project working with the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument to mix audio and images at the liminal boundaries of earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

Transmissions will be next week. See https://ghostsintheairglow.space/transmission/october-2022 for a list of modes and frequencies, as well as how to send reception reports.

If anyone receives anything, feel free to share here as well..

Categories All

Internet Archive Seeks Donations of Materials to Build a Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications

Internet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a private foundation, to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community.

The library will be a free online resource that combines archived digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of the DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and to provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the general public. This innovative project includes:

  • A program to digitize print materials, such as newsletters, journals, books, pamphlets, physical ephemera, and other records from both institutions, groups, and individuals.
  • A digital archiving program to archive, curate, and provide access to “born-digital” materials, such as digital photos, websites, videos, and podcasts.
  • A personal archiving campaign to ensure the preservation and future access of both print and digital archives of notable individuals and stakeholders in the amateur radio community.
  • Conducting oral history interviews with key members of the community. 
  • Preservation of all physical and print collections donated to the Internet Archive.

The DLARC project is looking for partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives, and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small. In addition to physical material to digitize, we are looking for podcasts, newsletters, video channels, and other digital content that can enrich the DLARC collections. Internet Archive will work directly with groups, publishers, clubs, individuals, and others to ensure the archiving and perpetual access of contributed collections, their physical preservation, their digitization, and their online availability and promotion for use in research, education, and historical documentation. All collections in this digital library will be universally accessible to any user and there will be a customized access and discovery portal with special features for research and educational uses.

We are extremely grateful to ARDC for funding this project and are very excited to work with this community to explore a multi-format digital library that documents and ensures access to the history of a specific, noteworthy community. Anyone with material to contribute to the DLARC library, questions about the project, or interest in similar digital library building projects for other professional communities, please contact:

Kay Savetz, K6KJN
Program Manager, Special Collections
kay@archive.org
Twitter: @KaySavetz 

https://blog.archive.org/2022/10/04/internet-archive-seeks-donations-of-materials-to-build-a-digital-library-of-amateur-radio-and-communications/ 

[Attn: club officers—this is a wonderful opportunity for your club to have a permanent archive online of your newsletters, photos and other materials.  -K9HI]
Categories All

“What’s Your Dream? RI-MA JOTA a Success”

Photo of 2022 JOTA-JOTI patchThirty-two Scouts earned their Radio Merit Badge on this crisp fall day at collaborating Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) sites in Rhode Island at Camp Champlin and in Massachusetts at Camp Norse near the Cape. Multiple local radio clubs and Scout troops planned all year to make this a post-pandemic success. Team leads from the Newport County Radio Club (NCRC) were John Vecoli, KC1KOO; Doug Belcher, KC1NFL; and Mike Cullen, K1NPT. NCRC hams on site in RI included Jim Sendrak, KC1LYG; Henry Guzeika, W1GUZ; and Paul Fredette, K1YBE. Blackstone Valley Amateur Radio Club hams present included BVARC Club President Ken Trudel, N1RGK. The camping weekend event was a welcoming opportunity for youth to build confident self-leadership in this supportive hands-on learning community partnership between scouting and amateur radio.

As part of the Radio Merit Badge, the Scouts eagerly took turns getting on the air to talk with stations on all bands and modes. Not a shy bunch, the youth were eager to share their dreams and rag chew about overcoming challenges. Alex in 6th grade chatted on 2-meters with Mark about his dream of becoming a Disney Imagineer and exploring the secret tunnels he had read about. This sparked further conversations on air and off, including from hams who had worked on the tunnels as adult tech professionals. Everyone acknowledged Alex was someone with clear goals and the drive to follow through on his dreams. Another Scout with dyslexia was curious to hear about one ham’s son who had the same learning challenge and now worked at NASA – thanks in part to the always-curious, hands-on learning, right-size coaching that the ham community does so well. Another Scout leader asked the NCRC about following up with a VE session so a number of the new Radio Merit Badge Scouts in his troop could follow up on a new dream to achieve their own Tech license and call sign while still in high school. One 7th-grade Scout clearly had fallen in love with amateur radio, and his extended family of hams were encouraging him to get licensed soon to inherit his grandmother’s call sign! (Although maybe his mother or Scout sisters will take up that legacy first?) Stay tuned. For many youth, JOTA is a first introduction to never-imagined new pathways of belonging and exploration.

Many thanks to the whole village of radio operators who help build resilient networks for our shared future. Contributed by NCRC (RI) Club President Nancy Austin, KC1NEK.

NCRC JOTA
L-R: Paul Fredette, K1YBE; Jim Sendrak, KC1LYG; Caleb using DSTAR; Henry Guzeika, W1GUZ; Mike Cullen, K1NPT; Carol; John Vecoli, KC1KOO, JOTA Team Lead.
photo of KC1LYG at NCRC JOTA
Jim Sendrak KC1LYG mentoring two of the Scouts who passed their Radio Merit Badge at Camp Champlin in RI on Saturday October 15, 2022.

Connecticut Region 2 Simulated Emergency Test, October 22, 2022

CT ARES logoThe ARRL SET (Simulated Emergency Test) 2022 is taking place in the CT Section next Saturday (10//22/2022).

All ARES Team Members in REGION 2 are invited to participate in this exciting event in North Haven.
– Check your listed CT ARES email for information.

Please go to ctaresregion2.org, Log-in, and Pre-Register for the SET 2022.in Region 2
– Registrations close this Wednesday night.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or problems with Pre-Registering.

Thank you.


73, Douglas Sharafanowich – WA1SFH
ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC)
Region 2 – Connecticut Section
email: wa1sfh “at” arrl “dit” net

Twin State Radio Club to Host JOTA Event, Enfield, NH, October 14-15, 2022

JOTA-JOTI logoThe Twin State Radio Club will host a Jamboree On The Air event on October 14-15, 2022, at LaSalette on Route 4A  in Enfield, NH.  The location is next to the Shaker Museum on Lake Mascoma.

“We will be monitoring 146.52,” reports the event’s organizer, Ray Chaffee, WA1ORT. “Help setting up the tower trailer on Friday would be appreciated. I will need one operator from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday. More [volunteers] are needed for Saturday. I hope to have a station on the air between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.”

Ray also reports that fox hunts will be conducted four times each day using two hidden foxes. 

“It should be a good weekend. Please email me if available.”

Ray can be contacted at Rechafe@outlook.com.

Blue Hills Observatory Wireless Society, W1BHO, QRV for JOTA, Milton, MA, October 15, 2022

JOTA-JOTI logoTom Ulrich, KC1OCY, writes on the Boston Amateur Radio Club mailing list:

As you likely have already heard, on October 15, the Blue Hills Wireless Society (BHO-WS) and the Scouts BSA Spirit of Adventure Council will hold a Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA) event at the council’s New England Base Camp in Milton (MA). The event will take place 10 AM-4 PM, and is open to all scouts, leaders, family members, and interested hams. We will operate under the BHO-WS callsign, W1BHO. Local scout troops may be operating their own individual JOTA stations that day as well.

If you’re interested in making contact with scouts nearby and far away, tune into the frequencies suggested by the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association (https://k2bsa.net/scout-frequencies/) and listen for “CQ JOTA”!

If you have any questions about the BHO-WS event, please contact me directly.

73,
Tom Ulrich KC1OCY

K1YUB to Present at 40th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium, October 21-22, 2022

From ema.arrl.org:

Paul Graveline, K1YUB, of Andover, MA, will present at the 40th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium in Bloomington, Minnesota, on October 21-22, 2022. Paul will present in a session on the CubeSat Simulator.

The symposium will feature:

* Space Symposium with Amateur Satellite Presentations
* Operating Techniques, News, & Plans from the Amateur Satellite World
* Board of Directors Meeting open to AMSAT members
* Opportunities to Meet Board Members and Officers
* AMSAT Annual General Membership Meeting
* Auction, Annual Banquet, Keynote Speaker and Door Prizes !!

The Crowne Plaza Suites, 3 Appletree Square, Bloomington, MN, is centrally located between the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, Mall of America, Minneapolis Zoo, and Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park. Crown Plaza Suites provides a complimentary scheduled shuttle to and from the airport.

Additional information about the 2022 AMSAT Symposium can be found at https://www.amsat.org.

NH Simulated Emergency Test, November 5, 2022

ARES logoDave Colter, WA1ZCN, writes on the Twin State Radio Club mailing list:

The annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is on the first Saturday in November in NH. It’s intended to be our annual full-scale exercise of plans and systems across the entire Section/state. We begin at 8 AM and usually wind up between 1 and 2 PM. This year’s SET is based on a big hurricane, since it’s the most likely large-scale disaster we’re likely to experience in NH. It will be a simplex/HF only exercise. Repeaters won’t be used. We also encourage field station setups – even from your own backyard. One assumption is that any storm bad enough to require ARES support will probably take down our regular antennas, so it’s going to be an ad hoc operation.

One critical item I neglected to mention – every message MUST contain the words “this is an exercise”, and that phrase should also accompany any transmission that could be mistaken as real by a casual listener, as well as periodically during operations.

Simplex operation presents some interesting and fun challenges in our rather lumpy state. The goal is to send Situation Reports (SITREPS) to the State Emergency Operations Center liaison station in Concord, and handle any return message traffic. Clearly, we don’t have good simplex paths to Concord, so we use hilltop relay stations. The Concord liaison will likely be on Woods Hill in Bow. We’ve identified 2000’ Bly Hill in Newbury, NH that can reach Concord pretty easily. It’s accessed from Rt 103A. There is a turn-around at the summit I’ve used in the past for a discrete mobile relay station.

The first order of business will be determining who can hear whom so that relays can be organized. Then we can start generating SITREPS (in the form of weather/damage reports – a suggested form will be forthcoming) and passing them along to Concord. It’s likely to be chaotic, but that’s the nature of ad hoc operations and disasters. Work-arounds will be essential.

We can use both digital and manual (voice) methods to send the forms. Digital is preferred for accuracy and speed, and we use the very popular NBEMS suite of software, the core of which is Fldigi, a versatile sound-card digital modes app that’s also good for day to day use. The other key app in the suite is Flmsg, the message forms utility. There is a good tutorial on the NE ARES Academy channel, and some good (but need updating) beginner’s guides on the NH-ARES website.

We also use a system called Winlink, with a sound-card app called Winlink Express, which allows for email access through servers around the world. Its primary value is for sending and receiving internet email messages, but it can be used for ham-to-ham email via the same servers, and peer-to-peer connections between stations. Winlink email server access is only available via HF from our area. The most difficult bit of getting set up for Winlink is getting your computer to control your radio, but after that it’s pretty easy. Computer control isn’t essential, but it’s far faster. This is too big a topic for this email, so watch the video.

Both NBEMS and Winlink Express can be used on either HF or VHF/UHF, and certain NBEMS modes can be used on repeaters.

Manual voice messages using the RadioGram and radio version of the FEMA ICS-213 General Message Form require specific knowledge. Luckily, there is also a good video on this on the NE ARES Academy channel.

NBEMS – www.w1hkj.com Groups.IO page: https://groups.io/g/nbems

Winlink – www.winlink.org Groups.IO page: https://groups.io/g/winlink

George N1GB’s NH-ARES digital modes info site: https://www.gblakesl.net/N1GB/N1GB_ARES.html Loads of information on NBEMS and Winlink here.

Western Mass. Train & Test Group Technician Course Online Starts October 18, 2022

The Western Massachusetts Train and Test group will be conducting a Technician license course starting October 18. This course will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7PM to 9 PM for 6 weeks via Zoom. The course is free and you will need to purchase the ARRL technician’s manual which is available at the ARRL.org website or on Amazon.

If you are interested in joining the course, please email Ken, WB8PKK, at backhoeken@yahoo.com. See also the course registration link: https://forms.gle/z3f4So956H3gpNBGA.

 

W.Mass. ham radio course flyer