New Hampshire Amateur Radio Operators Prepare For Annual Field Day Event (Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 30, 2023

For more information contact :

Skip Camejo, Public Information Coordinator, New Hampshire Section ARRL

603-707-9848        AC1LC@outlook.com

Or individual club contacts listed below.

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New Hampshire amateur radio operators prepare for annual Field Day event.

Every June, more than 40,000 amateur radio operators, known as “hams” throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill and service to their communities. Field Day combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933, and remains the most popular event in ham radio.  Field Day 2023 will be held on June 24th and June 25th.

The slogan for the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) “When all else fails, amateur radio” is just as important now as it has been since amateur radio first began in the early parts of the 20th century.  The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulation governing amateur radio states as the basis and purpose “(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently entered into an updated Memorandum of Agreement with the ARRL . The agreement will enhance cooperation between ARRL’s emergency communications program, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®), and FEMA in providing disaster communications. The agreement emphasizes the importance of skilled Amateur Radio Operators in times of crisis and the role of ARES leadership within the emergency communications space.  In March 2023 FEMA released the final version of the NIMS Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Functional Guidance, which includes amateur radio in the response program and national emergency preparedness. 

Field Day provides valuable experience and training to enhance the efforts of these federally licensed amateur radio operators in practicing for their emergency communication response capabilities.  It should be noted that in the event of an emergency, amateur radio operators provide this service utilizing their own or club owned radio equipment at no cost to the public or other responding emergency service agencies. 

A number of New Hampshire amateur radio clubs and organizations are planning events to help educate the public as to the value of amateur radio to the community for emergency communication response as well as the fun aspects of the hobby.  Members of the public are invited and encouraged to visit one of the Field Day events.

As of this date the following events are planned.

The Granite State Amateur Radio Association will be holding Field Day at  972 Back Mountain Rd Goffstown, NH.  They typically have a “Get on the air” or GOTA station and a fox transmitter hidden on the grounds for fox hunting demonstrations. Last year they lead members of the public on a short fox hunt using radios to find the hidden transmitter.

Contact: William Arcand ph: 603-600-6469 email: w1wra@w1ra.net  Club website: www.gsara.org

The Lakes Region Repeater Association will be holding their Field Day event at 151 Old Route 109, Moultonborough, NH  They will have a GOTA station and the public will be able to observe operators involved in contest events. They are planning on running a contest period for 24 hours, with no breaks. The contest officially ends at 2pm on Sunday.

Contact: Rich Kumpf ph: 508-259-7600 email: WF1V@ARRL.NET Club website: www.W1BST.ORG

The Great Bay Radio Association will be holding their Field Day event at the Milton Town Beach in Milton, NH. 

Contact: Jeffrey Zajicek ph: 603-833-1087 email: n1xuq@w1fz.club  Club website: www.w1fz.club

The Cheshire County DX Amateur Radio Club will be holding their Field Day event at the  Mt Caesar School 585 Old Homestead Hwy
Swanzey, NH.  The Cheshire County Club will be offering a GOTA station.

Contact: Jeff Mungovan ph: 603-680-1978 email: Jeff.mungovan@yahoo.com  Club website: www.ccdxarc.org

The Nashua Area Radio Society will hold their Field Day event at 1 Memorial Drive Hudson, NH.  They will be including a GOTA station in addition to radio demonstrations.

Contact: Jonathan Turner ph:617-470-1739 email: ac1ev@arrl.net  Club website: www.n1fd.org

Additional information is attached to this release from the ARRL regarding Field Day.

END

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Raul “Skip” Camejo – AC1LC
Public Information Coordinator
ARRL New Hampshire Section
PO Box 206
Ashland, NH 03217
603-707-9848

ac1lc@outlook.com
ac1lc@arrl.net

Director’s Update for 2Q-2022

I’ve been quite busy the last few months with a combination of ARRL Board work, New England Division projects, Mentoring, and some time on the air. I am pleased to report good progress on many fronts. Here’s more about what I’ve been up to.

Club Grants

Mike Walters, W8ZY, and I, as part of an ARRL Foundation Committee, put together the application and decision process for the ARRL Foundation Club Grant program and rolled it out. Thanks to a generous donation by ARDC, the ARRL Foundation is making $500,000 available to Amateur Radio Clubs.

ARRL Club Grant Program at a glance:

  • Clubs do not need to be ARRL-affiliated clubs to submit proposals
  • Looking to fund projects that create significant impact beyond the applying club: transformative impact on Amateur Radio; create public awareness and support for Amateur Radio; educational and training impact.
  • Examples of projects include, but are not limited to: get-on-the-air projects; ham training and skills development through mentoring; STEM and STEAM learning through Amateur Radio; station resources for use by the ham community; emergency communications and public service projects that emphasize training; club revitalization projects.

The response to the first round of this program has been tremendous. We received 127 applications for Club Grants! The first round of grants will be awarded by the end of the summer, and the second tranche of applications and awards will commence in the late summer/early fall.

Board Projects and Meetings

I am working along with other ARRL Board Members and leaders as part of several ARRL Board Committees. First, I am a member of the Administration and Finance Committee, where I am chairing a subcommittee that is looking at ways to grow ARRL membership and increase active participation in Amateur Radio.

I’m also leading a subcommittee within the Emergency Communications and Field Service Committee that is working on a plan to create the next generation of the National Traffic System (NTS). I am working closely with Marcia Forde, KW1U, and other traffic handlers to create a plan for NTS 2.0. We are planning a series of briefings for Traffic Handlers here in New England as well as across other ARRL divisions on the NTS 2.0 project.

Finally, I have been appointed to be one of the ARRL Board members on the newly formed Investment Management Committee. The Investment Management Committee provides oversight of ARRL’s external investment manager and advises ARRL’s Administration and Finance Committee and the Board of Directors on investment policies and portfolio management.

Field Day

Our 2022 Field Day Visit Tour

Anita, AB1QB, and I had a great time during Field Day, visiting clubs all over New England. We covered about 1,000 miles during a three-day tour on Field Day weekend. I especially enjoyed meeting folks in person during Field Day and seeing what everyone was doing. It was great to see all of the different ways that clubs across New England approached Field Day. Anita took many great photos during our tour, and you can view those and read more about our Field Day travels here. We operated as AB1OC/M from the mobile HF station in our truck during the trip and had a ton of fun on the air as well.

Assistant Director Teams

Phil Temples, K9HI, and I continued working with our division Assistant Directors as they continued to set up their teams and began sharing information and projects across our division.

  • Cory Golob, KU1U – Assistant Director, Emergency Communications and Public Service Activities
  • Rob Leiden, K1UI – Assistant Director, Spectrum Protection and Use
  • Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB – Assistant Director, Mentoring and Ham Development
  • Dan Norman, N0HF – Assistant Director, Youth Outreach and STEM Learning

A great deal of good work is getting accomplished by our Assistant Directors, and each team has projects underway that will benefit hams across New England. Our second quarter 2022 newsletter features articles about what our ADs are doing.

BIG E Space Chat

International Space Station

New England school students will be making live radio contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station from The BIG E during the week of September 26th – September 29th. The “BIG E Space Chat” is part of a program to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educational activities and Amateur Radio learning activities for young people.

We brokered the creation of this project through a partnership between The BIG ENew England Sci-Tech (a STEM education group in New England),  Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), and Black Helicopter Creative LLC.

You can learn more about The BIG E Space Chat and how students can sign up to be part of the planned education program here.

Folks are also planning an Amateur Radio booth at The BIG E, and you can learn more about that project and how your club can be part of it here.

Communications, Club Meetings, and Hamfests

We continued with our work to improve communications this quarter. There are three parts to our activities in this area:

  • Quarterly Division Cabinet Meetings with Club Presidents, Section Managers and Field Staff Members, and other leaders
  • Triannual (every 4 months) Division Town Hall Meetings with all ARRL Members in New England
  • Frequent attendance at Club Meetings (at least 6 times a quarter for each DVA team member) 

We held our second Cabinet Meeting on April 16th (see what was discussed here). Our next Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for August 13th. We are inviting members of the HQ Staff to these meetings so that they can share information on what they are doing and receive feedback directly from division leaders.

We held our second Town Hall Meeting on June 15th. Attendance was excellent again, with over 140 in attendance. We provided an update on ARRL and New England Division activities and answered questions from the folks who attended. You can see what was discussed, including a recording of the event, here. We are planning to hold our next Town Hall Meeting in November.

We held an ARRL Forum at Spring NEAR-Fest in Deerfield, NH, where we provided an update on ARRL and New England Division projects and answered questions. We joined Peter Stohrer K1PJS at NEAR-Fest to talk with folks and answer questions.

 

Western MA Section Manager Ray, AA1SE and Assistant Director Anita, AB1QB discuss Licensing and Mentoring with Gordon West, WB6NOA at Hamvention
Western MA Section Manager Ray, AA1SE and Assistant Director Anita, AB1QB discuss Licensing and Mentoring with Gordon West, WB6NOA at Hamvention

We also attended the Dayton Hamvention, where we helped to staff the ARRL Clubs booth and answer questions about the ARRL Foundation Club Grant program.

I am also planning to host an ARRL Forum at HamXposition in Marlborough, MA. HamXposition will take place on August 26th – 28th. You can see the schedule for the ARRL forum and session hosted by our division ADs here.

Licensing, Mentoring, and Youth

Stu, W1SHS Intro to EmComm at Ham Bootcamp
Stu, W1SHS, hosts an “Introduction to EmComm” at Ham Bootcamp

I have continued work on Licensing and Mentoring programs. We taught weekend Technician, General, and Extra License classes this spring and helped 19 hams earn their license or an upgrade.

We also held a spring Ham Bootcamp program, which helps hams across the country to learn how to use their Amateur Radio License to operate, put stations together, and get on the air. We added additional Ham Bootcamp training on getting started in Emergency Communications activities thanks to help from Stu Solomon, W1SHS, and Cory Golob, KU1U’s Emergency Communications and Public Service Activities Team.

AB1OC Amateur Radio Activities

I’ve enjoyed some operating time in the ARRL June VHF Contest and the new ARRL International Digital DX Contest. We also operated as K2K New Hampshire during the 2022 13 Colonies Special Event. We have received hundreds of QSL requests from our K2K operations, and we are working through those now. Finally, the 6m Band has been pretty good this year, and I am enjoying some operating time on 6m on most days as well. 

I hope to see you soon at a Hamfest, Club Meeting, Town Hall Meeting, Cabinet Meeting, or some other event in the near future. All the Best and 73,

Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ARRL New England Division Director
eMail: ab1oc@arrl.org