The Boston Marathon Communication Committee writes:
Volunteer registration for the 2026 Boston Marathon is expected to open this week! Returning volunteers will receive an email from the BAA that includes registration instructions. In order to make registration as smooth as possible, we are providing specific instructions for our Amateur Radio Operator (ARO) volunteers.
If you haven’t previously volunteered, or have a friend who would like to volunteer, please go directly to the Volunteer Registration page and follow the instructions for new volunteers.
Almost all amateur radio positions are single person assignments. We are not able to group people on a single assignment, but we will try to accommodate which segment you are assigned to in order to allow for similar start/end times.
Do you want to run Boston?
In recognition of the contribution the Amateur Radio Communications team provides to the Boston Marathon every year, the BAA has granted us an invitational bib to be awarded to one of our volunteers! Here’s how it works:
Applicants must be Boston Marathon volunteers who have served on the Amateur Radio Communications Team in at least one (1) of the most recent three (3) Boston Marathons.
Applicants must agree that if selected, they will pay the applicable entry fee ($375) to the BAA.
Applicants must agree to comply with all terms and conditions set by the BAA.
Applicants must be capable of completing the Boston Marathon within the allotted time.
Applicants must hold a valid Amateur Radio license (of any class) issued by the FCC (or regulatory body in the applicant’s home country) at the time of application.
Applicants must be eligible to participate in BAA events.
The Amateur Radio Communications Committee will utilize the following criteria to determine how the Invitational Entry will be awarded:
All interested eligible parties must fill out the linked Google Form to express their interest
Applications must be received by December 16th, 2025.
All applicants will be entered into a random drawing for the Invitational Entry following the application deadline.
The selected applicant will be notified by email by December 23rd, and is required to formally respond and accept within seven (7) calendar days. If, after seven days, the selected applicant has not accepted the Invitational Entry, that applicant’s Entry will become void and a second drawing will be held for the Entry to be reassigned.
Following receipt of an Invitational Entry from the Amateur Radio Communications Team, recipients will be ineligible to receive this Invitational Entry again until the fourth Boston Marathon following their award.
Help us get the word out by forwarding this email to your club and other amateur radio operators who might wish to volunteer. Most volunteers first learn about the event through word of mouth. If you know new licensees who might like to join us, please make sure to let them know about it. Even just a quick mention at your club meeting can be a big help!
If you have any questions about the upcoming volunteer registration period, the invitational amateur radio bib program, or the 2026 Marathon in general, please get in touch anytime. Volunteering at the Marathon is a big job and we appreciate the time and effort everyone puts into it. We’re happy to do what we can to make your work fun, comfortable, and effective.
We look forward to seeing everyone again soon.
Thank you, and 73,
Boston Marathon Communications Committee
contact@hamradioboston.org
This year, your club can get up to an extra 200 points for sending formal messages (radiograms) from the Field Day site over amateur RF. Last year, I helped one club do this. This year, I’d like to do more.
I’ve been doing ‘Virtual NTS training’ (https://groups.io/g/VNTN) for the past couple of months over Zoom, and thought that maybe I could help other clubs in the area by doing an abbreviated training session focused on Field Day radiograms.
It is intended for clubs in Massachusetts, but there is also interest from clubs in other states. We will be recording the Zoom meetings and posting the link to the FDNTS page referenced above. On Field Day Saturday, there will be a special Field Day traffic net on the MMRA network at 4pm, 6pm and potentially 8pm.
On June 14th, cyclists will return to Hampton Beach to begin their 2025 New England Ride To End Alzheimer’s, and I’m writing today to ask for your help in supporting them!
The event details are as follows:
Saturday, June 14th
Hampton Beach State Park, Hampton, NH
Volunteer roles vary and range from 6am-4pm
**SAG team members are asked to commit to the whole day, rest stop volunteers may have shorter shifts depending on where they are stationed.
If you’re able and willing, I’d like to invite you to join the Amateur Radio team for the 2025 Ride To End Alzheimer’s. You can find all the event details here and the direct registration link is here.
This is a very important event. The riders at this event are raising money to fund research that will one day put an end to Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. Our job is to staff the communications network that helps keep them safe while they do it.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
WD4R-Julio Ripoll, founder and Amateur Radio Coordinator for WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami FL, which has been active during landfalling New England tropical systems received the prestigious Dayton Hamvention Special Achievement Award. Further details including a picture of Julio receiving the award can be seen below:
Interested in NTS and Traffic Handling? Join us Monday, October 14 at 7:00 PM via Zoom. This training will incorporate videos and open discussion to get you started in an exciting aspect of the hobby that’s been around for over 100 years!
Your hosts: Western MA Section Manager Ray LaJoie, AA1SE; MARI Section Traffic Manager Marcia Forde, KW1U; Bob Sparkes, KC1KVY; and Shawn Dodds, N1CVO, will discuss NTS traffic handling basics and traffic net procedures.
All amateurs are invited to join, regardless of experience level. This will be first come, first served event and limited to 100 participants. We hope to see you on Zoom. Any questions? Email Ray, AA1SE at aa1se@arrl.net.
Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD, Ridgefield, Connecticut, inventor of the highly popular program “EchoLink,” was featured as guest on the QSO Today podcast, episode #487. Taylor is also author of the NTS 2.0 Radiogram Portal web application.
From QSO Today: “Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD, has reached his 50th year has a ham radio operator, is the creator of Echolink, one of the first amateur radio Voice over Internet Service linking amateur radio stations, the receiver of technical innovation awards, and author of ‘VoIP: Internet Linking for Radio Amateurs,’ now in its second edition. K1RFD checks all of the ham radio boxes for operating, homebrewing, software development, radio restoration, and is my QSO Today.”
The following update on the NTS 2.0 modernization project was recently sent to all ARRL Section Managers and Section Traffic Managers for dissemination to traffic handlers in their areas. More information can be found on the new website nts2.arrl.org under the Standards and Procedures tab. Information on handling instructions and numbered radiograms is available now and information on the encapsulation radiograms for emergency communications will be there soon. There is also a tab To Contribute Your Ideas if you wish to contribute those.
Greetings to all STMs and SMs,
It was brought to my attention that little to nothing has been disseminated regarding progress on the part of the NTS 2.0 teams. My apologies for not keeping folks better up to date.
You are aware that we held briefings throughout the various ARRL divisions during the latter part of 2022, and enlisted the help of 35 to 40 volunteers. Each was assigned to one or more of five implementation teams who have met weekly since the beginning of 2023. We have been able to secure a page on the ARRL website to inform you of the ongoing projects, but it is only recently that we are now able to share some results of these teams’ work.
1. An article on NTS has been published in the July issue of QST which you may have received already. We are grateful to the editors of QST for highlighting this program and look forward to more articles in the future.
2. Perhaps highest on the minds of most folks is an update to the Net Directory. This is a major undertaking as the current directory has not been updated in recent times and the software has not been felt by many to be very user friendly. While we don’t have a finished product to show you at this time, it is important for folks to know that one of our NTS 2.0 implementation teams has drawn up a set of requirements we think various groups will want to see implemented and this has been forwarded to the IT department at ARRL. Emergency manager Josh Johnston KE5MHV and the IT department have been pleased with our work and are now working with us to develop a product we hope you will find informative and easy to use. It will take a little time yet before you will see a finished product as the entire website at ARRL is in the process of being updated. We want you to know however that definite progress is being made, so we ask for your patience and hope you will be happy with the new net directory once it has been completed.
3. In accord with renewed interest in emergency communications preparedness on the part of amateur radio and the ARRL in particular, several of our teams have been working on encapsulation of the forms used by emergency service organizations. Forms such as the ICS-213, ARC-213, HICS-213 and the Texas STAR Form originated by emergency personnel must be deliverable exactly as sent, and to accomplish this these forms must be encapsulated within a radiogram for transmission via the National Traffic System. A great deal of thought and testing have gone into this product which will be revealed on the ARRL’s website (nts2.arrl.org). Documentation and training will be provided. While we recognize such emergency traffic will likely be sent via digital means where available, we feel it is important that voice and CW circuits must be capable and practiced in the event they are needed.
4. Because of the above mentioned use of emergency type traffic, there are some additional requirements which are important. You will find these on the above noted website as additional handling instructions and ARRL numbered radiograms.
Two new handling instructions are being added. One is HXI which indicates an encapsulated message is included which must be relayed so as to be deliverable in a particular format. The second is HXR, which requires the delivering station to notify the originator of the message confirming that the recipient has personally received the message. This is a frequent requirement from served agencies. This is different from the HXC instruction, which is sent by the delivering station instead to the station of origin, whose call sign is in the header. Where HXC notifies the station of origin of delivery (such as the message being deposited in a mailbox) of their Radiogram, HXR confirms to the sender that the recipient has the message in-hand.
A new ARRL numbered radiogram has been added as “ARL FORTY ONE”. This is to be used with an HXD handling instruction where tracing a message is important to find any possible breaks in the relay chain. You will find a number of blanks to be filled in a service reply. This standardization of the HXD reply will allow for more efficient tracking and better understanding of the process.
While we understand change can be hard, we hope you will find value in the above. The teams continue to work diligently to make improvements and we welcome feedback from the NTS community. Please share with net participants in your sections.
Fall has gone by very quickly for me. I have been busy with ARRL Board work, New England Division projects, attending Ham Fests, Mentoring and Licensing work, and a 6m Antenna Project. I am pleased to report good progress on all fronts. Here’s more about what I’ve been up to.
BIG E Space Chat
BIG E Space Chat Students and Speakers
New England school students made live radio contact with an astronaut on the International Space Station from The BIG E on September 27th. You can view a video of the contact below. This and other videos made by folks who attend Space Chat were viewed more than 3,000 times by people worldwide.
We received quite a bit of television and newspaper coverage for our contact as well. Here’s an example of some of the TV coverage that aired on New England stations –
In addition to inspiring the young people who participated in Space Chat, we were able to help to make the public aware of the value that Amateur Radio brings to young people. I want to thank the many folks here in New England and the great people at the BIG E for making this project possible.
Mike Walters, W8ZY, and I worked with a team to select and award the first round of grants as part of the ARRL Foundation Club Grant program. We received a total of 128 grant applications totaling over $1.7M! We awarded a total of $270K to 24 Radio Clubs in the United States.
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 second round of grants will be awarded early in 2023.
Board Projects and Meetings
National Traffic System 2.0 Project
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). We are in the process of holding a series of briefings for Traffic Handlers across all ARRL divisions on the NTS 2.0 project. The briefings will be completed in December. We have signed up a total of 35 volunteers to help us work through the details of implementing the NTS 2.0 program. We are planning a kickoff meeting for the volunteers and I expect that the Implementation Teams will begin their work by the end of this year.
The ARRL has initiated a routine Traffic Origination program as part of NTS 2.0. The first messages were sent in October to all Section Managers, STMs, Directors, Vice Directors, the ARRL CEO, President, and first and second Vice Presidents.
The purpose of this program is to provide information about our work on the NTS 2.0 program as it rolls out and to measure the performance of the National Traffic System.
ARRL Club Development Webinar Series
Mike Walters, W8ZY, Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, and I are working on a program to create a series of webinars for clubs to help them develop skills and solve problems. This webinar series will kick off in 2023 and will feature presentations by ARRL members on the following topics.
ARRL Club Development Webinar Series
Please get in touch with Mike Walters at mwalters@arrl.org if you are interested in helping us to produce content for the new Club Webinar Series.
Additional Board Committee Work
My work as chair of an Administration and Finance Subcommittee that is looking at ways to grow ARRL membership and increase active participation in Amateur Radio is nearly complete. The subcommittee will be sharing our final recommendations with the Administration and Finance Committee later this year and with the ARRL Board in January.
Finally, I have been serving as 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. We have been working on procedures and processes that govern our oversight work with our outside investment manager.
Assistant Director Teams
Our Division Assistant Directors have all held several meetings with their working groups this quarter. In addition, the Spectrum Protection team has received a generous grant from ARDC to equip RFI Teams in each New England Section with direction-finding radios and antennas to enable them to assist Hams across New England in resolving interference problems. Our Assistant Directors and their working group areas follow –
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
Each team has projects underway that will benefit hams across New England. This newsletter features articles about what our Assistant Directors are doing.
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, 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 New England Division leadership team member)
We held our third Town Hall Meeting on October 19th. 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 February 2023.
We held an ARRL Forum at Fall NEAR-Fest in Deerfield, NH, where we updated folks 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.
Our next Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, December 17th. 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.
Here’s a summary of the many events and communications activities that we’ve participated in and hosted this year –
New England Division 2022 Events & Communications
The New Division Team has been attending club meetings to stay in touch with what clubs are doing and to hear feedback and concerns from folks. We each try to attend at least six club meetings every quarter. If you’d like one of us to visit your club’s meeting, don’t hesitate to contact me at ab1oc@arrl.org.
AB1OC Amateur Radio Activities
I’ve been working on an upgrade to the 6m antenna system at our QTH. The project consists of adding a total of 12 new 6m antennas along with tower-mounted preamplifiers. We are putting up three fixed stacks of 3-element Loop Fed Array (LFA) yagis and a new 7-element LFA yagi on our main tower. The project is just being completed, and I have been making Meteor Scatter contacts on 6m with the new antennas. You can read more about the project here.
US West Stack of LFA Yagis & Large LFA Yagi on Mast
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
In the early 1990s, Larry Buck, K1HEJ, Luck Hurder, formerly KY1T (now WA4STO) and Betsey Doane, K1EIC, decided to make a plan for demonstrating Amateur radio at The BIG E. So we embarked on getting computer/modem accounts to communicate. And that we did.
There were literally loads of messages passed back and forth to plan the event. Larry was in charge of communicating with the exhibition leaders to be sure we would comply with all requirements.
We recruited many volunteers and opened our first booth which provided lots of Amateur radio information, good conversation among the visitors and hams attending, a full traffic handling area using 2 meter FM and packet and an HF station which we used as we could. Remember, there was no Windows OS, no small computers, and no RMS. But packet was extremely popular at that time. The CT N1DCS and later N4GAA packet nodes were among the largest, if not the largest in the country handling thousands of messages. The W1EDH, K1EIC and W1HAD nodes also assisted in the relay of traffic.
The young people who came up enjoyed writing messages to their families and friends. Thoroughly also enjoyed using the key to write their name as instructed by the chart provided. They had fun, the adults
enjoyed it and so did we.
We did this event every year for close to 25 years adding what we could with the constraints at the fair. Volunteers came from Connecticut, Western Mass and, I think, Rhode Island. We knew we had to staff it fully so there were backups planned.
Connecticut operators are proud to have been an exhibitor at The BIG E for so many years. We were well received. We are truly excited that so many New England amateurs and radio clubs are participating in this year’s BIG E exhibit, and that our New England Division Director, Vice Director, and Assistant Directors are helping to organize The BIG E Space Chat.
[Charlie Rocheleau, W1CPR, is a FEMA Communications Specialist in the MAssachusetts Task Force 1 (MA-TF1.]
Thanks so much for the follow up with our [radiogram] traffic. The dedication and skill of the NTS members is without parallel. I believe it to be a national treasure that must be maintained and strengthened during these very uncertain world events. ALL of our traffic is sent HF using PACTOR and no infrastructure.
We appreciate your hard work.
During a lengthy meeting with Washington a few months ago, HQ asked us to investigate any and all methods of contacting team members during a catastrophic communications failure. MATF ran tests with NTS a few months ago. We put almost 250 radiograms through the system and they were extremely successful. We learned some lessons and everyone got great practice.
The Alerts I sent out today were real world alerts as the task force MA-TF1 (FEMA US&R) is on stand-by for a deployment to Kentucky. Steve Hanson, KB1TCE, runs a digital hub in Owls Head, Maine and has been my go-to person for injecting these messages quickly into the NTS system.
Best to you and your team, and thanks for passing the traffic!
-Charlie Rocheleau, W1CPR
Postscript:
Winlink messages received at KB1TCE for insertion into DTN are forwarded to KW1U MBO for distribution through the DTN network. Having received an alert from W1CPR that 40 Priority messages would be coming this way, I alerted key MA traffic handlers to be ready and these folks did a fantastic job of getting them out. KC1MSN took a total of 11 off the board for EM2MN, W1RVY took and delivered one and I delivered one to Maynard and distributed most of the rest via First Region Net to K1UAF, WX1T and KC1KVY who either delivered or distributed further. W1LEM also took Cape Cod traffic off the board. Kudos to all the folks who helped get all 40 out in one day.
Interested in NTS and Traffic Handling? Join us Monday, October 14 at 7:00 PM via Zoom. This training will incorporate videos and open discussion to get you started in an exciting aspect of the hobby that’s been around for over 100 years!
