Serving ARRL members who reside in the New England sections
On January 16, 2021, the Woronoco Heights Outdoor Adventure/Scouts On The Air Event will occur from 1300-1900 UTC using the call sign W1M, Russell, MA. Sponsored by the Western Mass. Council BSA.
W1M will be QRV on 14.290, 14.060 10.115, and 7.190. QSL to Tom Barker, 329 Faraway Road, Whitefield, NH 03598.
All logging is done on paper and then uploaded to LoTW and eQSL. A QSL card can be had for a 4×6 SASE.
Members of the ARRL Headquarters staff will put W1AW on the air for Straight Key Night (SKN). Set some time aside on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to take part in this annual ARRL tradition.
Information on Straight Key Night can be found at http://www.arrl.org/straight-k
SKN begins at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2021 (New Year’s Eve in US time zones) and wraps up at 2359 UTC. Not a contest, SKN is dedicated to celebrating amateur radio’s Morse code heritage. Bring out the brass, get on the air, and enjoy casual CW contacts, preferably using a straight key (hand key) or a semi-automatic key (bug). Activity traditionally centers on CW segments in the HF bands (W1AW will focus on 80, 40, and 20 meters).
Submit via email your SKN list of stations contacted and your votes for “Best Fist” and “Most Interesting QSO” by January 31 to,
straightkey@arrl.org .
From https://groups.io/g/GBARC/wiki:
This year [the Greater Bridgeport Amateur Radio Club] found, in the middle of a pandemic, we could still be an active club and explore one of the many aspects of radiosport–foxhunting. Starting with our first foxhunt in April to the Reindeer Run in December, the season was dominated by one team, that team being Jack and Michael Singwald, N1PLH.
Over the eight foxhunts this year, they dominated the field with an impressive five wins, and never failed to find the fox. For their efforts they were awarded the Foxhunter of the Year Trophy and bragging rights for the coming year.
Our next Fox Hunt will be on Saturday January 5th hosted by N1DID. This foxhunt will be particularly challenging and cover an extremely wide coverage area. So be sure to plan your time to be there. Tune in, have some fun, and drive around looking for that elusive fox.
From ARRL Web:
Logbook of The World (LoTW), ARRL’s online QSO confirmation system, will undergo scheduled maintenance beginning Monday, December 21, at 2300 UTC (6 PM EST) for approximately 6 hours. LoTW will be offline and unavailable while the system’s server is upgraded to new hardware.
From Candlewood ARA (CT) “CARA Capers” newsletter, December 2020:
On the weekend of November 7-8, 2020, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary ran eight special event stations across the country to commemorate its 81st Anniversary. Created by the U.S. Congress on June 23, 1939, the “US Coast Guard Reserve Act of 1939” established a civilian volunteer component of the Coast Guard to promote boating safety and to facilitate the operations of the Coast Guard. Members had to be US citizens who were boat owners or had partial ownership of a boat.
As America’s unofficial involvement in World War II escalated, Congress recognized the need for a military Reserve similar to the Army and Navy, so in February 1941 the original act was repealed and a new act passed that established a military Reserve and Temporary Reserve and renamed the civilian organization as the “Auxiliary”.
Back in August a call went out to Amateur Radio operators in the Auxiliary asking them if they would participate in commemorating the anniversary by setting up and operating a Special Event Station. Since N1A was already assigned by the FCC, I chose N1R (“R” for Reserve, our 1939 name) and set up a “patio portable” station. I still don’t have a permanent antenna at my home.
So, with great anticipation of having a pile-up with dozens of stations answering my “CQ” call to get the special event QSL card, I got on the 20- meter frequency I had published on ARRL’s Special Event page and started calling “CQ”. And then… nothing. Antenna tuned to 1:1.03, 80 watts SSB, Saturday morning, dead silence. Moved to the 40 meter frequency that I had published… nothing again. Frustrated, I listened up and down the two bands and heard a few stations, not the usual chatter. Even the POTA stations seemed to be staying home. Time to change strategy. I started calling stations that were finishing their QSO’s and that helped get a few contacts in the log.
Was it a post-election distraction? Were the bands just shut down? Not sure. After the event I called Chuck, K1DFS, in Plainville, CT who was operating N1A for the event from his home station, and he had the similar experience over the two days.
But was it fun? Absolutely Yes! Since I run the same setup almost every weekend with really good results (considering the station and antenna) I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t much more I could have done. This was my first activation of a special event station, so the learning experience was worth it all… how to get a special event call sign from the FCC, set it up in QRZ.com, list it on the ARRL Special Event webpage, and even more importantly, anticipate next year’s event!
My station consisted of a Yaesu FT-891 running 80 watts with LMR400 UF cable to a 23 foot Diamond BB7V vertical antenna. An older MFJ 949D tuner and a RigExpert AA230 antenna connected to the tuner with a 2-way antenna switch. The most important component was a patient and understanding XYL.
For more information about the US Coast Guard Auxiliary and its history, visit the N1R page I posted on QRZ.com.
73, Ron Willson, N1IBQ
Dec. 12: Unfortunately I had to cancel this event – a very unusual occurrence for me. Looks like the weather is a bit uncooperative too. -KM1NDY
Mindy Hull, KM1NDY, writes in the Wellesley (MA) ARS Spark Gap newsletter:
Hello Friends! You are all cordially invited to:
WHAT: 1st Annual Hams All-Holiday On Air Celebration (W1E Special Event Station)
WHEN: Saturday December 12, 2020. Two times: W1E on air from 11am to dusk. Everyone get together from noon to 2pm.
WHERE: Meet at Hopkinton State Park. Use the Main Entrance at 164 Cedar St., Hopkinton, MA 01748. Follow the map below. Same place as November’s POTA!
PARKING: Park in large lot at boat launch. We will meet in a grove of trees with picnic tables near the beach at the end of the parking lot that is the farthest from where you entered it. See maps. Park as close to the meeting spot as possible in case it’s real cold and we need to use our cars to warm up.
MONITORING: 147.555 FM
GPS COORDINATES OF EXACT MEETING SPOT:
42°15’30.7″N 71°31’01.8″W ( 42.258539, -71.517168 )
WHY: To take back some of what this year stole from us.
DETAILS: We will operate the special event station W1E from about 11am to dusk at Hopkinton State Park on December 12, 2020 for the 1st Annual “Hams All-Holiday On Air Celebration”. We will be celebrating every holiday that anyone missed because of this crazy year! Our goal is to have as many QSOs as possible and then send a greeting card to every contact. We will set up one portable radio station in a heated shelter and operate SSB on 20M early and 40M later. The shelter will only hold one to two people at a time given the pandemic, so expect it to be cold. Bring your own equipment for other bands if you want to operate simultaneously; we have 100-Watt RF band-pass filters available so we can operate on multiple HF bands at once (10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 40, 80M).
If some of you would like to help operate the main station, send me an email with the time you are requesting to be on air. Or just show up and we’ll see if we can get you on. Or bring your own station.
If you want to just come hang out with radio people, enjoy some non-Zoom companionship, make a few contacts, and celebrate the holidays in person, show up between noon and 2pm. We will be social distancing, wearing masks, and splitting into smaller groups if there are more than 25 of us. Be prepared for cold!
Also, Hopkinton State Park is a Parks-On-The-Air (POTA) site, so you can activate a park as well! Activation code = K-2440.
Bring as much festivity with you as possible! We all really really need it this year…
(I’ll send one more update next week!)
Yours,
KM1NDY
Dave Tipping, NZ1J, writes on the Meriden ARC Facebook Group:
Dave Colter, WA1ZCN, writes on the Twin State RC mailing list:
VHF/UHF ACTIVITY NIGHTS
6:30 PM and on. Most operators start on the standard calling frequencies, and then move another to rag chew. Six and 2-meters are the most popular.
Sunday: 6 meters: 50.525 FM, 50.120 SSB; 50.110 CW
Monday: 2 meters 146.520 FM, 144.200 SSB, 144.100 CW
Tuesday: 1.25 meters 223.500 FM, 222.100 SSB/CW
Wednesday: 70cm 446.000 FM, 432.100 SSB/CW
Thursday: 902 MHz 902.100 or 903.100 SSB/CW
1296.100 MHz SSB/CW
5760.100 MHz SSB/CW
10,368.1 MHz SSB/CW
Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, writes:Dennis Egan, W1UE, writes on the HamXposition.org list:
Below is a recap of the W1A operation by band and mode for the virtual convention on November 6-8, 2020:
For the Northeast HamExposition Virtual Convention this year, W1A was set up to be operated by various operators using their own stations. Seven operators volunteered to operate: W1RM, AJ1DM, W2NR, K1EIC, AI1G, W1FJ, KB1TBU, and KC2LSD.
Dennis W1UE,
W1A Coordinator