Operating

KB1EHE, KB1IFZ QRV from Antarctica

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Eric Knight, KB1EHE, and Elsie Mathews, KB1IFZ, will be on the air from King George Island, Antarctica, beginning January 28, 2025.

The Unionville, Connecticut, husband-and-wife team have been planning their “trip of a lifetime” to Antarctica for several years. According to Eric, “Yesterday we went to JFK airport. […] Elsie and I had an uneventful (although long; 10.5 hours) flight to Santiago, Chile. After a three-hour connecting flight, we have landed in Puerto Natales. All of our ham gear successfully arrived with us. We will stay overnight here in Puerto Natales. Tomorrow morning we fly to King George Island, Antarctica—and the real adventure begins.”

Eric reports that they will be “attempting 20m SSB and FT8 on 20 watts with our Xiegu G90 and a homebrew vertical.” In addition to operating, hiking and exploring the Antarctica peninsula is on their itinerary.

For more information, follow their running updates at:  https://www.dx-world.net/kc4-kb1ehe-kc4-kb1ifz-antarctica/

 

KB1EHE-KB1IFZ/ KC4 QSL card

New England Clubs QRV for Winter Field Day!

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Winter Field Day Association logoA number of clubs and individuals throughout New England will be participating in this weekend’s Winter Field Day festivities.

The Tri-State Radio Club will operate from their QTH on Blackwater Road in Canaan, NH.  Contact Dave, WA1ZCN, at dbcolter@myfairpoint.net for details.

The Boston ARC will operate from a Ponkapoag AMC cabin in the Great Blue Hill Reservation in Randdolph, MA. Contact Scott at k1su.scott@gmail.com for more information.

The Wellesley (MA) ARS will be QRV for Winter Field Day. No details are known.

The Hampden County Radio Club (Agawam, MA) is encouraging its members to operate individually.  

The Port City ARC will be active from its club room in Seabrook, NH. Contact Mark, K1RX, at mpridesti@yahoo.com for details.

The Barnstable ARC gang will be QRV from the Dennis, MA, firehouse. Contact KT1OK@ARRL.net for more info.

The Meriden ARC is operating WFD at the Wallingford Emergency Management building in the Hope Hill Firehouse, 143 Hope Hill Road, Wallingford, CT. (They have pizza!)
 
The PVRA Repeater Club will hold its Winter Field Day at 33 Mitchell Drive, Manchester, CT. Contact Mark N1SAT mark@n1sat.com if interested.
 
The Southeastern MA ARA will hold its WFD indoors at the W1AEC clubhouse in South Dartmouth, MA. Contact ben@n1wbv.net for more information.
 
Just like the summer version, Field Day, Winter Field Day is about going to a different location than your home, operating on a power source other than electrical from your wall, being in a temporary shelter or location and talking to other Winter Field Day participants. If you operate SOTA or POTA, think of it as a full 24 hour activation.
 
But Winter Field Day can also be operated from your home using different power sources or electrical, your home station or portable or any way you wish to enter. There are different points awarded for different power sources and different power levels and locations.
 
To learn more about Winter Field Day, visit https://winterfieldday.org. The site features a map of registered WFD operations.
 
 
WFD locator map Northeast
 

 

Fesseden Special Events Station N3V, December 21, 2024

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[On December 24, 1906, the first radio broadcast for entertainment and music was transmitted from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to the general public.]

Lem Skidmore, W1LEM, writes on the Barnstable ARC mailing list:

The Charles County Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) will be operating a Special Event Station on Saturday, 21 December 2024, to commemorate the 124th anniversary of Radio’s First Voice. On 23 December 1900, Reginald Fessenden made the first wireless transmission of human speech between two sets of 50-foot masts erected along the shore of Cobb Island, in Charles County, Maryland.

Who: CCARC

What: Special Event Station, call sign N3V (for New Voice).

Where: Old Fisherman’s Field, Cobb Island, MD (a grassy field bordered by Cobb Island Rd, Route 254, and Neale Sound Drive, just over the bridge to Cobb Island) 

When: Saturday, 21 December 2024, On-the-air operations are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET.

How:  Contact N3V on various bands/modes of operation, QSL information at N3V on qrz.com. https://www.qrz.com/db/N3V

*Potential operations include various bands 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M on modes SSB and FT8.  

*Echolink: Connect to EchoLink node KB3KOW-R and call for N3V.

*Check your favorite DX Cluster, such as http://www.dxsummit.fi, for current N3V spots.

(We intend to self-spot periodically, but if you hear us, please spot N3V to help draw traffic)

*US Islands Awards concurrent activation for Cobb Island, Island # MD020R. https://usislands.org/maryland/

*Visitors welcome to join us at the Cobb Island operations site.

*Hope to see you or hear you on Saturday!

73

Jeff – KB3SPH

 

ARRL Kids Day is Only a Couple of Weeks Away on January 4, 2025

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From ARRL News:

Kids Day runs from 1800 UTC – 2359 UTC. Operate as much or as little as you like.

The event is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people, to foster interest in getting a license of their own, and give older hams a chance to share their stations and love for amateur radio with their children. You can share the excitement with your own kids, grandkids, a Scout troop, a church, or the general public!

All participants are encouraged to post their story and thumbnail photos to the Kids Day Soapbox page. Tell the world about your operations, the fun you had, and the contacts you made! Remember, ARRL must have a completed release form in order to include youth photos (younger than 18 years of age) in ARRL publications.

There will be a second ARRL Kids Day on June 21, 2025.

More information, including frequencies, suggested exchanges, and how to download a certificate, can be found at Kids Day.

Androscoggin (ME) ARC Special Event Station W1S, December 15, 2024

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Androscoggin ARC logoCory Golob, KU1U, writes on the Androscoggin ARC mailing list:
 
We will be doing a special event station at the American Legion Post 135 in Sabattus, Maine, this weekend, Sunday, December 15th, from 9 am to 7 pm. It is the 100th anniversary of the American Legion Post in Sabattus. We will use special event callsign W1S (for Sabattus). 

New England Mesh Working Group Online Meeting, December 10, 2024

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Ben Jackson, N1WBV, writes:

Just a reminder that the December New England Mesh Working Group monthly Zoom meeting is scheduled for Tuesday December 10th at 7:30PM. It is a pretty sparse agenda this month.Please let me know either here or offline if you have something to add.

Current Agenda:

  * Intros
  * Roundtable
  * Closing

I’ve also been neglectful and never posted the recording of last month’s meeting. I will be fixing that shortly.

Please feel free to invite anyone who you may think would be interested.

73

Ben, N1WBV

[Zoom details available upon request]

Support Your Park, Connecticut POTA Operation and Potluck, October 20, 2024

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Conrad Trautmann, N2YCH, writes on the CT-POTA list:
 
Greetings all,
 
I don’t think it would be possible to have ordered up weather any better than we had this past weekend for our fall support your parks weekend. The mornings were crisp and cool, the afternoons perfect for POTA and the New England trees were right at the peak of color in most places in CT. 

We had yet another successful special event with K2D with a number of operators using it this weekend. All logs submitted to me have been uploaded. Considering JOTA and a number of QSO parties were also occurring at the same time, we did pretty good.
 
We did another park to park net, thanks Shawn for acting as net control.  The pot luck picnic was wonderful on Sunday with good food and lots of POTA discussions. It was great to see a number of new faces out this time, welcome all. We hope you had a good time and will continue to attend future SYP events. Here’s a photo of our gathering yesterday. Until the next one, which will be in January, 73 all!
 
CT POTA Potluck Oct 2024
 

GSARA Parks On The Air Meetup, Allenstown NH, October 19, 2024

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Prepare for an exciting amateur radio day at the Granite State Amateur Radio Association‘s Fall Parks on the Air (POTA) Meetup! Please mark your calendars for **October 19th** as we gather at the **Bear Brook State Park Pavilion** from **10 AM to 4 PM**.

This event promises a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow radio enthusiasts, explore the park’s beauty, and participate in POTA activities. Whether you’re a seasoned operator or just starting, there’s something for everyone!

In addition to the main event, we’ll be camping for the SYP (Support Your Parks) event over the weekend, allowing for even more camaraderie and fun under the stars.

Don’t miss this chance to enhance your skills, share experiences, and enjoy the outdoors. For more details, visit our https://gsara.org/pota/fall-meetup. We can’t wait to see you there!

 
 
GSARA POTA Meetup Oct. 19, 2024

K1USN SST Open, September 13, 2024

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“Pi,” K1RV writes:
 
Just wanted to remind everyone that this Friday’s usual 2000 – 2100 SST has been expanded into the brand new annual K1USN SST Open. As you all know, the K1USN SST has been a great place for many CW newcomers as well as rusty oldtimers to make your very first CW contesting QSO.
 
The upper “speed limit” has always been capped at a maximum speed of 20 wpm, with many stations including the K1USN club station usually sending at a reduced speed of 12 – 14 wpm each week.
 
The main purpose of the “once a year” SST Open will be to try to slow down everyone who is participating so that we can encourage even more of the less experienced operators to take the opportunity to get comfortable in a real CW contest atmosphere, albeit at a more casual pace. The K1USN club station has scheduled a number of our club members to activate K1USN on all the HF bands during the four hour event because one of the new contest rules will allow stations who work K1USN on each band to pick up 50 bonus points for each band they work K1USN. We plan to be on 10, 15, 20, 40, 80 & 160 meters at various times during the four hour contest to enable everyone to have the chance to increase their scores. All K1USN operators will be sending at a maximum speed of 10 wpm.
 
Here is a good way to find out what bands K1USN is operating on in real time during the contest –
 
 
Please check out the SST Open web page ( http://www.k1usn.com/sso_rules.html  ) to learn the complete rules and to also obtain the link to download and install the new K1USNSSTOP UDC file from the N1MM Logger website.
 
You will notice that there are scoring multiplier incentives for operating at speeds slower than 20 wpm which should also encourage other CQing stations to slow down for the duration of the SST Open.
 
We hope to work many of you during this new event and invite you to spread the word.
 
GL & 73,
 
Pi – K1RV / K1USN