Serving ARRL members who reside in the New England sections
From the Woodmont ARA website:
Join us for this exclusive special events station where you’ll have the chance to hone your radio skills and track the lost treasure of Captain William Kidd! Legend has it that the treasure is buried right off of the coast of Milford, Connecticut, near Charles Island. Event will be hosted by the Woodmont Amateur Radio Association. Come be a part of history.
Dates: Saturday, Oct 24, 2020
Time: 1100Z-1700Z
Location: Charles Island, Milford, CT.
Frequencies: 50.885 28.885 14.285 7.285. QSL
Event Call Sign: K1D
For more information, please contact Ed Rhodes (warapres@gmail.com).
From the Boston ARC website:
In a very exciting development, [Boston Amateur Radio Club] member Brendan Baldonado, the newly licensed KC1NEF, lets us know about an upcoming Parks On The Air (POTA) activation he’s about to attempt. He says:
“As you may know I am getting ready to take my General and Extra exam, but thought it could be a fun challenge to “Activate” a park using only Tech bands and Abilities. My Plan is to activate using 5 bands, if I can, with no data and no CW and mostly VHF!
The activation is not a contest so spotting is allowed, I only need to make 10 contacts to activate. For more information on POTA, go to http://parksontheair.com/
I am asking for help in activating the park by trying to contact me on the frequencies and modes listed below. I will submit a log through Parks On The Air where your callsign will receive hunter credit for you as well as activation credit for me! In addition to uploading the logs to eQSL and LoTW, I plan to buy either post cards as QSLs, or take a few pictures and turn them into Special Edition QSL cards for all the people who help me activate.
I plan to activate on Wednesday October 21, 2020. I’ll be at the Bunker Hill Monument and Park, a registered National Park, with my battery powered FT897 and Matchbox Random Length End Fed Dipole in a Tree. I’ll be starting around 2:00 PM (1800z) and going until about 6:00pm (2200z).
If you can reach out via these frequencies and let any other hams know to try and reach me I would be greatly appreciative.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
10 Meters: 28.450 – USB
6 Meters: 50.294 – USB
2 Meters: 146.450 – FM
1.25 Meters: 223.450 – FM
70 CM: 446.00 – FM
For the most up to date spots please look at parksontheair.com and look for my callsign: KC1NEF.
Junie H Cassone, N1DUC, writes:
The Greater Bridgeport Amateur Radio Club (GBARC) hosted its first Parks On The Air (POTA) activation on August 23rd, 2020. We operated from Putnam Memorial State Park (K-1707) in Redding, CT with the special event call sign of W1B. This event was organized by our member, Shawn Takatsu, AC1KC, and sparked an interest in many of our members to go out and activate not only parks, but to participate in Light Houses On The Air (LHOTA) and Summits On The Air (SOTA). We used Xiegu G-90’s with lead acid batteries, and made contacts on 20m and 40m.
I began to activate various parks around Connecticut shortly after my first POTA activation with GBARC. I hunted stations from home to form a better understanding of POTA before I went out on my first activation. I tested my portable equipment, and when ready began activating parks. My portable station consists of a Xiegu G-90, Buddipole™ antenna, and talent cell battery. I test my SWR with an MFJ-259D Antenna Analyzer. My first park activation was from Sleeping Giant State Park(K-1717) on September 9, 2020. I was also able to participate in a SOTA Activation from Mt. Carmel that day as well. It was a very exciting and very busy day.
After GBARC’s POTA event, I decided to organize a LHOTA event for the club. We operated from Fayerweather Island Light House (USA-059) in Bridgeport, CT on September 26, 2020 with the special event call sign of W1B. This was another test of our club members equipment and team work skills. We activated the lighthouse on 2m, 20m, and 40m making contacts as far as Spain and Italy. We had the use of two G-90 and two IC-7300 radios for HF. Overall it was a wonderful experience for our club member and potential hams.
I have a passion for animals and an affinity for ducks. Thus my call sign N1DUC “Number 1 Duck.” Mochi, my support animal, and sometimes his sister Marvel will travel with me to park activations. Mochi likes a good “QuackSO” every now and then. My ducks, mainly Mochi, will sit next to me while I’m operating. I am in the process of building a portable duck coop so my entire flock may be able to travel with me to the various parks (with park permission). I intend to create an amateur radio operating platform from the trailer coop and name it the “The Quack Shack.” As for operational goals I would like to activate all Connecticut parks at least once and in the distant future I would like to activate at least one park in every state.
The Yankee Clipper Contest Club will hold an online Zoom membership meeting on Thursday, October 15, 2020. The topic is, “SSB Contesting for CQWW.” The November meeting will address CW Contesting for CQWW. The meeting will last less than two hours. Zoom login information will be circulated before the meeting, and again on the day of the meeting on the club mailing list.
The YCCC was founded in April 1977 and now boasts over 300 members located from New York City to Maine, Cape Cod to Upstate NY. YCCC members have excelled in all areas of amateur radio contesting, DXing, technical design, and public service. Local meetings and “Contest Universities” are also held around the club territory as organized by the club’s Area Managers. You must attend a meeting to join the club.
Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) will be held this year on October 16, 17, and 18. Register online as an individual or as a group.
Jamboree on the Air is the largest Scouting event in the world. In a typical year, more than 1 million Scouts participate in JOTA, with over 11,000 stations operated by 20,000+ young radio amateurs from 150+ countries around the world.
JOTA details are available on the K2BSA website. The website menu will direct users to additional supporting information. K2BSA’s Jim Wilson, K5ND, says many locations are already offering virtual radio merit badge classes “and no doubt will be using similar approaches for Jamboree on the Air.”
Les Rayburn, N1LF, writes:From https://ema.arrl.org:
Alan Hicks, KD1D, writes on NEMass fox hunters list:
* All the 2-meter FM foxes belonging to PART of Westford members transmit on 146.565 MHz.
* Currently the KD1D and W1HFN foxes use the Squawkbox module, which typically transmits a short (e.g. 30 second) voice message and repeats once per minute. The low power output of about 50 mW allows more than one Squawkbox to be on the air if they are far enough apart. Often, I have one operating in Westford and W1HFN has one operating in Littleton simultaneously.
* Other two-meter fox boxes operated by our club members (including KB1MGI) use the Byonics module which sends a series of tones for a fixed period (e.g. 30 minutes) when activated by the hunter sending a DTMF ‘2’ for two seconds.
* Occasionally, Andy Stuart, KB1OIQ, puts out an 80-meter Fox operating around 3.6 MHz.
[KB1OIQ: It is supposed to be the color burst frequency. This fox is really a Cricket 80A CW transceiver driven by an Arduino. Yes, it is a bit overkill but I had fun making it. It consumes too much power, so when it is out, it is usually only for a day or two. It has a built-in real time clock so it only transmits during the daylight hours (approximately). I also occasionally put out a 2m fox, which is a Byonics MicroFox, transmitting about 15 mW. This fox transmits 24×7 for several days until I retrieve it. I have also been accused of hiding a fox inside of a plastic owl, up on a tree branch. Fox hunters claim to have heard the CW message, “I am most wise.”]* The operators usually post frequency and activation information, when they announce the hunt. I’ve gotten a bit lazy on that score and will try to mend my ways!
* Similarly, we usually announce the location (usually conservation, recreation or other public area), although lately I have been providing only clues to add a challenge.
* Some of the foxes use an HT transmitting 1 or 2 watts, in which case, we usually just announce the town it is in to practice long-distance direction finding similar to what we would need to track down a repeater troll.
It’s great to have fox hunters from outside the Westford area participating! I will try to take that into consideration when doling out clues in the future.
73 and Happy Hunting!
Alan KD1D
On October 4, 2020 W1NVT [Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont] activated park # 3136 in Vermont for Parks On The Air. The operators were KB1FRW, W1SJ, and K1BIF. We had two stations, one on 20 and the other on 40 meters. The 20-meter station was a Elecraft K3 with a Heathkit SB-200 amp using a Cobra 80 – 10m antenna up 66 feet. The 40-meter station was a Kenwood TS-480 with an Elecraft KPA-500 amp using a home brew 40m dipole up 65 feet.
A YouTube video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/UiuE5Yoi7A4
