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(UPDATED) First Annual Hams All-Holiday On Air Celebration (W1E Special Event Station), December 12, 2020

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Parks On The Air logoDec. 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

FCC to Require Email Addresses on Applications

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From ARRL web:

12/02/2020 – Amateur radio licensees and candidates will have to provide the FCC with an email address on applications, effective sometime in mid-2021. If no email address is included, the FCC may dismiss the application as defective.

The FCC is fully transitioning to electronic correspondence and will no longer print or provide wireless licensees with hard-copy authorizations or registrations by mail.

A Report and Order (R&O) on “Completing the Transition to Electronic Filing, Licenses and Authorizations, and Correspondence in the Wireless Radio Services” in WT Docket 19-212 was adopted on September 16. The new rules will go into effect 6 months after publication in the Federal Register, which hasn’t happened yet, but the FCC is already strongly encouraging applicants to provide an email address. When an email address is provided, licensees will receive an official electronic copy of their licenses when the application is granted.

Under Section 97.21 of the new rules, a person holding a valid amateur station license “must apply to the FCC for a modification of the license grant as necessary to show the correct mailing and email address, licensee name, club name, license trustee name, or license custodian name.” For a club or military recreation station license, the application must be presented in document form to a club station call sign administrator who must submit the information to the FCC in an electronic batch file.

Under new Section 97.23, each license will have to show the grantee’s correct name, mailing address, and email address. “The email address must be an address where the grantee can receive electronic correspondence,” the amended rule will state. “Revocation of the station license or suspension of the operator license may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because the grantee failed to provide the correct email address.” 

Hampden County (MA) Radio Association to Offer Technician Licensing Class

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Hampden Co RA logoThe Hampden County Radio Association will hold a five-week Technician licensing class where “you can learn everything you need to earn your (entry-level) FCC Amateur Radio license.” 

The class will run from February 3 to March 3, 2021 from 7-9 PM via Zoom.

Pre-registration is required at <http://www.hcra.org/licensing-classes>.

For more information, contact Mike DeChristopher, N1TA, at <mfdechristopher@gmail.com>.

K9HI Guest Speaker at Billerica (MA) Amateur Radio Society Online Meeting, December 2, 2020

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Billerica ARS logoBARS President Doug Bruce, KC1MJK, writes:

Our next [Billerica Amateur Radio Society] meeting will be via Zoom on December 2, 2020 at 7:00 PM. Our guest speaker will be ARRL New England Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, who will present an ARRL Update.

[Contact Bruce Anderson, W1LUS, at w1lus -at- hotmail -dot- com for a Zoom invitation.]

Fox Hunting is Alive and Well in Connecticut

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Meriden fox hunt location, ariel viewDave Tipping, NZ1J, writes on the Meriden ARC Facebook Group:

Fox Hunt #35 at Downtown Parking Lot #7 [in Wallingford]. Lots of hunters circled the block before locating this obscure spot.
 
A year ago, there wasn’t much fox hunting going on in Connecticut. This year, in addition to our hunts and Fox In a Box (FIABs), the BEARS of Manchester have placed a FIAB about forty times and [the Radio Amateur Society of Norwich]  has placed FIABs and had live hunts. Today, we had a live hunt in Wallingford and RASON had one in Norwich. One of the challenges for 2021 will be trying to find new places to hide.

Twin State Radio Club (NH) VHF/UHF Activity Nights

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Twin State RC logoDave 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