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Maine Section e-News December, 2023

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Maine Section Manager Philip W Duggan, N1EP, writes on the ARRL Maine Members list:

On behalf of the Maine Section Cabinet, I wish you all a great Holiday season! Hopefully you all have your power back after that big blow last Monday. Is it just me, or does it seem that Maine is windier all year round now, between wind storms and just plain windy days? And there is no doubt it has been wetter this year; the ground is saturated!

Maine Section 2024 Goals

Please provide your input on what you think the Maine ARRL sections goals should be. You can send suggestions to n1ep@arrl.org. One of our primary goals will be reversing that staggering statistic that 80 percent of newly licensed hams disappear from the amateur radio scene
before their 1-year license anniversary. We need to find out why this happens and take steps to change that trend. It would help if more hams monitored or scanned their local repeaters and VHF/UHF simplex frequencies and answered someone when they put out their call sign on the air. There is nothing more frustrating than earning your amateur radio ticket and then you find there is minimal activity on the bands you can use. We are hams, let’s ham it up!

Maine VOTA Update

As the ARRL Volunteers-On-The-Air program wraps up at the end of this month, Maine just completed the second week-long stint operating as W1AW/1. Many kudos to John Huffman, K1ESE, Maine VOTA Coordinator, and all the operators who did such an outstanding job representing our section on the air in September and December. During the two week-long events, we racked up 13,372 QSOs! The top two prolific ops were Joe Blinick, K1JB and Dave Larrabee, K1BZ. Congrats all and thanks so much for your remarkable efforts!

Hamfest in Augusta

The Boat Anchor Hamfest is scheduled for Saturday, February 10 from 8am until noon. This is a great opportunity to abate the winter doldrums and get out and meet other hams and find some great deals. If you are a vendor or have gear to trade or sell, please plan on attending. The more the merrier. Many thanks to all who support Maine’s hamfests.

Straight Key Night

If you are a cw operator, don’t forget that New Year’s Eve and Day is Straight Key Night. Put your favorite straight key or bug on the air. I plan on using my Navy flameproof key. I will be calling CQ primarily on 80m and 40m. If you hear my QRS signal, give me a shout!

Simplex Challenge

Put Saturday, March 16 on your calendar now so you do not forget about the Maine 2-meter FM Simplex Challenge. It is sponsored by the Wireless Society of Southern Maine. Details are at http://www.ws1sm.com/2-Meter-Challenge.html

Statewide POTA!

Reminder that we are asking all Maine clubs and hams interested to activate a qualified park on Saturday, May 18 for Parks-On-The-Air. You can find a list and map of qualified parks and rules on the official POTA web site: https://parksontheair.com/

Speaking Of Volunteering

Why not make 2024 the year you volunteer for some important task that benefits amateur radio. Run for president or treasurer of your local club or help out with a club newsletter. Become a member of your local Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) or become an ISS ARES operator. Don’t get excited, we will not send you to the International Space Station. ISS in this case stands for Independent Support Station. Learn how to originate and relay radiograms and participate in the National Traffic System (NTS). Become a Volunteer Examiner. Volunteer to serve as a net control station for a VHF or HF net. Organize a ham radio demonstration for your local scout troop, 4H, or school. Opportunities are abundant. There is a big need for hams to help out in a wide variety of ways. And you know what? It is most often fun and very rewarding.

Favorite Antenna

What has been your favorite antenna in your time as a ham? Even though I have fond memories of my HF yagi which broke last year, I still am a fan of dipoles. Simple lightweight dipoles for portable use, and I also have had great success with fan dipoles at my home station. What is your favorite antenna?

73 and wishing you all the best in this coming new year!

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ARRL Maine Section
Section Manager: Philip W Duggan, N1EP
n1ep@arrl.org
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How Clubs Can Help to Mentor New Hams

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Our local club, the Nashua Area Radio Society, provides training and mentoring programs for new hams.  In the past 3 months, we have held classes and VE sessions for Technician, General, and Extra licenses.   Our classes take place in 2-3 full days over a weekend and conclude with an online exam session.  It is always a thrill to see new people getting licensed or earning an upgrade at the end of the class.  In addition, these newly licensed hams can make a great addition to your club.

But just licensing new hams is not enough.  For every ten new Technicians that are licensed, only two of them ever get on the air. The best way we can help our licensees to become active ham radio operators is to continue the mentoring after the class or VE session is over.  

Ham Boot Camp

The Nashua Area Radio Society holds a program called Ham Bootcamp each spring and fall after our license classes.  Ham Bootcamp is a day-long series of training sessions to help new Hams build skills and learn what they need to know to get on the air.  The morning sessions are all about putting together a VHF station, programming your radio, and all the activities you can participate in with a Tech license – fox hunting, satellites, and more.  The afternoon sessions are all about putting together an HF Station, selecting and putting up antennas, operating voice, CW, digital modes, and more.  Our boot camps are held online and we get hams from all over the country attending, and even some DX!

Mentoring a New Ham
Mentoring a New Ham

Any club can start a mentoring program.  We started by inviting the newly licensed/upgraded hams from our classes to our QTH for a few Saturday afternoons.  We gave them a tour of our station, helped them make their first contacts at our station, used HTs and held a mock repeater net, built an antenna, had a fox hunt, and operated satellites. 

It is easy to do something similar for your club.  Just invite one or more new hams over to your shack and help them to get on the air.  Show them your station.  Answer their questions about operating or station building or anything else about Ham Radio. 

You can make Winter or Summer Field Day a mentoring experience by inviting the new hams to help build stations and put up antennas. Once the event starts, help them to operate.  Start at the mic and let the new ham log – then switch places and give them the mic while you log.  

You can also invite your newly licensed members to your QTH to operate in a contest.  The ARRL has the Rookie Roundup contests 3 times a year – it is a great opportunity for someone to try out contesting.  

You will be helping to grow your club as well as the hobby as well as making new friends!

I’d love to hear about how your club is mentoring new hams.  Join the Mentoring and Ham Development group (Groups.io: ne-ham-dev) and let’s share our ideas.  Your ideas will help all of us to become better mentors. 

73,

Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB

New England Division Assistant Director

Mentoring, Ham Development, and Youth Outreach

ab1qb@nediv.arrl.org

 

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New Morse Code Game “Less is Morse” Now Online

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Alan Dove, AB1XW, has released a new game for learning or practicing Morse code. The free game combines several different training options into a single, minimalist control panel. An HTML version that runs in most modern browsers is available, or users can download native versions for Windows, Mac, or Linux to play offline.

The default starting mode uses the popular Koch method for learning the code from scratch, sending characters at 22 words per minute but introducing them one at a time. Once a player is comfortable receiving the current character set, they can adjust the game level to add another character. The game will also level up automatically when the player is receiving the current characters consistently with at least 90% accuracy.

For intermediate and advanced users who already know the code, there are three modes that send random words from different lists. Players can also turn the speed up or down, adjust the audio tone, or randomize the tone so each new character or group gets sent at a different pitch.

All versions, and a full description of the game’s controls and options, can be found at https://radiovoice.itch.io/less-is-morse.

Alan, AB1XW is a member of the Hampden County Radio Association and lives in Longmeadow, MA with his family. He’s been a ham for over 30 years.

N1MRI Selected as OMISS “Top Op of the Month”

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OMISS logoGreater Bridgeport (CT) ARC Secretary Kevin Pfeiffer, N1MRI, has been chosen as “Top Op of the Month” by the O.M. International Sideband Society, according to GBARC Vice President Emily Clarke, NI1Q.

“. . . N1MRI was bestowed a great honour by being nominated for and voted in as The OMISS Top Op for the month of November. Out of over 15,000 members, this is an amazing honour,” writes Clarke.

Congratulations, Kevin!

“Gerry’s Ham Radio Life: 48 Years of W1VE”

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Gerry Hull, W1VEYouTube video blogger Kevin Thomas, W1DED, interviewed Gerry Hull, W1VE, recently:

“There are many hams who can claim five decades of amateur radio but there are few who have been immersed in so many facets of the hobby as Gerry Hull, W1VE. Gerry is active throughout his native Canada with several VE callsigns, he’s well known for his expertise in the remote ham radio space, he’s consulted for and operated the AA7JV Radio-in-a-Box project, and was instrumental in creating the online contest scoreboard concept. He’s a competitive contester, consummate DXer, technical writer, a long-time member of the Yankee Clipper Contest Club, and more. In this interview, Gerry talks specifically about his recent CQ WW CW multi-op contest effort at the Maine superstation, K1LZ, and then we do a speed round of questions that cover some of his nearly 50 years in ham radio.”

https://youtu.be/wgpPAoD7eqs

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