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W1CEK Featured in QST
Boston Marathon Amateur Radio Volunteers Needed on Marathon Monday, April 18, 2022
Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, writes on NEDivisionSEC:
We are currently recruiting for the 2022 Boston Marathon on Monday 4/18/22. We have about half of the volunteers required for race day right now and volunteer registration closes on Friday February 18th, 2022 is a hard volunteer registration closure deadline and the volunteer sign-ups for the last couple of weeks have slowed significantly. We could use help from around the region. Below is a short release suitable for email and web site postings:
Planning is well underway for the 2022 Boston Marathon! The BAA opened volunteer registration today and it will close on Friday, February 18, 2022. Returning volunteers should have received an email from the BAA with details about how to register.
New volunteers can sign up via http://register.
We have also provided a step by step guide on how to select Amateur Radio volunteer positions during the registration process:
https://hamradioboston.
Boston Marathon Communications Committee
KM1CC Special Event Operation: Marconi’s First Transatlantic Wireless Message Anniversary, Results
From K1USN Happenings, 1-21-2022:
Thanks to Barbara [N1NS] for organizing another event at the Coast Guard Station in Eastham [MA] on January 18, 2022. Special thanks to Russ, K1RTA, for bringing his portable trailer tower and to the other volunteers helping with setup. We had restrictions on the number of operators and visitors due to COVID. This was a CW only operation. There were two stations operated by N1DC and K1RV. We used Elecraft KX3/KXPA100 equipment at 100W with an OCF Dipole and a MyAntenna 80-10 end fed wire. The end fed antenna had the feed point at the Cupola railing with the wire sloping down toward the ocean tied to a fence post pole. The dipole was center supported by Russ K1RTA’s portable trailer tower on the south side of the building.
We had some interstation interference that the coax stubs did not suppress. This may be related to antenna orientation and will have to be investigated further. Overall we were able to manage the situation.
Results
509 QSO’s in 50 Countries. We also worked approximately 36 states and a few Canadian provinces.
Conditions were good especially on 15 and 20M. Europeans were loud. We completed a successful SKED on 20M with GB2GM in Poldhu England. <https://gb2gm.org/> We worked Thaire, W2APF, on vacation in Montserrat as VP2MDX on several bands. Check out the pictures and videos on Facebook : <https://www.facebook.com/KM1CC>.
We hope to operate again in April for International Marconi Day.
73,
Rick N1DC
Hearty New Englanders Preparing for Winter Field Day, January 29-30, 2022
Amateurs from across New England are preparing to brave winter temperatures on the weekend of January 29-30 to participate in the annual Winter Field Day (WFD) event.
The New England Sci-Tech ARS (STARS) in Natick, Massachusetts is busy making plans to set up a station for the event.
Members of the Twin State Radio Club in Canaan, New Hampshire are discussing a WFD club operation, per the club’s December, 2021 meeting minutes.
Maine Section Manager Phil Duggan, N1EP, writes: “My local club [the Maine Ham Radio Society] will be participating in the Winter Field Day event. This should be a lot of fun, and good practice for this summer’s ARRL Field Day!”
“The Barnstable ARC and Falmouth ARA [Cape Cod, Massachusetts] plan to partner up for Winter Field Day,” writes Assistant Director Rob Leiden, K1UI. “Falmouth has a beautifully equipped mobile system that may be the headquarters. The effort is still in the planning stages.”
The WFD operation at the Newport County RC in Rhode Island is being headed up by John Vecoli, KC1KOO. According to NCRC President Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, “John is again taking a huge leadership role with planning and logging.”
Drop me an email or radiogram if your club is planning to operate in the 2022 Winter Field Day event.
73,
Phil Temples, K9HI
k9hi@arrl.org
QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo Returns, March 12-13, 2022
The QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo returns on March 12-13, 2022 and has become a twice yearly event.
Amateur radio is like a big circus. It has its main tent with three rings in the center. In those rings could be Contesting, DXing, and Rag Chewing. However, amateur radio now has a “midway of a thousand smaller tents” according to Eric Guth, 4Z1UG, founder of the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo, and host of the QSO Today Podcast, an interview program featuring the most interesting amateur radio operators. It is exactly this midway that the “Expo” was founded to explore.
The Covid-19 Pandemic closed ham radio conventions, hamfests, and monthly meetings all across the World in 2020. It was because of these closures that Eric, 4Z1UG, got the idea to create an on-line, and virtual convention that has all of the elements of a real ham radio convention, similar to the most notable live conventions.
The First QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo was in August 2020 where over 15,000 amateurs attended on the Expo weekend, attending on their computers over the Internet instead of in-person. Over 80 presentations were made, with live Q&A on Zoom webinar, and attendees could come back over a 30 day on-demand period to view the recorded presentations that they missed.
We discovered something unique in August from surveys that we made following the expo. Sixty percent of the attendees, almost 9000 hams do not go to live expos, preferring to stay at home. The Covid-19 Pandemic has made this all the more important.
The Expo has also become the place to discover more niches in amateur radio through the presentations given at each one. In March 2021, while there was some difficulty with the platforms, over 6000 hams came and viewed almost 100,000 presentations from the over 80 that were offered in March. Our Expo in August 2021 had over 90 presentations in 8 tracks of amazing amateur radio content.
ARRL Foundation to Create Club Grants Program
From ARRL web:
1/13/22–A new ARRL Foundation Club Grants program, funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), will make $500,000 available to radio clubs. The program will provide up to $25,000 for worthy club projects. Requests for more than that will be referred back to ARDC.
ARRL has long recognized that it is in the best interests of amateur radio to encourage and support amateur radio clubs. Clubs historically have recruited, licensed, and trained new radio amateurs and have provided the community setting for radio amateurs to continue their education and training. The new Club Grants program will help clubs more easily provide and expand their important services.
Beginning in April 2022, amateur radio clubs will be able to apply for these grants by filling out a simple form on the ARRL website. The ARRL Foundation will evaluate the grant proposals. The Foundation was established in 1973 to advance the art, science, and societal benefits of the amateur radio service by awarding financial grants and scholarships to individuals and organizations in support of their charitable, educational, and scientific efforts.
A key criterion for determining awards will be how the project will advance amateur radio in the grantee’s community. In most cases, this process should take no longer than 90 days.
ARRL Foundation President David Woolweaver, K5RAV, shared his enthusiasm about this new program. “This program will substantially contribute to the growth of amateur radio clubs and their efforts to expand and support the amateur radio community,” he said.
ARDC is a California-based foundation and makes grants to projects and organizations that follow amateur radio’s practice and tradition of technical experimentation in both amateur radio and digital communication science. ARDC Executive Director Rosy Schechter, KJ7RYV, noted that this program will streamline the process for getting club projects funded, so that clubs can get started on these projects more quickly.
“We’re very excited about working with the ARRL Foundation on this program,” said Schechter. “We can’t wait to see what kinds of creative things clubs will do with these grants.”
Maine Mentor List Now Available
Maine Section Manager Phil Duggan, N1EP, has compiled a list of amateurs who are willing to provide advice or assistance to new hams or even experienced hams in need of help. The mentor list is broken down by regions. Contact Phil Duggan, N1EP, and he will provide you with the contact info for the mentor in your region.
If you would like to be listed as a mentor, please send N1EP your information.
January 2022 Eastern MA Section News Now Available
The January, 2022 Eastern MA Section Newsletter is now available at https://ema.arrl.org/january-2022-section-news/.