Serving ARRL members who reside in the New England sections
London (CNN) – When Isabella Payne heads back to elementary school in September, she’s going to have the best “what I did in my vacation” story to tell.
From ema.arrl.org:
Algonquin Amateur Radio Club [Marlborough, MA] President Ann Weldon, KA1PON, and AARC Emergency Operations Center Liaison Eric Williams, KV1J, were featured on a recent edition of “Marlborough Minute” on cable station WMCT-TV.
Ann and Eric presented a basic overview of Amateur Radio, in addition to describing the club and the club members’ involvement with emergency communications.
Betsey Doane, K1EIC, writes:
In the early 1990s, Larry Buck, K1HEJ, Luck Hurder, formerly KY1T (now WA4STO) and Betsey Doane, K1EIC, decided to make a plan for demonstrating Amateur radio at The BIG E. So we embarked on getting computer/modem accounts to communicate. And that we did.
There were literally loads of messages passed back and forth to plan the event. Larry was in charge of communicating with the exhibition leaders to be sure we would comply with all requirements.
We recruited many volunteers and opened our first booth which provided lots of Amateur radio information, good conversation among the visitors and hams attending, a full traffic handling area using 2 meter FM and packet and an HF station which we used as we could. Remember, there was no Windows OS, no small computers, and no RMS. But packet was extremely popular at that time. The CT N1DCS and later N4GAA packet nodes were among the largest, if not the largest in the country handling thousands of messages. The W1EDH, K1EIC and W1HAD nodes also assisted in the relay of traffic.
The young people who came up enjoyed writing messages to their families and friends. Thoroughly also enjoyed using the key to write their name as instructed by the chart provided. They had fun, the adults
enjoyed it and so did we.
We did this event every year for close to 25 years adding what we could with the constraints at the fair. Volunteers came from Connecticut, Western Mass and, I think, Rhode Island. We knew we had to staff it fully so there were backups planned.
Connecticut operators are proud to have been an exhibitor at The BIG E for so many years. We were well received. We are truly excited that so many New England amateurs and radio clubs are participating in this year’s BIG E exhibit, and that our New England Division Director, Vice Director, and Assistant Directors are helping to organize The BIG E Space Chat.
Rosalie White, K1STO, writes:
All, here are two nice media hits on the ARISS radio contact for Challenger Learning Centers–with these stories being specific to the Challenger Learning Center of Maine:
Kids in Bangor reach for the stars by speaking to astronaut – News Center Maine
Bob Hines called in using amateur radio, giving kids at Challenger Centers across the country the opportunity to ask questions.
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/kids-in-bangor-making-a-connection-to-space-maine/97-422d53cf-3d8c-449d-b4b9-6f2d5121df59
Challenger Maine campers speak with NASA Astronaut aboard ISS – WABI
The Challenger Center and the Amateur Radio on the ISS hosted the live conversation.
https://www.wabi.tv/2022/07/28/challenger-maine-campers-speak-with-nasa-astronaut-aboard-iss/
“Members of the Wireless Society of Southern Maine are set to participate in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercises on June 25 and June 26 at Wassamki Springs Campground, 56 Saco St. in Scarborough. The public is encouraged to attend from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 26.”
From ema.arrl.org:
Station WCAP 980 kHz will host a talk segment featuring two Eastern MA amateur radio club presidents today (June 24) at 4:10 PM.
Gary Frascarelli, W1GFF, President of the Billerica Amateur Radio Society and Bruce Blain, K1BG, President of the Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club, will discuss ARRL Field Day on the program.
The Class B station features a talk/oldies radio format. It covers the Merrimack Valley with 5,000 watts of power.
Listeners outside of the area can tune in to the program on the web at <http://webcastsusa.com/wcap/player.html>.
This link seems to work: <https://streampros.net/980wcap>
An audio recording of the program is also available
From The Berkshire Eagle, June 21, 2022:
“Ham radio operators from the Northern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club in Berkshire County will participate in a national Field Day exercise from 2 p.m. Saturday, June 25, until 2 p.m. Sunday, June 26, at 440 Peru Road [Windsor, MA]. The public is invited.
“Field Day has been organized since 1933 by the American Radio Relay League, the National Association for Amateur Radio in the United States. The event highlights ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent, wireless communications network.” [Full story]
The New England Radio Discussion Society (NERDS) obtained excellent publicity for its upcoming Field Day operation. The article is entitled, Community News – Ham radio demonstration set for June 25-26.”
The full story can be viewed at <https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/08/community-news-ham-radio-demonstration-set-for-june-25-26/>.
Massachusetts radio amateurs are being recognized for their service to the public in times of hurricanes, tornados, flood and other emergencies with a special proclamation by Governor Charles D. Baker declaring June 25, 2022 as “Amateur Radio Day” in the Commonwealth. The day coincides with the 2022 ARRL Field Day event.
The proclamation was obtained by Massachusetts State Government Liaison Hank McCarl, W4RIG, of Gloucester. McCarl contacted Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr’s (N1UIU) office to arrange for the issuance of the proclamation.
Copies of the proclamation will be distributed to both Eastern and Western Massachusetts Section Managers so that they may display the documents as they tour field day sites in their respective sections.
Ray Lajoie, AA1SE, writes on the Western MA ARRL Members list:
Project Big E is a 17-day amateur radio exhibit to be held at the 2022 Big E from September 16-October 3, 2022 in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Western Massachusetts ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator and Hampden County Radio Association president Larry Krainson, W1AST, is the Project Big E General Chairman.
The Big E, formerly known as The Eastern States Exposition, is billed as “New England’s Great State fair.” It is the largest agricultural event on the eastern seaboard and the sixth-largest fair in the nation. In 2021, the Big E had 1.5 million visitors, and over 1.6 million visitors in 2019. [Wikipedia.org]
Planning for Project Big E is underway. An impressive ham radio booth will showcase the many aspects of modern ham radio, and provide an avenue for people to sign up for information and courses in their local area.
Features proposed for Project Big E will include:
· an EmComm display
· DMR and/or other digital mobile mode demo
· Digital HF modes on a big screen
· A special event station (N1E) with unique QSL cards
· SSB, CW and digital modes
· Demonstrations of portable stations for field operation (i.e., Parks On The Air, Summits On The Air)
· A live ARISS contact
Project Big E can succeed only if there is a sufficient number of volunteers and radio clubs who agree to participate in the event. A web page has been created at https://nediv.arrl.org/ProjectBigE.
Also, a special Groups.io mailing list group has been established. To join, send an email to ProjectBigE+subscribe@groups.io.
To volunteer for specific days/hours, go to the special Google form signup sheet and register.
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ARRL Western Massachusetts Section
Section Manager: Raymond P Lajoie, AA1SE
aa1se@arrl.org
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