AA8RK: “College Ham Club Round Table” at RATPAC Online, March 24, 2021

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RATPAC logoRATPAC’s scheduled Wednesday’s March 24, 2021 Zoom presentation will be at:  

9:00 PM AST / 9:00 PM EDT / 8:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM MDT / 6:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM AKDT / 3:00 PM HST

 Topic: College Ham Club Round table

 Speaker/Presenter: Ralph Katz, AA8RK

Hey folks: These Zoom sessions are left open after the presentation. 

After the Zoom presentation has been closed, sign back into Zoom to visit.

  • This meeting will be recorded. By participating you consent to being recorded. 
  • Please change your display name to Your First Name, Call Sign and Location, e.g. Dan K7REX Idaho. 
  • Please stay muted until ready to speak. Your space bar works like a PTT for unmuting
  • You may ask questions in chat; please stay on topic while using chat.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 212 888 4758
Passcode: College
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Meeting ID: 212 888 4758
Passcode: 5305467

K9EID: “Optimizing Your Station” at Meriden (CT) ARC, March 25, 2021

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Meriden ARC logoThe Meriden (CT) Amateur Radio Club welcomes legendary audio expert Bob Heil, K9EID, as our Activities Meeting guest speaker next Thursday, 3/25/21 at 7:30PM Eastern Time.

All Connecticut Hams are cordially invited to attend the Zoom Meeting.  Bob’s name is synonymous with high-quality ham radio audio, and he will speak on “Optimizing Your Station.”

Whether you’re newly (or even not yet) licensed or a long time veteran, you’re sure to learn something.

Here is the Zoom link:

<https://zoom.us/j/91067706626?pwd=K2lwcUJrQVNpMVhJU0hvTDcwbHQvZz09&fbclid=IwAR17bnKB9fZiMDCWfhaMJOknvMPtiiW70Lp4VbXWPEWkDC8CpiQWik8b3Fg>

Please advertise this to interested parties and club members.

Amateur Radio Fee Collection Schedule

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FCC sealContrary to what you may have heard or read, the collection of application fees for the amateur radio service and certain other services will NOT begin  on April 19, 2021.
 
Although April 19, 2021 is the date the rules in the FCC Report and Order adopted last December generally take effect – i.e., one month after the R&O was published in the March 19, 2021 Federal Register – certain parts of those rules, including collection of the application fees for the amateur radio service, will NOT begin on that date. 
 
The effective date for new amateur radio fees has not yet been established. The FCC explicitly states in the published Notice that the fees will not take effect until:
     *  the requisite notice has been provided to Congress; AND
     *  the FCC’s information technology systems and internal procedures have been updated; AND
     *  the Commission publishes future notice(s) in the Federal Register announcing the effective date of such rules.
 
The League’s counsel for FCC matters estimates that the effective start date for collecting the fees will be some time this summer, but regardless of the exact timing we will have advance notice.

HamSCI Free, Virtual Workshop, March 19-20, 2021

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HamSCI 2021 Workshop logoCome join HamSCI at its fourth annual workshop! Due to restrictions caused by COVID-19, this year’s workshop will he held as a free virtual workshop.  The meeting will take place March 19-20, 2021 using Zoom hosted by The University of Scranton in Scranton, PA  and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The primary objective of the HamSCI workshop is to bring together the amateur radio community and professional scientists. The theme of the 2021 HamSCI Workshop is midlatitude ionospheric science. Invited speakers include Dr. J. Michael Ruohoniemi, Virginia Tech Professor and Principal Investigator of the Virginia Tech SuperDARN Initiative, and Joe Dzekevich K1YOW, an amateur radio citizen scientist who recently published his work in CQ Magazine. Dr. Elizabeth Bruton of the Science Museum of London will be the Keynote Speaker.

This workshop will also serve as a team meeting for the HamSCI Personal Space Weather Station project, an NSF-funded project to develop a citizen science instrument for studying space weather from your backyard. The PSWS is led by the University of Scranton, and includes participation from TAPR, Case Western Reserve University/W8EDU, the University of Alabama, the New Jersey Institute of Technology CSTR, MIT Haystack Observatory, Dartmouth College, and the amateur radio community at large.

Special Bulletin to All RI Amateurs – March 17, 2021

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Happy St Patrick’s Day to all:

In my recent monthly Activity Report for March, it seems that I painted my report regarding the cancellation of VE sessions with too broad a brush. Quick to point out my oversight, The Newport County Radio Club reported that they have conducted twelve sessions in 2020 and cancelled only one. I’m sure that they were Covid compliant. They were also happy to point out that they conducted a successful VE session early in March.

I am happy to report that to the approximately 350 ARRL members who register to receive these monthly reports, but I’m not a mind reader. I must be told these things. Recently, I have been trying without much success to switch e mail addresses. In that process, I apparently have missed some e mails for which I am very sorry. Maybe folks need to request that I send them a receipt when they send me information until I get this issue straightened out.

NCRC is offering classes to obtain the Technician and upgrade to General license.

The Technician Class will begin at 6 PM on Tuesday April 20th.

The General Class will begin at 6 PM on Friday April 23rd.

To register for the Technician Class use this URL: https://forms.gle/yyBU7DWSxvLhBnLGA
To register for the General Class use this URL: https://forms.gle/xYDkYjiuSX5vgTwH8

I’m sorry I didn’t publish this important information earlier. I hope that fellow RI Amateurs reading this now will pass it along to those who you know might benefit from knowing it. The dates are a month away.

Thanks and 73,
Bob Beaudet, W1YRC
RI Section Manager

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ARRL Rhode Island Section
Section Manager: Robert G Beaudet, W1YRC
w1yrc@arrl.org
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“Inside the Summit-Obsessed World of Ham Radio”

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WG0AT operating from a mountain summit“On a gray Friday afternoon last spring, Steve Galchutt sat high atop Chief Mountain, an 11,700-foot peak along Colorado’s Front Range. An epic panorama of pristine alpine landscape stretched in almost every direction, with Pikes Peak standing off to the south and Mount Evan towering just to the west.  

“It was an arresting view, and the perfect backdrop for a summit selfie. But instead of reaching for his smartphone, Galchutt was absorbed by another device: a portable transceiver. Sitting on a small patch of rock and snow, his head bent down and cocked to one side, he listened as it sent out a steady stream of staticky beeps: dah-dah-di-dah dah di-di-di-dit. “This is Scotty in Philadelphia,” Galchutt said, translating the Morse code. Then, tapping at two silver paddles attached to the side of the radio, he sent his own message, first with some details about his location, then his call sign, WG0AT.” [Full article]

KM1CC QRV for International Marconi Day, April 24, 2021

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photo of MarconiThe Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club  writes on Facebook:
 
[The Marconi Cape Cod Radio Club – KM1CC] is participating in International Marconi Day, Saturday April 24, 2021. This event is sponsored by the Cornish Radio Amateur Club. “The purpose of the day is for amateur radio enthusiasts from around the world to make contact with historic Marconi sites using communication techniques similar to those used by Marconi himself.”
 
KM1CC CW operations will be set up at the historic Marconi Station Site – rare grid FN51. SSB ops will be from a home station in Wellfleet also in FN51. Check back for operating/band info.
 
Follow the link to see other registered Marconi Stations. http://gx4crc.com/imd-stations/.
 
from ema.arrl.org

KA0XTT “Last Man Standing” Special Event

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KA0XTT QSL cardMarty Sullaway, NN1C, writes on the YCCC mailing list:

I reached out a few weeks ago, got lots of excitement, but few signups, so I’m nagging again.

As many of you know, the hit Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing has an actual ham radio station on the set and ham radio is highlighted on the show periodically as one of Mike Baxter’s (Tim Allen’s) character, with the fictitious callsign KA0XTT. Before COVID-19, each week before the show taped operators would activate the station on the set and many people lined up to work KA6LMS, the club callsign of the on-set station.

After nine great seasons, the show is in the midst of its last season of production. In order to celebrate the end of the show and the exposure it has provided amateur radio, a week-long special event has been planed. From 3/24 – 3/30, the KA6LMS special event will be on the air. If the pileups from the studio were any indication (I had the chance to operate there!), it’ll be quite fun. Though this week surrounds CQ WPX SSB, there is still plenty of time to get on the air.

Similar to the W1AW/p operations in 2014, during the week KA6LMS/xx will be on from all ten callsign areas as well as a few W6x special event 1x1s. *I have been asked to form a team to operate as KA6LMS/1.* Thus, I am asking for you to join me, and sign up to operate as much, or as little as you’d like during the event using the KA6LMS/1 callsign.

We can have as many operators on different band/modes as we want at once, as long as there is only one station per band/mode. I am recruiting operators to operate as few or as many hours as you like, on any band, DC to daylight.

*To sign up, use the Google Sheets link here. <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cnp2KVdHHIy1q13GuDhlvj8A5GWzHEOEgVDrLT1zRDU/edit?usp=sharing>
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Western MA ARES Seeks Volunteers for Simulated Emergency Test (SET) Exercise, May 2021

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WMA ARES logoWestern Massachusetts Section Emergency Coordinator Bob Meneguzzo, K1YO, has announced plans to hold a section-wide Simulated Emergency Test (SET) early in May. Volunteers with HF and VHF capabilities are being sought. 

For full details, see <https://wma.arrl.org/blog/2021/03/13/western-massachusetts-ares-looking-for-help-in-simulated-emergency-test-set-exercises/>.