Newport County (RI) Radio Club “Park On The Air” Effort Growing

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KC1KUF operating Parks On The Air from Coccumcussoc State Park
Ryan, KC1KUF, activating Coccumcussoc State Park. Gear: Icom IC-7000, 30 AH LiFePO4 battery, and 20-m HamStick antenna.

via NCRC web site:

The [Newport County Radio Club] Parks On The Air (POTA) Group is growing, with many successful activations in the month of October.  Fairly simple radios and antennas are deployed in state or national parks recognized by the ParksOnTheAir program. An example of a recent activation is Coccumcussoc State Park in North Kingstown.  It was activated for the first time by Ryan, KC1KUF.  Ryan, 14 and a freshman at North Kingstown High School, started working on his radio license two years ago, and completed his General this summer.  In that time he has become an accomplished Winter & Summer Field Day operator, so it is only natural that he would find new ways to get on the air in the field.

Sometimes a single operator is involved, and sometimes a few people join in to put multiple stations on the air.  It is a wonderful opportunity to get outside in the fresh air and have a chance to meet up with our fellow hams in a safe way.  If you would like to join in on the fun and be kept aware of new activations, please email POTA at w1sye.org

The November 9th club meeting (7 PM via Zoom) will have a short presentation on POTA, with plenty of time to ask questions about antennas, rigs, and batteries.

ARRL Sweepstakes, November 7-9, 21-23, 2020

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November Sweepstakes logoContest Objective: To support amateur self-training in radiocommunications, including improving amateur operating skills, conducting technical investigations, and intercommunicating with other amateurs. Stations in the United States and Canada (including territories and possessions) exchange information with as many other US and Canadian stations as possible on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands.

Dates:

CW: First full weekend in November (November 7-9, 2020).

Phone: Third full weekend in November (November 21-23, 2020).

Contest Period: Begins 2100 UTC Saturday and runs through 0259 UTC Monday.

Click here for updates on the Affiliated Club Competion program

2020 Update:

There are now a total of 84 ARRL/RAC sections, as RAC has separated Prince Edward Island (PE) from the Maritime (MAR) Section. Make sure your contest logging software and “country” (CTY) files have been updated so that those abbreviations are recognized and credited properly.

In addition, effective April 1, 2020, RAC has realigned the Ontario South (ONS) and Greater Toronto area (GTA) sections- with the City of Hamilton and the Regional Municipality of Niagara moving from ONS to GTA.

Visit contests.arrl.org/contestmultipliers.php for a complete list of contest multipliers and their abbreviations.

Contest rules are now maintained as a single downloadable document (see below).

For contest information contact contests@arrl.org or (860) 594-0232.

[For more information, visit <http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes>.]

NJ1Q: “ARRL Headquarters W1AW Station Tour,” Billerica ARS Online Meeting, November 4, 2020

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W1AW buildingFrom ema.arrl.org:

Andy Wallace, KA1GTT, writes on the Billerica (MA) Amateur Radio Society website:

All, I am extremely excited to announce our next Zoom meeting will be a tour of the W1AW station at ARRL HQ in Newington CT!

Some of you have been lucky enough to work W1AW on the bands – some even in the A.M. mode. Even QSLed it. Even luckier BARS members have been on a field trip down to tour the station! I have not – and like many of you will find this a great first time experience!

Courtesy of BARS’s Doug Bruce, KC1MJK – who worked W1AW recently and got us in touch – we have arranged a virtual tour of W1AW for our November meeting. Thanks, Doug, and especially thank you, Joe! He has done other virtual tours so helping BARS in this way should go well. As a bonus our meeting time coincides with W1AW actually being on the air so we will see it in operation.

W1AW is the “voice” of the American Radio Relay League and as an ARRL affiliated club BARS has a stake in their heritage. Joe will field questions and it sounds like this tour will be “the next best thing to being there” as they say.

We will have  a bit of club business – our club election in fact – at the beginning of our meeting, and Joe’s tour will commence thereafter.

Let’s show a great turnout for this! Thank you Doug and Joe.

We will announce the link to join the Zoom meeting before the meeting, but it will be posted to the BARS email list and should not be shared outside our Club. Are you on the email list? If not, please send an email to bars-subscribe@w1hh.org and then simply reply to the robot response from the server and you will be subscribed.

Observing our Zoom meeting requires only a web browser and headphones/speakers. You do not need a webcam or microphone unless you want to speak or be seen.

Before our meeting date, please go to https://zoom.us/test and see if it will function for you. If you have problems, we can try to assist – feel free to ask questions on the BARS email list.

I am looking forward to “seeing” many of you Wednesday 11/4/20.

Andy

KA1GTT

President, Billerica Amateur Radio Society

[For Zoom information, email: <president@w1hh.org>.]

ARRL DX Contest Changes

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ARRL logoARRL Contest Advisory Committee Chairman Dennis Egan, W1UE, writes on the YCCC mailing list:

By now, I’m sure most of you have seen the changes for just 2021, pertaining to multi-operator entries.  I’ll comment more on that, probably tomorrow.  For now, I’ll just comment on the changes for 2021.

  1. Multi-single and Multi-2 entries will now be allowed 10 band changes per hour; old rule was 8 band changes per hour.
  2. There are now online certificates available for SO Single Band HP, LP, QRP, SOU Single Band HP, LP, and QRP.
  3. If you haven’t already seen them, the Rules Consolidation Project has produced a new set of rules for ARRL DX.  If you navigate to the ARRL DX page on the website and go to the bottom of the page, you can download the rules as a pdf.  I’d be interested to hear comments on them.
  4. There is a new set of rules for Affiliated Club Competition, also on the ARRL.org website.

Dennis W1UE

WMA ARES Upcoming Activities

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WMA ARES logoWMA Section Emergency Coordinator Bob Meneguzzo, K1YO, writes on wma.arrl.org:
 

There is a substantial amount of work underway in the WMA Section for activities upcoming in the near future. I’m certain most of you are unaware of these since they are still in the planning stage, but I wanted to give you a quick update.I’m planning for a local Section Emergency Test (SET) to be conducted soon … likely in the mid to late December timeframe. What we’d like to do with this is (of course) exercise our voice net capabilities to give us a bit of needed practice in handling and forwarding messages to / from agencies that would likely require the same in the event of a disaster. …. But additionally, to come up to par with what ARES sections are doing across the nation, we need to also develop the capacity to handle messages digitally – and by that I mean via WinLink and NBEMS / FLDigi. Updates will appear here as things progress.

There has been a LOT of activity in this vein across ARES nationally in the past month or two. WinLink training videos (along with many other excellent and useful topics) are now available for free via Vimeo (video) to be viewed at users’ convenience. Also, you’ve all seen the offerings going on right now from the New Hampshire Training Academy … which have produced some great feedback!

But while training is great, PRACTICE is the key determinant of our abilities. To this end, our plan is to setup additional nets for practice handling digital messaging, and some additional exercises (beyond just check – ins) for voice nets.  To do this we need participants … which we have a good share of for our HF voice nets, but to a lesser extent for UHF / VHF repeater and simplex nets. MUCH testing has been done recently to determine our capacity for cross – county communications on HF, and VHF digital operations (digital VARA FM via 6 meter repeater, for ex.) and for simplex on VHF. Work will continue in these areas. The VHF / UHF repeater capacity should be back to its original capabilities in the near future also, so hopefully the VHF/UHF net participation will increase.

If you have digital capability already ( HF and / or VHF ) and would like to become part of the proposed digital messaging networks, please let me know (k1yo@arrl.net) . If you don’t have the experience but would like to get involved, that’s great !   We have some pretty good startup documents to help you and will offer short Zoom classes to finalize your capabilities …. even one on one if needed !

Anyone with solid digital messaging experience would be welcome to help train others to come on board!  Those with traffic handling expertise are also needed to get users up to speed on how messages should be passed to existing NTS traffic nets as that would be a probable conduit in a large scale disaster.

Simply, there has recently  been much work done  towards reviving the ARES capabilities of WMA. I believe we are now ready to start moving forward – simply at first – but engaging additional capabilities and technologies as we ready ourselves to meet the needs of our healthcare partners, agencies, and communities

The only thing missing is you !

Vy 73
Bob – K1YO
SEC WMA ARES

P.S. .  Several Worcester area stations have already volunteered for helping with additional testing … my apologies but due to an email error I have lost the specifics on  those of you who already contacted me!  Please resend – thanks.

“The man with a plan for ham radio towers”

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Photo of Zachary Manganello, K1ZK, in his ham shack
“Zachary Manganello is a longtime ham radio enthusiast looking to up his gear game.”

Shelburne, Vermont amateur Zachary Manganello, K1ZK, was featured in an October 15, 2020 article in The Citizen, a publication of the Vermont Community Newspaper Group. The story chronicles his struggle to erect his towers at his new QTH.  

[Full story]

K8ZT: “How to Get Started in Amateur Radio Contesting,” November 3, 2020

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ARRL Learning Network logoWhy do hams participate in on-air contests? How would I benefit from contesting? What do I need to get started in contesting? What are good contests for beginners? Where can I learn more? This session will answer all of these questions and more.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020, 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST (1800 UTC)

Visit the ARRL Learning Network website (a members-only benefit) to register for upcoming sessions and to view previously recorded session. The schedule is subject to change.

Ham Operator Plate Renewal Problems at MA Registry of Motor Vehicles

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From ema.arrl.org:

Updated October 28, 2020 at 10:00 AM

All Massachusetts hams with Ham Radio passenger special plates must renew their plate registration by the last day of November. Eastern MA ARRL staff are receiving reports of license plate renewal problems when attempting to use the online system. Apparently, the Registry of Motor Vehicles’ computer system doesn’t recognize the “slash” representing the “lightning bolt” icon. For example, the call sign WX1XXX is actually coded in the system as “WX1/XXX”; KX1X is “KX1/X.”

Renewal by phone DOES appear to work when you input the phone ID code listed on the application.

Another ARRL member adds, “I found that Registry services at AAA offices can overcome the issue.  One must be a AAA member, and an appointment is necessary.”

This latest problem is in addition to the fact that MA RMV cannot process new Ham Radio Plate applications.  See: https://nediv.arrl.org/2020/10/01/massachusetts-department-of-motor-vehicles-is-not-processing-ham-operator-plate-applications/.