Third 2022 New England Town Hall Recap, October 19, 2022

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The third of three 2022 New England Division Town Hall meeting presentations held on October 19 was, once again, well attended. 

Director Kemmerer, Vice Director Temples and the division’s four assistant directors described their recent activities and accomplishments, including the ARRL Club Grant Program and The BIG E Space Chat. In addition, the six panelists fielded questions on a variety of topics, including: the status of Technician license band enhancement with the FCC; digital symbol rate rules; efforts to revamp NTS (“NTS 2.0”); ARRL membership renewals, and new ham recruitment.

The agenda (in PDF format) can be viewed, below; as well as the entire video presentation.

 

ARRL New England Division Town Hall 2022-10-19 slide presentation
ARRL New England Division Town Hall 2022-10-19 slide presentation

  

ARRL New England Division Town Hall 2022-10-19 video recording

National Weather Service, Gray Maine, Winter Weather Spotting Training Courses

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Bill Arcand, W1WRA, writes on the Granite State ARA mailing list:

 

NWS NOAA banner image

2022 NWS Gray Winter Spotter Training (Virtual)

Help your National Weather Service by becoming a Winter Weather Storm Spotter! Storm spotters report snowfall, ice accumulation, ice jam flooding and coastal flood erosion during Northern New England’s long harsh winters. Spotter training will teach you how to accurately measure and report significant winter weather phenomena!

For other training in upcoming months, check out the National Weather Service online at https://www.weather.gov/gyx/skywarn. You can contact Donald Dumont Donald.Dumont@noaa.gov for additional information on this training.

Winter weather images

Adventure at the Fort—New England Regional Scouting Jamboree a Huge Success: Cub Scouts Love Radio

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The Newport County (RI) Radio Club was a strong presence at Saturday’s wildly successful Scouting Jamboree Adventure public day at historic Fort Adams (1799) in Newport, Rhode Island. Over 3000 Scouts attended this post-covid New England regional Jamboree weekend.

One of the day’s highlights was a dramatic Coast Guard helicopter to water rescue drill watched with rapt attention by the cross-generation crowds on a perfect day.

The large and active Newport (RI) County Radio Club set up multiple hands-on stations across the west side of Fort Adams facing Narragansett Bay, and NCRC volunteers spoke all day with hundreds of Scouts and adults eager to learn more about making satellite contacts, GMRS, CW, HF, and well-received demos on the principles of radio communication.

A special shout out in this post to the 5th grade Cub Scouts who rallied around NCRC Scouting Jamboree lead, John Vecoli, KC1KOO, shown below with Cub Scouts from packs across RI, including East Greenwich and Richmond. Nearby, 5th grade Cub Scouts Valerie and Ingrid from Newport’s small but vibrant coed pack were excited to hear about becoming a licensed radio operator from NCRC new hams Nolan Byrne, K1PRU, and Pat Strong, K2PRU, from Prudence Island who loved mentoring the girls on their own new radios. The future looked bright today!

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Contributed by Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, NCRC (RI) club president

Merrimack Valley ARA (MVARA) Achieves 501.c.3 Status and ARRL Affiliation

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Merrimack Valley ARA logoThe Merrimack Valley Amateur Radio Association (MVARA) had its first meeting this evening having achieved several milestones in its effort to build on recent successes in providing mesh network back-up for NEDECN DMR repeaters.  The club plans to expand its network of interconnected hospitals and repeater sites and it is now positioned to apply for grant funding.  In addition, the club’s ARRL affiliation makes it possible to obtain ARRL support, available to all affiliated clubs.

With the focus on mesh expansion in New Hampshire and grant funding recently secured in Maine and Rhode Island, the expansion of interconnected amateur communications networks throughout New England is making visible progress.

The MVARA Officers and Directors are:

President – Jay Taft K1EHZ

Vice President – John Yurcak K9AEN

Secretary – Steve Nelson WA1EYF

Membership Secretary – Paul Blais KC1KMM

Treasurer – Ken Geddes N1KWG

Directors

Bill Barber NE1B

Steve Davidson NA1T

Jack Duffy NF1L

Ed Leduc KA1IJN

If you or your club wants to start a mesh network in New England, contact Rob, K1UI at k1ui@nediv.arrl.org, and he’ll put you in touch with those folks who can help.

Ham Radio Auction Supports ARRL Programs

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ARRL  The National Association for Amateur Radio® invites its members and all amateur radio operators to get ready for the 17th Annual ARRL Online Auction. Bidding gets under way on Friday, October 21, 2022, at 10:00 AM EDT. The auction continues through Thursday, October 27. RT Systems, Inc. is sponsoring this year’s ARRL Online Auction, which benefits ARRL education and technology initiatives and programs. A preview of the items that will be up for bid begins on Wednesday, October 19. This year’s auction features ARRL Product Review equipment, vintage books, and the ever-popular ARRL Lab Mystery Junque Boxes. [Full story]

Ham Radio Minecraft Mod Project Gaining Momentum

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Minecraft imageA New England amateur is developing a project to promote youth outreach for Amateur Radio. It’s known as “Ham Radio Minecraft Mod.” 
 
“Raising awareness of ham radio is the primary objective of the mod,” writes Lucas Elliott, W1BTR, of Leominster, MA. “I have met very few people, especially my age, who know [ham radio] even exists.”
 
Minecraft is a world-building video game and the most popular game of its type in the world, with “total sales [of] over 238 million,” almost double the number of the closest runner up. It contains over 100,000 specialized mods from the user community witten in Java.  The mod would incorporate ham radio into this virtual world along with its many other activities and endeavors.
 
Lucas is considering applying for ARDC funding for the innovative project.
 
ARRL New England Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, shared information about the project to other ARRL Board members.  Pacific Division Director Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, remarked, “This is great!  I’ve been advocating gamification for several years now.  I’m convinced this will be part of ham radio’s future.  We ignore it at our peril […].”
 

To read how Amateur Radio could benefit by being a part of the Minecraft universe, read Lucas’ extensive documentation  at <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F7aA9u93w0lwe9m_QlNSaJeMM02nnYE_6Y5u4fZ9vU4/>.

 
 
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Hampden County (MA) Radio Association Auction, November 4, 2022

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Hampden Co RA logoFrom the Hampden County Radio Association email reflector:

Ham Radio Auction

  • Free Yourself of Unused Gear
  • Discover the Classic You have longed For
  • Avoid High eBay and PayPal Fees
  • Meet old friends
  • Have Fun

When: Friday November 4 2022

Where: Holyoke Hospital Auxiliary Room: http://www.hcra.org/meeting-location

Five minutes from Route 91 Exit 14

Doors open At 7 PM

Rules:

  • 10 Percent of selling price or $1 minimum to HCRA.
  • Ham Radio related only. No Old PCS, Monitors, or Printers etc.
  • You must take home any items that were not sold.
  • Tag each item with your name call , phone and email

For additional info contact Larry, W1AST at w1ast@arrl.net club president

Ghosts in the Air Glow Project

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Bill Arcand, W1WRC, writes on the Granite State ARA mailing list:

This is an interesting project that is taking place in the shortwave spectrum.

https://ghostsintheairglow.space/node/643

Ghosts in the Air Glow is a transmission art project working with the HAARP Ionospheric Research Instrument to mix audio and images at the liminal boundaries of earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

Transmissions will be next week. See https://ghostsintheairglow.space/transmission/october-2022 for a list of modes and frequencies, as well as how to send reception reports.

If anyone receives anything, feel free to share here as well..

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RFI Teams in New England Continue to Grow

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The Eastern MA Section has three new RFI team members, Ed K1EP, Stan, KD1LE and Mark, KA1INE.  This brings the total number of team members in EMA to seven and to a total of 29 in the New England Division.  Team information is found at New England Division RFI Teams by ARRL Section – ARRL New England Division. All deserve recognition for stepping up to support their fellow radio amateurs and several cases are already in progress.  Negotiations for the team equipment have been completed and orders will be placed on receipt of approved ARDC grant funds, expected in the next few days.  Distribution and equipment training is planned for the next several months.  Any questions about the RFI Team project should be sent to Assistant Director for Spectrum Protection and Use, Rob Leiden, K1UI, at k1ui@arrl.net.

Internet Archive Seeks Donations of Materials to Build a Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications

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Internet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a private foundation, to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community.

The library will be a free online resource that combines archived digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of the DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and to provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the general public. This innovative project includes:

  • A program to digitize print materials, such as newsletters, journals, books, pamphlets, physical ephemera, and other records from both institutions, groups, and individuals.
  • A digital archiving program to archive, curate, and provide access to “born-digital” materials, such as digital photos, websites, videos, and podcasts.
  • A personal archiving campaign to ensure the preservation and future access of both print and digital archives of notable individuals and stakeholders in the amateur radio community.
  • Conducting oral history interviews with key members of the community. 
  • Preservation of all physical and print collections donated to the Internet Archive.

The DLARC project is looking for partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives, and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small. In addition to physical material to digitize, we are looking for podcasts, newsletters, video channels, and other digital content that can enrich the DLARC collections. Internet Archive will work directly with groups, publishers, clubs, individuals, and others to ensure the archiving and perpetual access of contributed collections, their physical preservation, their digitization, and their online availability and promotion for use in research, education, and historical documentation. All collections in this digital library will be universally accessible to any user and there will be a customized access and discovery portal with special features for research and educational uses.

We are extremely grateful to ARDC for funding this project and are very excited to work with this community to explore a multi-format digital library that documents and ensures access to the history of a specific, noteworthy community. Anyone with material to contribute to the DLARC library, questions about the project, or interest in similar digital library building projects for other professional communities, please contact:

Kay Savetz, K6KJN
Program Manager, Special Collections
kay@archive.org
Twitter: @KaySavetz 

https://blog.archive.org/2022/10/04/internet-archive-seeks-donations-of-materials-to-build-a-digital-library-of-amateur-radio-and-communications/ 

[Attn: club officers—this is a wonderful opportunity for your club to have a permanent archive online of your newsletters, photos and other materials.  -K9HI]
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