Live Fox Hunt, Wallingford CT, June 12, 2022

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Dave Tipping, NZ1J, writes on the ctfoxhunter list on June 11, 2022:   
 
We’ll have a live Fox Hunt on Sunday in Wallingford (CT) from 9:30am until 11:00am.

We’ll be using these three frequencies:  

There will be a 1 watt signal continuously on 146.565MHz.  It will make a short beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.

The 10mW transmitter is on 147.475MHz and will beep every three seconds and will ID in Morse Code every minute.

The 1mW transmitter is on 146.290MHz and beeps every three seconds.

 
There is no central starting location.  Other Fox Hunters can be contacted on the W1NRG repeater 147.360 with PL 162.2
 
Good luck.

Dave NZ1J

Project Big E to Highlight Modern Amateur Radio

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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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Blue Hill Observatory Wireless Society (MA) Communications with Mt. Washington, June 11, 2022

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Blue Hills Observatory WS special event, June 11, 2022From ema.arrl.org:

BlueHill Observatory (@bhobservatory) tweeted at 0:20 PM on Sat, Jun 11, 2022:

We are excited to have the inaugural event of the BHO&SC Wireless Society happening today. The hams are hoping to connect with Mount Washington as communications between BHO and Mount Washington Observatory were done over 70 years ago. They are also doing a ham contest today. https://t.co/DX8CNB3eXv

Rhode Island Team Completes RFI Team Staffing

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With the addition of the Rhode Island Team of Keith, W1KJR, Scott, WX1X and Norm, W1NEP, all seven New England sections now have RFI teams to assist hams having RFI issues in their shacks.  Most sections would still welcome volunteers to serve as members or alternates if needed so, if interested, please contact your Section Manager or Technical Coordinator.  The team members and contact information for your section can be found on the New England RFI Team page.

RFI Team Equipment Tookits are Defined

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At a June 5, 2022 New Hampshire meeting of the New England RFI teams, a set of tools obtained for team use was demonstrated, along with some more sophisticated equipment available for loan, brought by Steve Anderson, W1EMI, of the ARRL Lab.  The teams evaluated these and selected those to be obtained for the use of each team, to be loaned from the ARRL or loaned from a New England division inventory as needed.  These may now be seen on the RFI Team Toolkit webpage.  Action is in progress to obtain funds to procure this equipment for each team and for sharing within the New England Division.

Rhode Island STEAM Club “Making Its Own DX”

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N1ASA APRSA Rhode Island STEAM club is making its own kind of DX. The All Saints STEAM Academy (N1ASA) in Middletown, Rhode Island, is tracking its GPS/tracker balloon using APRS. As of mid-day June 8, it was located over Canada. 
 
“N1ASA’s GPS/tracker balloon survived the night and is reporting regularly Wednesday from 24,000 feet above Nova Scotia, heading at 24 MPH to the northeast,” according to a post today on the Newport County Radio Club’s Facebook page.
 
“Tuesday’s thick cloud cover which disrupted the production of solar power has thinned out. There’s no battery on board, just a ‘super capacitor’ to store enough power to run the 0.02-watt transmitter for 110 seconds every 10 minutes.” The package uses a 35-foot dipole antenna.
 
The group hopes the balloon will continue to remain airborne long enough to reach Europe. 

ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program Has Launched

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ARRL Foundation logoThe ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program has launched and is now accepting applications. The deadline to apply is June 30 at 7 PM EST. An informational webinar will be held on Thursday June 9 at 7 PM EST to answer questions about the program. A video of the webinar will also be available on YouTube. You can register now by visiting this link.

For more information about the program, visit: http://arrl.org/club-grant-program.

For correspondence concerning the program, contact: clubgrants@arrl.org.

ARRL Kids Day, June 18, 2022

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ARRL Kids Day is on Saturday, June 18, and will run from 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. It’s the perfect opportunity to introduce youngsters to the excitement of amateur radio. The exchange is the participant’s name, age, location, and favorite color. Sponsored by the Boring, (Oregon) Amateur Radio Club, Kids Day is held every year on the first Saturday in January and the third Saturday in June. More information is available at www.arrl.org/kids-day.

RFI Teams Meet in New Hampshire

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RFI Team members from Eastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts and Maine met on June 5 in Hollis, New Hampshire with the New England Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC; Rob Leiden, K1UI, Assistant Director for Spectrum Protection and Use; Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB, Assistant Director for Mentoring and Ham Development and Steve Anderson, W1EMI, from the ARRL Lab.  Also at the meeting were: Stephanie, WA1YKL; Dan, W1DAN; Dom, N1DM and Najm, AB1ZA,

An IC705, DXE HF loop and an Elk VHF/UHF Yagi, obtained by the Director for evaluation, were demonstrated and team members had an opportunity to try them out.  Steve demonstrated the RE240, a high-end RFI analyzer suited for power line noise location and an MFJ ultrasonic detector and dish that are available for use by the teams should the need arise.  The RE 243 is the newest version of this instrument.  Team members also brought along some homebrew and commercial tools they use.  Najm showed the others a pocket RFI guide that is still available for purchase.  Steve noted that the ARRL RFI guidebook is being revised and will be in print when the Lab update and review is complete.  The ARRL Lab is updating its website to reflect solar energy RFI and other recent developments.

The teams selected the tools that will be obtained for use by the section teams. Some of the tools already purchased for evaluation were the Elk VHF/UHF log periodic, the IC705 HF/VHF/UHF transceiver and the DX Engineering HF Loop, Steve Anderson, W1EMI, brought additional tools available to loan to the teams as needed.  These included an ultrasonic dish and detector, a Radar Engineers RE240 and VHF yagi for hunting power line RFI and a handheld circuit “sniffer” for finding local sources, especially in the home.

The need for additional web process material was identified to:

  • Better define the role of the teams,
  • Outline anticipated communications between the teams and hams with pending RFI issues and
  • Ensure all the information required by the ARRL Lab is recorded and transmitted to the ARRL Lab when required.