Major Northeast Winter Storm Prompts ARES, SKYWARN Activations

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From ARRL Web:

02/04/2022 – Volunteer radio amateurs across New England got down to business over the final weekend in January, as a major winter storm and blizzard dropped up to several feet of snow in the face of hurricane-force wind gusts along the coast. The combination of wet snow and damaging winds felled trees and power lines in coastal portions of eastern Massachusetts, particularly in Cape Cod and the Islands, and caused minor-to-moderate coastal flooding at high tide. The record-breaking blizzard made the top 10 list of major snow events in the cities of Boston and Providence.  [Full story]

Free On-Line Technician Class Starts February 15, 2022

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icon of zoom classWestern MA Section Manager Ray Lajoie, AA1SE, writes:

The Western Mass. Train & Test Group would like to invite you to a FREE on-line course so you too can get your ham radio license.

Free on-line classes will begin Tuesday, February 15th on Zoom. Classes will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings starting at 7 PM. If interested, contact Ray Lajoie via e-mail at ray.aa1se@gmail.com.

Talk to the world and support your local area, too. Ask us how!

ARRL New England Division Town Hall Meeting, February 16, 2022

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Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, writes on the New England Division ARRL Members list:

Phil Temples K9HI and I are planning to hold a New England Division Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, February 16th at 7 pm EST. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide you with an ARRL update, get your thoughts on what we should be focusing on, and answer any questions that you might have about the ARRL and what we are doing on behalf of ARRL members here in New England. We will also be introducing our recently appointed Assistant Directors.

We are planning to spend a good deal of our time together to answer your questions. If you’d like to send us a question in advance, you can do so via an email to ab1oc@arrl.org or you can just plan to ask your questions during the Town Hall Meeting.

We will hold our Town Hall Meeting via a Zoom Webinar. You can get your personal link to join the Town Hall Meeting via the following link –

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1oTJrGG5Tx-0BCAFiLrTJA

We hope to see you on February 16th !

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ARRL New England Division
Director: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ab1oc@arrl.org
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New Assistant Director Appointments

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ARRL logoNew England Division Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, has appointed three Assistant Directors. They are:

Cory Golob is very active in the emergency communications community in the Maine section, and he serves as a Net Control Station for the Maine Public Service Net. His professional experience includes being an Emergency Telecommunicator for 18 years and he has served in University, Municipal, County and State level dispatch centers.

Rob Leiden has extensive experience as a Section Manager, an Assistant Section Manager, and as a club president of multiple Amateur Radio clubs. He also has professional engineering and program management experience. Rob has been an active ham for over 60 years and he brings a passion for protecting our spectrum.

Anita Kemmerer has led licensing training activities and license exam testing for over six years. She’s been involved in training over 400 people to earn Amateur Radio licenses and upgrades. Her professional experience includes technical project management at a large telecom company. She has also played a lead role in the creation and operation of the Ham Bootcamp program which has helped over 750 people develop skills to build stations and get on the air.

“New England Division Assistant Directors will be working to bring hams in the Division together to promote and share successful programs and ideas in their areas of focus. They are forming teams including section field volunteers, club presidents, ARRL Headquarters leaders, and interested ARRL members who want to work together to advance Amateur Radio activities in their focus area here in New England. Cory, Rob, and Anita bring considerable experience and a passion for their focus areas. I am very pleased to have them join our team,” said Kemmerer.

The three Assistant Directors have established groups.io lists to promote discussion in their respective areas of focus. To join, visit the websites indicated below:

Cory, Rob, and Anita will speak about their plans and the work that they have begun at the upcoming ARRL New England Division Town Meeting, which is scheduled on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at 7:30 pm. The Town Hall Meeting will be held on Zoom. The Zoom information to follow shortly.

Amateur Radio and AUXCOM Support to the Department of Defense

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ARRL will present a webinar on Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 8 pm ET (0100Z Feb 18) on Amateur Radio and AUXCOM support to the Department of Defense.

Use this zoom link to attend:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83781154615?pwd=L0NOY0hEV0tBdmNDWVNNeWRaVXJ5dz09

Check out the ARRL link below for more detail:

http://arrl.org/news/webinar-set-to-discuss-amateur-radio-and-auxcom-support-to-department-of-defense

This webinar will coincide with the start of MARS Exercise 22-1, which should provide opportunity to practice these skills.

Tom Kinahan
US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System
Region One Director
aaa1rd@usamars.us

State QSO Party Challenge, February 5-6, 2022

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Bill Bliss, W1WBB, writes on the CTRI Contest Group mailing list:

The beginning of State QSO Party season is upon us.  This coming weekend (Sat/Sun Feb 5 & 6) the festivities begin anew.  I’d really like to encourage CTRI members to consider joining the fun by participating in some additional State QSO Parties (incl. this coming weekend!) during the 2022 contesting season.  They are fun, interesting and often short but challenging events that target a specific geographic area with SSB and CW as the primary modes of communication.

The State QSO Party Challenge (in it’s 3rd year now) runs concurrently and offers operators a season-long QP competition complete with a Leaderboard and Award Certificate offerings.  It is also expected to include a brand new Club Competition (similar to ARRL’s) which will run throughout the QSO Party season.  New for this year is the Quebec QSO Party as well as the inaugural running of the Canadian Praries (VE4/5/6) QP … exciting stuff for QP ops in 2022!

For the first events of the year, this weekend:  The MN QP (a perennial top 10 in participation), BC QP and VT QP are all running at different times over the weekend.  Make a minimum of two QSOs in each, then post your score to 3830scores (for each), and you will begin the QP season ‘3 for 3′ while beginning work toward the Worked All QSO Party award (min qualification is 50% QP participation by seasons’ end).  And please don’t forget to indicate CTRI as your associated club on the 3830scores.com submission page — you can prefill this on the ‘preferences’ page found via this link:  3830scores.com – prefill preferences page

Some very helpful QSO Party links:

*State QSO Party Challenge 2022

*State QSO Parties Calendar 2022 by WA7BNM

*SQP Challenge, explanatory video by K8ZT

*groups.io – QSO Party group link

I hope this info will encourage you to consider trying out some upcoming QP events!

Good luck & good contesting/73,

Bill  W1WBB

Vermont QSO Party, February 4-6, 2022

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VT iconSection Manager: Paul N Gayet, AA1SU, writes on the Vermont ARRL Members List:

Hello Fellow Vermont Hams,

The Vermont QSO Party is in another 3 days. Are you ready?

The event will start Friday night at 7PM and run 48 hours until 7PM Sunday night. Operate as much as you like. Conditions have been all over the place, so there is no telling what openings we might find. However, the best openings will not make up for failure to call CQ. Here is the link to the rules: http://www.ranv.org/vtqso.html. This includes various information, such as the correct abbreviation for your county.

The rules are pretty much the same as last year. A minor change in scoring was made to help the smaller scoring operators on FT8. This year, the grids will be divided by 3 instead of 4 for the FT8 multiplier total.  FT8 (and FT4) are a lot more heavily used, so consider putting up an effort there as well. That’s an easy mode to make contacts on while you do something more useful, like watch TV or read a book!

Feel free to spot yourself whenever you change bands – just don’t overdo it.

Remember, that we run at the same time as the MNQP, BCQP, Eu-DX, NA Spring, 10-10, and XE RTTY contests. Know their exchanges, so you can cross pollinate and have more fun.

Before the event, make sure your logging software and your station is working correctly.

Remember, you cannot put Vermont on the air, unless you turn on the radio AND CALL CQ (tuning around doesn’t count). The guys are looking for us, and if you have a signal out there, they’ll find you!

Help make Vermont proud!

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ARRL Vermont Section
Section Manager: Paul N Gayet, AA1SU
aa1su@arrl.org
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Meriden (CT) ARC Fox Hunt Postponed

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Meriden ARC logoRob Cichon, K1RCT, writes on the ctfoxhunter list:

[Today’s] Meriden ARC Fox Hunting schedule is postponed for a week.

Unless inclement weather is upon us again, I will hide the Fox Boxes next Sunday, 2/6/2022.

Enjoy the snow!

73,

de Rob, K1RCT

Upcoming ARRL-Sanctioned Hamfests and Conventions

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Photo of ham radio flea marketARRL New England Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, has approved several ARRL-sanctioned hamfests and conventions for 2022:

The Androscoggin Amateur Radio Club will host the ARRL Maine State Convention in Lewiston on April 1- 2, 2022.   Details can be found at http://w1npp.org.

The Port City Amateur Radio Club has received approval for its Seacoast Amateur Radio Flea Market to be an ARRL-sanctioned hamfest in Hampton, New Hampshire, on April 9. More info is available at http://www.w1wqm.org.

The Radio Amateur Society of Norwich, Connecticut, will host an ARRL hamfest in Gales Ferry on April 23, 2022.   For more information, visit https://rason.org.

The Southern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club will hold an ARRL-sanctioned hamfest in Goshen, Connecticut on May 21, 2022. More information can be found at http://www.sberk.org.

The Federation of Eastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Associations will once again sponsor the Northeast Hamxposition and host the ARRL New England Division Convention in Marlboro, Massachusetts on August 26-28, 2022.  Details will be published at https://hamxposition.org.

The Meriden Amateur Radio Club’s Nutfest will host the ARRL Connecticut State Convention  in North Haven on October 9, 2022.  Details to follow at https://www.nutmeghamfest.com.  

See https://nediv.arrl.org/arrl-sanctioned-hamfests-and-convention-rules-regulations/ for the official rules on becoming an ARRL-sanctioned event.  The application form can be found at http://www.arrl.org/hamfest-convention-application.