February 2024 Monthly Meeting

NCRC’s February 2024 Meeting will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting from 7:00pm to 8:15pm on Monday, February 12.  A ZOOM invitation will be sent out the weekend before.  In-person will be at St. Barnabas Parish Hall, 1697 East Main Rd. at Fairview Lane, Portsmouth, RI.  Minutes and Business Meeting slides will be posted as available.

Following the business meeting, WB4SON will provide a presentation entitled, “Portable Operation Power.”

Doors open at 6:00pm for setup and 6:30 for socializing.  Zoom should be up and running by then.  Join us!

MOTA-POTA-IOTA Lighthouse Holiday Adventure

Dec 18th   Summary

The gathering was a great success as an in-person club event. We set up and operated two stations; HF and D-Star. This was a great display of HAM radio resilience operating off battery in less then desirable weather.

We successfully activated POTA Washington-Rochambeau Mutli-state Trail(K-4582) and Case Mine (MOTA) for the first time. We also completed an IOTA (NA-031), on Aquidneck Island. Being 2540m from Hog Island Lighthouse doesn’t meet the 1 km rule but so what. More event pictures at:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q5T7V-2jkHIkSMYzSCoM4dyw_soltvpV

Thanks to Nancy (KC1NEK) Austin, for making this event happen despite the rain and an unexpected family emergency. Great teamwork everyone! Thank you, Ted (W1GRI) & Mike (AA1XQ), for bringing your radio gear out in the wet WX. Thank you, Bob (WB4SON) Beatty, for the spot that got the frequency going. As a group we made 65 contacts total in just over an hour (16:46-17:49 UTC).

Stayed tuned for more events like this.

GREAT JOB TEAM!

ARISS Contact to be Friday May 6

The ARISS and NASA organizations have just announced that the All Saints Academy contact with the International Space Station will take place on Friday May 6th.

Both Thursday and Friday will be busy days for the NCRC members working at the event, with equipment tests and walkthroughs the day before, and getting things ready prior to the event start just before noon.

Our orbit will be a descending one, beginning at approximately 12:44 PM local time and continuing until approximately 12:54 PM.  It will rise above the horizon to our northwest, pass to our southwest, then set to our southeast, reaching a maximum elevation of 56 degrees.

ARISS Orbit for All Saints Academy Contact Friday May 6

ARISS Orbit for All Saints Academy Contact Friday May 6: 12:44 to 12:54 PM Local Time

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 12.23.42 PM

The NCRC RF Team will be able to practice on an earlier orbit from 11:07 to 11:17 AM local time, so we will know that our gear is good to go before the main event.

NCRC RF Team members should report to ASA at 9:00 AM Friday May 6.

Guests will start arriving at 11 AM, and all guests must be seated prior to 11:56 AM when the official event begins.  The long call to N1ASA “NA1SS this is All Saints Academy, N1ASA, do you copy?” will begin at 12:43 and continue until contact is established.  From that point, RI students will ask as many questions as possible during the 8-10 minute window of communication.

Our Astronaut will be Jeff Williams.  Colonel Williams has many ties to Rhode Island.  He is a 1996 Graduate of the US Naval College, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Johnson & Wales University in 2007.  During this mission aboard the ISS, Expedition 47, Jeff is expected to break the cumulative days in space record currently held by Astronaut Scott Kelly.

Astronaut Jeff Williams

Astronaut Jeff Williams, International Space Station Expedition 47

 

Turnip Island is OFFICIAL – now CT036R

Congratulations to the Turnip IOTA Crew (Rich, KC1ARO and Paul, N1PSX) for officially activating Turnip Island.  The following is from Paul, N1PSX:

CT036R is official… 30 contacts yesterday including Aruba and Canada, mostly on 20m some on 40m… States ranging from California, South Dakota and Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, the Carolinas, and many others… River water was very low, complicating transport with rocky interjections, but we got out there with two radios, two antennas and lunch… The island was official by noonish