Virtual Ham Bootcamp May 13th

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be holding an online Ham Bootcamp on Saturday May 13th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Eastern Time.

Ham Bootcamp is a program to help new, inactive, and prospective hams gain the skills and information that they need to Get on The Air. It is open to any interested Ham or Prospective Ham in the US and Canada and there is no charge to attendees.

The morning session is geared toward operating on the VHF/UHF bands:

  • Putting together a Station for Repeaters – How to pick an HT or Mobile Radio and an Antenna
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites
  • Getting started with Fox Hunting

The afternoon session is geared toward operating on the HF Bands:

  • Putting together an HF Station for SSB, CW, and Digital
  • Picking and putting up an HF Antenna, Feedlines, and Grounds
  • Operating on the HF bands using SSB Voice
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital

There will also be breakout sessions where attendee can choose one of the following topics:

  • Learning CW
  • Intro to EmComm
  • Finding DX, Logging and QSLing
  • Portable Operating

… and more! Registration is now open for the May 13th session. You can get more information about Ham Bootcamp, including a link to register at n1fd.org/bootcamp If you have any questions, you can contact us at bootcamp@n1fd.org. Registration is required to receive the link to the web conference.

Time to Get Ready for Field Day*

ARRL Field Day is just over two months away, but like spring cleaning, it pays to start getting ready now.

2023 Field Day will be held June 24 – 25. It is ham radio’s open house. Every June, hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill and service to communities and the nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Some participants may also choose to operate from home, using the exercise to develop and practice their personal radio communications capability.

Field Day has been an annual event since 1933 and remains the most popular event in ham radio.

In 2022, 4,929 entries were submitted (including check logs), and there was a total of 29,679 reported participants.

Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2. DX stations residing in other regions may be contacted for credit and may submit entries as check logs.

The main focus of Field Day is to work as many stations as possible on the 160-, 80-, 40-, 20-, 15-, and 10-meter HF bands, all bands on 50 MHz and above, and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less-than-optimal conditions. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness and acquaint the general public with the capabilities of amateur radio.

For Field Day 2023, several rules changes have been made. It’s a good idea to make sure that your logging software has been updated to the most current version to incorporate these rule changes including the updated Canadian sections list. There are many facets to operating on Field Day and knowing the rules and keeping good logs are paramount to successful contacts.

To start preparing for Field Day, check out arrl.org/field-day for the official rules and all the information you’ll need.

Newport County Radio Club will again participate as W1SYE 2A RI from Glen Park in Portsmouth, RI.

For more information on how to participate with NCRC contact: Dick Bianco

* from: The ARRL Letter for April 6, 2023

NCRC April Meeting

NCRC’s April Meeting will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting from 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Monday, April 10.  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.

Doors open at 6:00pm for a pizza and social hour from 6:00 to 7:00pm. Join us!

Andrew Staub KC1OKI will give a special presentation entitled “Drone Law / Drone Love” after the business meeting. Slide deck is available here.  And a video of Andrew’s presentation here.

NCRC welcomes new club member Andrew KC1OKI to share his legal experience and drone enthusiasm in this not-to-miss talk/demo. Andrew will be bringing examples of his home-built racing/freestyle drones, as well as a selection of homebrewed ultralight drones that are called toothpicks, and some factory built “whoops” meant for indoor flying. All of these utilize ham frequencies for video transmission. The plan is to project video during his presentation so that members can appreciate what it looks like when flying various drones. Andrew KC1OKI notes there is a veritable ton to discuss on this topic, including the laws and legal considerations for drone pilots.

ARRL Club Commission Program

One of the benefits of being an ARRL Affiliated Club is having the ability to participate in the Club Commission Program. This program allows NCRC to earn a commission for enrolling new and renewing ARRL members.  New memberships will earn NCRC $15 and renewals $5 commissions. Members can renew at any time without losing time. If your renewal is normally in July and you renew in May, the time is added to your July date.

Participation in the program is simple:

  1. Each new or renewing ARRL member should print and fill out the membership application for Affiliated Clubs.
  2. Each new or renewing ARRL member should print the NCRC 2023 ARRL Club Commission Form. and indicate in the blue box whether they are a new or renewing member.
  3. Payment in FULL can be made to ARRL by check, credit card, or cash.
  4. The new or renewing ARRL member should then snail mail both forms with FULL payment to ARRL for processing.  Mailing address for the ARRL is indicated at the bottom of the forms.

It’s that simple!  ARRL will process the forms: you’ll be an ARRL member and NCRC will receive a commission check from ARRL.

In the spirit of 2023 and ARRL’s Year Of the Volunteers, the ARRL is offering the additional promotion to clubs using the Club Commission Program:

For every five new members signed through the Club Commission Program through the end of 2023, ARRL will give NCRC a copy of The ARRL Handbook, which will be used as a prize during an upcoming meeting or event.

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MESHing Around: ÄRTEN™ Workshops Continue

The ÄRTEN™ project demonstrated a five (5) node MESH network at the March 20, 2023 FabNewport workshop.  The network consisted of: a range-extended GL.iNet AR150-Ext node (on tripod); a regular GL.iNet AR150-Ext; two GL.iNet AR300M16-Ext; and a Microtik SXTSQ Lite 2.  In addition, K1YBE demonstrated collecting CO2 measurements with two Vaisala GMP343 probes.

ÄRTEN™ Project goals were reviewed and consensus reached on a way forward using an Ethernet-enabled CO2 sensor.  A lively discussion on environmental monitoring in general and CO2 monitoring in specific ensued.

Details on the all aforementioned equipment can be found here.

ARRL Foundation Club Grant sponsored ÄRTEN™ microwave/mesh networking workshops continue at FabNewport on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month at 3:00pm.

Contact K1YBE for more info.