It is with great sadness that we report the passing lifetime member James W Kyle, KC1SD.

Jim has a long history of service to his country and his community. His love of Amateur Radio was obvious to all who knew him.

A memorial will be held on Saturday, June 30, 2018, at 2 pm at the First Presbyterian Church, 4 Everett Street, Newport, RI

Jim was a mentor to many and was an early STEM educator when the term was not even created. His willingness to share the knowledge he accumulated in his 92 years was an inspiration.  He taught radio science in local schools and found a way to do it even without a teaching certificate.

His long history in underwater sound transmission and military systems had him leading the engineering department at the Navy’s New London Sound Laboratory and he later moved to Newport when the Lab was combined with the Naval Underwater Systems Center and now NUWC.

Jim was a lifelong sailor and cruised Vineyard Sound and beyond with his family and members of Ida Lewis Yacht Club.

He will also be missed at the Atria home where he resided because he led the garden club and was an active member of his church choir until recently. Of course, he had an off-center fed dipole there, an antenna design that he studied and championed.

His pride in his family and their talents was never far from his lips.

The Island Activators of NCRC will be qualifying our first new island of this year, Hen Island, under the US Islands Awards Program tomorrow, Saturday May 12th.  We expect to be on the air around 12:00 PM through 4:00 PM local time.

The Island Activator team is well experienced, this being our 18th island activation.  Hen Island is an island within an island and lies in a cove inside the north end of Aquidneck Island.  In keeping with the NCRC emphasis on providing members with new experiences, first timers are welcome to come along.  There will be control operators/coaches to help you get your feet wet in a low stress operating environment.  Unfortunately the current wx forecast is terrible, but may improve.  Never the less, be prepared for rain with appropriate rain gear and warm layers.  The station will be under festival tents, so it won’t be that bad in a worst case scenario.   Bring your lunch and anything else that you might need on Hen.  The run from your pickup point is short and in protected waters, so there will not be rough water for the 15-minute voyage.  Contact john Mills (401-258-8604) to arrange a pickup around noon.  We expect to be returning between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM.

Operators enjoying the easy life at home are encouraged to work the Activator station on 40, then 20, meters.  You’ll find us near 7.265 MHz and 14.265 MHz.

For more information about the US Islands program see http://usislands.org/  If you go to the Island Directory/Island Directory by State tab and click on Rhode Island in the US map, you’ll see that W1SYE (Our club call) is the major player in Rhode Island.  If you’re listening, you may hear club member Jim KA3UNQ, who now lives in Maryland.  He put many of the first Rhode Island Activations on the State page.

Over the next few months, Jim KA1ZOU, will be encouraging us to learn Morse Code (Including producing a special edition of the Modulator devoted to the subject). Below is an example of a text to CW generator that is sending characters at 20 WPM, but with more space between characters to reduce the average speed to 5 WPM. This is an example of the Koch (learn the character at the desired speed), and Farnsworth Method (send characters at full speed but with greater spacing at the beginning).

Congratulations to Mike AC1DV (ex KA1IOO) and Paul AC1DW (ex KC1HEP) for obtaining their Extra Class Licenses!