Category Archives: Education

Congratulations to New Hams and Future Members

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The Technician Class exam was this past Monday, and all 7 students passed with flying colors.  Five of them have applied for membership in the club.  Congratulations to the following:

Stephen Mead, KC1AQQ, Middletown
Paul Mankofsky, KC1AQP, Middletown
Paul Duclos, KC1AQO, Riverside
John Reynolds, KC1AQM, So. Dartmouth
Alex Hall, KC1AQN, Newport

In addition, two other hams took and passed their exam, Paul Williams, KC1AQR, and Jarrod Deines, KD0YAJ.  Congratulations to them as well!

Finding Wanders Quickly — Middletown FD finds hiding boy

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Middletown Fire Dept (MFD) demonstrated the SafetyNet tracker bracelet system on Sunday October 20th at Glen Park in Portsmouth.  Pictures can be viewed online here

Aided by MFD, a citizen volunteer (Rob White KB1ZZU)  used MFD’s  tracker equipment to find a well-hidden 10 year old Cub Scout in about five minutes. MFD fire fighters then let the 10 year old scout track down another 216 MHz radio tracker bracelet well-hidden up a distant tree.

It was pretty clear to all that this tracker technology could save hundreds of labor hours trying to find a wandering person before they fall into the water or die from exposure.

An estimated 24,000 Rhode Islanders fit into the wandering category.   Newport’s city council recently passed a resolution asking city staff to look at this tracking option. The tracker equipment and training is provided at no cost to the city. The tracking bracelet has a nominal monthly charge.

Portsmouth FD is also trained in the use of this equipment.

This demo was arranged by the Newport County Radio Club who hosted local Boy Scouts this last weekend at a Jamboree on the Air training event at Glen Park.

 

Lunchtime turns Glenn Park into a Ham Paradise

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The antennas have been raised, and the rigs have been tested, so NCRC is all ready for the Boy Scout Jamboree which starts Saturday morning and continues through Sunday at Noon.

Listen to W1SYE if you get a chance and help the scouts with a on-air contact.  Complete information on JotA can be found here.

If you click on this link you will see how Willy, W1LY, launched one of the lines used to support the HF antenna (a 135 foot dipole):  W1LY Launching Antenna

Update on Glen Park RFI – National Grid Report

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Kurt, the RFI specialist from National Grid, contacted John King yesterday with a report on the RFI remediation work performed at Glen Park.
  
Hardware on 7 poles was replaced. One of those poles is located at end of the line near Glen Manor House; the rest are closer to the park itself.
 
After the “ivy pole” was cleared and a one of its insulators was replaced, a great deal of noise was still being generated in that vicinity. The source of that noise turned out to be the loose tie wires on the southern adjacent pole (see the club web site for pictures.) This is interesting, because: A.) Both Kurt and John had scanned that pole (the loose tie wire pole) with ultrasonic arc detectors without hearing much arc noise, and B.) that is the pole that we most strongly suspected when we walked the line with AM receivers and rubber duck antennas. Jack, N1JK, visited the site a second time after our initial Saturday RFI hunt session and came away convinced that the interference was coming from either that pole or the building fed from that pole.  
  
Thanks to everyone who came out to help with this effort. The Glen Park site is now completely free from power line noise.