Category Archives: News

Congratulations to new club members

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The following new members were accepted into membership during last nights meeting and received a BaoFeng UV-5R HT from the club in honor of their hard work during the Technician class and for passing their exam:

KC1AQM, John Reynolds
KC1AQN, Alexander Hall
KC1AQO, Paul Duclos
KC1AQP, Paul Mankofsky
KC1AQQ, Stephen Meade
KC1ARO, Richard Russell

Congratulations to all of them.  The raffle was won by John – KC1AQM , and since he had just received a BaoFeng UV-5R for getting his license, he passed on the radio and took half the raffle proceeds instead.

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.

 

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.