Category Archives: Announcements

NCRC August Meeting

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NCRC’s August Meeting will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting from 7:00pm to 8:15pm on Monday, August 14.  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 6:45pm. Join us!

Jim Garman, KC1QDZ is excited to share updates with you about the upcoming PARKS ON THE AIR (POTA) – Activate All RI happening September 6-10, and the many ways you can get involved.
John Mills, K1JSM and Willy Maclean, W1LY will share updates on the Pete Lawson Outdoor Adventure on September 10. (K1JSM has just sent out a separate email with more details and how to register.) The PLOA includes a catered meal, is free and is offered as a thank you and club wide social event for all members and their families. The last day to register is August 30th. Here’s a link to the registration form.
We look forward to seeing you on August 14th as we plan for a great start to September with the POTA – Activate ALL RI and 2nd annual PLOA at Colt State Park. 

NCRC May Meeting

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NCRC’s May Meeting will be a remote only meeting from 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Monday, May 8. A ZOOM invitation will be sent out later this weekend. Minutes and Business Meeting slides will be posted as available.

A special presentation entitled “Ham Radio Contesting” will be given by our own “DaveDan” Dave Neal, W2DAN. View his presentation recording here.

Join Dave Neal, W2DAN as he shares his enthusiasm for contesting in a presentation filled with information for both beginners and seasoned contesters. He is on a mission to welcome everyone into radio’s contesting world, and will show you why without casual operators contests would be boring for competitors. Each contest offers a new opportunity for hams at every level to push their own skills during a time-limited competition.

You can get started with hands-on learning the weekend before his presentation (May 6-7, 2023) by checking out the annual New England QSO Party NEQP.

For example, the 2022 NEQP results were just posted andW2DAN came in with a score of over 50,000 and 787 Phone QSOs.  Another respected NCRC contester, Peter Bartram, KQ1X posted 275 CW QSOs. But other casual contesting NCRC members also participated: Carl KC1NAM made 43 QSOs across all New England counties while Mike Cullen, K1NPT logged 41 QSOs. So check it out, and join with whatever personal goal you decide on.

Note that NEQP is open to Technician Class Licensees.  The suggested 10 Meter contest SSB operating frequency is 28.380 MHz which happens to be in the Technician Class privileges‘ range of 28.300-28.500 MHz: CW, Phone/SSB, so an NCRC club member might offer to set up a station on Sunday May 7, 2023 sometime during 9am-8pm on the 10M band and give interested licensed Techs or new Generals the chance for some hands-on experience before the club meeting. If you can help make this happen let club members know.

73

Virtual Ham Bootcamp May 13th

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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*

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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

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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.