Lighthouse & Island Activation Sunday Aug 18

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Pomham Rocks and Ruth Island activations:

We will try to activate both islands in one day, Sunday August 18. These two islands are only about 100 yards apart. Pomham has both a dock and a lighthouse. Ruth has only weeds and a shallow water beach. High tide on the August 18 is between 10-11 AM.

US Islands nos:  Pomham: RI-037, Ruth Island: US-038;

Pomham lighthouse ARLHS no. USA-643

Schedule:

0800 Meet at Brewer Cove Haven marina (address below)

0830 Depart for Ruth Island

0930 Operational on Ruth Island

1100 Goto Pomham Rocks island

1300 (approx) Successfully terminate radio ops

Logistics:

TURMOIL, our trusty 24 foot RIB, will be at Brewer Cove Haven 101 Narragansett Ave, Barrington, 401-246-1600

After action debrief at: Thames Waterside Bar & Grill, 251 Thames St, Bristol Next to DeWolf Tavern. YL’s welcomed.

Meeting Reminder: ***TUESDAY*** Aug 13 @ 7PM

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Please be advised that our next NCRC meeting will be on TUESDAY August 13th at 7 PM.

That’s right, due to the Victory Day holiday, our next NCRC meeting will begin at 7 PM on TUESDAY August 13th at KVH.  As usual we will begin with a brief business meeting.

Our guest speaker will be Peter Bartram, KQ1X.  Peter was a prior member of NCRC along with his dad, who was a past president.  He will be showing pictures and discussing Newport County Radio Club’s history.

Join us on Tuesday to learn of the storied history of NCRC.

(Just a heads up — you will be receiving a copy of a member interest survey via email.  We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes and fill this out so we can try to match our programs to member interests).

Newly Licensed Club Member Flies High Altitude Balloon

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Professor Adria Updike (Roger Williams University), newly licensed NCRC member KC1LOK, and her student Jenna Lowe, constructed a high altitude balloon and launched it near Pittsfield MA yesterday.  The balloon included a APRS transmitter so that they could track it.

Path of Adria and Jenna’s Balloon from Pittsfield MA to Stonington CT

Adria said “We flew the balloon yesterday – launched it from Pittsfield MA, and it landed a bit further south than we anticipated, in the water just a few feet from land in Stonington CT. We managed to retrieve it from the last APRS position it sent out before landing in the water (upside down!”.

University members have a tradition of including their namesake Roger Williams in photographs taken in unusual locations, so the balloon flight would not be complete without a photo of Roger Williams taken at about 68,000 feet altitude!

Roger Williams admires the view from 68,000 feet up!

Fantastic application of Ham Radio — Congratulations to Adria and Jenna!

2-meter band under attack in Region 1

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The upcoming WRC 2023 meeting has a proposal from a French company to allocate all the Region 1 2-meter band to aircraft use.  The proposal had no justification as to why 2-meters was appropriate or why other frequencies would not be suitable.  While this doesn’t impact us in Region 2, that low 2 MHz contains all the weak signal, DX and satellite bands.

The IARU says not to worry here: http://www.arrl.org/news/iaru-president-offers-assurances-regarding-french-144-146-mhz-allocation-proposal

This just points out that Amateur Bands are always under attack and we must defend our allocations.  The ARRL is the only group that provides funding in our region for this effort.