NCRC Holds First Electronic VE Session

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Newport County Radio Club held its first electronic VE exam session today at the All Saints STEAM Academy parking lot in Middletown.  Two folks took the exam.  Congrats to new hams:

  • Bruce Bragga (Passed Technician)
  • James Garman (Passed Technician & General)

Because the exam was electronic, there was no paperwork to deal with.  The examinees used a tablet computer to select their answers.  Once they indicated they were finished, the exam was graded instantly and all the paperwork was filled in via a completely automated process .  When all candidates were finished, they received their signed CSCE copies via email, and the required paperwork was uploaded to the ARRL. Had the exam been held on a business day, the entry into the FCC ULS would have happened within an hour or so.

The slowest part of the process was getting the assigned VEs to electronically sign the paperwork (which required them to click a “Sign” button and enter their password).  In reality, one or one hundred students would have taken the same amount of time, and things were wrapped up in 30 minutes.

John K1JSM (left) helps student with tablet computer during the exam

The exam was not without its tribulations, however.  Originally the plan was to hold the exam indoors.  However no one came to let us into the building.  We quickly regrouped.  Rob KB1ZZU had a 115 Vac outlet in his car which was used to power the GoLocalMe WiFi HotSpot, allowing the exam to be held in the parking lot.  So hams, once again, prove adaptable and resilient.  The highlight of the morning was when two Middletown Police cruisers showed up to respond to a silent alarm in the building right before the exam began.  Imagine their surprise to find the parking lot full of radio nerds.

Police stop by to see what fun things were going on!

Our club is very grateful for John K1JSM, who undertook this project, got two tablet computers setup for the students along with the HotSpot.  He held a training session for our initial set of VEs.  Our thanks to the following VEs who assisted with the exam session:

  • John K1JSM
  • Mike AA1XQ
  • Rob KB1ZZU
  • Jim KA1ZOU
  • Nancy KC1NEK
  • Paul K1YBE
  • Bob WB4SON

NCRC March Meeting

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Our regular March 2022 NCRC meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday March 14th at 7PM.  Invitations for the meeting will be sent via email.

The club is trying something new to see if we can make our meetings less about business and more about things we care about.  With that in mind, we will no longer discuss committee reports during our meetings.  Instead we will publish them on the club website under Documents/Current Year Documents/Current Year Committee Reports.  Please check under the Documents Tab for details on the club’s workings.

The business part of our meeting will now be reserved for items that require a vote by the membership (like new applicants, or significant expenditure of funds).  That will leave more time for the presentation and socializing.  Of course if a member has any business item to discuss, please feel free to bring it up during the meeting.

Minutes of each meeting will continue to be published under Documents/Current Year Documents/Current Year Minutes

The presentation will be given by Paul K1YBE, who will cover an introduction to Celestial Navigation.  Members are invited to join the club for a Field Trip on Saturday March 19th from 11am-1pm at Brenton Point Park in Newport.  Sextants will be available.  Of course members are free to setup and run HF gear as well (like POTA)

 

Pete Lawson Memorial Outdoor Adventure

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Pete Lawson Memorial Outdoor Adventure

WHEN:   Sunday Sept 18, 2022 starting at noon

WHERE:   Ft. Getty Park, Jamestown (Memorial Pavilion)

WHO: All members, spouses & their family, children welcome

HOURS:   noon to 4pm

This will be the first running of an annual event to celebrate our radio friends who are now SK’s. SK is the morse code signal sent to indicated the end of a message. Amateur radio operators have adapted this signal as “Silent Key” to denote those who have passed away.

The event is named in Pete Lawson’s memory as he was one of the leaders in building NCRC’s robust outdoor operations.

The event will be family oriented, more social than radio. It will be a picnic with plenty of food and activities for both children and adults. There will be no charge to attend. It will be held, rain or shine, under the pavilion at Fort Getty Park in Jamestown, RI.

Members are encouraged to donate to this event to build up a kitty for its on-going support. Some members have already done so.

Questions? Contact any of the following members:

Nancy Austin, Bob Beatty, John Mills, Willy Maclean, Jim Sammons

Winter Field Day Training Jan 19 @ 7:30 PM

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John Vecoli KC1KOO will be holding a Winter Field Day (Jan 29 & 30) training session via Zoom tomorrow, Wed Jan 19 at 7:30 PM.  You will receive an invitation via email.

Due to increased concerns over the pandemic, and after consulting with many of the potential operators, NCRC decided it was not safe to hold an in-person Winter Field Day activity this year.  That said, Winter Field Day continues as an individual activity, and club members are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable: From a home station (1H), in another building like an ECO (1I), or even outdoors at a park (1O).  All of those activities continue to be possible with participants operating using their own call signs.  The club can receive points for an aggregate score of all participating individual stations simply by specifying “W1SYE” as the “CLUB” in the individual log submission.  Speaking of logs, John has kindly agreed to act as a coordinator/consultant for log submissions to verify that everything is OK prior to submitting the log.

Several club members will be standing watch on 146.55 MHz FM listening for folks calling CQ WFD, and responding.  This can produce a bunch of points for the club, even as a single contact, and can be done by our members who hold a Technician License .  There are bonus points for being outside (at least 30 feet from your house), using alternative power (like a battery in a HT), and remote (not on your own property).  So a single 5 watt HT contact would produce a score of 1504 points – not bad for 3 minutes of activity from the street in front of your house!

If you decide to make lots of contacts, that’s great, but keep in mind that the category you choose to operate must remain the same for all the contacts – for example, if you are going to be (1O – 1 Outdoor), then all contacts must be made outdoors.  If you made some outdoors and some at your home station, then all of them must be considered 1H (1 Home), and the Remote and Outdoor bonus will not apply.

Rules for Winter Field Day are here: https://www.winterfieldday.com/_files/ugd/1c7085_0ef813621655469ca73adfb5427dcc35.pdf

 

John has provided this presentation that will be used during the training: Winter Field Day 2022 Team Brief