Gilbert Hayes - Western Massachusetts ARRL

New England QSO Party

Posted on April 19, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

The New England QSO Party will be held on May 7th and 8th. Now’s your chance to be the sought after stations instead of the other way around!

The NEQP is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries. You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.

We’re working to make sure that all of the New England counties are active again this year and would appreciate your help. Get on for at least an hour or two and join in on the fun. Please let me know if you can put in any time at all so we can work on activity from the rarest counties. Will you be QRV? Let us know by email which county you’ll be on from.

Oh yes, the NEQP is also lots of fun when mobile. Every time you cross a county line the action starts over again. It’s amazing what a 100w radio and mobile whip can do.

The QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep Saturday night. It goes from 4pm Saturday until 1am Sunday, then 9am Sunday until 8pm Sunday. Operate on CW, SSB and digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters. For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your county/state. Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who makes 25 QSOs and sends in a log will get a certificate.

The full NEQP rules are here. The 2021 results are posted and the results since 2002 are also available here.

2022 World Amateur Radio Day: “Celebrating Amateur Radio’s Contribution to Society”

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

World Amateur Radio Day, held on April 18 each year, is celebrated worldwide by radio amateurs and their national associations which are organized as member-societies of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). It was on this day in 1925 that the IARU was formed in Paris. American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Co-Founder Hiram Percy Maxim was its first president.

On World Amateur Radio Day, all radio amateurs are invited to take to the airwaves to enjoy our global friendship with other amateurs, and to show our skills and capabilities to the public.

The IARU Administrative Council has chosen “Celebrating Amateur Radio’s Contribution to Society” as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day, Monday, 18 April 2022.

We have provided a poster for World Amateur Radio Day. Any club may download it and use it to promote WARD in their area. The poster comes in two sizes: 61cm x 91cm and a small (A4) flyer.

More info on World Amateur Radio Day is available and the ARRL HQ website.

Department of Defense Zoominar for Communications Exercise, April 21, 2022

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Tom Kinahan writes:

On Thursday 21 April at 8 pm ET representatives from the US Army Network Enterprise Technology Command will give an unclassified presentation to review the concept of the upcoming DoD Exercise 22-2 which will take place from 2-7 May.

Army representatives will briefly describe the concept of the exercise and how amateurs and Auxiliary communications personnel can participate in this training event.

Zoom info:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86398593554?pwd=OHhCR0xZOXNvb3M2bGphdXFzbVNHZz09

For more information connect to:

https://www.dodmars.org/mars-comex-information-website/dod-comex-22-2-zoominar-information

Tom Kinahan

US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System
Region One Director
aaa1rd at usamars.us

NEAR-Fest XXXI

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

ATTENTION….. Two weeks to go! New England’s premier radio hobby event……Both days ….huge flea market, forums, ARRL officials in attendance. Friday: AMers W1IA Celebration, “HamJam,” Saturday: VE Exams 10:00 AM. ……… Big door prizes both days (Two Yaesu FT-891s, two SDRplay radios, one each day)……Fun for all! NEAR-Fest XXXI Friday April 29th and Saturday April 30th 2022, Deerfield NH Fairgrounds Highway 43, Deerfield NH.

. Last chance NOW to get advance tickets and save $5. Advance admission tickets $10 ($15 at the gate), Inside parking (flea market) $10. Mail by Wednesday April 20th in order to get them in time. PLEASE ENCLOSE SASE! Mail to W1RC, 316 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead MA 01945. More info www.near-fest.com. Camping passes available onsite.

Section Manager’s Report April 2022

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Greeting’s earthlings! As you may know I had formed a group back in January with 3 clubs to conduct license classes and VE testing. I am pleased to report that the Tech. class has completed and out of 12 people who took the test, 10 passed and 3 of them also took the General and passed also! I think I can call this a success. We are now planning on doing a General License Class. We had the luxury in using the ARRL PowerPoint slides for the tech class, but found there is none for the general and extra class. We are now looking to develop a course ourselves. Quite challenging since we plan on a May 3^rd start. With the success of this program, I am now inviting all clubs who has anyone wish to volunteer to teach some of the classes via Zoom to give me an email. The goal for this is to be a growing program and be self sufficient to provide opportunities for growth in new hams for our clubs. I also want a group of teachers to share the task so as not to burn out others causing the program to collapse.

Earlier in March I attended the Mt. Tom Hamfest in Chicopee and I think there was an air of excitement that we are now getting out and seeing friends face-to-face again. It was great to see everyone there. My hopes are that some clubs who are still shut out of their meeting places get open again, or possibly a new venue becomes available. Remember, GO to the meetings where you can, don’t rely on Zoom all the time. There is so much benefit to being there!

So, April and warmer weather brings the thought of Field Day. It’s coming faster than you think. One thing to keep in mind is with new hams getting licensed, the first thing you need to do is mentor them right at the beginning. What a way to enhance that and invite the new hams to Field Day. They can use the club callsign and work HF and learn great skills. That is how I got into it, on top of Mt Wachusett. Do something different, hold a class on a mode, antenna, etc. Try a different approach to Field Day. QRP, home-brew, satellites? It’s not all about the scores, it’s having fun! (I’m sure some may argue that point!)

While I’m in the neighborhood, here is the list of new hams. Each club should look at this and reach out to them and welcome them and introduce them to your club and mentor.

That’s all for me for now. What have you got going on? Let me know.

Report for 2022-03-02

Ralph B Cerreta, KC1QND
PO Box 749
Cheshire, MA 01225-0749

Michael Leo, KC1QKM
110 Pearl Hill Rd
Fitchburg, MA 01420-2004

Evan Hollander, KC1QKB
70R Milk St
Blackstone, MA 01504-1216

Mozart M Telles, KC1QMR
30 Douglas Hill Way
Douglas, MA 01516-2257

Howard Shpegel, AC1MN
98 Mary Catherine Dr
Lancaster, MA 01523-2958

Nichole R Anderson, KC1QMD
164 Leicester St
North Oxford, MA 01537-1006

Garret Bratica, KC1QJM
2801 Windsor Ridge Dr
Westborough, MA 01581-2358

Christopher P Pinto, KC1QKI
58 Wildrose Ave
Worcester, MA 01602-1123

Benjamin L Antupit, KC1QMU
100 Institute Rd
# 1213
Worcester, MA 01609-2247

Noel H Nieves, KC1QLQ
143 Beacon St
Apt 1
Worcester, MA 01610-1583

73, Ray-AA1SE

Affiliated Club Coordinator announcement

Posted on March 23, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Hello everyone, Gil Hayes, WK1H has stepped down as our club coordinator
due to job obligations. I wish to thank him for his contribution to the
section.

I am pleased to announce that Larry Krainson, W1AST has accepted the
position as club coordinator effective Mar. 22 Larry is currently the
President of the Hamden club. Larry is a Life Member and licensed since
1977.
He also is the 13 Colonies special event manager for Mass. and is
leading the Big E expo display coming in Sept. Larry’s wife, Faye is
always assisting him and also has a son who is an Eagle Scout and a Ham.

Please join me in welcoming Larry to the section staff.

73
Ray-AA1SE

13 Colonies

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Each year from July 1 through July 7 the 13 Colonies special event stations are on the air. The goal is to work all 13 of the colony stations plus the extra bonus stations. This is a fun event that hams of Massachusetts are part of.

The call for Massachusetts is K2H. Team K2H is looking for a few additional ops to activate K2H during the 7 days of the 13 Colonies special event station.

If you have ever wanted to be on the receiving end of a DX pileup, this is a fun way to do something very similar.

Last Year the Team K2H ops worked 15,265 stations. We are aiming to beat that this year due to much better band conditions.

Would you like to be a part of Team K2H?

We’re looking for hams that can commit to operating at least 5 of the 7 days and work at least 500 contacts, which is very easy to do.

You can operate SSB, CW, Digital or Satellite.

All logging must be on a computer program that can export an ADIF file format.

If you would like to join the team or learn more, please contact: Larry, W1AST at:

W1AST@arrl.net

The last day to sign up is June 9th.

ARMY MARS to reach out to Amateur Stations for Reception Reports

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Due to current events, the BBC has resumed shortwave broadcasts into Ukraine and Russia. In order to improve Amateur to MARS communications, MARS stations will be requesting to see if amateur stations can provide a reception report for these BBC transmissions.

The BBC broadcasts are :

Frequency English Broadcast

15730 KHz 1300-1500Z

5875 KHz 2000-2200Z

The request is to see if you can hear any of these daily broadcasts, and get your report to a MARS station near you. MARS stations for their part will be reaching out on normal amateur frequencies, using their amateur callsigns. You will be asked for your callsign a signal report, time and frequency of the report, and your city and state.

The signal report can take the form of: Good Readable, Readable, Poor, Unreadable. If you listened, but didn’t hear anything, we want to know that with an Unreadable report.The end result will be for stations to learn if their stations can receive these international broadcasts, to indicate a possible need for station improvement.

The exercise will last through March 25, but if you have gathered some reports, please don’t lose them, and send them after that time, to me by email, if you were unable to identify a local ARMY MARS station.Let’s have some fun with this!

Thanks for your support.

Tom Kinahan

US Army Military Auxiliary Radio System

Region One Director

aaa1rd@usamars.us

RFI teams forming.

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes

Rob Leiden K1UI is a newly appointed Asst. Director and is spearheading a New England wide program to get teams together to train and operate equipment to find, report, repair noise interference. See below for his invitation:

One of the biggest problems faced by amateur radio in this era of new technologies is the growth of noise that interferes with nearly every aspect of our hobby. Solar panels, LED (including pot farm grow lights) power supplies, dimmer switches, computers and many other devices generate interference as do power line failures, cable TV leakage and other service malfunctions.

The New England Division is creating RFI teams, trained and equipped to help hams find and fix noise problems. One has started up in the EMA section and our goal is to have at least one in every section.
If you have both the background and interest to lead or join your section’s team, I encourage you to contact your section manager who will work with Division Leadership to establish RFI teams throughout New England.
73
Rob k1ui

New England Division Assistant Director

Spectrum Protection and Utilization

Anyone interested contact Rob directly or myself

Thank you.

73
Ray Lajoie AA1SEWestern Mass Section Manager

New Hams March 2022

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Gilbert Hayes