A bit late, but good news, nonetheless.
Congratulations to the Hampden County Radio Club for coming in first place at this year’s ARRL New England Club Newsletter Awards.
More details here:
https://nediv.arrl.org/2024/08/27/new-england-club-newsletter-award-2024/
Greetings all,
As you know, we have an election for the division director to serve the next three years here in New England. Fred Kemmerer AB1OC is the incumbent and Tom Frenaye K1KI is the challenger. Below I have an message from Phil Temples K9HI as to the elections with instruction on voting as it will be electronic with a mail option. Please read.
Your vote counts and I urge you to do your research in your selection for New England’s Director.
Thank you!
73,
Ray AA1SE
WMA Section Manager
Within the next week or so, you should be receiving voting instructions for the ARRL New England Director election. ARRL has contracted with Election Services Corporation (ESC) to conduct the election, and for the first time we’ll be able to vote online. ESC will send postcards to eligible members with the instructions on how to use their online voting site to access candidate statements, photos, and the electronic ballot. The postcard will also have instructions for requesting a paper ballot if preferred. Members with an email address on file with ARRL will receive the postcard and an email message from ESC. Members without an email address on file will receive only the postcard.
ESC provides the online voting website, collects and processes electronic and paper ballots, and computes the election results. If you require assistance or have questions, ESC will provide help. You can contact ESC at (866) 720-4357, or via email: ARRLElection@ElectionServicesCorp.com.
To ensure you get a ballot, you should review the email and mailing addresses associated with your ARRL membership by going to www.arrl.org/myARRL. You must be logged in to the ARRL website to view your account.
Ballots (paper or electronic) must be received by noon on November 15, 2024.
73,
Phil Temples, K9HI
ARRL New England Division Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC writes:
Phil Temples K9HI, our Assistant Directors, and I will hold our next New England Division Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, February 23rd, at 7 pm ET. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide you with an ARRL update, get your thoughts on what we should be focusing on, and answer any questions you might have about the ARRL and what we are doing on behalf of ARRL members here in New England.
We plan to spend a good deal of our time together answering your questions. If you’d like to send us a question in advance, you can do so via an email to ab1oc@arrl.org, or you can just plan to ask your questions during the Town Hall Meeting.
We will hold our Town Hall Meeting via a Zoom Webinar. You can get your personal link to join the Town Hall Meeting via the following link (paste the link in your browser to register) –
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-4QVGZj_THG1VXImuTnazQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
We hope to see you on February 23rd!
——————————————————————–
ARRL New England Division
Director: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ab1oc@arrl.org
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Hello Everyone,
We are planning our second New England Division Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, June 15th at 7:30 pm ET. All ARRL members in the New England Division are invited to attend. Our planned topics for this meeting include:
We are planning 90 minutes for this meeting. Please register via the following link and we’ll send you a link to join our Town Hall Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zfiGGX_CTIK7xvq9vmuXzw
This is the second of our planned three Town Hall Meetings in 2022. You
can view the recording from our last meeting here –
https://nediv.arrl.org/2022/02/17/new-england-division-town-hall-meeting-deemed-a-success/
We hope that you will join us on June 15th!
Best and 73,
——————————————————————–
ARRL New England Division
Director: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ab1oc@arrl.org
——————————————————————–
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.
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.
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
The ARRL Vermont State Convention, known as HAM-CON, will be held Saturday, February 26, at 8AM-1PM live in Colchester, VT and On-Line at HAM-CON.ORG.
If you are in our primary coverage area of Vermont, Northern NH, Northern NY and Southern Quebec, we hope to see you in person. However, anyone, anywhere can take part in HAM-CON. On-Line attendees will get to participate in the forums, will see the flea market room, will get to converse with other attendees in separate video rooms and even watch our special event station W1V.
We have a super line-up planned for this year! ARRL CEO David Minster NA2AA will start things off by telling us about 2021 happenings at ARRL and what to look forward to in 2022. Our newly elected New England Director, Fred Kemmerer AB1OC will detail accomplishments made and planned for in his first 100 days in office. Dave Casler KE0OG, author of the “Ask Dave” column in QST, will be on hand to answer all of your technical questions. Ed Hare W1RFI will focus on current issues in radio frequency interference to ham radio operations. We’ll have other great forums on technical and operating topics, plus a totally fun forum never seen before. You won’t want to miss it!
Advanced admission to HAM-CON is only $6, available right on the web site http://www.ham-con.org. If you are not sure of your plans, buy your ticket now and it can be used live or on-line. The price jumps up to $10 on February 20, so don’t wait! Details on early vendor admission and table reservations can also be found on the site.
HAM-CON is one of the first Conventions of each year and the only New England Convention held in the first quarter. Be sure to join us to keep connected with other ham radio operators from the North Country and learn why we are considered the “best little hamfest in the world.” Hope to see you there, live or on camera!
Happy New Year to all in the Western Mass section. Effective with this new year, the Western Mass Traffic Net will meet at a new time. Effective Monday January 3, 2022 there will be one session daily Monday through Friday, at 6:00 PM local time. The net will continue to meet on the Mt Greylock 146.91 K1FFK repeater thanks to the Northern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club, with Echolink access via the K1FFK repeater thanks to Dave Foley W1TTT. The main purpose of the net is the handling of NTS traffic with liaison to the First Region Net. Training will be available to anyone interested. Check with Peter KD2JKV (kd2jkv@gmail.com) or Marcia KW1U (kw1u@arrl.net) for details.
Also note the Heavy Hitters Traffic Net links the K1FFK repeater to the Minuteman Repeater Network at 10:00 PM daily Sunday through Friday for statewide coverage. To those with HF capability there is a statewide traffic net called Mass Rhode Island Phone net which meets on 3978 Khz +/- at 5:00 PM daily Monday through Saturday.
Message handling is one of the mainstays of amateur radio and handling formal record traffic is what we are about. It is fun and rewarding to have the knowledge needed if required in an emergency. Everyone is invited to check it out. Hope to see you there.
73, Marcia KW1U
STM EMA and WMA
The Billerica Amateur Radio Society, along with the Hampden County Radio Association in Springfield, will be commemorating WBZ’s 100th anniversary by conducting a special operating event starting at 1300z/9:00 AM EDT September 17 and ending at 0359z September 20/11:59 PM EDT September 19. Amateurs using the callsigns W1W, W1B, W1Z, and WB1Z will make two-way contact with other amateurs across all bands on SSB, AM, CW, and digital modes. A special QSL card will be sent to anyone who contacts one or more of the special event stations and sends a card accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
If you or someone you know might be interested in operating one of the special stations, please contact Larry Krainson, W1AST, at wb1dby@comcast.net. Seeking New England operators only at this time.
More information on this event at https://nediv.arrl.org/wbz100/