Section Manager’s Report April 2022

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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 3rd 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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

Section Manager’s Report March 2022

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   Hello! I don’t know about you, but this has been one crazy month. I think they took the two days and stuffed those activities into the rest of the month. I am looking forward to seeing you at the Mt. Tom Hamfest this Saturday, Bob, K1YO, Smitty, KC1IKA Larry, W1AST and myself will have tables there. Should be a fun time there.

   This month, the Montachusett, Mohawk and CMARA clubs headed by myself (or instigated lol) in a joint effort have started a Zoom Tech License class which is currently attended by 10 students. The goal for this is not only to get people licensed, but also actively mentored to get them on the air and active in the hobby. My hope is this group will evolve and expand. We are learning ourselves and am working to streamline the courses and offer an effective way to present it. If anyone is interested in joining, send me an email.

   It has been observed by club presidents as well as myself there has been a distinct lack of participation among the membership in activities, testing sessions and classes, etc. That is one of the reasons I started the classes. I fully understand the lingering effects of Covid and the impact it has on what we do. We as hams are taught “if it don’t work, fix it!” That also means adapting to a situation. This should also include club activity. Clubs are dying because people are sitting back assuming someone else will do the job or plan the next activity. One phrase club Presidents would love to hear is “What can I do to help?” I know I would! Zoom has in my opinion opened up a lot of opportunities to give clubs not just meetings, but a plethora of content for presentations, trainings, etc. Don’t use it as a crutch. Online or offline, help out your club or you may just click on Zoom one day and it will be gone.

   The League has been active lately in getting key people onboard to bring more communication and resources to the members. One such resource is available grant money. The ARDC has provided the League with a sizable chunk of money and is making it available to clubs. Clubs that have certain projects going and need funding can benefit for up to 30,000 dollars. Stay tuned for more details as they are still working out the details. This is not part of the ARRL Foundation grant program. Stay tuned for more information as it comes.

   As we all look forward to the warmer weather, take some time to try something new, TEACH someone something new. Get together with others and work stations, do a demonstration, etc OUTSIDE. Like my Mama used to say, “the fresh air will do you good!”

Take care everyone.

Ray AA1SE

HAM-CON, the ARRL Vermont State Convention,  February 26

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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!

New WMA Amateur Licensees February 2022

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Congratulations to the latest new hams of Western Massachusetts:

Aleksandr Baraban, KC1QGT
131 Ashley Ave
Apt B5
West Springfield, MA 01089-1333

Matthew T St George, KC1QHG
60 Kenwood St
Pittsfield, MA 01201-5661

Dennis Juhasz, KC1QHJ
74 Upland St
Unit C
Worcester, MA 01607-2003

Richard S Quimby, KC1QHD
100 Institute Rd
Worcester, MA 01609-2247