All posts by Fred Kemmerer

I enjoy station building, contesting and helping new folks to join and have fun with our hobby.
Featured, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Get A Custom Program for Your HT

It seems that many Hams struggle a bit to get their HTs programmed with the right set of repeaters and other memory settings. The Nashua Area Radio Society will be offering a custom HT Programming Clinic at HamXposition @ Boxboro 2019 to help hams get their HT’s programmed.

HTs That We Can Program

HTs at Tech Class - Amateur Radio Youth Outreach - HT Program
HTs at Tech Class

We will offer custom programming for the following HT models:

Icom HTs

  • ID-31
  • ID-51 (all models)

Kenwood HTs

  • TH-D72
  • TH-D74

Yaesu HTs

  • FT-4X and FT-4V
  • FT60
  • FT65
  • FT70D

BaoFeng HTs

  • UV-5R
  • BF-F8HP

TDXone

  • TD-Q8

How Will It Work?

HT Program
Custom HT Programming Request

The programming process will be with the completion of a request (shown above) that includes some basic information about the radio to be programmed. Each person can select from a list of options for their custom program which includes:

  • Preserving a limited number of existing memories in their radio
  • Calling Channels and Simplex Frequencies
  • Custom Repeater List for your location including DSTAR and Fusion Repeaters
  • FM Satellites Frequencies with Doppler Correction (AO-85, AO-91, AO-92, SO-50, and PO-101)
  • APRS Frequencies
  • The Nashua Area Radio Society’s Fox Frequencies

The NARS Member who is running the HT Programming Clinic will save a copy of the existing program as a backup and then use an RTSystems programmer to assemble the custom program from a combination of on-line apps and stored program components.

The user’s location is used to generate a custom list of repeaters with a 10-15 mile radius of their location. This list can include DSTAR and Fusion capable repeaters if the user’s radio supports these.

HT Program
RTSystems Program for Yaesu FT65

The completed custom program will be loaded into the person’s HT and checked out.

We hope that you’ll stop by the NARS Display at HamXpostion @ Boxboro 2019 to get you HT programmed.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, Youth Activities

Ham Bootcamp

Ham Bootcamp includes a series of demonstrations and tutorials designed to help prospective and newly licensed Technician, General, and Extra class license holders get on the air and use their amateur radio license. It is also a great opportunity for prospective hams who are interested in seeing what the hobby has to offer.Our Bootcamp activities are provided online via a series of sessions geared towards Technicians and prospective Hams and General class licenses and higher Hams. Bootcamp participants will find all of this material interesting and fun no matter what their focus or license level.

We are continuing to provide our Bootcamp program during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are providing Ham Bootcamp in an online format using Zoom. Our online Ham Bootcamp program is available to all licensed and prospective Hams in North America. Please contact us to sign up for our next online Ham Bootcamp via email to [email protected].

Repeaters and VHF/UHF Session Activities

  • Putting together a Station for Repeaters – How to pick an HT or  Mobile Radio and an Antenna
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • Getting started with EchoLink
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites
  • Getting started with Fox Hunting

HF Session Activities

  • Putting together an HF Station for SSB, CW, and Digital
  • Picking and putting up an HF Antenna, Feedline, and Ground
  • Operating on the HF bands using SSB Voice
  • Software and setup for Logging Contacts via your computer
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital
  • Finding DX and QSL’ing – Getting them in the log and confirmed

… and more!

Virtual Ham Radio Shopping Trip

  • Join us for a guided tour of all of the gear and goodies that are available to build or expand your station.
  • Ask questions and get answers from NARS experts on what gear might be best for your situation.
  • We provide the Virtual Shopping Trip via a follow-on Zoom session shortly after Bootcamp. Information on how to join us for this event will be shared at our next Bootcamp session.

Articles About Ham Bootcamp

Are you interested in learning more about our Ham Bootcamp program? We’ve written quite a few articles about Bootcamp here on our Blog. You can read them via this link. Also, check out the article about a  recent Ham Bootcamp at the New England HamXposition.

Bootcamp has also been featured in the October 2020 edition of QST Magazine. You can view the article here.

Sign Up for Ham Bootcamp

Don’t miss this twice a year opportunity to learn more about Amateur Radio, improve your station, expand your skills, and get on the air.

Our Fall 2020 Ham Bootcamp session will be held online via Zoom on Saturday, November 7th from 10 am – 6 pm Eastern Time.

See you at Ham Bootcamp! You can contact us to sign up for our next Bootcamp via email to [email protected].

Support Ham Bootcamp

The Nashua Area Radio Society provides many training and skills development activities for new Hams and Young People. We also have many programs to enable folks young and old alike to join the Amateur Radio service. Please consider supporting our programs and our work by making a donation via the GoFundMe campaign which follows.

The Nashua Area Radio Society is a 501c(3) non-profit charity.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Upgraded Portable Satellite Station Test on Mt. Washington

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We were up on Mt. Washington here in New Hampshire this past weekend and we decided to use the SOTA activation as a test for our upgraded Simple Portable Satellite Station. It turned out that the station was also a great SOTA and Grid Square Activation station for terrestrial contacts…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 9 – Upgraded Simple Portable Station

The Nashua Area Radio Society did our Mt. Washington SOTA activation this past weekend. Jamey, AC1DC put together a great trip to the summit again this year. We used the SOTA as an opportunity to test our upgraded simple portable satellite station.

Simple Portable Satellite Station
Portable Station on Mt. Washington

The station performed very well making some 75 contacts during our activation. We confirmed that the station worked well for FM satellite contacts and also verified the operation of the computer controls to enable us to make contacts through linear satellites.

We were surprised to find that the station also worked extremely well for 2m terrestrial contacts. We were able to work many mobile and base stations using 2m FM. We also worked quite a few stations using 2m SSB. The flexibility of the simple portable antenna system that is part of the updated station made this very easy to do.

The link above contains some information about how the upgraded station is put together and what we learned during our initial test.

View from Mt. Washington Summit

We had near-perfect weather on the Summit for our SOTA activation. All in all, it was a great day!

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide