Category Archives: Activities

Nashua Area Radio Society activities. Included is Field Day, our Annual Picnic, Tech Nights, On The Air Activations and much more.

Activities, Featured, General, On The Air

Using AI for Ham Radio Repeater Net

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One of my favorite uses of AI for Ham Radio is using it to help me come up with questions for the Weekly Repeater Net.  Our weekly repeater net uses a chat net format – the Net Control asks a question and each checked in station gets a chance to answer the questions.

I have been in the Net Control Rotation for several years and it is getting more difficult to come up with fresh questions for an engaging discussion on the net.

Lately, I have been getting my questions from AI.  For this week’s net I used the following prompt to get ChatGPT to provide some questions:    “Fred, AB1OC is the net control for tonight’s Nashua Area Radio Society repeater net. Please suggest some questions that he can ask on tonight’s chat format net.”

Here is what ChatGPT generated for me:

Here are fresh, timely, fun, and ham-radio-relevant chat-format questions Fred (AB1OC) can use for tonight’s Nashua Area Radio Society repeater net. I’ve mixed in seasonal topics, technical ones, Winter Field Day tie-ins, and light conversation starters that work well on a repeater.

📡 Chat Net Questions for Tonight’s Repeater Net

🔧 Ham-Radio / Technical Questions
  • What is one piece of ham gear you plan to upgrade or add in 2026?
  • What mode did you use most in 2025—FM, HF SSB, CW, FT8, DMR, or something else?
  • What antenna have you been the most happy with this year—and why?
  • What is your favorite local repeater to monitor besides N1IMO/N1IMN?
  • What radio accessory under $50 do you think is most useful? (Cables, mics, filters, tools…)
  • If you could add one feature to your current HF radio, what would it be?
  • Which band do you plan to operate more in 2026—6m, 10m, 160m, or VHF/UHF?
  • What’s your favorite mobile or portable antenna you’ve used?

    📡 Operating & Events

  • Will you be joining Winter Field Day at AB1OC/AB1QB on Jan 24–25, and what band/mode would you like to operate?
  • What operating achievement are you most proud of this year? (A contest, DX, POTA, SOTA, new mode…)
  • What’s one ham-radio skill you’d like to improve in 2026?
  • What’s your favorite POTA or portable location you operated from in 2025?
  • Have you ever tried digital voice modes (DMR, C4FM, D-Star)? What was your experience?

    🛠 Shack & Projects

  • Do you have a winter ham-radio project planned for home or the shack?
  • What’s the most useful tool on your ham bench?
  • Have you built or repaired anything ham-related recently?
  • If you could reorganize one part of your shack, what would it be?

    🌐 Fun / Light Questions

  • If you could operate from any DX location for a week, where would you pick?
  • What’s your favorite ham-radio-related YouTube channel?
  • What’s the best radio-related gift you’ve ever received (or given)?
  • If you could design your own callsign (other than the one you have), what would it be?
  • What’s the most unusual contact you made this year? (Location, mode, band, or story)

🎄 Seasonal / Holiday Themed

  • Do you operate any holiday-season special events or callsigns?
  • Are you planning any ham-radio gifts for someone—or hoping to receive one?
  • Do you operate more, less, or about the same during the holiday season?
  • If Santa delivered one piece of ham gear to your shack, what would you ask for?

If you would like to be a net control for our repeater net, but have a hard time thinking of a good question, try using AI, or use one of  the questions above.

Activities, Field Day, General

Winter Field Day 2025 Results

So, did we win Winter Field Day?  Hold on to that thought.  We need to put things into perspective.  Let’s look at a summary of the CLASSES first.  We were in the HOME class and there was OUTDOOR (burr), INDOOR, and MOBIL.  Then there was the Category which was the number of transmitter stations operational at the same time.  So for the HOME class, we were 6th overall and FIRST for our Category number of two stations (2H NH).  Go team.  We had 738 QSO’s with a multiplier of 22 for a final score of 17,292.  There were 1,231 HOME stations, 38 of those were 2H, with us at the top of that smaller list.Winter Field Day Score

The multiplier was very important.  Our HOME 3rd place team had more QSOs than any other station (all classes) but a lower multiplier and that put them in 3rd place (HOME Class) and 34th position for the whole event, yet they had the most QSOs.

The total number of Winter Field Day Stations was 2,481.  Where did we fall in that number?  Well, 92nd, I still think that we did amazing for our CLASS and Category (number of stations).

More fun facts

There was only 1 station, K6EI, with 100% of the objectives and they got a multiplier of 27, however, they only had 120 QSOs and were 6O MI OUTDOOR.

Here are the overall statistics for Winter Field Day and who was at the top of their CLASS.

Winter Field Day 2025
Some of the Winter Field Day 2025 Operator Team

Please thank our operators for their help in achieving this milestone.

  • Many Thanks to Fred and Anita for allowing us to use their station and their home.
  • Thanks to those who brought food
  • Thanks to the Winter Field Day Planning Team

Hope to see everyone come out for the Sumer Field Day 2025 event on June 28-29th.   Planning starts in April.

Brian, W1XMM

Activities, Field Day, On The Air

Field Day 2024 Presentation Tuesday June 4th

Greetings All, this coming Tuesday June 4th, we will be discussing the Field Day 2024 setup and activities.

Please join us Tuesday 7PM.  We will be going over the site layout, Schedule of events, Equipment layout, Field Day Bonus Points, and what to bring.  We’re planning on several youth activities, so bring the youth. OH, and FREE food.

What every, your level of license or experience we want to help you get on the air.  So please consider coming to the presentation and of course to Field Day.

If you can’t make the presentation, please mark on your calendar June 22 & 23 for Field Day.  We will start at 2PM and complete activities at 2PM on Sunday.  Please Sign up for operating times at:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tbsVtxvkATxNUlGudJ_fTZNDGHRvV3xQ4WDZpcxHo8s/edit?usp=sharing

At the Tech Night meeting on June 11th at 7PM we will focus on Field Day operations.

Tech Night will provide everyone with the knowledge of how to operate N1MM contact logging Software and we will also go over how to operate the radio.  The presentation will also include our Station Handbook.  It included cheat sheets for N1MM, radio controls, and how to make contacts. Also found in the handbook will be emergency shutdown procedures, and Safety guidelines.

Consider helping out with the setup that will start around 1PM on June 21st at the Hudson Memorial School.

Please don’t forget this is a CLUB (NARS & ARRL) sponsored event and encourages all of you to participate in the Field Day operations and setup if able.

Finally, if you can’t make Field Day in Hudson, NH, you can still help out the club by taking part in Field Day at home.  Any points you make can be used to help the club by putting “Nashua Area Radio Society” in the club field on your entry form.

Thanks,

Brian

W1XMM

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide