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, Newsletter, On The Air

SOTA/POTA Activation of Miller State Park/Mount Pack Monadnock

The Nashua Area Radio Society will have our first Summits on the Air (SOTA)/Parks on the Air (POTA) activation of the year on Saturday, April 13th. This is great timing as it occurs just a few days after our Tech Night build of the Tape Measure Yagis!

6m Portable Antenna
AB1OC’s 6m Portable Antenna on Mount Pack Monadnock

Miller State Park is located at  13 Miller Park Road in Peterborough and is designated as K-2662 for POTA and W1/HA-041 (Pack Mount Monadnock) for SOTA. The park is open from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm. There is a fee of $4/adult and $2/child (6-11 years old).

Al, KC1FOZ and Tom, KC1GGP Operating VHF-UHF Portable
Al, KC1FOZ and Tom, KC1GGP Operating VHF-UHF Portable on Mount Pack Monadnock

This is a great opportunity for an introduction to both the SOTA and POTA program. Miller State Park is the oldest state park in New Hampshire and has a 1.3-mile paved road leading to the 2,290′ summit of Mount Pack Monadnock. There are two hiking trails from the parking area to the summit as well. The Wapack Trail and the Marion Davis Trail, both are 1.4 miles long. I would expect the trails to be wet and slightly muddy, but mainly clear of snow. Those that would like to hike up should meet in the parking lot around 10:00 am and dress for the weather and trail conditions.

Abby’s, AB1BY 1st SOTA on Mt. Pack Monadnock

Those that are driving up should plan on being at the top by 11:00 am. If you have a portable radio please bring it. If you only have an HT you will be surprised by how many contacts you can make up on the summit. I will have at least two radios as well as an HT and I am happy to share!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at [email protected].

Jamey, AC1DC

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

New Membership Meeting Presentations and Summaries

Scott, NE1RD has been putting together a great lineup of presenters for our Membership Meetings and Tech Nights. Our Members have asked that we include some of the Membership Meeting presentations that we’ve been seeing at our meeting here on our website. We’ve added a selected presentation archive to our Membership Meetings page for this purpose. You need to be logged into our website to see this material.

We have lots of activities going on and we begin each of our Membership Meetings with an update on what’s coming up and how our many projects are doing. We’re also going to include the update from our latest meeting as well.

You can find all of this material along with information about the speakers for our upcoming meetings on our Membership Meetings page.

Fred, AB1OC

 

Activities, Antennas, Education and Training, Featured, Homebrewing, Newsletter, On The Air, Youth Activities

Tape Measure Yagi Build

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Our next Tech Night will be on Tuesday, April 9th and we’ll be talking about the basics of Radio Direction Finding (aka Fox Hunting). During this session, we’ll also be building a 2-meter tape measure yagi using Joe Leggio’s, WB2HOL plans. I have built 2 of these tape measure yagis and they are pretty easy to make and I have had very good success! You can use these antennas for fox hunting, summits on the air or just hitting a distant repeater.

Here is a list of equipment that you will need to bring to the class to build your very own 2-meter tape measure yagi!

  1. Metal Tape Measure – 1″ wide and at least 10′ in length
  2. 6′ RG8x cable with a PL-259 connector attached to one side
    • You can buy one cable with a PL-259 on each side and cut it in half if you would like to share with someone else to cut costs – You may want to go with 8′ – 10′ if you are going to make two cables
  3. Pigtail for connecting RG-8x (PL-259 connector) to handheld (sma)(sma female)

Optional:

  1. Sandpaper for sanding edges of the tape measure and removing coating to solder on coaxial cable
  2. Wire strippers/cutters
  3. Soldering iron
  4. Shears or scissors for cutting tape measure
  5. 2 Meter SWR meter
  6. Rubber Bands or Bulldog clips for securing the elements when folding up

I will bring all the PVC pipe pre-cut to the proper lengths along with the T and cross connectors.

After we all successful make our tape measure yagis we can celebrate the following Saturday as we have our first Summits on the Air (SOTA) and Parks on the Air (POTA) activation of Mount Pack Monadnock. This is a fairly easy summit and members can hike or drive up to the summit to test out the new yagis!

If you plan on attending or have any questions please let me know so I can plan for the right amount of equipment. You can reach me by email at [email protected].

Jamey, AC1DC

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