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, Youth Activities

Nashua Area Radio Club August Activities

We have many fun Nashua Area Radio Club activities planned for the month of August.  We are planning a picnic in Greeley Park, a RTTY contest operation and a SOTA activation at Mount Washington.

Family Picnic in Greeley Park

 

Radio Club Activities - Greeley Park - 2016 Family Picnic
2016 Family Picnic

We will hold our family picnic on Saturday August 19 at Greeley Park in Nashua starting at 10am.   We’ll have a potluck lunch at noon and a fox hunt!  You can browse through the Greeley Park Arts Show.  Members and their families are invited.    We will meet in the picnic area on the west side of Concord St.  This has been an enjoyable event in past years with plenty of great food and great friends!

Radio Club Activities - Greeley Park - Picnic Meeting Location
Picnic Meeting Location

Please RSVP to Anita, AB1QB at [email protected]  on or before August 12 so people bringing food and drinks can get an idea of how many people to bring for.  Let us know how many will be attending with you and what you are planning to bring. See the club calendar for more details.

ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY

 

Radio Club Activities - 2016 ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY Certificate
2016 ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY Certificate

AB1OC and AB1QB will be hosting a multi-op team in the ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY at our station on Sunday August 20.  The contest goes from 2:00pm – 8:00pm Eastern time.  To qualify, operators must have received their first license in 2015, 2016, or 2017 OR have never made a RTTY QSO. Take advantage of this opportunity to try out digital modes or to try out contesting.  If you are interested in operating, contact Anita, AB1QB at [email protected].  See the club calendar for details.

Mount Washington SOTA Activation

 

Radio Club Activities - Mount Washington
Mount Washington

We will be holding a SOTA/POTA Activation at the summit of Mount Washington on Saturday, August 26.  Jamey has written a blog post with lots of information on Mount Washington and the activation.

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter

KC1XX Superstation Visit

On July 29th from 4-6pm, Matt Strelow, KC1XX has kindly offered to provide a 2-hour tour of the KC1XX superstation to members of the Nashua Area Radio Club. Matt hosts a multi-op/multi-transmitter station with as many towers (to cover all the amateur bands), as there are colors in the rainbow. As you can see from the pics below, we are in for quite a treat.

KC1XX Superstation Operator

KC1XX Superstation Towers

KC1XX Superstation Rotatable Tower

KC1XX Superstation in Hudson, NH

Currently, the people I have registered to attend are:

If I missed anyone, please send me an email at [email protected] and let me know. Apologies if I did.

The meeting place will be:

814 Hurricane Hill Rd.
Mason, NH 03048

Fred AB1OC, who has been there before, has mentioned that parking may be limited at Matt’s. As a result, I have heard non-nefarious machinations that people will be carpooling from Hollis Brookline High School (where Field Day was hosted). If you are interested in pursuing that route, then please email me at [email protected] so that I can put everyone on the same email to coordinate. Presumably, the carpool(s) will want to leave by about 330pm or so.

Matt hosts a serious HF world-contesting station — he is easily among one of the top stations in the world. You can also visit his website to learn a bit more. If you are interested in seeing marvels in engineering and contesting, then consider signing up for the tour by emailing Brian AB1ZO at [email protected]. There is still time! But please do it soon. I’d like to get back to Matt with a final count by Wednesday/Thursday.

73,

Brian AB1ZO

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Youth Activities

Academy for Science and Design SPARK Day

John Keslo, W1MBG, Jamey Finchum, KC1ENX, and I recently had the chance to again be part of SPARK Day at the Academy for Science and Design (ASD) in Nashua, New Hampshire. We attended SPARK Day to provide an Introduction to Amateur Radio for the students at ASD. ASD’s goal is to be a world-class school that specializes in science, engineering, mathematics, and design. The school provides education for students in grades 6-12. ASD periodically holds SPARK (Symposium Promoting Advancement of Real-world Knowledge) conferences, which enable ASD students to learn about areas which might help them to develop careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Math (STEM).

SPARK Day Group Learning About Amateur Radio
ASD Group Learning About Amateur Radio

The students at ASD are extremely bright and are highly motivated to develop STEM careers. We had about 65 students elect to attend the two sessions that we presented. The kids showed a lot of interested in our presentations and demonstrations.

SPARK Day Classroom Activities

 

Explaining the HAB to the ASD Students at SPARK Day
Explaining the HAB to the ASD Students

We began each session with some classroom time where we explained what Amateur Radio is about and some of our club’s Amateur Radio projects. We talked about and showed components of our High Altitude Balloon Project, our Satellite Ground Station and our Field Day activities. The interest level among the kids was high and lots of questions were asked.

SPARK DAY GOTA Station

 

Making an HF Contact using our GOTA Station at SPARK Day
Making an HF Contact using our GOTA Station

We also put together an HF GOTA station in the lobby of the school. This gave the kids a chance to get on the air and experience Amateur Radio first hand. After the kids got over the usual “mic-fright”, they had a lot of fun.

We are looking forward to our next opportunity to participate in ASD’s SPARK Day in the fall. This is one of the most enjoyable events of the year for me.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide