We had a very memorable club meeting last evening. Tom Gallagher NY2RF, CEO of the ARRL and Dave Patton NN1N were our speakers. Tom and Dave talked with us about their plans for the future of the ARRL and our hobby. Their plans include:
Initiatives to bring young people and new folks into our hobby
Plans for electronics oriented education and training
Social Media enhanced information sharing within the Amateur Radio community
These goals align well with the work that our club has been doing over the past 18 months.
13 Colonies Top Club Award Presentation
We also used this opportunity to recognize the members of our club who operated as K2K New Hampshire in the Thirteen Colonies Special Event this year. Their efforts made our club the Top Club in the event this year, making over 9,700 contacts.
Abby Finchum Presenting our Youth Outreach Plans
Abby Finchum KC1FFX, her Dad Jamey KC1ENX, and Brian Smigielski AB1ZO have been working on a project to interest young people in Amateur Radio. Abby did a nice presentation of their plans and asked for folks to volunteer to help us.
Members and Guests at our Meeting
We invited several other clubs in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to join us for our meeting. Our club had a good turnout for the meeting.
Our Thanks to Tom Gallagher and Dave Patton
We ended our meeting by thanking Tom and Dave for taking the time to come to talk about where the ARRL and Amateur Radio are headed. Their plans and work to keep our hobby strong and to evolve the ARRL into the future are very much appreciated by the Amateur Radio community and by our club.
Our Summer Family Picnic is scheduled for Saturday, August 27th at Greeley Park in Nashua. All club members and their family members are invited. This will be a potluck lunch and members are encouraged to bring a dish. I have created a sign-up sheet. You can view it here.
Please edit this sheet to indicate whether you will attend, how many family members including yourself will attend, and what you will bring.
We will start to gather around 10:00 am and lunch will be served at noon. Directions can be found on the club event calendar.
The rain date will be Sunday, August 28. If there is inclement weather in the forecast for Saturday, stay tuned to our Forums for updates.
A Big Thanks To Our Morse Code Instructor Team – Layne, AE1N, Mike, K1WVO, Dennis, K1LGQ and Wayne, KB1HYL.
The Nashua Area Radio Club has begun teaching a Morse Code training class on Saturday, July 16th 2016. The class was created in response to interest in learning Morse Code, expressed by several club members who are drawn to this unique mode of communication. While this unique skill-set is no longer a licensing requirement it continues to be a long standing practice enjoyed by may radio amateurs worldwide. Numerous groups and organizations exit to encourage and promote the practice of communications using Morse code such as FISTS; North American QRP CW club (NAQCC); CW Operators Club (CWops); and the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). Also, you can learn more about Morse Code and CW operation on our website here.
Dennis K1LGQ: “didit dah dah didit”
The use of Morse Code is one of the simplest ways of modulating a Continuous Wave (CW) RF carrier by generating characters composed of a series of “dits and dahs” to create a message. Most QRP (low power) operators favor CW operation because of its low circuit complexity, lightweight (for portable operation) and extreme efficiency. A limited number of amateur radio operators find great satisfaction in operating using Morse Code aka CW as their only mode.
Mike K1WVO ‘Practice Practice Practice …’
The Nashua Area Radio Club Code course employs the Chuck Adams – K7QO, training CD. Chuck’s course is available for download free of charge and is well-organized with over 500 audio MP3 files to help learn and improve your skill levels. Our class encourages following K7QO’s guidelines and instructions to develop good CW habits that avoid the later roadblocks to greater speed and proficiency. Our class has introduced a few variations to Chuck K7QO’s training plan with a couple of special CW practice quizzes that help keep the classroom fun and more interesting. The G4FON software trainer utility has added to the fun with background noise, QRM and QSB listening challenges, which adds a taste of real CW operation. Learning and gaining proficiency with Morse Code requires practice, practice, practice. The K7QO training MP3 files can be listened to with a PC, MP3 player or in many of the newer car CD players.
From the $2 Paperclip to a $440 Bengali Key
Our training class has provided an opportunity for many of the students to observe several different Morse Code keys. A couple of students have also brought in some innovative code practice keys that were constructed from some unique household items. Other students are building a small microcontroller based keyer that can be used with a straight key or a single or dual paddle key for training or use with a transmitter. The class will continue for a few more weeks and then many of the students will be ready to try their first on the air CW QSO. Each on the air QSO will help grow their CW skills and is ultimately the best form of practice, practice, practice.
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