Category Archives: Education and Training

Education and Training information is for folks looking for help to earn or upgrade their license, learn about Amateur Radio, and get help with Ham Radio questions.

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

Update on NARS Amateur Radio Expo for Young People

Interest and support for the Nashua Area Radio Society’s Amateur Radio Expos for Young People are continuing to grow! We’ve been busy with follow-up activities from our Youth Expo at the New England Amateur Radio Convention in Boxboro, MA earlier this month and we are planning our next Youth Expo as part of the New England Tech Trek (NETT) at NEAR-Fest in October.

Boxboro Convention Slide Show Featuring our Youth Expo
Boxboro Convention Slide Show (Click Image to view)

The Boxboro Convention team put together a really nice slide show which includes some photos from our Youth Expo. Click on the image above to view it!

Amateur Radio Expo for Young People Special Event QSL Card
Amateur Radio Expo for Young People Special Event QSL Card

We are having a new N1T Special Event QSL card printed for our Boxboro on-air operation. We made QSOs on the HF bands as well as via Satellites during our Expo. Requests for N1T QSLs from Boxboro are coming in daily and we hope to have our new card back from the printer soon.

Plans for NETT at NEAR-Fest

We have been working with the NEAR-Fest folks to plan our next Youth Expo as part of the New England Tech Trek (NETT) at the NEAR-Fest Ham Festival in Deerfield, NH on October 12th and 13th.

NETT at Fall NEAR-Fest Display Layout
NETT at Fall NEAR-Fest Display Layout

Our Expo at NEAR-Fest will feature five GOTA stations, an expanded kit building activity, new Fox Hunt and Morse Code activities, and a classroom area we can use to introduce young people to Amateur Radio and our display.

N1T Youth Expo Special Event QSL Card
N1T at NETT – Youth Expo Special Event QSL Card

We will again be hosting a Special Event at NETT and we will be operating as N1T there. Our planned GOTA stations include:

Boxboro 2018 - Completed Kit
Morse Tutor Kit – Build It at NEAR-Fest!

Our kit building activity is very popular and we are going to expand our kit building activity at NEAR-Fest to support up to 21 simultaneous builders. We expect that students in larger groups will likely work in teams of two so we should be able to accommodate over 40 students at a time! Our kit will cost $18 and will include a printed color manual and batteries. NARS members will be available to mentor builders on soldering and building their kits.

Youth Expo Fox Hunt
Fox Hunt

We are planning a Fox-Hunting activity at NEAR-Fest and we’ll also have a variety of hands-on Morse Code activities as well.

Morse Code Training at HMS - Amateur Radio Youth Outreach
Morse Code Activity

You can view and download a printable flyer about our plans for NETT at NEAR-Fest here.

NEAR-Fest and Our Members Help with Fundraising

The NEAR-Fest Organization along with a few  NARS members have agreed to match dollar for dollar all contributions up to a total of $1,100 made to our STEM Learning and Training fundraising project between now at the end of NEAR-Fest!

Please consider making a donation to support our projects as your contribution during this time will have double the impact in supporting our work to bring young people into the Amateur Radio service.

We are raising funds to support a variety of STEM learning projects including High-Altitude Balloon projects, electronics learning projects,  license training for High School and Middle School students, and other projects that provide STEM learning through Amateur Radio. We are also raising funds to allow us to purchase and maintain equipment to provide emergency communications and associated training in times of disaster.

We hope to see you at NEAR-Fest! NARS members, we need your help! If you’d like to help us with our Youth Expo display, please contact Anita, AB1QB at [email protected].  See Anita’s forum post for details on where we need help.

Fred, AB1OC

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

NARS Youth Expo at Boxboro

The Nashua Area Radio Society put together a very successful Amateur Radio Youth Exposition at the New England Amateur Radio Convention at Boxboro this year.

Boxboro 2018 - Youth Expo Display
Boxboro 2018 – Youth Expo Display

Our Expo featured more than ten high-quality displays and hands-on activities which introduced young people to many aspects of Amateur Radio.

Boxboro 2018 - HF GOTA Coach Jerry K1OKD
Boxboro 2018 – HF GOTA Coach Jerry K1OKD

Our HF GOTA at Boxboro 2018 was a hit with many folks making their first HF contacts with us. We operated AB1OC-AB1QB’s station remotely via the Internet. We secured a the N1T special event callsign for Boxboro and we made over 150 contacts as N1T during the convention.

Boxboro 2018 - Satellite Station Operated by Burns WB1FJ
Boxboro 2018 – Satellite Station Operated by Burns WB1FJ

We also had our transportable satellite station at Boxboro and we made quite a few satellite contacts as N1T as well.

Boxboro 2018 - Space Comms Display
Boxboro 2018 – Space Comms Display

There was lots of interest in satellites between the satellite GOTA station and our Space Communications display.

Boxboro 2018 - Kit Building (Dan AC1EN and Mackenzie KE1NZY)
Boxboro 2018 – Kit Building (Dan AC1EN and Mackenzie KE1NZY)

We added a kit building activity to our Youth Expo at Boxboro and it was a big hit!

Builders (Burns WB1FJ and his Grandson)
Builders (Burns WB1FJ and his Grandson)

Over 40 K1EL Morse Code Tutor kits got built during the weekend with many parents and grandparents building kits along with the kids.

Boxboro 2018 - Karen KC1KBW - BGHS Teacher Building a Kit
Boxboro 2018 – Karen KC1KBW – BGHS Teacher Building a Kit

Some of our High-Altitude Balloon program students and teachers also had fun with the kit building activity.

Boxboro 2018 - Forum Presentation by Dan AC1EN
Boxboro 2018 – Forum Presentation by Dan AC1EN

We did three presentations related to the activities at our Youth Expo in the forums at Boxboro. The most popular one was about the many youth outreach projects that the Nashua Area Radio Society is doing.

Boxboro 2018 - Forum Presentation by Mackenzie KE1NZY and Fred AB1OC
Boxboro 2018 – Forum Presentation by Mackenzie KE1NZY and Fred AB1OC

Dan and Mackenzie Pooler (AC1EN and KE1NZY) helped me with this one and they brought a very valuable perspective on our youth outreach work.

Boxboro 2018 provided lots of great moments and memories for the many members who help with our Expo. Check out the photo memories above to see some more of these.

Boxboro 2018 - NARS Team at Boxboro
Boxboro 2018 – NARS Team at Boxboro

A very special THANK YOU to the many Nashua Area Radio Society members who helped throughout the weekend!

We are planning another Amateur Radio Youth Exposition as part of the New England Tech Trek at NEAR-Fest in October. Don’t miss it and please come out and help us create another great Amateur Radio experience at NEAR-Fest!

Fred, AB1OC

 

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

Support the Nashua Area Radio Society on Amazon Smile and GoFundMe

The Nashua Area Radio Society has created many projects designed to provide STEM learning experiences and training through Amateur Radio. Some of these projects include:

To carry out our mission, we have formed close relationships with several local schools. This helps us develop and deliver effective, high-quality programs that bring learning through Amateur Radio to young people.

Dan and his completed Bo-Bot Arduino Shield - ARRL Teacher Institute
Dan Pooler, AC1EN

Dan Pooler, a professional educator at the Hudson Memory School in Hudson, NH writes:

Over the course of the past year, I have found myself the benefactor of the most amazing partnership with the Nashua Area Radio Society.  … thanks to the knowledge and generosity of the club members who have dedicated their time to helping others come to know and understand the radio sciences.  I have found what makes this dedication even more valuable is the clubs growing outreach to the schools and students of Southern New Hampshire.

You can read more about our partnership with Dan and his school here.

We provide many of these services either free of charge or at a very modest cost. We count on the generosity of our members, friends, and the Amateur Radio community to raise funds to support our work.

We have begun a fundraising campaign to enable us to continue and expand our training projects listed above which provide STEM learning experiences for young people and support for emergency communications readiness. Please consider supporting our work via your GoFundMe donation.


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We are also now on Amazon Smile. Please consider supporting our projects by using Amazon Smile and designating us as your favorite charity there. Click on the badge below to get started supporting our work via Amazon Smile.

It’s easy to help the Nashua Area Radio Society as you shop on Amazon. Here’s a simple set of directions to help you get going.
NARS Amazon Smile - Getting Started
Getting Started Supporting NARS on Amazon Smile

On behalf of the many young people and others that we help, thank you very much for your generosity. With your support, we will continue to work hard to provide learning opportunities for young people through Amateur Radio and to continue to make the Amateur Radio Service the best it can be to benefit everyone.

2018 Summer Tech Class - Amateur Radio Youth Outreach
2018 Summer Youth Technician License Class
Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide