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.

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

Nashua Area Radio Society at HMS STEM Night on March 13th

Dan Pooler (AC1EN), a teacher at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, NH, and a Nashua Area Radio Society member, worked with the school and other NARS members to present an exhibit to students and their families promoting HAM Radio and highlighting some of the activities of our club to them. Dan reported that “STEM Night at HMS was a big success.

HMS Steam Night
HMS Steam Night

We had over 100 5-8th graders attend the HMS STEM Night, with over 400 people attending the event. Students and their families could watch SubZero Ice Cream demonstrate how they created ice cream, learn how pickles are made, program robots, shoot off Alka Selzer Rockets, make math art, and play games with family and friends along with visiting the NARS booth.”

Lining up for HAB Exhibit
Lining up for HAB Exhibit

Fred Kemmerer (AB1OC): shown here explaining aspects of our High-Altitude Balloon activities to some students. Anita Kemmerer (AB1QB), Mackenzie Pooler (KE1NZY), and Sam Hergenhahn (KC1PVZ) also participated at the event .

HMS STEM Night
This big

Dan Pooler (on the left) at the High-Altitude Balloon exhibit.

Morse Code Exhibit
Morse Code Exhibit

NARS Exhibits at Hudson Memorial School STEM Night

Our exhibits included:

  • A Fox Hunting display
  • A remote HF Radio Station, where students heard amateur radio operators from Australia, Greece, Lebanon and other countries.
  • An ISS /Satellite exhibit including a Raspberry-Pi based video of the HMS ISS contact video,
  • A Morse Code display with keys and practice exercises.
  • A High-Altitude Balloon display
Remote HF Radio Station
Remote HF Radio Station

Special thanks and appreciation to NARS Vice President Jamey Finchum (AC1DC), who worked with Dan and the school to plan NARS’ participation in the event.. Thanks also to Fred (AB1OC) and Anita (AB1QB) Kemmerer, who graciously took the time to provide the displays and attend and share their love of the hobby with the students and their families.

HMS Principal Keith Bowen told me in an email after the event, “It was great having your group participate in our STEAM night. Students and families enjoyed their experiences.”

Hudson Memorial School will also be the location for NARS Summer Field Day 2023. Please check the forums on n1fd.org for updated info.

SUMMER FIELD DAY WEEKLY PLANNING MEETING THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 7:00 PM – Nashua Area Radio Society (n1fd.org)

Education and Training, Featured, General, Homebrewing

Project Night – An N1FD Tradition

Our next meeting, to be held on Tuesday, January 3rd will be project night.  Project night has been a Nashua Area Radio Society (and Club) tradition, held every January as far back as I can remember.

Charlie, AB1ZN Showing A Vintage Rig - Project Night Tradition
Charlie, AB1ZN Showing A Vintage Rig

Project night gives each of our members a chance to share a project they are working on with the rest of our members.   These are short presentations – we’d like to have 5-6 presentations for our next project night on January 3rd.

Dave K1DHP - VLF Detector - Project Night Tradition
Dave K1DHP – VLF Detector

This gives members a chance to show off their projects and others a chance to learn from the members presenting.

DX Alarm 1 - Project Night Tradition

You don’t need to be a long time amateur to present.   If you are a new ham, you can talk about how you set up your first station, your first home-brew project, etc.   I have found that teaching or presenting is the best way to learn.  You may even get some suggestions from the group.  Members and Internet Subscribers are encouraged to present.

Here are some articles and videos about previous project nights:

The tradition continues – we hope to see you on Tuesday on Zoom for Project Night!  Please drop me an email at [email protected] to let me know what project you would like to present.

Education and Training, Featured, General

Getting Ready for HamXposition 2022

Next week is the Northeast HamXposition 2022 in Marlborough, Massachusetts.  Nashua Area Radio Society will host our exhibits on ham radio again this year. We presented our display at previous HamXpositions and at other venues such as NEAR-Fest.

HamXposition 2022
HamXposition

Here is an example from one of our past presentations.

Example
Example

Preparation and Testing

Our displays include much more than the basic trifold display board. We also include relevant items that are in the topic of each display and many displays have videos running with more details to inform and entertain our guests.

A few of us met last week to test out all of the video display components of our exhibit at Fred, AB1OC’s and Anita, AB1QB’s QTH. We will have 6 video loops running in our displays this year.  All are running from customized Raspberry Pi’s which are all networked together and can be controlled from a central PC for ease of management. Alan, KC1PWB is working here to prepare one of the displays for testing.

HamXposition 2022
Display Test

Here, Anita and Fred are testing the Flex Maestro we will use as our live demonstration radio at the event. It, along with the Raspberry Pi’s are all hard wired to the Network Pod seen on the right. Our testing in advance will make setup much easier on the day of the event. We did encounter some issues during testing and were able to take advantage having full access to all tools needed to troubleshoot and remediate the issues without any time pressure to get it done at the last minute.

Maestro Setup
Maestro Setup

Tasks

As is often the case, there are many tasks to manage behind the scenes before we have our first visitors come to see our exhibits. NARS has done this before and we have a good idea of how to manage things. Here is a high-level breakdown of some of the major tasks

  • Update Displays
  • Volunteer’s assignments
  • Plan Layout
  • Create Packing List
  • Transportation to HamXposition
  • Setup
  • Operation
  • Breakdown
  • Transportation from HamXposition
Transport Truck
Transport Truck

Many of us have pickup trucks and two of them plus a car is enough to handle transporting our exhibit.

Current Displays

  • Nashua Area Radio Society Information
  • Get On the Air Work the World
  • Kit Building / Raspberry Pi
  • Field Day and Emergency Communications
  • Satellite Communications
  • High Altitude Balloons
  • Fox Hunt
  • SOTA/POTA
  • Morse Code

Some of our displays were showing a bit of age and those have been updated and refreshed by Anita, AB1QB for this year.  This is what part of our exhibit at last year’s HamXposition looked like last year right before it opened.

2021 HamXposition Display
2021 HamXposition Display

Come and Visit

We are very proud of our exhibit.  It is the result of much effort over the years and is an excellent way for us to share our hobby with other people, whether they be hams or not.  More importantly, I am even prouder of the enthusiasm and support of this project from our member volunteers who will be guides during the event and gave their time and energy to sharing our mutual love for this hobby.

GOTA Display
GOTA Display

I look forward to welcoming you to our exhibit at HamXposition this year.

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide