Category Archives: Featured

This category is for featured articles that we want to include in the sidebars and other areas on our website.

Featured, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Plans for Enhancing Our Ham Station This Fall

Source: Plans for 2017 Station Upgrades – Radio, Shared Amplifier, and Remote Op Enhancements

We are planning a number of enhancements at our Ham Station this fall. Our plans include:

We try to do some station upgrades in the fall of each year to maximize our operating fun during the winter months. We are at the design stage on these projects and I wanted to share some information about what we are planning from our Stationproject Blog.  We always welcome members who want to join in on our projects as a means to learn about station building. More to come as we make progress with these projects.

Special thanks to Dave, K1DLM who has helped us with ideas for several aspects of this project.

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

Amazing DX Opening on the 12m Band

Today proved out some simple, tried and true advice for me – it pays to take some time and tune through the bands. I just got a Maestro Remote Control Device for our FlexRadio SDR and I took a break around lunchtime to tune through the higher HF bands to see what I could hear. We use a Flex SDR as a Remote Operating Gateway into our station and the Maestro allows me to run our station over our home network with going down to the shack.

I am not sure why but I decided to give the 12m band a look today. When I did, I was stunned! It is about noon time and the 12m band is wide open between Africa and the US!

12m DX - XT2AW Burkina Faso
12m DX – XT2AW Burkina Faso

I worked two DX stations on 12m SSB. The first was XT2AW, Harald in Burkina Faso. Harald was working split and was not real loud but I had no trouble completing the contact with him. Excited, I tuned across 12m some more and found an old friend – Theo, ZS6TVB in South Africa. I had a very nice QSO with him. We both marveled over the propagation on the 12m band that we were experiencing. He was 57-58 here in New Hampshire!

The sunspot conditions are pretty weak (SFI 85, SN 26) to create such a good opening on 12m. I believe that we may be experiencing Transequatorial Propagation (TEP) which can provide a significant propagation enhancement on paths with traverse the equator. Anita and I experienced similar TEP propagation on 10m when we were on Bora Bora Island early in 2012 with similar solar conditions.

It just goes to show that it pays to tune the upper HF bands. Especially on days when “they are not open”. Also, 10m also appears to be open to Africa right now – I am hearing a station in Mauritania…

Fred, AB1OC

 

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

Fall 2017 License Classes Have Begun

We have started our fall 2017 license classes with the Technician License Class being held this weekend – September 30 – October 1 at Dartmouth Hitchcock in Nashua.  We have a large class – a total of 16 students!

Abby, AB1BY teaching the Tech Students

License Class Instructors

We have a new instructor to add to the team, Abby, AB1BY.  The other instructors are Jamey, KC1ENX,  Aron, W1AKI, Wayne, AG1A, Brian, AB1ZO, and Fred, AB1OC.  Thanks to all instructors for the time and effort they put into this Club Activity.

Satellite Station 2.0
Satellite Station 2.0

License Class Demos

In addition to reviewing every question in the technician class pool, we provide many demos to show students what they can do with their technician class license.  We have a satellite station, an HF station and a UHF/VHF go kit set up for demos.

Class Demos
Class Demos
Fred, AB1OC demonstrates a Satellite Contact
Fred, AB1OC demonstrates a Satellite Contact

Next Classes

Our next classes will be the General Class, which will be held on November 4-5 and the Extra Class, which will be held on December 1-3.  More information on our classes can be found on our website.  Club members are invited to stop by and see what we are doing.

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide