KC1FFX, Abby, KC1ENX, Jamey, and W1AKI, Aron recently operated in the ARRL Rookie Roundup Ham radio contest using the N1FD Callsign. Certificates were sent out this week and N1FD received one for placing 1st in their category of Multi-Op Area 1!
2016 N1FD NEQP Certificate
AG1A, Wayne, KC1ENX, Jamey, and AB1OC, Fred operated in last year’s NEQP as a mobile and recently received a certificate for placing 2nd in the New England Multi-Op Mobile category. They are planning to enter the contest again this year on May 6-7. They would like to be joined by a CW operator to help them make a run for the #1 spot. If you are interested in joining them, please contact Fred at [email protected].
These certificates and other awards that the club has received can be found on our awards page.
As Field Day 2017 approaches, Dave, N1RF; Mike, K1WVO, Don, KC1CRK and I got together to assemble and test two of the Yagi’s that we are planning to use for Field Day this year.
New 6m Yagi
I’ve contributed a new 6m Yagi for Field Day this year – an M2 Antenna Systems 6M5XHP. This antenna has 5 elements on an 18 ft boom. This antenna is fairly lightweight for its size and performs great – perfect for Field Day.
Tuning the 6M Yagi
We installed it on two tower sections (20 ft) of so that we could properly adjust its tuning.
Final 6M Yagi Test on Tower
We found that we could adjust the antenna’s driven element and hairpin match for the best SWR performance with the tower tilted over and the antenna on its side. We got nearly the same SWR performance this way as we saw with the tower and antenna tilted up 20 ft off the ground.
Final 6M Yagi SWR
After several adjustments with the tower up and down, we finally came up with an SWR curve that looked good.
Installing the WRTC Tribander on the Test Tower
The club purchased a WRTC tower and Triband Yagi a little while back and this Field Day will be the first time that we’ve had a chance to use this combination. We found that the phasing system and feed point for the WRTC Tribander had been misplaced so we made a replacement for these parts and we wanted to test the WRTC Tribander’s performance with the new parts.
WRTC Tribander on the Tower
After a quick check of the WRTC Tribander’s SWR performance with the tower tilted over, we stood the tower up and measured its SWR performance on 10m, 15m, and 20m.
WRTC Tribander SWR on 20m
The antenna’s SWR performance with its new phasing lines and feed point looked great on all three bands!
We ended the day by disassembling the two Yagi’s and taking down the tower. With this project done, we’ll be working on a falling derrick system for our third tower for Field Day.
A big Thank You! to Dave, Mike, and Don for helping with this project. It was a lot of fun!
We recently received a request from the Police Athletic League (PAL) in Nashua, NH to put on a Get On The Air (GOTA) demonstration of Amateur Radio for the kids there. The folks at PAL are trying to create activities that promote STEM and Amateur Radio interest among kids.
GOTA Station
Jamey, KC1ENX and I went to PAL a little while back and set up our portable station using the screwdriver antenna on my truck.
Kids on the Air at Nashua PAL
We had some of the worst propagation conditions that we have seen in a while on the day we were at PAL, Fortunately, Mike, K1WVO got on to try to give the kids a few contacts.
QSL Cards
We also brought some QSL cards and Jamey spent some time with the kids explaining QSLs and some of the places that were contacted.
HAB and Foxes
We also brought our High Altitude Balloon (HAB) and our 2m Fox Hunt transmitters for the kids to see. There was lots of interest in the HAB platform and what it would be like to see the video that it will record.
Due to the poor propagation conditions, the kids did not get to make many contacts. The folks at PAL invited us to come back another time when the conditions are better and we plan to do that later this summer. We also invited the PAL folks to visit us during our Field Day operation coming up and try out the GOTA station there.
Special thanks to Jamey, Matt, and Mike for helping us with our GOTA event at PAL.
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