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, On The Air

NPOTA Fun – Activating a New Park

Ever since we built our Mobile HF Station, we’ve talked about taking it to Acadia National Park in Maine and operating from the top of Cadillac Mountain.  The 2016 ARRL NPOTA event gave us the motivation to plan the trip for the week before Labor Day.    The week before our trip, we saw an article in the ARRL Letter encouraging operation from the newly declared National Monument, Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, which had just be designated as NPOTA MN84.  Visiting the NPS website, we learned that the park is only a 2 1/2 hour drive from Bar Harbor, where we are staying.  We decided to accept the challenge to be the first to activate the new park.

F150 Mobile Station at the entrance to Katadhin Woods and Wildlife National Monument NPOTA
Our F150 Mobile Station at the entrance to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

Tuesday, August 30 was our first full day of vacation, we left our hotel room and parked by the Acadia visitor center and called “CQ National Parks”.   We ended up with 76 contacts in the log from NP01.

After that we got on the road and headed toward Katahdin Woods and Waters, activating counties along the way including the county line between Penobscot and Aroostook Counties.

NPS Map of the NPOTA
NPS Map of the Park

As a newly designated National Monument, Katahdin Woods and Waters does not yet have a visitors center or any signs showing you when you enter and exit the park.  We just had the map (above) to determine where the park boundaries were.    All of the roads in black on the map are gravel roads that are also used for logging trucks.

Entrance to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument NPOTA
Entrance to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument

We entered the park from Swift Brook Road off Rt 11 in the lower right corner of the map.  We drove through the lower section by the entrance and then headed north along the Eastern Branch of the Penobscot River and operated near the Loos camping area.   The sign above confirmed that we were within the park boundaries.

Scenic View of Katahdin Woods and Waters NM NPOTA
Scenic View of Katahdin Woods and Waters NM

The scenery along the river was beautiful with views of the mountains in the distance.

Operating at NPOTA MN84
Operating at MN84

We started operating on 20m and the pileups were huge!  Everyone was excited to get this new NPOTA into the log.  Fred, AB1OC/M ended up going split on 20m due to the size of the pile-ups.  After a while, he moved to 40m to give the close in folks a chance at MN84.  We went back and further between 20m and 40m until the pile-ups thinned out.   We also made 18 QSOs with the club callsign N1FD to also give the club credit for the activation.  We really enjoyed activating the park and the people we talked to were great!  We made a total of 350 QSOs from MN84.

Katahdin Woods and Waters NPOTA - National Park Yes!
Friendly Sign at Katahdin Woods & Waters

We also plan to activate Acadia National Park NP01 again from Cadillac Mountain this week. We will also activate Saint Croix Island, HS01 and Roosevelt Campobello International Park, AA21 in Canada (as AB1OC/VE9 and AB1QB/VE9).

Activating MN84 for the first time was truly a memorable experience.  We enjoyed it so much we will be back on Saturday to give more NPOTA chasers a chance at MN84!  Hope to talk to you on the air!

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter

Our Family Picnic is on August 27!!

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.

See you at our picnic!

73,

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, CW and QRP, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

Learning Morse Code – Our CW Training Classes Have Begun

4 Comments

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.

Morse Code - Dennis K1LGQ: "didit dah dah didit"
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.

Morse Code - Mike K1WVO 'Practice Practice Practice ...'
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.

Morse Code Keys - From the $2 Paperclip to $440 Bengali Key
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.

Mike, K1WVO

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide