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

An Opinion Of Sorts

2 Comments

My name is John Halbert, and my call sign is W1SMN. My previous call sign was KA1HOV.  I have been a member of the Nashua Area Radio Society (previously known as the Nashua Area Radio Club) for 40 years.  In the past, I have held the Offices of Secretary and Vice President.  My current title is Publicity Chairman for the Nashua Area Radio Society (NARS).

Now you are probably saying to yourself, what does the Publicity Chairman do?  Thanks for asking.  Well to start with, a lot.  I have held this position for quite a long time because of my Broadcasting career for 42 years.  I am very proud of what I do.  I get very involved with many things NARS does.  My biggest and favorite is Field Day.  To start with, I make and distribute 50 posters at various locations throughout the greater Nashua area, and the surrounding towns.  I send press releases to the newspapers and email invitations to Government officials.  I make arrangements for TV coverage of our Field Day event, arrange for food donations, and make food too.

Well to you, this may sound like a lot of work.

It is.  But I learned something VERY IMPORTANT a long time ago, and that is:

“You only get out of something, what you are willing to put into it”.  I hope you know where I’m going with this.

NARS is asking for your help in many areas such as running for Office (Training will be provided), setting up tables and chairs for our meetings, Tech Nights, Field Day, Nearfest, and other special events NARS might get involved with.

Remember, NARS did not get selected to be the Dayton Hamvention Club of the Year for 2019 for doing nothing.  A small number of people got us there, and to them, I say a big, THANK YOU!

Do not forget the word T.E.A.M.  Remember what the letters stand for: “Together Everyone Achieves More”.

Three words should jump right out at you:

Everyone Achieves More

Think about that for a moment.  So if you will help a little, it will help a lot.  Members, will you volunteer and lend a hand or two?

Remember, “It’s better to be looked UP to than Down upon”.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 73 s,

John Halbert, W1SMN

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Adding L-Band (24 cm) to Our Satellite SDR System

We’ve recently received our L24TX Transmit Converter from Down East Microwave. The unit is compact, simple, and produces up to 25W output in the satellite section of the 23 cm band (1260 MHz – 1270 MHz, actually 24 cm). The L24TX is a transmit-only device that is intended to enable L-band uplinks for Satellite use. This article is about our most recent project which involved integrating the L24TX into our Flex Satellite SDR System to enable L-Band Satellite operation  …

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 10 – Adding 23 cm To Our Satellite SDR

We are making progress on our project to enable remote Satellite operation via the Internet. The latest step is the addition of L-band (24 cm) uplink support to our Flex Satellite SDR System.

L-Band Satellite SDR
L-Band 24 cm Transmit Converter

We’ve also made some good progress on custom software to link MacDoppler and our Flex Radio Satellite System via the Internet.

The article in the link above shares information about how to go about adding Transverters and Band Transmit Converters to a Flex SDR. the step needed to configure the Flex SmartSDR software, as well as links, cover other aspects for our Satellite System 4.0 Project are included.

You can read the latest updates about this project via the link above.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration – W3ZM/1 Activations in CT and RI

1 Comment

Burns, WB1FJ approached me a few weeks ago doing some portable satellite activations as part of the AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration. The idea was to use the AMSAT Callsign WZ3M/1 to put the states of CT and RI on satellites.

Simple Portable Satellite Station
Portable Satellite Station on Mt. Washington

We had recently tested our portable satellite station during the Nashua Area Radio Society’s activation of Mt Washington. The WZ3M/1 activations were a great opportunity to continue testing our portable satellite station by making some more linear and FM contacts.

Radio Management via MacDoppler
MacDoppler Satellite Tracking Software

Preparations for our activations included creating a Pass Summary of predictions for the day of our activation using prediction data from MacDoopler. You can take a look at our pass summary here.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in RI

Our first activation was near the fire station in Burrillville, RI. We found an open spot and set up our station, antenna, and solar power system. This was a great public spot and we had several visitors come by to take a look at our setup and ask questions about satellites and Amateur Radio.

We made quite a few contacts at this location using both FM satellites like AO-92, AO-92, and SO-50 as well as a few contacts using linear satellites like CAS-4A and CAS-4B.

W3ZM/1 Activation
W3ZM/1 Activation in CT

We moved to a Church in CT for the next part of our activation early in the afternoon. This site was a little less open than the first one but we were still able to make a number of contacts here.

The photo above shows a view of our portable setup which consisted of an Icom 910H transceiver, a MacBook Air Laptop running MacDoppler, and an Elk Log-periodic antenna on a tripod. The computer and MacDoppler controlled the radio VFOs to automatically correct for Doppler shift which enabled us to do contacts using linear satellites. We used an iPhone running a satellite tracking app to help point the antenna during satellite passes.

We used a pair of 90W portable solar panels, a pair of LIPO batteries, and an MPPT charging system to provide power for our radio and the computer. It was a sunny day and our solar power system kept our batteries fully charged through both activations.

We did pretty well overall making a total of 15 contacts between. The downlink side of our antenna system was the weakest link in the setup. Folks that we worked on linear satellites indicated that our uplink signals were solid but we had some trouble hearing weaker stations on the downlinks. We have some ideas for an improved antenna system for our next portable activation – stay tuned for more on this.

All in all, Burns and I were pretty pleased with these activations. We had a lot of fun, helped a few folks some new states, contributed to AMSAT’s 50th Celebration, and we learned some things that we can use to improve our portable station.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide