Category Archives: General

Articles about Amateur Radio and the Nashua Area Radio Society. This is a general category which includes most articles on our website.

Digital, Featured, General, Member Spotlights, Newsletter

Member Spotlight – Anita, AB1QB

 How did you become licensed?

My OM, Fred, AB1OC found out some time in 2010 that he could get a Ham Radio license without needing to pass a code test.  He took his test in December 2010 and got his Technician, General and Extra license in one exam session.  I have a background in Electrical Engineering so I picked up his books and thought it would not be hard to get my license as well.  In April 2011, I passed both my Tech and General exams and was licensed as a General.

QSL Card from FO/AB1OC and FO/AB1QB from Bora Bora

A few months later, Fred was invited to go on a trip to Bora Bora, French Polynesia.  I was studying about propagation for my Extra class and saw that this would be a great place to operate from as we were staying in bungalows out over the water.    I suggested that we take a radio along on the trip.  Before long we had a whole portable station with an IC-7000, Buddipoles, a Signalink for digital, antenna tuners, the whole works.  I was responsible for getting our operating licenses for French Polynesia.  I learned that in order to operate, we needed to both have Extra licenses.  That was my incentive to get my Extra, which I got in December 2011, just in time for our trip in February 2012.

Member Spotlight - AB1QB in 2014 JARTS RTTY Contest
AB1QB in 2014 JARTS RTTY Contest
What do you like to do most with Ham Radio?

My favorite Ham Radio activities are DXing and RTTY Contesting.   I have earned a DXCC Challenge and have confirmed 290  DX entities and I have earned certificates in the ARRL RTTY Roundup as #1 in New Hampshire, and the BARTG HF RTTY contest, where I placed in the top 5 in my category.  I have also earned the JARL Century Cities award for contacting 100 Cities in Japan.  I am just one contact short of my 5 Band WAS, looking for that last contact with Alaska on 80 meters.

My pursuit of new DX entities led me to create my current hobby project, the DX Alarm Clock, a Raspberry Pi based software program that I can customize to notify me when those needed entities are spotted on the air.

Member Spotlight - AB1QB logging for AB1OC/M during the NPOTA activation
AB1QB logging for AB1OC/M during the NPOTA activation.

I also like that Ham Radio involves such a diverse set of activities.  I have been a tower climbing ground crew,  helped to build (and rebuild) a SteppIR DB36 Yagi, was a driver and member of the Hollis site management team for WRTC 2014.  I have also operated as W1AW/1 during the ARRL Centennial and as K2K in the 13 Colonies Special Event. and operated from a mobile station in our F150 from several National Parks.

What is your background?

My educational background is in Electrical Engineering and most of my technical experience is in Software Development and Program Management.  I am currently a Program Manager at Verizon managing projects related to a cloud platform.

Nashua Area Radio Club License Training Class
Nashua Area Radio Club License Training Class
What do you like to do with the Club?

I am currently the Activities Chairperson for the club.  I have organized several contesting activities at our home QTH to help other club members to become involved with contesting.   These include the ARRL Rookie Roundups, including the latest one where the multi-op N1FD entry achieved the highest score in the contest.  We also hosted a multi-single entry for CQ WW SSB, where we helped the club get a DXCC in a weekend.  I am also an instructor for our Ham Radio license classes, where I teach digital modes and propagation.  I also use my project management skills to manage all of the logistics for the classes including the VE sessions.  It is a great feeling to be able to help people get their licenses.

Anita, AB1QB

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

Making Contacts Through LEO Satellites

I’ve been having a lot of fun this past week learning to operate using satellites. It is amazing how many LEO satellites are operational right now!

LEO Satellites - Antennas
Satellite Antennas

We built an improved portable LEO satellite station a little while back and used it for the first time during a Technician License Class that we taught earlier this spring.

We decided to set up the station in our back yard about a week ago. The idea was to spend some more time learning to operate the station and to improve our satellite operating skills.

The past week has been a productive one. Here are some stats for our satellite operations during the last 7 days –

  • Contacts Made: 78
  • Modes Used: SSB Phone, FM Phone, CW and Packet (APRS FM)
  • Satellites Worked – 9 Total plus the ISS: AO-7, AO-85, ARISS (International Space Station), FO-29, SO-50, XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2C, XW-2D, and XW-2F
  • States Worked: 23
  • Grids Worked: 49

The week began with a visit from Curtis, N1CMD who has quite a bit of experience with Digital Packet operation via the digipeater on the ISS. After some experimentation, Curtis helped me to find a setup using a SignaLink Sound Card and a second, windows computer that works well for Packet QSOs. I tested the setup using the terrestrial APRS network to get all of the hardware and software working correctly. The combination was then used to make a first packet contact using the ISS.

Operational LEO Satellites

The LEO satellites which are currently operational support a mix of split band modes. All of the satellites that we’ve worked so far use either 2M/70cm or 70cm/2M up and downlinks. The satellites support a variety of operating modes including via single channel FM, linear transponders, and APRS packet systems. Operating skills such as proper adjustment of up and downlink frequencies, Tx power management and setup of the digital packet system have been at least partially mastered this past week.

There are a great bunch of folks who are regulars on the satellites and we have made some new friends in our short time operating through satellites. The single channel FM satellites are usually too busy to support rag-chewing. The linear transponder satellites (there are many of these) support several conversations at the same time and we have had some nice rag-chew sessions on these birds.

There is also a good bit of DX to be had via satellites. This past week we have worked Patrick, FJ/N2IEN in Saint Barthelemy; Chris, 9Y4D in Trinidad and Tobago; Burt, FG8OJ in Guadeloupe; Fausto, HC9VF in Ecuador; and several stations in Canada.

We are planning to set up our portable satellite station at Field Day this year. Curtis will be the main operator/station master for our satellite station. If you are interested in learning more about satellite operations, please let Curtis or I know and we’ll help you to learn more during Field Day 2017.

Fred, AB1OC

CW and QRP, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter

QRPGuys Iambic Paddle Build

I’ve been practicing a lot of CW lately and had ordered a QRP guys iambic paddle from their website qrpguys.com awhile back. I went to the CW class on Saturday morning, which got me in the CW mood. After knocking some items off the honey-do list I was getting a little bored on Saturday night so I headed down to the shack and dug out the iambic key kit I had ordered.

I’ve never done any kit building or anything slightly engineer-y until joining the club. I don’t always understand why things work and building kits (even simple ones help me along). This kit didn’t look too hard, although it has a 4 out of 5-star difficulty rating on their website, so I jumped right in!

I made sure I started by sorting out all the parts in an orderly fashion.Iambic Paddle Build  I learned this much from working countless hours after Christmas and birthdays on Star Wars lego kits that are made for children, but built by adults after the kids get frustrated 15 minutes after starting!

I then got to the fun part of soldering. This was different than what I’ve done in the past as I started with soldering all the mechanical parts together by applying a small amount of solder and then checking to make sure everything lined up before putting a lot of solder on. Iambic Paddle BuildI enjoyed this as it was a large area to solder and it didn’t matter so much if my soldering skills aren’t very good! There were only a few electrical components to solder and that part was rather easy, even for my limited skills!

The toughest part of the whole build was assembling the paddles. You can see from the picture there are four nuts (and lock washers) that are to be assembled on the inside of the paddles with very limited space. TIambic Paddle Buildweezers were an absolute necessity – and earplugs for any youth that may be hanging around. After many – and I do mean many – attempts of dropping and picking up nuts and washers I finally got the washers and nuts in place and fastened.

Iambic Paddle Build

I was thrilled to have succeeded and ran out to the car, where my radio is hooked up at the moment and gave it a quick test run. Below is my not-so-professional video which shows my not-so-professional CW skills.

The paddles work well. The black pads do stick together a little when you push on both paddles at the same time, but I am very happy with my tiny QRP paddles! I am thinking of cutting slots in the sides and attaching a velcro band to attach to my leg to keep the paddle in place in the hopes that I could operate it with one hand. Let me know what you think or if you’ve built this kit before.

73,

Jamey (KC1ENX)

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide