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.

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

CQ All Hams – Join Us For Online Meetings and Tech Nights!

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CQ CQ All Hams! We will open our Membership Meetings and Tech Nights for April and May to include our Internet Subscribers and all Hams in North America.

CQ All Hams

We will hold our meetings online during April and May via Zoom! You are invited to join us online for these meetings.

We have some excellent speakers planned for our April and May meetings and they will share live presentations and conduct Q&A online. The Nashua Area Radio Society will also be conducting an after-meeting net on 40m after our April and May Meetings and Tech Nights.

Our Online Meetings in April and May

Nashua Area Radio Society April Regular Meeting

CQ All Hams - Jim Idelson, K1IR
Jim Idelson, K1IR

Nashua Area Radio Society Regular Meeting, April 7th, 7 pm Eastern – Our speaker will be Jim Idelson K1IR who will talk about Tower Safety. Join Our Zoom Meeting

Nashua Area Radio Society April Tech Night

AB1OC By The Tower
Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC

Nashua Area Radio Society Tech Night, April 14th, 7 pm Eastern – Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC will provide a how-to presentation on How to Get Started in 2m EME (Moon Bounce) Communications. Fred will also share some details on a high-performance EME station that he is building. Join Our Zoom Meeting

Nashua Area Radio Society May Regular Meeting

CQ All Hams - Bob Heil, K9EID
Bob Heil, K9EID

Nashua Area Radio Society Regular Meeting, May 5th, 7 pm Eastern – Our speaker will be Dr. Bob Heil, K9EID. More to come on Bob’s Presentation

Nashua Area Radio Society May Tech Night

Operating Digital 2
Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB Using N1MM+ at Field Day

Nashua Area Radio Society Tech Night, May 12th, 7 pm Eastern – Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB and Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC will provide a how-to presentation on Getting Started with the N1MM+ Contest Logger.

All you need to join one of our meetings is to click on the Join Our Zoom Meeting link above for the meeting that you want to Join.

We suggest that you join our meetings online at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start times.

Join Us for Our After Meeting Nets on 40m


Abby Finchum, AB1BY – A NARS Net Control Operator Running a Special Event

CQ All Hams! The Nashua Area Radio Society will hold our new after meeting nets on or around 7.260 MHz LSB. We will post an update on the final frequency here just before our nets begin. We hope that these nets will give our members and guests a chance to communicate and socialize with each other. Folks who join us for the preceding online meetings will also be able to monitor the after meeting nets via the online share.

We will also be live streaming video and audio from our nets to the Nashua Area Radio Society Facebook page.

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Out Of This World Phone Patch

 I have joined the ARISS Program as a Mentor to help schools make contacts with astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). School contacts as part of the ARISS program can take two forms – Direct Contacts and Telebridge Contacts. We have recently added Phone Patch capability to the Satellite Ground Station here….

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 11 – Phone Patch/Telebridge Capability

Did you ever wonder how a Telephone Patch device is used? Back in the day, it was common for Amateur Radio operators to help families talk to their relatives and service members overseas over the air. This was done by first establishing a radio link to a foreign Amateur Radio station. Next, the Hams involved connected third party family members to each other via local telephone connections so they could speak.

A device called a Phone Patch was used to make the connections between the Amateur Radio Transceivers and the local telephone lines.

Out Of This World Phone Patch

International Space Station - ISS Slow Scan TV
International Space Station

We still use Telephone Patch devices to enable Schools to make contact with the International Space Station. This type of contact is called a Telebridge. A school can make a  Telebridge Contact with an astronaut on board the ISS using a telephone connection to an Amateur Radio Ground Station in a different location. A Phone Patch is used to make the connection between the school and the remote Ground Station.

We’ve added a Phone Patch to our Satellite Station here to support our work with ARISS. We will use it to test school audio systems as they prepare to make contact with the ISS via Telebridge. Click on the link above to learn more about how a Phone Patch is used to make a Telebridge Contact.

Fred, AB1OC

DX, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

CQ World Wide WPX from my Home Station

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This past weekend was the CQ World Wide WPX SSB contest. I haven’t worked a lot of contests from my home station, but I have some free time on my hands with this COVID-19 pandemic going on, so I decided I’d give it a shot.

AC1DC Station

I have been very lucky and probably a little spoiled to have been able to use AB1OC/AB1QB’s station, which is an amazing station, for past contests. So, let me start by telling you a little about my home station. I’m running an Icom IC-7300 with an Elecraft KPA500 500 watt amplifier. I’m using the Buckmaster 4-band OCF Dipole for an antenna on a push-up mast from Max-Gain Systems at about 35 feet high. Definitely not a bad set up, but it’s not a big-gun station either.

My main goal for jumping into the contest was to have fun and try to finish off my DXCC. I have over a hundred countries and do have my DXCC through QRZ, but I’ve been stuck at 97 confirmed for quite a while on LOTW.  I figured this would be a good contest to knock off a few more countries and hopefully get them confirmed.

The CQ WW WPX is a 48-hour contest in which amateur radio operators worldwide try to contact as many other operators as possible in that time. The exchange is a simple signal report and a progressive serial number. What is really fun about this contest is that each different prefix is a multiplier. As you make more contacts with unique prefixes your score really shoots up! It is fun to watch your score after each new contact.

My station seemed to be getting out pretty well as I searched the bands. I never called CQ and only searched and pounced, but looking back may have been able to try running on 40 meters – especially as the contest moved into Sunday. I didn’t operate the whole time but spent a fair amount of time on and off throughout the weekend.

In the end, I wound up with 222 contacts. 163 of those contacts were unique prefixes for a total claimed score of 72,698 points. I contacted 32 different countries and of those only two were countries that I did not already have.

By the end of the weekend, I accomplished my first goal. I had a blast! Even if I did fall short on getting three more confirmed countries for my DXCC this past weekend has shown me that you don’t have to have a super-station to join in on the fun of contesting.

Jamey, AC1DC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide