Every now and again one comes across a piece of Ham Radio History. Anita and I had this experience recently during our vacation in Florida. For example, we can across an artifact that we had heard about from Charle, W1CBD but had never actually seen during a recent visit to Florida.
Pretty Basic HT Transceiver
This is a Motorola MX-340. This radio was a 5w UHF (or sometimes VHF) FM rig that was popular for commercial applications in the 1970s. You can learn more about the rig here.
A Very Special HT Transceiver
So I bet you are wondering “What makes this old HT so special? Why is it a piece of Ham Radio History?”. Well, here’s a hint – it flew aboard this:
Space Shuttle Atlantis On Display At The Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Yup, the little HT flew aboard the Space Shuttle. Here’s more about our little HTs role via an excerpt from Wikipedia :
Ham Radio has been a STEM learning tool for a very long time. An early example of this was the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) program. SAREX was a partnership between NASA, ARISS, and the ARRL. Its success in bringing Ham Radio to schools and other educational venues led, in part, to the creation of ARISS.
How All Of This Effects NARS
HMS Students Talking to the ISS
And ARISS, of course, has provided NARS the opportunity to be part of bringing contacts with astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to schools here in New Hampshire, around the United States, and around the world.
There are many such examples of Ham Radio History that resulted in great things for many people. Perhaps you know of one? If so, please consider taking writing about it here on our Blog.
We are currently considering a new project for the Nashua Area Radio Society – potentially building a club station for our members to use. We know that many folks, particularly new and recently upgraded Hams would likely use and benefit from a club station if we had one.
Why Build A Club Station?
A club station would provide many opportunities for our members to build skills and have fun with Amateur Radio. It would also provide an important emergency communications resource to members of our community. Some additional uses of a club station might include:
A station that members and student/teacher partners can use to operate
A 24-7 station for EMCOM work
Space Needs
I wanted to share some ideas about what capabilities we are thinking about including in such a project. First, we’d certainly want to have a permanent space that our members could access and use to make contacts. This means that we’ need to find a location that could support 200 sq ft or more of space for equipment and operators. Space would need to be reasonably accessible to our members and have adequate power, light, heat, and Internet access available.
Possible Club Station Capabilities
Hex Beam Directional Antenna
A club station would be an on-going project that would likely evolve and grow with our club’s member’s interests and skills. Some capabilities that we might initially include would be:
A 100 w HF station for at least 40m – 10m
A combination of a wire (40m) antenna and a directional (Hex beam or a tri-band 20m-10m) antenna
An FM repeater transceiver and antenna
A computer for logging and other Amateur Radio activities such as Digital operations
We are exploring the idea of a club station at this time. The first step in the project would be to find a suitable space that we could use. We’re looking for a location that is centrally located in the Nashua Area. A Loft or similar space at someone’s QTH or a space that is part of an existing business, educational facility, or other public space would make great potential candidates for a club station.
Perhaps you have or know of someone who has a loft or other suitable space that we might use. The benefit to someone who could help us in this way would be ready access to a top-notch Amateur Radio Station along with the satisfaction that comes from helping our members develop their skills and support our community in times of emergency.
If you know of a space that you think we might consider, please contact us at [email protected]. We are also looking for members who would like to help us with this project. We hope to find a space and undertake a club station project in 2020.
Winter Field Day 2020 is almost here! A few weekends ago, Jerry K1OKD, Jon AC1EV, Andrew NF1H, Anita AB1QB, and I got together at our QTH to complete the final station test for our planned 5O operation in Winter Field Day (WFD).
Portable Wireless Networking
Portable Wireless Networking Pod
In preparation for WFD 2020 and our test, I built a new Wireless Networking Pod. This unit was made possible by a very generous donation of a router with LTE wireless access capabilities by Dave, K1DLM.
Networking Pod Details
The system consists of the following components:
A FortiWiFi 60D 3G 4G Router which includes an LTE modem for wireless internet access
A NetGear GS516TP 16-Port enterprise-grade managed Ethernet Switch with PoE
Our Networking Pod will be used in a number of ways to support Nashua Area Radio Society activities including Youth Expos, Ham Bootcamps, Field Day Operations, Portable Operations, and others. It provides a wired and wireless (via WiFi) network capability including DHCP, DNS, Firewall and other IP services that can be used to network computers running the N1MM+ logger and other apps. It can also be used to provide wireless internet access via LTE in situations where we need this.
A Windows Laptop Computer with an outboard second monitor
Triplexer and Bandpass Filtering system at Winter Field Day
We also tested our Triplexer and Bandpass Filtering system along with the radios.
160m All-Mode Station Main N1MM+ Monitor
A big part of this test was to get the N1MM Logger+ working with the radios and in a network configuration using the Networking Pod. Networking N1MM+ enables us to maintain a common log across the 5 stations in our Winter Field Day setup. All of the stations were also set up for SSB Voice, CW and Digital operation via N1MM+.
All of the station tests are complete and we are ready for Winter Field Day! Come on out and join us for what I am sure will be a lot of fun!
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