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.

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

Listen In On The Council Rock ARISS Contact on Thursday!

Students at Council Rock High School South in Southampton, PA will be talking with Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA aboard the ISS on Thursday. The ISS will be over our area here in the Northeastern Unit States beginning at about 12:55 pm eastern time on Thursday, December 5th. Council Rock’s ARISS Contact is made possible by the ARISS Program.

Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA
Astronaut Drew Morgan, KI5AAA

You should be able to hear Drew on the ISS voice downlink at 145.800 MHz FM. The ISS pass will be a high one over our area. As a result, we should be able to hear the downlink using a good vertical antenna and perhaps even using an HT.

ARISS Contact Preparations

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Council Rock H.S. ARC and Warminster ARC Members

The Council Rock H.S. South Amateur Radio Club partnered with the Warminster Amateur Radio Club to prepare for the school’s ISS contact.

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Council Rock H.S. Students Test Their ISS Ground Station

Students, Teachers, and their Warminster ARC partners have assembled and tested their ISS Ground Station in preparation for their contact. Several of the students used their station to make their very first Amateur Radio Contacts.

Council Rock High School South ARISS Contact
Ground Station Antennas at Council Rock H.S. South

Plans for Contact Day

Here’s some more information about the plans for the contact from Andy Vavra – KD3RF, a Warminster ARC member, who has been working with the Students and Faculty at Council Rock H.S. South to prepare for their contact:

I’m Andy Vavra – KD3RF, and one of several mentors from the Warminster Amateur Radio Club (WARC) who are helping students from Council Rock High School South in Southampton, PA make contact with the International Space Station on Thursday, December 5th as part of NASA and AMSAT’s ARISS program…

Several Warminster Amateur Radio Club members including Michael Shanblatt (W3MAS,) Irwin Darack (KD3TB,) Joe Horanzy (AA3JH,) as well as myself (KD3RF) and ARISS advisor Fred Kemmerer (AB1OC) have been mentoring the teachers and students to help them set-up and operate a permanent satellite station at the school which they will use to engage in a conversation with the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) this coming Thursday, December 5th at 17:56 UTC (12:56 pm Eastern Time.)…

Council Rock South has an active Ham Radio club (KC3NNG) with more than 30 student members in grades 9 – 12 who are getting started on their Ham Radio journeys. The club is under the sponsorship and guidance of four teacher/advisors from the school’s STEM program; Gerald Fetter (K3OHI,) Joe Warwick (KB3ZED,) and Jeff Warmkassel and Fred Bauer who are working on getting licensed.

The student members represent all segments of Council Rock’s diverse community and are interested in continuing their education in fields such as engineering, science, technology, marketing and business.

Join In On Council Rock’s ISS Contact

You can join the Council Rock Facebook Group for updates and watch a live stream of the contact on Thursday between 12:30 – 1:30 pm.

  • Facebook Page & link for live stream video of the contact:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/crsouthradio/posts
  • Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club Homepage:  https://www.crsd.org/Page/57298
  • Council Rock South Amateur Radio Club Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/crsouthradio/

I am serving as the ARRIS Mentor for Council Rock H.S. South’s ISS Contact. I am looking forward to the opportunity to be at their school on Thursday to be part of what I am sure will be a very memorable event.

You can learn more about the ARISS Program and how to secure an ISS contact for your school here.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Field Day Results 2019 – N1FD is Number One Field Day!

The  ARRL Field Day 2019 results are in and our N1FD entry placed Number 1 in the 11A category!  We also placed #15 overall with a final score of 12,688.

This was a huge improvement from Field Day 2018, where we placed #2 in Category 10A with a score of 9,620 and placed #46 overall.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in our Field Day operation!  Here is a link to the ARRL Field Day Results 2019 Article.

Here is a link to the recap of our 2019 Field Day operation

A gallery of photos from ARRL Field Day 2019  can be seen below.

If you enjoyed Field Day or did not get an opportunity to participate,  plan to join us for Winter Field Day.  It will be held on the weekend of January 25th at Keyes Memorial Field in Milford, NH.  See this article for more information.

Hope to see you at Winter Field Day!

Anita, AB1QB

Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

Snow is coming to New England this weekend so we wanted to get the control cables run to our new EME Tower before the ground is covered with snow. The project involved installing a Utility Enclosure…

Source: EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller

We made some more progress on our 2m EME Station Project this past weekend. We began by installing a Utility Controller on our new EME Tower. With this done, we next ran three control cables through the conduits between our shack and the Tower. The control cables connect to our Azimuth Rotator, Elevation Rotator, and a planned MAP65 Switching and Preamp System.

Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller
Green Heron Az-El Rotator Controller

With the cables run, we connected our Azimuth Rotator to a Green Heron Az/El Rotator Controller in our shack. This enabled us to get our Azimuth Rotator configured and tested.

You can read more about this part of our EME Station Project via the link above.

The next step in our EME Station Project will be to assemble the antennas that we have on order from M2 Antennas Systems and install them along with an H-Frame and related gear on our new Tower. We are hoping that the winter weather will allow us to get this done before spring.

Fred, AB1OC

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