Category Archives: Newsletter

Nashua Area Radio Society Newsletter Articles. You can find an archive of our Newsletters on our website.

Featured, General, Newsletter

Dayton / Xenia Hamvention 2017

Fred, AB1OC and I recently returned from the Dayton Hamvention, which was held at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, OH for the first time this year.  Here is a summary of our visit.

Dayton Hamvention - Dr. Tamitha Skov teaching us about Space Weather
Dr. Tamitha Skov teaching us about Space Weather

We always arrive 1 day before the Hamvention to attend Contest University.  We get to listen to professors who are experts in contesting, propagation and other aspects of Ham radio and always learn something new.  The presentation that stands out in my mind was on Space Weather by Dr. Tamitha Skov, who is a regular on Ham Nation and has a web site Space Weather Woman.

On Friday it was time to visit the first day of Hamvention.  We spent most of our time visiting the vendors.  The new venue had 5 buildings with vendor booths and 2 more buildings for Forums.  It took us most of Friday and some of Saturday to visit all of them.  Here are some of the highlights.

Icom 7610 at the Dayton Hamvention
Icom 7610

Icom has a new SDR transceiver coming out later this year, the IC-7610.  We got to see it in person at their booth.  The display was impressive.  If the performance is as good as the IC-7300, this will be a great transceiver.

Elecraft KPA-1500 Amp at the Dayton Hamvention
Elecraft KPA-1500 Amp

The Elecraft booth was very busy – we got to see their upcoming 1500 W amplifier, the KPA1500, which will cover 6m – 160m.. this one is going on the wishlist.

Flex Radio's new Transceiver with kbows at the Dayton Hamvention
Flex Radio’s new Transceiver with knobs

Next, we visited the Flex Radio booth and spent some time playing with the Maestro, which will have at Field Day for the GOTA station.  Their newest radios, including the Flex 6600  have buttons and knobs and a display.

Kenwood TH-D74 HT at the Dayton Hamvention
Kenwood TH-D74 HT

At Kenwood’s booth, we got to look at their newest HT, the TH-D74, a tri-bander which does APRS, D-Star and has a great looking color display.

Begali Keys Booth at the Dayton Hamvention
Begali Keys Booth

We then visited the Begali booth where we got a chance to try out a large variety of Begali Keys.

This year's new Toy at the Dayton Hamvention
This year’s new Toy

At the Begali booth, Fred picked out his Hamvention toy for this year – the Sculpture Mono key.

Burns, W2BFJ at the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention
Burns, W2BFJ at the AMSAT booth

We made several visits to the AMSAT booth and saw Burns, W2BFJ, one of our newest club members.  We also talked to their educational lead about ARISS opportunities to contact astronauts on the space stations and learned the details about how cube sats are built and launched.  We also picked up a copy of their latest satellite book, which is one of the best books on the topic we have read.

Tom Gallagher
Tom Gallagher

We also visited the ARRL booth where we received a warm welcome from Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, ARRL CEO, who spoke at our club meeting last year.  He is very interested in our HAB project.

3Y0Z

After the Hamvention closed for the day, we attended many of the dinners and activities at the Crowne Plaza with the contesting community.  At the Top Band dinner, we saw a very interesting presentation from Nodir, EY8MM, about his home country, Tajikistan and his plans for 160m operations during the Bouvet Island DXpedition coming up in 2018.

Overall we had a great time at the Hamvention and are looking forward to attending in 2018.

Anita, AB1QB

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

HAB Open House

On May 6, members and friends of the HAB (High-Altitude Balloon) Project gathered at Anita (AB1QB) and Fred’s (AB1OC) QTH for an open house to introduce the students participating in our project to amateur radio and the HAB itself. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperating with us, as rain was in the forecast. In fact, this was supposed to be the week before our actual launch so we could do some prep work with the kids. Fate had other ideas for the launch, however, as it was postponed due to more rain and has been since rescheduled to June 3.

Among the students there, we had representation from Merrimack High School, Bishop Guertin High School, and our independent group of which Abby (KC1FFX) and Connor (KC1GGX) made up 2/3 of the students.

HAB Project - Teachers (and a student) from Merrimack and Bishop Guertin
Teachers (and a student) from Merrimack and Bishop Guertin

Beginning around 9 am, we crowded into the kitchen to have Fred introduce the agenda for the day.

HAB Project Team gathering around the table
Gathering around the table

After showing off the HAB, the components, and explaining what everything did and how it was interconnected, we broke off into three teams. The first would tour the illustrious shack, the second would get a primer on antennas and towers in the backyard, and the third would brave the elements and go on a foxhunt.

HAB Team members going on a Fox Hunt
A crew going on a Fox Hunt

After each group was able to accomplish all three activities, we then invited the kids to make some QSOs in the shack and/or make some QSOs with Fred and Anita’s amateur satellite station v2.0. (I, myself, had made my first two satellite QSOs earlier that morning. A VERY cool station, indeed). A few were definitely nervous and mic shy, but most stepped up and seemed truly amazed (bewildered) that they could talk to some random person in some random corner of the globe.

By about 2 pm, there seemed to be expressions of fatigue on the young faces, and it seemed a natural time to conclude the day. All in all, it seemed the kids truly were excited about amateur radio and the HAB. We look forward to working with them in future phases of our HAB project and hope this is something that many of these freshmen can turn into a serious senior science project when they’re looking ahead towards graduation in a few years. (And perhaps, we’ll get some of them licensed too!)

73,

Brian (AB1ZO)

Hashtag: #N1FDHAB

Featured, General, Member Spotlights, Newsletter

Member Spotlight – Fred, AB1OC

What is your background?

I am a Purdue University graduate (MSEE) and I spent most of my working life at AT&T Bell Laboratories/Lucent where I worked on Wireless Systems, Broadband Access, Data Networking and VoIP products in a variety of engineering and business management roles. I also served as the Chief Technology Officer for a  mid-sized VoIP and Wireless company in Dallas, TX for about 7 years.

When did you become licensed and build your first station?

I have wanted to be involved in Amateur Radio since I was about 8 years old. Growing up in a rural area of Pennsylvania, I did not have anyone who could really help me to learn code and become licensed. School, work, and other things took up most of my attention until late in 2010 when I looked seriously at Amateur Radio again and decided to earn my license.

AB1OC/AB1QB Shack
AB1OC/AB1QB Shack

Anita, AB1QB and I built our home station in 2012. The project included a 100 ft tower which covers all of the bands from 160m through 70cm and a dedicated shack which is set up for multi-one contesting and DXing. We added a satellite ground station and equipment for EME late in 2012.

Our Mobile HF Station
Our Mobile HF Station

In 2015, we built our Mobile HF station. I enjoy working DX, running counties and doing special events like National Parks on the Air using Mobile HF. I am QRV on all bands from 160m through 10m in the mobile. We also have 2m/70cm FM setups in both of our vehicles.

What do you like to do most with Amateur Radio?

I really enjoy station and antenna building. I also enjoy Field Day, Contesting, Space Communications and Mobile HF.

Tuning the 6M Yagi
Tuning a 6M Yagi

I enjoy helping others to learn about and have fun with Amateur Radio. Finally, I am the NH State Manager for the Thirteen Colonies Special Event and I have a lot of fun every year operating during the Thirteen Colonies Special Event.

Presentation at the Dayton Contest Forum

I also enjoy speaking about Amateur Radio station building and related topics at Hamvention and club meetings. I have had the opportunity to speak on these topics on many occasions including at our and other clubs meetings, and at  Boxboro, Dayton and the ARRL 100th Anniversary Hamvention.

I write also write a Blog about Amateur Radio Station Building and related topics. This is a great way to encourage and help others to do Amateur Radio projects similar to the one that we have enjoyed.

Satellite Station Antennas
Satellite Station Antennas

Recent projects include portable HF and Satellite stations which we built to share at club events, license class, and GOTA opportunities. I am also working on learning CW.

AB1OC Operating In CW WPX SSB
AB1OC Operating In CQ WPX SSB

I have been fortunate to do a lot of operating in the 5 1/2 years since becoming licensed.

What are some of your most memorable experiences in connection with Amateur Radio?

Early in 2012, my company provided a trip to Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia. Anita suggested that we take a radio and portable antenna on the trip and do a holiday style DXpedition.

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

We had almost no SSB phone experience prior to this trip. The response (and the pile-ups) were amazing on Bora Bora and I was able to earn a Worked All States from French Polynesia in just 5 days of operating from there. I came home totally hooked on running pile-ups and operating SSB phone in contests and during special events.

I was one of the W1AW/1 operators for the ARRL 100 Centennial Special event and had a ball operating during both periods when NH was on the air as W1AW/1.

My most memorable contact ever was working Japan for the first time on 75m SSB phone from my truck using Mobile HF.

75m SSB Contact to Japan via Mobile HF
75m SSB Contact to Japan via Mobile HF

All involved in this contact were very surprised that such a short antenna (I use a screwdriver antenna with a 4 ft rod and a cap hat) could be used to make such a contact.

Abby, KC1FFX earns her Extra Class License
Abby, KC1FFX earns her Extra Class License

The experiences that mean the most to me are those involving our work to bring young people and new Amateurs into our hobby. Being able to make a difference for people and aid them to learn means a great deal to me.

What do you like to do with the Club?

I really enjoy participating in and contributing to our Tech Night programs. It’s great to be in a position to learn about the many aspects of Amateur Radio and to help others to do the same. We have a tremendous knowledge base among our club members and our Tech Night program provides a way for us to share everyone’s knowledge and experience for the benefit of the entire club.

40m V-Beam 3
40m V-Beam at Field Day 2016

I also really enjoy our yearly Field Day. It ‘s a lot of fun to plan, build and operate a multi-multi station with as many transmitters and towers as we typically put up for our club’s Field Day operation.

Bishop-Guertin High School HAB Project Students
Bishop-Guertin High School HAB Project Students

Our club’s High Altitude Balloon Project has been a lot of fun. It was fun to be part of delivering the STEM classroom program associated with this project.

Teaching Amateur Radio Licence Classes

FInally, I really enjoy contributing to the license classes that our club offers. There is nothing that I find more rewarding than to help someone new into Amateur Radio or to help an Amateur earn a license upgrade so they can expand their participation in Amateur Radio.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide