Category Archives: On The Air

Articles and other information related to On The Air Operations, Special Events, Activations, DXxpeditions, Portable and Mobile On The Air Activities, Nets, etc.

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

New Ham Boot Camp – Sessions 1 – 3

We have held the first three sessions of New Ham Boot Camp the past few weeks to help our newly licensed members learn the skills they need to get on the air.

Session 1 was held at Fred, AB1OC’s and Anita, AB1QB’s QTH.   The session focused on UHF/VHF.  The following activities were part of this session:

  • HT Programming
  • Station Tour including Antenna Towers and Mobile Stations
  • Echolink Setup and Use
  • Satellite Operating Demo
  • Antenna Demo
  • Practice QSOs and Repeater Net
Jamey, AC1DC, elmers Randall, KC1KSY as he makes an HF Contact
Jamey, AC1DC, elmers Randall, KC1KSY as he makes an HF Contact

Session 2 was also held at AB1OC/AB1QB’s QTH.  During this session, members were able to Get on the Air to make contacts via HF SSB, Satellites, and HF Digital.

70 cm Ground Plan Antenna
70 cm Ground Plan Antenna

In addition,  we built a 70 cm ground plane antenna and members got kits to build their own antenna. and Jamey, AC1DC spoke about SOTAs and demonstrated a Buddipole antenna.

Fred Advises on Selecting Wire Antennas
Fred Advises on Selecting Wire Antennas

Session 3 was held at Ham Radio Outlet in Salem, NH. Peter, KI1M opened HRO during the evening of March 19th exclusive to NARS New Ham Boot Camp members.  Fred and Peter advised members and answered questions on selecting HTs, Transceivers, Antennas, Headphones, Microphones, Coax and other Amateur Radio components.

Peter shows us the repeater
Peter shows us the repeater

We have two more sessions of New Ham Boot Camp to be held in April:

  • Session 4: – Saturday, April 6 –   How to set up your first station,  Getting on 6 meters, What do all the buttons and knobs on my HF Transceiver do?  How do I use them to work DX
  • Session 5:  Date TBD – Building  and Tuning up HF Wire Antennas

Stay tuned to the General Information Forums – we will post there when Session 5 is scheduled.

Activities, Antennas, Education and Training, Featured, Homebrewing, Newsletter, On The Air, Youth Activities

Tape Measure Yagi Build

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Our next Tech Night will be on Tuesday, April 9th and we’ll be talking about the basics of Radio Direction Finding (aka Fox Hunting). During this session, we’ll also be building a 2-meter tape measure yagi using Joe Leggio’s, WB2HOL plans. I have built 2 of these tape measure yagis and they are pretty easy to make and I have had very good success! You can use these antennas for fox hunting, summits on the air or just hitting a distant repeater.

Here is a list of equipment that you will need to bring to the class to build your very own 2-meter tape measure yagi!

  1. Metal Tape Measure – 1″ wide and at least 10′ in length
  2. 6′ RG8x cable with a PL-259 connector attached to one side
    • You can buy one cable with a PL-259 on each side and cut it in half if you would like to share with someone else to cut costs – You may want to go with 8′ – 10′ if you are going to make two cables
  3. Pigtail for connecting RG-8x (PL-259 connector) to handheld (sma)(sma female)

Optional:

  1. Sandpaper for sanding edges of the tape measure and removing coating to solder on coaxial cable
  2. Wire strippers/cutters
  3. Soldering iron
  4. Shears or scissors for cutting tape measure
  5. 2 Meter SWR meter
  6. Rubber Bands or Bulldog clips for securing the elements when folding up

I will bring all the PVC pipe pre-cut to the proper lengths along with the T and cross connectors.

After we all successful make our tape measure yagis we can celebrate the following Saturday as we have our first Summits on the Air (SOTA) and Parks on the Air (POTA) activation of Mount Pack Monadnock. This is a fairly easy summit and members can hike or drive up to the summit to test out the new yagis!

If you plan on attending or have any questions please let me know so I can plan for the right amount of equipment. You can reach me by email at [email protected].

Jamey, AC1DC

Digital, DX, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

DXing and Operating Award Tips

We’ve been pretty active in DX Operating Award programs since we built our station a few years back. Operating Awards provide incentives to get on the air and chase all kinds of contacts and they also help us to understand our station’s and our personal operating strengths and weakness. They also provide motivation to improve the latter.

Yesterday was a banner day for me in terms of completing Operating Award goals. I was able to make the needed contacts to complete two that I’ve been working on for quite some time:

  • Worked All Japan – Requires working and confirming all 47 Prefectures (similar to US states) in Japan
  • Top Band DXCC – Working and confirming 100 DXCC Entities (basically countries) on 160m

Both of these goals were completed using the FT8 digital mode for the remaining handful of contacts. I wanted to take a little time and share some of the techniques that have worked for me in hopes that it might help our readers have more fun and meet their operating goals on the air.

Here are some general techniques and tips for working DX (in no particular order) … You can read the entire article via the link which follows.

Source: Our HAM Station – DX’ing and Operating Award Tips

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide