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.

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

Spring 2021 Ham Bootcamp

Are you a newly licensed Technician, or a General or Extra and have never been on the air or built a station?  Are you a prospective ham but would like to learn more about Amateur Radio activities?  Ham Bootcamp is the program for you.  We will be holding another online Ham Bootcamp on Saturday, April 24th, 2021.

Registration is open for the Nashua Area Radio Society’s Spring Ham Bootcamp.  Ham Bootcamp will be held online using Zoom web conferencing. Going online will allow us to help new Hams get on the air, in a safe way during the Coronavirus Pandemic.  This will also let us reach out to new Hams across the country.

Jamey, AC1DC, elmers Randall, KC1KSY as he makes an HF Contact
Jamey, AC1DC, elmers Randall, N1KRB  as he makes an HF Contact

Our spring Ham Bootcamp will be held on Saturday, April 24th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Eastern Time.  The morning session will focus on Technician level activities and the afternoon session will focus on HF activities for General and above licensees.  Here is the agenda:

Abby on Fox Hunting
Abby Speaks About Fox Hunting in Fall 2020 Ham Bootcamp

Repeaters and VHF/UHF Session Activities

  • Putting together a Station for Repeaters – How to pick an HT or  Mobile Radio and an Antenna
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • Getting started with EchoLink
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites
  • Getting started with Fox Hunting
Jamey Explains HF Station Building
Jamey Explains HF Station Building

HF Session Activities

  • Putting together an HF Station for SSB, CW, and Digital
  • Picking and putting up an HF Antenna, Feedlines, and Grounds
  • Operating on the HF bands using SSB Voice
  • Software and setup for Logging Contacts via your computer
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital
  • Finding DX and QSL’ing – Getting them in the log and confirmed

… and more!

Spring 2021 Ham Bootcamp is Going Online on April 24th

Registration is now open for the April 24th session.  You can get more information about Ham Bootcamp at https://www.n1fd.org/ham-bootcamp/.

Each attendee should register separately using this link.   After registering, you will receive a link that will allow you to register for the Zoom meeting.  Following the Zoom meeting registration, you will receive a personal Zoom link via email.

Any questions about Bootcamp?  Contact me at [email protected]

 

Anita, AB1QB

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air

2020 Field Day Results

The ARRL has published the 2020 Field Day Results in the December 2020 Issue of QST.

Field Day 2020 Rule Changes

Due to the pandemic, the ARRL made two rule changes this year.  The first is that stations in category 1D could contact other 1D stations.  The second is that individual submissions could specify a club affiliation and scores would be aggregated by club.

Virtual Site Visit on Zoom
Virtual Site Visit on Zoom

NARS held several activities to help members operating in Field Day to earn bonus points toward their scores.  A virtual site visit via Zoom with Gary Gasdia (father of member Ryan, KC1KJS), who is a member of the Hudson School Board and Community Emergency Response Team Members Patrick, W1YTT, Joe, AC1BG and Dan, W1MUZ helped members with bonus points.  Sterling, AK1K, trained us all and hosted a messaging net to help us get the messaging bonus.   These bonus points helped to increase our score.

Field Day 2020 Scores

Thanks to all of our members who submitted their scores for the Nashua Area Radio Society, our efforts resulted in a total club score of 14,952.  From a quick scan of the line scores published by the ARRL and back of the envelope calculation, we placed in the top 3% of all clubs!

Jeff, AC1FX Operating at Field Day 2020
Jeff, AC1FX Operating at Field Day 2020

We had a total of 16 members contribute their scores toward our aggregate club score:

CallNameOperatorsClassPowerTotal
AB1QBAnita KemmererAB1QB, AB1OC, KC1IMK, AB1BY3ELow3930
AK1KSterling EanesAK1K1ELow1762
NE1RDScott AndersenNE1RD1B1BQRP1300
W1XMMBrian QuickW1XMM1ELow1278
N1CEOPeter DabosN1CEO1ELow1218
NF1HAndrew WuelfingNF1H1DLow958
AC1EVJon TurnerAC1EV1EHigh914
W1YCZMatt TrulandW1YCZ1EHigh838
K1BRMJim LajoieK1BRM1DLow506
NU1TJorgen DahlNU1T1DLow502
W1AKIAron InsingaW1AKI1DLow446
KC1IMKKeith SangilloKC1IML, KC1IMK1DLow390
KC1IMLMark SangilloKC1IML, KC1IMK1B2Low388
AC1FXJeff LalmondAC1FX1DLow214
W1TEDTed TrostW1TED1ELow194
KC1DXLAnthony RizzoloKC1DXL1DLow114

To learn more about our members Field Day 2020 operations, see the field day articles on our blog.

To review the ARRL Results Article, visit the ARRL Web site at https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2020/Field-Day-2020-FinalQSTResults.pdf

To search the 2020 ARRL Field Day score database, visit http://www.arrl.org/results-database  and select 2020 ARRL Field Day from the drop down box.

Winter Field Day 2021

Winter Field Day is coming up on January 30-31.  Similar rule changes have been made due to the pandemic.  If you are interested in operating on Winter Field Day, review and reply to Craig, N1SFT’s post in the Field Day Forum.  Also, plan to join our January Membership Meeting, where Craig will talk about Winter Field Day.

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

NARS QSO Party Update

The Nashua Area Radio Society is sponsoring the NARS QSO party on September 26th. This  QSO party is born from the frustration of not being able to have large groups of our members meet for the  SOTA, POTA, and IOTA  events that we had scheduled before the Pandemic.

There have been some important rules changes that you need to know about. We have adjusted the final exchange and scoring to make it easy for you to use the existing North American QSO Party set up in a contest logger such as N1MM+ to participate and score your operation in the NARS QSO Party.

Exchange and Multipliers

The exchange and multipliers for this contact are patterned after the North American QSO Party. Here’s a summary of what has changed:

  • The most important rule change is that this will be a phone contest only. It wasn’t possible to do an all-mode contest without having some issues in other areas related to using standard contest setups that are available in most loggers.
  • Also, the exchange will be the operator’s first name plus (state/DC/province/country).
  • Finally, the time window has been changed to 1600 UTC on September 26 to 04:00 UTC  September 27th. That’s Saturday 12:00 noon to midnight on the East coast.

Setting up N1MM+

I want to quickly go over how to set up N1MM+ to log contacts and score your entry correctly.  N1MM+ is a free logging software that will allow you to log contacts, score the contest for you and also provide you with a log in Cabrillo format as well.

When you are finished downloading open the software.

  • Go to file> new log in the database and choose NAQPSSB.
  • Change the start date and time.
  • Go down the options and change as needed taking special care with the sent exchange, mode, and operator information boxes.
  • Click ok at the bottom of the page. You come back to the logging screen.
  • The next important change to make is to right-click anywhere in the logging window and go down to change band panel display.
  • Click on this option and click on the VHF tab and the UHF tab. this will allow you to add contacts from 2 meters on up.

This explanation probably sounds kind of clunky but once you open the software it will make a lot more sense. I think you should have N1MM+ configured correctly if you follow the steps above. I have pictures that I took. Email [email protected] if you want a copy of the setup pics.

Ryan KC1KJS field day 2019
Ryan KC1KJS field day 2019

Summary of the Rules

There will be two operating categories for the NARS QSO Party: HF and VHF and up.   A summary of the rules is below.

NARS QSO Party Rules
NARS QSO Party Rules

You should submit your final log as an Electronic Entry only and your submission should include a complete Cabrillo format log and your claimed score. Logs should include date and time in UTC, Frequency, Mode, Call Signs, and the Exchange for each of your contacts. Logs are due 7 days after the contest is finished.

Certificates will be awarded to the top 3 stations in each category.

Ham Nation
Ham Nation

Fred, AB1OC, and I will be on Ham Nation this Wednesday, September 23rd, starting at 9 PM Eastern Time, to publicize this so we should see plenty of activity on the air.

I hope to get you in my log!

73

Jim Lajoie, K1BRM

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide