Category Archives: Youth Activities

Articles and other information about Ham Radio activities for young people. Our youth activities include GOTA events, our High Altitude Balloon project, help getting licensed and more.

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, Youth Activities

NARS Activities at Upcoming Regional, and National Ham Radio Conventions

The Nashua Area Radio Society will be hosting Amateur Radio Displays, Expos, and Forums at Regional and National Hamfests and Ham Radio Conventions over the next 6 months.

Dayton Hamvention ® 2019

2019 ARRL National Convention at Hamvention
2019 ARRL National Convention at Hamvention

We will be a Special Guest of the ARRL in their Booth at Dayton this year. You can learn more via the ARRL’s flyer here. Quite a few NARS members will be attending Dayton 2019 and many will be supporting our presence in the ARRL Booth. We will also be hosting the ARRL Member forum on Friday, May 17th in Room 3. If you are going to Dayton this year, stop by and meet our members and say Hello!

Boxboro Regional Amateur Radio Convention

Boxboro 2018 - NARS Team at Boxboro
NARS Team at Boxboro Regional Convention

We are also planning another Youth Expo at the Boxboro Regional Ham Convention to be held on September 6th, 7th, and 8th. Our Expo will feature over 10 Amateur Radio Displays including:

We are looking for NARS members to help us with these activities. Please contact Anita at [email protected] if you’d like to help.

It’s going to be a great few months for the Nashua Area Radio Society!

Fred, AB1OC

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Youth Activities

High Altitude Balloon 4 Launch Windows Set

We have set the initial set of launch windows for our High Altitude Balloon’s 4th flight (HAB-4) for the following three weekends in April:

  • Saturday, April 6th / Sunday, April 7th
  • Saturday, April 13th / Sunday, April 14th
  • Saturday, April 20th
  • Saturday, June 1st / Sunday, June 2nd
  • Saturday, June 8th/Sunday, June 9th

Students at Hudson Memorial School and Bishop-Guertin HS are both participating in our HAB-4 STEM program.

HAB-2 Launch Site in Winchester NH
HAB Launch Site in Winchester NH

We will again be launching from the Elementary School in Winchester, NH at around 10:30 am. Preparation for our launch will begin at 8:30 am.

Our HAB carries video cameras that allow us to see what the HAB sees as it travels through the atmosphere. You can click on the video above to see what a HAB flight is like including video taken at over 90,000 ft above sea level!

HAB Camera Insulation and Heating System

High Altitude Balloon 4 (HAB-4) will be the first to launch with our new camera insulating and heating system. This arrangement is intended to keep the cameras from freezing and shutting off early. The cameras will also carry the smaller, lighter weight batteries that we used on HAB-1. Together, we hope these improvements will allow us to capture video throughout HAB-4’s ascent, balloon burst, descent, and landing.

High Altitude Balloon 4 Flight Parameters
HAB-4 Flight Parameters

The graphic above shows the final flight parameters for HAB-4. We are expecting HAB-4 to burst at around 110,000 ft a.s.l. with the flight lasting about 2 1/2 hours.

HAB Flight Path Prediction - Saturday April 6th
HAB Flight Path Prediction – Saturday, April 6th
HAB Flight Path Prediction - Sunday April 7th
HAB Flight Path Prediction – Sunday, April 7th

The images above show the initial flight path predictions for the first  HAB-4 launch window. The weather and Jetstream forecasts are still fairly unreliable at this point (6 – 7 days in advance of the first launch windows). These will likely change quite a bit between now and this coming Thursday evening when we will make a final go/no-go launch decision for the April 6th / April 7th launch window. We will also be looking closely at the Ground Weather for acceptable ground wind speed under 15 mph at launch and either clear skies or limited cloud cover to permit HAB-4 to be launched.

HAB Flight Platform
HAB Flight Platform

The HAB will again be carrying a flight computer and APRS telemetry and tracking system. You will be able to track HAB-4 during its flight via aprs.fi. You can learn more about how to track our HABs here.

Stay tuned to our Forums for additional updates and the final go/no-go decision as the week progresses. If the first launch window does not work out, we’ll begin counting down to the second window (April 13th / April 14th). We hope that you’ll join us in Winchester, NH for our launch!

Fred, AB1OC

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

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide