Join Us for the NARS Holiday Dinner – December 8th!

November 5, 2026 Anita Kemmerer Leave a comment

Celebrate the holiday season with your fellow amateur radio enthusiasts, family, and friends by joining us at a NARS Holiday Dinner!

The Nashua Area Radio Society invites all members, their families, and friends to join us for our annual Holiday Dinner on Tuesday, December 8th, at 6:30 PM, at the Lilac Blossom Restaurant in Nashua, NH.

This is a wonderful opportunity to get together in person, enjoy a delicious meal, and celebrate another great year of amateur radio activities and friendships!

Whether you’ve been involved in Field Day, participated in our license classes, joined us for a fox hunt, attended a club meeting or tech night, checked into one of our nets, or simply enjoyed being part of NARS, we hope you’ll come celebrate with us.

Family members and friends are warmly welcome! You don’t need to be an amateur radio operator to enjoy the evening, so please consider bringing your spouse, family members, or friends along for the festivities.

Holiday Dinner Details

Date: Tuesday, December 8, 2026
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Lilac Blossom Restaurant
Address: 385 E Dunstable Ave, Nashua, NH
Who: NARS members, family members, and friends
RSVP Deadline: Tuesday, December 1st
RSVP To: Anita, AB1QB, at [email protected]

Join the Fun – Holiday Yankee Swap!

This year, we’ll add a little extra holiday fun with a Yankee Swap gift exchange!

If you’d like to participate, please bring a wrapped gift valued at approximately $20.

The Yankee Swap is always a fun way to share some laughs, exchange gifts, and enjoy a little friendly competition. You never know what surprises might be waiting under the wrapping paper!

Family members and friends are welcome to join the Yankee Swap, too! Just bring one wrapped $20 gift for each person who would like to participate.

Participation in the Yankee Swap is completely optional, so please join us for dinner whether or not you bring a gift.

A Time to Celebrate Our NARS Community

One of the best things about the Nashua Area Radio Society is the friendships we build through our shared interest in amateur radio.

Throughout the year, we get together on the air, online, and at club activities. Our Holiday Dinner gives us a chance to put the radios aside for an evening and enjoy some relaxed conversation and fellowship.

It’s also a great opportunity to meet members you may have only spoken with on the air or seen during one of our online meetings.

We especially encourage newer members and those who haven’t attended an in-person NARS event recently to come join us.

And since the holidays are all about sharing special moments with the people who matter to us, we’d love for you to bring your family and friends to celebrate with our NARS community!

Please RSVP by December 1st

To help us plan for the dinner and coordinate with the restaurant, please email Anita, AB1QB, at [email protected] by Tuesday, December 1st if you plan to attend.

Please include your name and the total number of people attending with you, including family members and friends.

We ask that members cover the cost of their meals.

We hope to see a great turnout as we celebrate the holiday season and another successful year for NARS!

73 and Happy Holidays!

The Nashua Area Radio Society

Education and Training, Featured, General, Youth Activities

NARS Supports Local Scout JOTA Event

November 3, 2026 Fred Kemmerer Leave a comment

Members of the Nashua Area Radio Society recently joined three local scout troops to support their Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) activation. Alan KC1PWB, Dave K1BER, Ethan KC1YZN, Frank KC1ONH, and Fred AB1OC spent JOTA weekend with the Scouts, helping them set up and operate an HF station. We also provided Fox Hunts and supported Scouts as they worked toward earning their Radio Merit Badge.

Antenna Set Up

The Scouts began setting up their antenna early on Saturday. They set up a 40-ft guyed mast at their campground and attached a 40m – 10m Off-Center Fed Dipole antenna to the mast.

The antenna went up smoothly, thanks in part to the pre-event build and test of the antenna and station held a few weeks before the event.

Station Operation

The scouts made quick work of setting up their station and got on the air in short order. The station was powered by a quiet Honda generator and included a 500W amplifier to facilitate contact. You can find more details on the station here.

The scouts took turns making contacts. It took a few contacts for them to get comfortable on the air, but they got the hang of it pretty quickly.

You can see part of one of the QSOs from our JOTA activation by clicking on the video above.

Frank, Alan, and Dave helped Ethan work with the scouts throughout the day to complete the requirements for their Radio Merit Badge. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend for everyone involved. We are all looking forward to doing more activities with the scouts in the future.

Consider Supporting Our Youth Outreach Work

The Nashua Area Radio Society is doing great work to bring STEM learning through Amateur Radio to young people. If you’d like to support our work, please consider donating to help fund our programs. You can learn more here.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, General, Youth Activities

NARS JOTA Station

October 15, 2026 Fred Kemmerer Leave a comment

Nashua Area Radio Society members got together recently to build a portable station to support the upcoming 2026 Scout Jamboree On The Air Event for several local scout troops. Ethan Aho KC1YZN, Alan Whitney KC1PWB, Frank Baron KC1ONH, and I put the station together in my backyard and tested it. It is powered Field Day style with a Honda 2000W generator.

Antenna System

We are using a Buckmaster Off-Center Fed (OCF) Dipole on a 35-foot guyed fiberglass push-up mast for the antenna. This setup covers 40m, 20m, 10m, and 6m. It’s pretty quick to erect, and it’s a solid performer in the field. We are using 100 ft of LMR-400uF coax for our feedline.

Transceiver System

The magic in our JOTA station is in the transceiver. We want the Scouts to have fun and make lots of contacts. To this end, we’ve combined a top-notch IC-7300 Transceiver with a 500-watt amplifier. This should give our young operators a strong signal on the air. I’ve run this setup before, and it works well with the Honda EU2000 generator that we are using.

We are also using a MacBook Air computer running MacLoggerDX for Logging and WSJT-X to enable digital contacts.

Here’s a closer look at the amplifier/tuner combination. The Buckmaster OCF dipole needs a limited-range tuner on some bands to achieve a suitable match. The Elecraft KAT500 tuner paired with our KPA500 Amplifier handles this nicely. Our generator handles the amplifier’s full 500W rating with plenty of headroom. We will not be using the amplifier for WSJT-X operation, so we are not concerned about overloading the generator in FT8 and other digital modes.

Testing and Performance

So how did the station perform? Well, we did some limited testing before storms moved in during our test session. We received signal reports in the 59+ to 59+20 dB range from the US stations we worked on the 40m and 20m bands, and we made several DX contacts to the southern portion of South America using FT8 on 10m. Based on these test contacts, I’d say the Scouts are going to have some fun!

Join the JOTA Fun!

The 2026 JOTA event takes place on October 16th, 17th, and 18th. Our group will be on the air on Saturday, October 17th. Our Scouts will be on the 40m, 20m, and 10m bands. They will be operating mostly SSB phone in the General sections of these bands. We will be using the Club callsign N1FD. Get on the air and give the Scouts around the world some contacts!