I had the pleasure of serving as the ARISS contact moderator for the Youth On The Air (YOTA) 2021 Camp’s contact with the International Space Station (ISS) using Amateur Radio today. Young Hams spent the week at the Voice of America Bethany Relay Station in West Chester, OH engaging in a variety of Amateur Radio Activities…
Source: YOTA 2021 ISS Contact
You can view the video of YOTA 2021 Camp’s contact with astronaut Aki Hoshide, KE5DNI via the link above.
Fred, AB1OC
The Nashua Area Radio Society held our first face-to-face event since the start of the pandemic when we gathered at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH for ARRL Field Day from June 25th – 27th. Field Day 2021 was a great success! It was great to see all of the members who attended, especially those new members who we have previously only met over Zoom.
For a successful Field Day operation, it is important to have a detailed plan for stations, antennas, operating schedules, transportation, and even food. 3 weeks before Field Day, we met at AB1OC‘s and AB1QB‘s QTH to setup the stations, logging computers, and the network to make sure they all worked together. Similar sessions were held to test antennas and also train the teams on how to set up the antenna, tower, and stations and how to operate.
As chairperson of the Station Team, I created detailed documentation of all of the station equipment and connections, trained the team on how to set up stations, and assigned specific roles. We were responsible for setting up the following:
The Station Setup Team included Jon, AC1EV, Jack, WM0G, Ryan, KC1MAJ, Jeffrey, KC1LWE, and Doug, KC1OUY. We had a great, hard-working team and got the stations set up in record time. We appreciate everyone’s hard work with set up as well as takedown. Special thanks go out to:
The Tower and Beam teams did an equally great job at setup and N1FD was on the air before dark! We tested FT8 before sundown and were able to hear JA stations on 15 meters!
Training and Mentoring are an important part of Field Day. We have helped many new members to become licensed in the past year, but it important to help them get on the air as well. Field Day is a great opportunity for new Hams to help out with building stations and develop operating skills. The Nashua Area Radio Society accomplishes this through training and hands-on opportunities during Field Day. Before the official start of Field Day Operations at 2:00 pm Local time on Saturday, we held 2 Training Sessions, one on Satellite Operation and another on Fox Hunting.
Our members enjoyed operating and kept the stations busy throughout the Field Day Operating period.
Our top operators in each mode were:
During Field Day we made a total of 1,895 QSOs. Our final estimated score is 7,408.
Overall, Field Day 2021 was a great success. Everyone attending had a great time and it was wonderful to see our members in person.
Great news for fans of our SOTA / POTA hikes. If you made it to our June membership meeting then you already got the lowdown but for anyone that might have missed it then I’ve got the schedule here for you and it begins in just a few short weeks. Covid is mostly in our rear mirror so we can finally meet in groups and start having some fun.
What’s that you haven’t heard of SOTA and POTA well then you should put July 13th, 2021 on your calendar and plan to attend our Tech Night. Jamey AC1DC will be our guest speaker and his presentation will be on Mountain Topping and Portable Activations. Summits On The Air (SOTA) and Parks On The Air (POTA) are point schemes to make participating in ham radio in the mountains and parks more enjoyable.
ok with that primer out of the way let’s get to the main thrust of the article. July 17th, 2021 we will be going to Mount Kearsarge in Warner N.H. We plan on taking the auto road from Rollins State Park 1066 Kearsarge Mountain Road.(let’s plan to meet at 10:00 am at the start of the auto road) The 3 1/2 mile auto road terminates at a parking lot and picnic areas. You can choose to operate here or hike a .5 mile to the summit. If you’re a purist you can start on the other side of the mountain at Winslow State Park and hike the whole mountain with only modest effort and meet us.
As far as operating from Kearsarge you can operate anything from an HT to the newest and best that is commercially offered or your own home-brewed rig. Seeing the range of what others brought is part of the fun of these activations. I’m hoping to be able to have the time to cobble together a 6meter Moxon antenna that I will pair with an MFJ QRP rig. I’ve run this rig before but haven’t had any luck yet so I’m hoping to have better luck with an antenna with some gain to it.
Here is the rest of the SOTA / POTA scheduled for 2021
Hope to see a lot of you on Kearsarge in a couple of weeks!
Jim Lajoie K1BRM
