Nashua Area Radio Society Blog

Burns, WB1FJ approached me a few weeks ago doing some portable satellite activations as part of the AMSAT 50th Aniversary Celebration. The idea was to use the AMSAT Callsign WZ3M/1 to put the states of CT and RI on satellites.

Simple Portable Satellite Station — Portable Satellite Station on Mt. Washington

We had recently tested our portable satellite station during the Nashua Area Radio Society’s activation of Mt Washington. The WZ3M/1 activations were a great opportunity to continue testing our portable satellite station by making some more linear and FM contacts.

Radio Management via MacDoppler — MacDoppler Satellite Tracking Software

Preparations for our activations included creating a Pass Summary of predictions for the day of our activation using prediction data from MacDoopler. You can take a look at our pass summary here.

Our first activation was near the fire station in Burrillville, RI. We found an open spot and set up our station, antenna, and solar power system. This was a great public spot and we had several visitors come by to take a look at our setup and ask questions about satellites and Amateur Radio.

We made quite a few contacts at this location using both FM satellites like AO-92, AO-92, and SO-50 as well as a few contacts using linear satellites like CAS-4A and CAS-4B.

We moved to a Church in CT for the next part of our activation early in the afternoon. This site was a little less open than the first one but we were still able to make a number of contacts here.

The photo above shows a view of our portable setup which consisted of an Icom 910H transceiver, a MacBook Air Laptop running MacDoppler, and an Elk Log-periodic antenna on a tripod. The computer and MacDoppler controlled the radio VFOs to automatically correct for Doppler shift which enabled us to do contacts using linear satellites. We used an iPhone running a satellite tracking app to help point the antenna during satellite passes.

We used a pair of 90W portable solar panels, a pair of LIPO batteries, and an MPPT charging system to provide power for our radio and the computer. It was a sunny day and our solar power system kept our batteries fully charged through both activations.

We did pretty well overall making a total of 15 contacts between. The downlink side of our antenna system was the weakest link in the setup. Folks that we worked on linear satellites indicated that our uplink signals were solid but we had some trouble hearing weaker stations on the downlinks. We have some ideas for an improved antenna system for our next portable activation – stay tuned for more on this.

All in all, Burns and I were pretty pleased with these activations. We had a lot of fun, helped a few folks some new states, contributed to AMSAT’s 50th Celebration, and we learned some things that we can use to improve our portable station.

Fred, AB1OC

The Nashua Area Radio Society was a major part of the New England HamXposition 2019 @ Boxboro again this year. We added some new things including:

Ham Bootcamp – an activity to help Hams to get on the air
An HT Programming Clinic
An Expanded Kit Building Activity – which included a new antenna kit
Forum Presentations about the ISS Crew Contact we did with Hudson Memorial School and our Road To Becoming Club Of The Year
Updates to our Satellite and HF GOTA Stations and Activities

Amateur Radio Expo Display

HamXposition 2019 — NARS Expo Display and Kit Build

Our Expo display grew a bit this year to include an HT Programming Clinic. We also updated several of our display elements to add more hands-on activities.

In particular, we added information on our training programs and the associated Internet Subscription that we launched earlier this year. We also added video and other content from the ISS Crew Contact that we did with Hudson Memorial School late last year.

More Photos from our Amateur Radio Expo Display

Ham Bootcamp

Our main new activity at HamXposition 2019 was Ham Bootcamp. We had a total of 57 folks join us on Saturday morning for 9a – noon to learn about how to put together a station and get on the air.

Bootcamp consisted of two tracks – one for Techs/Perspective Hams and one for Generals. Both were popular with the group pretty evenly split between the two.

Bootcamp included a number of demonstrations and hands-on activities. The photo above shows Dan, AC1EN and Mackenzie, KE1NZY explaining how to get started with Amateur Radio Satellites. The Tech track included:

How to pick an HT and a simple, effective antenna
How to program your radio
How to get started with EchoLink
How to make a QSO – this activity involved having Bootcampers checking into and participate in a practice chat net using HT’s
How to get started with Fox Hunting and Amateur Radio Satellites

Jamey AC1DC, Anita, AB1QB, Abby AB1BY, and Jerry K1OKD covered how to put together a first HF station as part of the General Track. They built a working HF station at Bootcamp and used it to explain and demonstrate making contacts using SSB, CW, and Digital (FT8). The activities in the General track included:

How to put together a basic HF station for SSB, CW, and Digital (FT8)
How to make a QSO on the HF bands
How to pick a simple HF antenna and put it up safely
Operating portable (gear and antennas) – especially important for Hams in HOA and other antenna restricted situations
How to find and work DX and how to QSL
How to go about learning CW

Jerry K1OKD, Andrea KC1JDX, and Patrick W1YTT handled registration and put together a nice graduation package that was personalized for each Bootcamp participant.

We closed Bootcamp with some information on how to go about earning a license or an upgrade along with a walking tour of the vendor area, our expo display, and our GOTAs. This gave folks a chance to ask some additional questions about gear and Amateur Radio activities that they were interested in.

More Photos from Ham Bootcamp

Kit Building

Our Kit Building activity was popular again this year. We build a total of 34 kits during the weekend. Our mentors help the builders learn to solder and to complete their kits. Our Morse Tutor kit was back again this year and was very popular with our builders.

We added a new kit this year – a 70 cm Ground Plane Antenna. We helped folks assemble the new antenna kit at the show and our mentors helped builder tune up their completed antennas. The new kit was very popular and we’re planning to add a 2m Ground Plane Antenna kit for our next kit build.

More Photos from our Kit Building Activity

GOTA Stations

Our GOTA stations were popular again this year. Our GOTA stations served several purposes including:

A chance for folks to get on the air and make HF and Satellite Contacts
A chance to learn how to build stations and operate them
An opportunity to generate on-air interest in youth outreach via our N1T special event operations

We updated our Satellite GOTA Station to include the new Icom IC-9700 transceiver and a more portable antenna system.

There was lots of interest in Amateur Radio satellites and the computer-controlled ground station that we had at HamXposition.

Our HF GOTA station was also popular and we used it to make most of our contacts as N1T.

Our GOTA stations helped to spark interest in Satellite Operations, DX’ing, and HF in general. We secured the N1T special event call (Youth Outreach at HamXposition 2019) again for use with our GOTA stations. We made a total of 303 contacts as N1T during HamXposition.

More Photos from our GOTA Stations

Forum Presentations

We provided two presentations as part of the Forum Program at HamXposition 2019:

You can view a copy of these presentations via the links above.

Thank You NARS Members!

It would be impossible for us to provide a set of activities as extensive as these without a lot of support from our members. The NARs team at HamXposition 2019 consisted of over 30 volunteers who contributed to planning, preparation, and operation of our activities at HamXposition.

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our contribution to HamXposition a success! Also thanks to Charlie W1CBD and Bob K1OLD, our roving photographers, for all of the great pictures featured in this article!

Additional Photos from HamXposition 2019