Tag Archives: CW

Activities, Antennas, Digital, Education and Training, Featured, On The Air, Station Equipment

Register Now for 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, May 14th, 2022.

Registration is open for the Nashua Area Radio Society’s Spring Ham Bootcamp.  Ham Bootcamp will be held online using Zoom web conferencing.   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, May 14th 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.   New this year will be a breakout session where attendees will have a choice between 3 different sessions.

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
  • Making Contacts and Joining a Repeater Net
  • Radio Programming Tutorial
  • 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
  • Getting started with WSJT-X and FT8 Digital

Breakout Session

The final session of the day will be a breakout session where attendees will choose to attend one of the following 3 sessions:

  • Learning CW
  • Finding DX, Logging Contacts, and QSL’ing – Getting them logged/confirmed
  • Portable Operating

Spring 2022 Ham Bootcamp will be Online on May 14th

Registration is now open for the May 14th 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

Activities, CW and QRP, Digital, Education and Training, Featured, Field Day, General, On The Air

Field Day 2021 Recap

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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.

Station Setup

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.

Doug, KC1OUY, Jon, AC1EV, Jim, K1BRM and Fred, AB1OC test out the Field Day Stations
Doug, KC1OUY, Jon, AC1EV, Jim, K1BRM and Fred, AB1OC test out the Field Day Stations

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:

  • 4 HF Stations including coax connections to the antennas
  • The Satellite Station
  • The Network and all ethernet connections
  • The Generators and power distribution
  • Overhead lights and desktop lights and fans
  • The Food and Public Information Tables

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:

  • Jeffrey , KC1LWE for setting up the Satellite station based on my documentation – few if any changes were needed for Fred to get it to work once the antennas were connected.
  • Doug, KC1OUY for running all of the cables and making them neat enough so that they were not a hazard for all of the club members and visitors.
  • Ryan, KC1MAJ and Jack, WM0G for setting up “NARS P&L” – the power and lighting.
  • Jon, AC1EV  for donating his station and helping to set up the HF stations.
Tower Team
Tower Team

Tower and Antenna Setup

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!

HF Tower
HF Tower with 10m-15m-20m Yagi and 40m and 80m Inverted-V Dipole Antennas

Mentoring and Training

Abby, AB1BY Provides Training on Fox Hunting
Abby, AB1BY Provides Training on Fox Hunting

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.

Satellite Station Training
Satellite Station Training

 

Field Day Operations

Our members enjoyed operating and kept the stations busy throughout the Field Day Operating period.

Jack, WM0G Operating at Field Day
Jack, WM0G Operating at Field Day
Ted, W1TED, Tory, K1VAT, Thomas, KT0MAS
The Trost Family -Thomas, KT0MAS, Ted, W1TED, Tory, K1VAT
Abby, AB1BY and Dave, KM3T
Abby, AB1BY and Dave, KM3T
Ops 20
John (W1MBG) and Joyce (KC1JMK) Keslo
Ops 5
Jamey, AC1EV – Better known as “Abby’s Dad” Competes with her for the Top SSB Operator

Results

Our top operators in each mode were:

SSB: Abby Finchum, AB1BY with 287 SSB QSOs

Ops 2
Abby Finchum, AB1BY

CW: Matt Strelow, KC1XX with 315 QSOs

Matt Strelow, KC1XX
Matt Strelow, KC1XX

Digital: Brian Quick, W1XMM with 55 QSOs

Tower Team 2
Brian Quick, W1XMM was instrumental to the tower team before settling in to work digital during Field Day

 

During Field Day we made a total of 1,895 QSOs.  Our final estimated score is 7,408.

Field Day 2021 Final Results
Field Day 2021 Final Results

Overall, Field Day 2021 was a great success.  Everyone attending had a great time and it was wonderful to see our members in person.

Antennas, Digital, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

6m Field Day Station

We’ve been busy getting ready for Summer Field Day 2021 at the Nashua Area Radio Society. Our plans include putting up a Tower, a Computer-Controlled Satellite Station, and an upgraded 6m Field Day Station.

6m Field Day Station - LFA Yagi
6m LFA Yagi

Our 6m Field Day station will be a portable setup and features a new antenna – a 3-Element Loop Fed Array (LFA) Yagi from InnoVAntennas. There are some advantages to LFA Yagi’s for the 6m band and above. In particular, Yagis using an LFA design are less susceptible to noise and interference which is a big advantage for weak-signal work on the 6m Band.

6m Field Day Station - LFA Yagi on Mast
6m LFA Yagi on Mast

Our Yagi is lightweight which makes it ideal for portable applications like Field Day and Mount Topping. Aron, W1AKI, and Jamey, AC1DC helped me to assemble the antenna and put it up on a 25 ft fiberglass mast here at our QTH for testing. The antenna is fed with LMR-400uF coax and rigged with a rotator loop near the top of the mast so that the antenna can be pointed by rotating the mast at the base. The setup is easy to put up – it takes about an hour to do it.

6m Portable Station
6m Field Day Station

We also use the 6m LFA antenna project as an opportunity to assemble and test our 6m Station for Field Day. The station is an all-mode setup that can do SSB Phone, CW, and WSJT-X Digital (FT8/FT4, Q65, MSK144, etc.). The station will be generator powered at Field Day but it can also be run using a solar/battery setup when Mountain Topping.

The station features an IC-7300 Transceiver (100w), a Winkeyer and Paddles for CW, and a Windows laptop computer running the N1MM+ logger and WSJT-X. The station will also sport a second monitor for Field Day.

N1MM+ Logger on 6m
N1MM+ Logger on 6m

The N1MM+ Logger works great with the IC-7300 and WSJT-X digital. It supports the all-mode station configuration nicely and it is well integrated with WSJT-X making the logging of FT-8 and other Digital Mode contacts simple. N1MM+ also supports voice recording and keying of the IC-7300 which is a great aid during longer operating events like Field Day.

6m Field Day Station - PSKReporter Test of Portable 6m Station
PSKReporter Test of Portable 6m Station

So how does the upgraded setup play on 6m? Very well! The image above is a snapshot from PSKReporter during our testing session. As you can see, we were using FT8 to test the station and we were heard up and down the eastern U.S. states.

WSJT-X FT8 Decode using 6m Portable Station

Signals were strong in WSJT-X FT8 mode and it was easy to make contacts. We made about 50 contacts during our testing of the 6m Feild Day Station.

The LFA Yagi hears really well making for reliable decodes of signals in the -18 range and often weaker.

6m Meteor Scatter Pings

For fun, I decided to try some 6m Meteor Scatter contacts using the MSK144 mode. This is a challenge with a 100W station as Meteor Scatter general needs a bit of power to work well. As you can see from the image above, we had no problems decoding meteor pings from stations in the midwestern US. I even managed to complete a couple of contacts using Meteor Scatter on the 6m Band.

All in all, we are very pleased with the performance of our upgraded 6m Field Day Station. If we can get a similar Es opening to what we have been seeing here during the last two days, we should have a lot of fun on the Magic Band at Field Day!

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide