Tag Archives: Digital

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

DX, Featured, General, On The Air

A 6m DX Opening to Europe

1 Comment

Every now and then we get a really good 6m DX opening to Europe on the 6m Band from here in New England. This past Friday, June 4, 2021 presented us with just such an opening. This particular one may…

Source: A 6m DX Opening to Remember

PSKReporter Snapshot of 6m DX Opening to Europe
PSKReporter Snapshot of 6m DX Opening to Europe

There were so many strong signals on 6m FT8 from DX stations in Europe, it was difficult to decide which station to call next! I was able to work the opening for most of the day on Friday and was rewarded with over 130 DX contacts into Europe. In addition, I was able to Work 3 new DXCCs and over 40 new Grids (over 30 of these Grids have confirmed on LoTW already)!

You can read more about last Friday’s 6m opening to Europe via the link above. Let’s hope we get some more good 6m openings for Field Day so we can make good use of our 6m Field Day Station!

Fred, AB1OC

Digital, Featured, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Reducing RFI From Our QTH

Many Hams (including this one) have problems with RF Interference (RFI) at their stations. Many RFI sources typically come from inside our own homes. One test we did was to shut down much of the ethernet network and associated devices here at our QTH. To our surprise, this lowered our noise floor on 2m some 6 dB, and eliminated many birdies in the EME section of the 2m Band! We decided to upgrade our network to fiber optics to eliminate the RFI and noise from…

Source: Reducing RFI From Our QTH

We recently built an improved EME station for the 2m Band. We noticed a higher than ideal noise floor when operating 2m EME during initial testing of the new station. We decided to do some additional testing to see if we could isolate the source of the noise levels. One test we did was to shut down much of the ethernet network and associated devices here at our QTH.

Reducing RFI - Fiber Optic Wall Outlet
Fiber Optic Wall Outlet

We decided to upgrade the network at our QTH to use Fiber Optics and add a Management System to enable us to shut down some of the more problematic noise sources at our QTH. The resulting improvements were pretty dramatic – reducing RFI-related noise by some 6 dB on the 2m Band!

You can read all about our Fiber Optic Network Project via the link above.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide