Tag Archives: Hamvention

Featured, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Hamvention 2018

May 27, 2018 Anita Kemmerer 2 Comments

On May 16th, Fred, AB1OC and I traveled to Dayton, OH for the annual Hamvention, held at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, OH for the 2nd year.

The Hamvention opened on Friday, May 18th, but we attended Contest University, held at the Crowne-Plaza in Dayton on Thursday. We attended some great presentations there including one on VHF Contesting with JT modes – FT8 and MSK144 by W5ZN, Joel Harrison and one on Learning from your Log-Checking Report by Doug Grant, K1DG. We also got to hear Rob Sherwood, NC0B, report on transceiver performance.

NARS Member Dave Michaels, N1RF recently moved to Indianapolis, which is not far from Xenia. Fred and I met up with Dave on Friday at the Hamvention. It was great to see him again.

Since our Tech Night show and tell on portable and mountain-topping equipment, I have been interested in the KX2. Our first stop on Friday was the Elecraft booth where we purchased the KX2 “Shack in a Box” and some accessories to go with it. I am looking forward to using it during our upcoming SOTA activations to operate using FT8 and other digital modes.

We also purchased some PAR EndfedZ wire antennas from LNR Precision.

Next, we visited the AMSAT booth, where we chatted with NARS member, Burns Fisher, WB1FJ.

Left to Right, AB1QB, Dave Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS Mentor, and AB1OC

We also met Dave Jordan, AA4KN, who is the ARISS Mentor for the upcoming ISS Crew Contact with Hudson Memorial School.

Yaesu's newly announced transceiver, the FTdx101D — Yaesu’s newly announced transceiver, the FTdx101D

We saw a few newly announced items while visiting the vendor buildings. Yaesu announced the FTdx101D.

Kenwood announced the TS-890S, which is pictured above.

SteppIR's new SDA-2000 Controller — SteppIR’s new SDA-2000 Controller

We also saw SteppIR’s new controller, the SDA-2000 OptimizIR

Flex Radio Power Genius Amplifier — FlexRadio Power Genius XL Amplifier

We also saw the FlexRadio Power Genius XL 1500 Watt Amplifier, which recently started shipping.

Rotating Mast soon to be available from Buddipole — Rotating Mast System soon to be available from Buddipole

We also visited Chris Drummond, W6HFP from Buddipole and he showed us their new MastWerks Mast/Tripod system.

Information on GOLF Series of Satellites at AMSAT Forum

We attended a few forums at the Hamvention including one from FlexRadio on SDR Technology. Especially interesting was the AMSAT forum, where we learned about upcoming Satellite launches, including the GOLF Program (to follow the FOX Program). Satellites in the GOLF program will have higher orbits resulting in larger footprints and also will incorporate new technology.

Overall, we had a great time at the Hamvention and we’re looking forward to going back in 2019!

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Youth Activities

Sharing Our Club’s Activities at Boxboro Hamvention 2017

September 15, 2017 Fred Kemmerer

We had the good fortune of attending and speaking at the Boxboro Hamvention this past weekend. We shared three presentations related to our club’s activities and projects. I wanted to share copies of these presentations here.

All of these presentations were well attended. In particular, there was great interest in the second presentation among other clubs in the New England area.

Also, we are planning to have our 2.0 Satellite Station setup at our upcoming Technician License Class on Sept. 30 – Oct. 1. If you are in the area and would like to see the station in operation, please contact us at [email protected] to arrange for a visit. If you’d like to register for one of our license classes, you can do that here.

Videos from our Boxboro Hamvention Presentations

Our High-Altitude Balloon Launch Video

Growing HAM Radio – How Clubs Can Help

Satellite Station 2.0 Operation and Contacts

More Information

You can find more information about our HAB Project via this link. Also, you can learn more about our club’s portable satellite station activities via this link. Finally, you can visit Anita’s and My Station Project Blog for more articles and information about Satellite Station construction and operation.

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter

Dayton / Xenia Hamvention 2017

May 30, 2017 Anita Kemmerer

Fred, AB1OC and I recently returned from the Dayton Hamvention, which was held at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, OH for the first time this year. Here is a summary of our visit.

Dayton Hamvention - Dr. Tamitha Skov teaching us about Space Weather — Dr. Tamitha Skov teaching us about Space Weather

We always arrive 1 day before the Hamvention to attend Contest University. We get to listen to professors who are experts in contesting, propagation and other aspects of Ham radio and always learn something new. The presentation that stands out in my mind was on Space Weather by Dr. Tamitha Skov, who is a regular on Ham Nation and has a web site Space Weather Woman.

On Friday it was time to visit the first day of Hamvention. We spent most of our time visiting the vendors. The new venue had 5 buildings with vendor booths and 2 more buildings for Forums. It took us most of Friday and some of Saturday to visit all of them. Here are some of the highlights.

Icom 7610 at the Dayton Hamvention — Icom 7610

Icom has a new SDR transceiver coming out later this year, the IC-7610. We got to see it in person at their booth. The display was impressive. If the performance is as good as the IC-7300, this will be a great transceiver.

Elecraft KPA-1500 Amp at the Dayton Hamvention — Elecraft KPA-1500 Amp

The Elecraft booth was very busy – we got to see their upcoming 1500 W amplifier, the KPA1500, which will cover 6m – 160m.. this one is going on the wishlist.

Flex Radio's new Transceiver with kbows at the Dayton Hamvention — Flex Radio’s new Transceiver with knobs

Next, we visited the Flex Radio booth and spent some time playing with the Maestro, which will have at Field Day for the GOTA station. Their newest radios, including the Flex 6600 have buttons and knobs and a display.

Kenwood TH-D74 HT at the Dayton Hamvention — Kenwood TH-D74 HT

At Kenwood’s booth, we got to look at their newest HT, the TH-D74, a tri-bander which does APRS, D-Star and has a great looking color display.

Begali Keys Booth at the Dayton Hamvention — Begali Keys Booth

We then visited the Begali booth where we got a chance to try out a large variety of Begali Keys.

This year's new Toy at the Dayton Hamvention — This year’s new Toy

At the Begali booth, Fred picked out his Hamvention toy for this year – the Sculpture Mono key.

Burns, W2BFJ at the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention — Burns, W2BFJ at the AMSAT booth

We made several visits to the AMSAT booth and saw Burns, W2BFJ, one of our newest club members. We also talked to their educational lead about ARISS opportunities to contact astronauts on the space stations and learned the details about how cube sats are built and launched. We also picked up a copy of their latest satellite book, which is one of the best books on the topic we have read.

We also visited the ARRL booth where we received a warm welcome from Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, ARRL CEO, who spoke at our club meeting last year. He is very interested in our HAB project.

After the Hamvention closed for the day, we attended many of the dinners and activities at the Crowne Plaza with the contesting community. At the Top Band dinner, we saw a very interesting presentation from Nodir, EY8MM, about his home country, Tajikistan and his plans for 160m operations during the Bouvet Island DXpedition coming up in 2018.

Overall we had a great time at the Hamvention and are looking forward to attending in 2018.

Anita, AB1QB

Nashua Area Radio Society

Tag Archives: Hamvention

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