Tag Archives: HF

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, Youth Activities

Spring 2018 Technician License Class

We held our first license class of 2018 this past weekend.  It was a Technician License Class and it was a huge success.  We had a total of 16 students in the class, including 3 high school students from Bishop Guertin High School and Merrimack High School – the two schools who participated in our High Altitude Balloon projects.  There was also a teacher in the class from Hudson Memorial School, who will be participating in HAB-3.

We had a great set of students – they all were well prepared and did great on their exams.  All 16 students earned their Tech Licenses and one of the students also earned his General!

AB1BY teaching the Tech Class

Thanks to all of our instructors and VEs who made this possible.  The Tech Class instructors were Abby, AB1BY,  Jamey, AC1DC, Fred, AB1OC, Brian AB1ZO, Wayne, AG1A, and Burns, WB1FJ.

Satellite Station 3.0 Antennas
Satellite Station 3.0 Antennas

Satellite Station 3.0

This class also marked the debut of Satellite Station 3.0, which meets the specs to support ISS Crew Contacts.

Satellite Station 3.0
Satellite Station 3.0

In addition to classroom study, we provided many demos and gave the students an opportunity to get on the air and make Satellite contacts using the station above.   Students also had the opportunity to make HF Contacts using a Flex Maestro, which connected over the internet to the station at the AB1OC/AB1QB QTH.

HF Station with Flex Maestro
HF Station with Flex Maestro

Our next license class will be the General Class, which will be held on March 24th and 25th. We will hold the Extra Class on April 27 – 29.  To register, visit our Class Information Page.

Many of our students also joined the Nashua Area Radio Society after they passed their exams.  Please say hello to the new members and congratulate them at our next meeting.

Anita (AB1QB)

Digital, DX, Featured, General, Newsletter

FT8 DXpedition mode

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You have probably heard something about recent efforts to develop a special “FT8 DXpedition Mode” in WSJT-X. This message aims to bring you up-to-date on our  progress, and generally to make our plans more widely known.

Source: FT8 – DX Pedition mode

It looks like some of the major DXpeditions are beginning to embrace FT8. This will certainly create a need to handle “pileups” in FT8 mode and to make it possible to make many contacts in the shortest period of time possible. It appears that Joe Taylor, K1JT is working on an update to WSJT-X to create a variation of FT8 tailored for DXpedition use. Also, we will also need to update our copies of WXJT-X to take advantage of the new FT8 DXpedition mode. The link above is an article by Joe which gives more information about his new FT8 DXpedition mode and the software which will support it.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter, Station Equipment

80m Broadband Matching System Design and Construction

We installed a 75m loop for SSB operation on our tower when we built it. The loop is full size and is diamond shaped so that our lower SteppIR DB36 yagi can rotate inside of it. The loop is fed at the bottom corner about 20 ft up from the ground. It works great for SSB operation on 75m but we have often wished we could use it across the entire 80m band. This goal led to a project to create a matching system for the antenna. The idea was to use a set of loading coils in series at the feed point create a good match in all segments of the 80m band…

Link to the Full Article: An 80m Broadband Matching System | Our HAM Station

We shared this project at our project night meeting in January. I recently published an article explaining the design and construction of an 80m Broadband Matching System. The ideas used can be applied to many other matching system arrangements for many different types of low-band antennas.

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