Tag Archives: NARS Event

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, On The Air, Youth Activities

Announcing The First Annual Student-Teacher Contest

The Nashua Area Radio Society is committed to helping new and prospective hams to get on the air.  To this end, we are pleased to sponsor a student-teacher contest to encourage participation in other Amateur Radio contests by Students and Teachers.  This is a fantastic opportunity to win a new state-of-the-art Icom IC-7300 Software Defined Radio, Buckmaster antenna with help to put it up or another station accessory.

How Will The Student-Teacher Contest Work?

Student-Techer Contest
To participate, you simply need to get on the air during 5 of the contests listed below for 3-consecutive hours from January 1, 2020, through September 30th, 2020.  Students and Teachers will be graded based on the best consecutive 3-hour score in a given contest.  We will be using level 1, 2 and 3 weightings (see list below) plus contest equalization to normalize the scores. Your 5 best contest scores will be combined to create your final score and finish placing.

Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station
Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station

The list of eligible contests (see below) includes SSB, Digital, and CW contests so you can choose your favorite operating mode or compete in contests that use different modes if you like.

Highlights and Leaderboard Coming

We are planning to add a new page for contest highlights and leaderboard here on n1fd.org that will be updated to show the current standings after each contest in the series.

But I Don’t Have a License Yet…

Summer Ham Activity - Student Teacher License Class
Student Teacher License Class

Not licensed? Not a problem. Based upon demand, we will offer Tech and General License classes in January/February for any student-teacher contest participants who what to earn their Amateur Radio License to compete.

Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day
Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day

We will also provide contest training for you to get started. Our January Tech Night will be about getting started in contesting and Fred and Anita will provide training to use AB1OC/AB1QB and KC1XX.

What Will I Use For A Station?

Abby, KC1FFX in the ARRL Rookie Roundup CW
Abby, KC1FFX in the ARRL Rookie Roundup CW

If you have access to a station, you may certainly operate from home.  If not, there will be opportunities to operate some World-class stations, including AB1OC/AB1QB, KC1XX or even during Field Day and Winter Field Day!  We’re trying to make this as easy as possible.

How Do I Enter To Compete?

To participate, you must be a member of the Nashua Area Radio Society, and either a student (High School or younger) or their teacher.  If you’re not already a member of NARS, you can sign-up here.  Winners will be announced at the October Nashua Area Radio Society Club Meeting.

In order for this give-away to work, we’re going to need a minimum of (6) NARS members to sign-up no later than December 31, 2019.  Please contact Anita, AB1QB, at [email protected] to sign-up.

Which Contests Count Towards My Score?

The preliminary list of Eligible Contests in which you can participate are as follows:

Student-Techer Contest

  • WRTC-like weighting will be used to equalize contest scores
  • Score Multipliers – Level 3: x3, Level 2: x2, Level 1: x1

For our Student-Teacher Contest to go forward, we need students and teachers to sign up before the end of the year. Tell your family, friends, and teachers about the contest!

Dave, K1DLM

Activities, Education and Training, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Winter Field Day 2020 Update

4 Comments

Winter Field Day 2020 is just over two months away and our plans for another successful event are coming together nicely. This week saw key events towards that end. On Monday, the Milford, NH Board of Selectmen approved our request allowing us to stay in the park overnight from Friday, January 24th thru Sunday, January 26th. On Tuesday, the NARS Executive Committee approved our budget for expenses. All we need now is a little more time to prepare equipment, muster our setup/teardown teams, and recruit operators.

What Is Winter Field Day?

For those not familiar with Winter Field Day (WFD), the purpose is to gain hands-on experience with emergency communications under winter conditions. And although our objective is to be safe (and warm) while having fun during winter’s doldrums, scores are tallied and thus, it’s a contest. For Winter Field Day 2019, NARS was number one in category (4-oscar), and number two overall.

This year we have our sights set on the top position with a solid plan to win it. Specifically, we are increasing our transmitter count to 5-oscar, adding a 2nd 40m antenna, and more VHF+ capability. Details of our plans and hands-on demo on using the equipment will be presented at our Tuesday, December 10th at 7 pm – Winter Field Day 2020 Tech Night. If you are interested in participating in WFD, you are encouraged to attend.

We Need Your Help

The planning team is working hard to make WFD a safe and enjoyable event for everyone. But we really need your help to make this a success. We are looking for members willing to commit to helping transport equipment, setup and teardown stations. Here is a summary of our needs:

  • Transportation to Keyes park on Friday morning – especially if you have a pick-up truck (but all are welcome).
  • Setup of the tower, antennas, and equipment on Friday afternoon and again Saturday morning.
  • Site teardown on Sunday after 2 pm and transportation away from the park.

If you are new to amateur radio, field day is a fantastic way to get some first-hand experience in building a high-performance multi-mode station; including putting up a tower and antennas.

And of course, we need operators! An “official” sign up list will be posted once we finalize a few details, but we are looking for people to commit now. If you are interested in operating (especially CW), please let us know. You don’t need an advanced license to join in. We’ll have plenty of control operators for the HF bands and Technicians have full privileges on VHF+. This is a great opportunity for new hams (and new club members) to participate in a major outdoor contest.

Learning More…

I hope you will join us for Winter Field Day 2020. If you want to hear more, or sign-up, please attend the NARS December 3rd Membership Meeting or the December 10th Tech Night. If you can’t make either meeting, please contact, Jerry Doty, K1OKD,  Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, or anyone else on the NARS Winter Field Day planning team.

Thank you, happy Thanksgiving es 73!
DE Jerry, K1OKD

Activities, Antennas, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Winter Field Day 2020 Is Coming

Winter Field Day 2020 is coming! The dates are January 24th – 26th, 2020. We had a lot of fun at Winter Field Day 2019 and we’re looking forward to the event again this year. The Nashua Area Radio Society will again be holding our operation at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH. We are planning several new things this year. Here’s some more about our plans.

Our Planning Team

Operator Night Shift - The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio...
WFD 2019 Operator Night Shift – The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio…

A team has been working on our plans for Winter Field Day (WFD) 2020 for over a month now. The planning leads include:

  • Jerry Doty, K1OKD – WFD Overall Planning Leader
  • Craig Bailey, N1SFD – Antennas and Power Chairperson
  • Jon Turner, AC1EV – Station Chairperson
  • John Slater, KB1EEU – Shelter Chairperson
  • Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC – VHF+ Chairperson

Winter Field Day 2020 Plans?

2 pm and We Are On The Air! Winter Field Day 2020
WFD 2019, 2 pm and We Are On The Air!

With help from many other members, our Winter Field Day 2020 planning team is putting together a really cool operation. Some of the highlights include:

  • We will be operating on all of the HF bands from 160m through 6m.
  • Our antenna farm will include a 40 ft tower with a tri-bander and wire antennas for 80m and 40m
  • Our antenna farm will also include a second 40m wire antenna (a Delta Loop) that will enable us to have two transmitters on 40m at the same time.
  • We are planning an additional transceiver and we will be entering as a 5O (five Tx Outdoor) station this year
  • We are adding quite a few new bands on VHF and above. We’ll be on 6m, 2m, 1.25m (222 MHz), 70cm, 33cm (902 MHz), and 23cm (1.2 GHz). We will have yagi antennas for all of these bands.
  • John Slater is working on an improved shelter and heating system to keep us warm and dry
  • We will be equipping Rover stations for the VHF+ bands (2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 33cm, and 23cm). These stations will have Phone, CW, and Digital capabilities. We hope this will provide opportunities for enhanced VHF+ activity for all of the Winter Field Day stations in our area.
  • Our computer-controlled satellite ground station will be back

Upcoming Activities

Winter Field Day 2020
New for Winter Field Day 2020 – 1.25m Yagi

We have several activities leading up to Winter Field Day 2020. All NARS members are invited to join us for these activities. Planned activities include:

  • Saturday, November 23rd at 10 am – Yagi building party at AB1OC/AB1QB. We’ve secured several new Yagi’s to use for the VHF+ bands this year. We’ll be assembling the one for the 1.25m (220 MHz) band and testing in our shop. We’ll also recondition the driven element of a large 70cm yagi as well. This is a chance to see how a VHF+ weak signal antenna goes together.
  • Friday  November 29th at 9 am – VHF+ Mast Test at AB1OC/AB1QB. We are planning a second mast for our VHF+ antennas for Winter Field Day. During this session, we’ll be setting up the new mast with the antennas for 1.25m, 33cm, and 23cm to check it out and cut a new set of guy ropes.
  • Tuesday, December 10th at 7 pm – Winter Field Day 2020 Tech Night. We will be covering all aspects of antenna building, station setup, and operating for Winter Field Day 2020 at our December Tech Night.

We are also planning station tests for our HF and VHF+ stations in the near future.

Signups for setup and operating during Winter Field Day will be available at our December Membership Meeting.

We hope you’ll join us for our Winter Field Day activities and operation!

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide