The ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY was held on Sunday, August 19th. The N1FD rookie multi-op team, operating from AB1OC’s QTH took 1st place overall in the contest!
Congratulations to the Rookies who operated in the contest:
Thanks to Jamey, AC1DC, and Fred, AB1OC for being elmers to the rookies!
Here are the final scores:
For the complete results, please visit http://www.b4h.net/arrlrr/rr_scores201808.php
Quite a few Nashua Area Radio Society members have been working on a display to get young people and potential new Hams interested in Amateur Radio.
Our display was first used at NEAR-Fest this spring. It includes over ten high-quality exhibits and hands-on activities related to Amateur Radio and Nashua Area Radio Society licensing, activities, and youth projects. Some of the activities that are part of the display include:
We’ve created a new page here on n1fd.org that explains more about our Amateur Radio Displays for Young People. Check it out!
We also provided our display as part of a youth summer program a the Westford Public Library this summer.
Thanks to a cooperative project with Steve Elliot, K1EL, we are planning to add a kit building activity to our display. The kit is a new one that Steve created for learning Morse Code. The Morse Trainer kit should take less than an hour to build and will be available to purchase and build at Boxboro. We will be providing soldering equipment and mentors to help our builders at the show.
We have been working with the New England Amateur Radio Convention at Boxboro, MA to include our display in their vendor hall.
The Boxboro leadership is very excited about our display and has agreed to give us approximately 90 ft of table space in the main vendor hall and space outside for our Portable Satellite Station.
Along with the Boxboro team, we are hard at work publicising our event. We’ve created an information Flyer and a short picture presentation that teachers and our members can use to let folks know about our planned event. Please take a minute to download these materials and share them with as many interested folks as you can:
It is going to take quite a few member volunteers to support our display at Boxboro 2018. If you’d be willing to help, please contact us at [email protected]. Everyone who helps will receive free admission to the Boxboro 2018 convention.
Fred, AB1OC
The folks at the Westford Public Library reached out to us sometime back about hosting an Amateur Radio Youth Outreach day at the library. This event gave us the opportunity to use the Amateur Radio Youth Outreach materials that we created for NEAR-Fest and to fine-tune them. The event took place in July and included an afternoon of presentations and hands-on activities about Amateur Radio. We had about 15 students and parents attend.
Several Nashua Area Radio Society members helped to set up and deliver the program at the library. A very big thanks to:
for all of their help!!
Our approach was to simplify and leverage the display that we created for our Youth Outreach at NEAR-Fest. We were able to bring almost all of our displays from NEAR-Fest and simplify them to the point where we could set everything up in about 2 hours. Our displays included the following:
Our program consisted of presentations and videos about each of the displays followed by hands-on activities and a chance to take a closer look.
The HF Remote GOTA was popular and provided a chance for folks to talk to Hams in Europe and across the United States. We used a Maestro and the Internet to run the AB1OC/AB1OC station remotely.
Our High-Altitude Balloon Display was a hit. Folks were very interested in the video presentation from our flights and they asked lots of questions about our HAB programs.
Brian, W1BP brought his Elecraft KX3 Transceiver and Buddipole Antenna and set up an FT8 Digital GOTA Station at the event. Brian’s activity provided a great way for us to explain and demonstrate portable operations.
Our third GOTA station was part of an Emergency Communications and Field Day display. The GOTA enabled everyone to try to make contacts through local repeaters and to learn about EMCOM.
Tom, AB1NS hosted our Morse Code activity. We had a variety of keys, practice oscillators, and simple code activities for folks to try.
Marie, KC1RMS hosted a Fox Hunt and demonstrated Radio Direction Finding. Members of the group were able to locate the three Foxes that we had hidden on the library grounds.
Our final display highlighted the many STEM learning and other training activities that the Nashua Area Radio Society provides for young people. Two of the attendees at our youth day decided to join our summer Technician License Class the following week. Maximilian, KM6UVJ, and Tatiana, KM6UVK both earned their Technician licenses at the class – congratulations to both and welcome to NARS!!!
As you can probably tell, our Amateur Radio Youth Outreach event at the Westford Public Library was a success. We are looking forward to offering similar events at other local libraries and Ham Fests later this year.
Fred, AB1OC
