Tag Archives: NARS Event

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

Welcome to the New Executive Committee Members

December 7, 2017 Fred Kemmerer

As we just held our annual officer elections, I’d like to thank the departing officers for their service to the club. Departing the Executive committee are:

Vice President, Dave Michaels, N1RF
Treasurer, Wayne Wagner, AG1A
Programs, Brian Smigielski, AB1ZO

Our Executive Committee members have worked hard to move the Nashua Area Radio Society forward this past year. Some of our major progress in 2017 includes:

We increased our Youth Engagement through many activities and initiatives for young people including working with students from local schools to launch two High Altitude Balloons.
We helped 28 new Amateurs into the hobby through our Technician license classes and we helped 20 Amateurs earn General and/or Extra upgrades as part of our license classes in the Spring and Fall.
We provided an Interesting and Educational set of Programs and Tech Nights and added to our library of video training materials.
We provided CW training to help folks learn Morse Code.
We provided a Diverse set of Amateur Radio related activities including SOTA Activations, Rookie Roundups, Kids Day, Club Picnic and theTower Climb Open House.
We enjoyed a Safe and Successful Field Day.
We achieved Top Club and Top State in 13 Colonies Special Event.
We added a 2m Repeater Net to our weekly net activities.
We significantly increased our presence and activity on Social Media.
We made significant progress toward securing our federal 501c(3) status including drafting and approval of a new Constitution and By-Laws and a set of supporting Policies and Procedures documents.
We grew our membership to over 150 members.

2018 Executive Committee Members

I’d like to congratulate and welcome our new and returning Officers and Directors to the Executive Committee. Our 2018 Officers and Directors are:

President, Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
Vice President, Dave Merchant, K1DLM
Secretary, Brian McCaffrey, W1BP
Treasurer, Hamilton Stewart, K1HMS
Membership, Jamey Finchum, AC1DC
Programs, Scott Andersen, NE1RD
Activities, Anita Kemmerer, AB1QB

I am looking forward to working with the New Executive Committee a toward a successful 2018.

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

HAB-2 Sets Altitude Record!

October 31, 2017 Fred Kemmerer

We flew our High-Altitude Balloon for the second time this past weekend. Our second High-Altitude Balloon Flight (HAB-2) was part of a STEM learning project that we did with STEM club students at Bishop-Guertin High School in Nashua, NH. The students did all of the flight prep and launched HAB-2 at approximately 11 am ET from a school in Winchester, NH. Parents, teachers and local students joined us for the launch as did several members of our HAB team.

High-Altitude Balloon 2 Actual Flight Path

Our students and many Hams were able to track HAB-2 during its flight via APRS. HAB-2’s actual flight path prediction matched our modeling quite well.

High-Altitude Balloon 2 Predicted Flight Path

The direction and shape of the path were almost the same as what our model predicted but the flight took longer and went higher than we expected.

High-Altitude Balloon Altitude Record — High-Altitude Balloon 2’s Balloon Burst Altitude

We broke our previous altitude record by A LOT! The balloon burst west of Rochester, NH at just short of 118,000 ft! HAB-2’s final altitude was about 400 ft higher than the last APRS burst shown above. This is more the 25,000 ft higher than our last flight!

HAB-2 landed in a pond in Maine. Our floatation system worked well – it kept most of the electronics dry and prevented HAB-2 from sinking.

HAB-2's Water Recovery in Maine — HAB-2’s Water Recovery in Maine

Fortunately, Jamey, KC1ENX and Curtis, N1CMD had Jamey’s kayak and were able to retrieve HAB-2. The equipment was wet but appears to be in good working condition. We have all of the telemetry data from HAB-2’s flight.

Due to a glitch at launch, the platform flew on its side for the entire flight and the cameras shut off early due to some unusually cold conditions (-70° F) that HAB-2 encountered during its flight. We did get some video from the first 50 minutes of the flight.

You can view the video of HAB-2’s launch, flight, and recovery below.

Our students will be getting together later this week to analyze the data from HAB-2’s flight. We are also planning an Amateur Radio open house for them on Sunday, Nov. 12th at our QTH.

Congratulations to our students and to our HAB Team for another successful flight!

Fred, AB1OC

2018 Executive Committee Members

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