Tag Archives: SOTA

Activities, Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Upgraded Portable Satellite Station Test on Mt. Washington

August 20, 2019 Fred Kemmerer 3 Comments

We were up on Mt. Washington here in New Hampshire this past weekend and we decided to use the SOTA activation as a test for our upgraded Simple Portable Satellite Station. It turned out that the station was also a great SOTA and Grid Square Activation station for terrestrial contacts…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 9 – Upgraded Simple Portable Station

The Nashua Area Radio Society did our Mt. Washington SOTA activation this past weekend. Jamey, AC1DC put together a great trip to the summit again this year. We used the SOTA as an opportunity to test our upgraded simple portable satellite station.

Simple Portable Satellite Station — Portable Station on Mt. Washington

The station performed very well making some 75 contacts during our activation. We confirmed that the station worked well for FM satellite contacts and also verified the operation of the computer controls to enable us to make contacts through linear satellites.

We were surprised to find that the station also worked extremely well for 2m terrestrial contacts. We were able to work many mobile and base stations using 2m FM. We also worked quite a few stations using 2m SSB. The flexibility of the simple portable antenna system that is part of the updated station made this very easy to do.

The link above contains some information about how the upgraded station is put together and what we learned during our initial test.

We had near-perfect weather on the Summit for our SOTA activation. All in all, it was a great day!

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, Youth Activities

NARS August Activities

July 28, 2019 Jamey Finchum

We have a busy month of activities coming up in August. Our monthly Club Breakfast will be held on Saturday, August 10th at 8:30 am at the Dream Diner in Tyngsboro.

The following weekend we will hold what has become our annual trip to activate Mount Washington on Saturday, August 17th. We will activate Mount Washington for Summits on the Air (SOTA) and Mount Washington State Park for Parks on the Air (POTA).

We have had members get to the top almost every possible way there is. We’ve had members hike up – this is a very strenuous climb and takes about 4 hours, one way. We’ve had some members come up on the Cog Railway. It is the steepest rack railway in the US and 2nd steepest in the world! Reservations are recommended. There is also a Steam Punk Festival taking place on the 17th as well.

August Activities — The Mount Washington Cog Railway

We also have had members make the strenuous hike up the mountain. This is quite a hike and will take you close to 4 hours to reach the top. If you are interested in hiking up please get in touch with Jamey, AC1DC at [email protected].

The final way up is to drive the Mount Washington Auto Road. The Mount Washington Auto Road offers a one of a kind experience with spectacular views. If you’re not comfortable with heights or narrow mountain roads you can also take a guided tour on one of the Mount Washington vans.

We’ll plan to arrive at the peak around 10:00 am and set up and then operate as long as the weather permits. Please contact Jamey, AC1DC via email at [email protected] if you are planning on attending.

After hiking up the mountain on Saturday, Fred, AB1OC and Anita, AB1QB will host the ARRL’s Rookie Roundup for RTTY. Anyone licensed under three years or anyone that has not made a RTTY contact may join in the fun. The contest begins at 2 pm local time and runs until 8 pm. If you are interested in participating please contact Anita at [email protected].

Jim, K1BRM operating in the Rookie Roundup RTTY - August Activities — Jim, K1BRM operating in the Rookie Roundup RTTY

Finally, we will also have our Club’s Family Picnic on Saturday, August 24th at Greeley Park in Nashua. This will run from 11 am until 4 pm. We have a potluck lunch. Members can sign up to bring a dish on our Google Sheets page. We’ll have some foxes (hidden transmitters) out and may try a satellite contact with a hand held and yagi antenna. Bring your family and friends and come enjoy an afternoon with the club!

We have a lot going on in August and I hope to see you at one or all of the events we have scheduled!

Jamey, AC1DC

CW and QRP, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

SOTA Activation of Mount Monadnock

May 28, 2019 Jamey Finchum 1 Comment

We activated Mount Monadnock (W1/HA-009) on Saturday, May 25th. Myself, Brian (W1BP), Brian’s son Nick, John (KB1EEU), Mike (AB1YK) and Randall (KC1KSY) all started out from the parking lot of the park headquarters around 8:45 in the morning on a beautiful day.

We hiked the White Dot trail on the way up. This was the shortest route up, which also meant the steepest. The advantage of the steepness was that we had beautiful views most of the way up.

Once we arrived at the top we took a quick breather and had a bite to eat before setting up our stations. Brian used a KX3 with his Buddipole mast, tripod and shock-corded whip. I used my new Buddipole shock corded mast that I got from Hamvention. John used a Xiegu 5105, which is similar to the KX2 on a crappy pole with an end-fed antenna. Mike, who is a homebrew guru came out with the Yaesu FT-817 and his home-made 6m yagi that he repurposed from his old 6m home-brew he brought to Mount Pack Monadnock.

None of us created any pile-ups while on the peak, but we all had a great time. I did make one dx call to Italy which gave me enough QSOs for a successful SOTA activation.

On the hike down we traveled the White Cross trail which was less steep and still offered some beautiful views. We were all tired by the end, but looking forward to our next SOTA event!

The club will be going up Mount Kearsarge for a SOTA/POTA activation during the ARRL’s VHF/UHF contest on Saturday, June 8th. Members can hike up the mountain or drive up and there should be plenty of activity on 6m and up!

Jamey, AC1DC

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