Tag Archives: VHF/UHF

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

Fall 2016 Ham Radio License Classes

The Nashua Area Radio Club has a dedicated team of Ham Radio license class instructors and we offer Technician, General, and Amateur Extra classes twice a year.  We have a great track record using the Gordon West class materials and have 68 graduates who got their initial license or upgrade.

Our classes are held at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Nashua, 2300 Southwood Drive in Nashua.

We setup a live VHF and HF station in the classroom, which allows us to provide live demonstrations of the class material.  This helps students to better understand the material and also give them an idea of what they can do with their license once they have it.

Ham Radio License Class Radio Station
Class Radio Station

This season, two new instructors have joined our team, Greg Fuller, W1TEN and Brian Smiglieski, AB1ZO, who are both graduates of our May 2016 Extra Class.  They join our existing instructors Dave, N1RF,  Skip K1NKR, Wayne AG1A, Aron W1AKI, Anthony, KC1DXL, Wayne, KB1HYL, Fred, AB1OC and Anita, AB1QB.

We will hold a License Exam Session at the end of each class, starting a 4:00 pm on Sunday.

We have scheduled 3 classes for this fall:

DateClassClass Fee (due in advance)Book
September 24-25Technician$30Gordon West Technician Class Manual 2014 - 2018
October 22-23General$30Gordon West General Class Manual 2015 - 2019
December 2-4Amateur Extra$40Gordon West Extra Class Manual 2016 - 2020

More information can be found in the flyers below.  Please pass this information along to anyone you know who is interested in a Ham Radio License or an upgrade.    Contact Anita, AB1QB at [email protected] to sign up.

Fall 2016 Technician Ham Radio License Class Flyer

Fall 2016 Extra Ham Radio License Class Flyer

Anita, AB1QB

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

Summits on the Air (SOTA)

Image 4 Comments

On Saturday, June 18th as I was heading home from a workshop I presented in Portland, ME I heard a CQ from KB1RJD on the VHF National Calling Frequency (146.520) for Summits on the Air from Mount Washington in New Hampshire – over 100 miles away. I answered their call but they could not get the last letter of my call sign, so I could not log the QSO. After getting home I looked up more information on Summits on the Air.  Abby and I both love to hike and be outdoors and of course combining that with ham radio sounded like a lot of fun and didn’t seem to take any more equipment than what I already have – plus I had just purchased a new VHF/UHF 5 element, Elk Yagi.

Making SOTA contacts on Pack Monadnock on 2M with an Elk 5 element yagi!

Sunday morning, Abby (KC1FFX) and I headed up to Pack Monadnock (W1/HA-041). It wasn’t too far away and we thought it would be a great first try for an activation. If nothing else we would enjoy some beautiful weather on Father’s Day together! We jumped in the car with the ELK Yagi and a 5 watt HT on battery power. We also brought my IC-7100 and a buddipole. Let me tell you, we had a blast! We had so much fun on 2 meters with the handheld that we never got to setting up the buddipole.

Abby Pack Monadnock SOTA
The antenna got heavy trying to hand hold it so we found a stick that fit it almost perfectly!

It was a gorgeous weather and we made 12 contacts as far away as Plymouth, MA and Madison, NH! We really enjoyed the directional antenna and trying to “home” in on signals – we seemed to get better as the day went on.

We’re already looking forward to our next SOTA activation. When we got home we started looking at all the other mountains and hills in the area. There is a list of summits here.

Jamey Pack Monadnock SOTA
A gorgeous day and a lot of fun!

We would love to hear from others that have tried SOTA before or if anyone would like to team up and activate a summit!

73,

Jamey KC1ENX
Abby KC1FFX

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

Huh? 2 meter QSO into Canada!

2 Comments

Ok, this is slightly misleading but it’s true.  I had a QSO with a Canadian station over 200 miles away on 2 meters. From my car none the less!

You may wonder how this was done. I had some help from above that’s how. I discovered that on the International Space Station (ISS) is this cool thing called a digipeater.  Now I’m no pro at this but I will attempt to explain in hopes that someone else can enjoy getting their toes wet in Amateur Satellite opportunities.

To start, here is an eQSL card of my from my first QSO of this nature:

ISS Packet Contact QSL

Note the mode on this card. It’s packet. The digipeater on the ISS relays APRS messages.  This was all foreign to me prior to this contact. I discovered all of this by accident while I was monitoring the ISS frequencies for voice and SSTV. APRS transmissions were pouring out of my radio. Curiosity got me to research the sounds and ultimately steered me towards giving it a go.

Although I already had all the parts and pieces to start my way I lacked the knowledge of what to do. It took some figuring out, but I now have a simple and relatively low-cost way of working some satellites. Unlike voice mode, you do not need a directional antenna to do packet through the ISS. I use my mobile radio in my car, an omnidirectional antenna, a USB SignaLink sound card and an inexpensive Windows tablet pc. I downloaded UISS and AGW packet engine (both are free).  I think I blew a brain fuse or two figuring out how it all goes together, but in the end, it works.

The uplink and downlink frequency for this is the same: 145.825

Go ahead, tune in and listen while the ISS is over your location.  There are many websites and smart phone apps to give you the pass schedule.

If you are interested in this and want help getting started on this for yourself then feel free to shoot me an e-mail [email protected]

Hope to hear you on the air!

Curtis (KB1RTQ)

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide