1st Annual New England Parks On The Air event on Saturday, October 16, 2021

The K1USN Radio Club has announced the 1st Annual Autumn New England Parks On The Air event on Saturday, October 16, 2021 from 0000-2359 UTC. Activation will be from as many different POTAs as possible, either as activators or hunters.  The goal is to have one group/individual at each site to enable the activation of as many NE POTAs as possible.

 

BTW, this event is co-incidental with the 2021 Jamboree on the Air, and would give scouts an opportunity to either contact parks or operate from parks.

 

Please distribute this notice and information to as many of your club members as possible, PARTICULARLY THOSE THAT PARTICIPATE IN POTA.  More information can be found by clicking on this link:

 

https://nediv.arrl.org/2021/09/23/first-annual-new-england-parks-on-the-air-event-october-16-2021/

Cape Cod Marathon 2021 - Volunteers Needed

 

Barry, KB1TLR, needs volunteers to provide communication support for Cape Marathon Weekend, October 30 and 31.

If you are interested, please contact Barry via email:  timefliestoo@gmail.com

FARA Fest - November 6 - 9am to Noon

 

!! FINALLY !!

FARA Fest is live on November 6, 2021 at the Upper Cape Regional Technical School, 220 Sandwich Road, Bourne, MA, from 9AM to noon.  Sellers can set up beginning at 7AM.  Table space can be reserved on the FARA website, https://www.falara.org/activities/fara-fest.

The FARA-Fest flyer in PDF format can be accessed at the following link: 

FARA Fest 2021 Flyer

Since the Fest is held at a public school, face masks are required.

Making your HT work better for you.

 

While working today's Road Race, I noticed a few issues with people using HT's, especially in areas toward the start of the Race where access to the repeaters is marginal.

First, and simplest, is make a "Tiger Tail". This is simply a piece of thin hook up wire that attaches under your antenna, 19” or so long. This provides a basic counterpoise for your stock HT antenna. Simply get a 19” piece of insulated wire, strip off an inch or so, and then partially unscrew your antenna. Hook the exposed wire around the antenna base and screw it back down-you then have a simple ground plane antenna. This is an old trick and it does boost your signal in most cases. The exposed wire must not touch the center pin of the antenna, only the threaded portion. Remove it after use if you find it too cumbersome.

Second-get a headset! And I don't mean an earbud/microphone of the type that comes with a typical Baofeng transceiver, I'm talking a REAL headset. Too expensive? No way! Heil makes a dual headset with boom microphone for $33.95 at HRO, for Yaesu, Baofeng/Kenwood and Icom HT's. Part number is HTHDK for Baofeng/Kenwood, HTHDI for Icom and HTHDY for Yaesu. These work really well, and have an inline PTT switch. I bought one of these when I worked the Finish Line Med tent at the Road Race years ago and the Race had extremely loud music and a very loud announcer close by. It made all the difference and was virtually hands-free.

Third, invest in a longer antenna. Diamond makes some great HT antennas, like the SRH77 series. Be sure to buy the right one for your connector type. See Diamond's website: Diamond® Antenna - HT Antennas (diamondantenna.net)  The Nagoya NA-771 is another good HT antenna.

Finally, to prevent the all too familiar “Stuck Mic.” issues we often have at our public service events, don't use VOX while operating at these events. Check your external microphone regularly to be sure the switch is not stuck closed by an article of clothing, etc. Also, most HT's have a transmission time-out feature. It's often set to “off” by default but check your user's manual, you should be able to set it to 1 minute, 2 minutes etc. Since most transmissions are rarely that long in a public event setting, it should not bother your operations but the transmitter would shut down automatically after the prescribed time and not hang up the repeater.

Henry K1WCC
Falmouth/Cape Cod ARES
k1wcc@comcast.net

Antenna Project by Gene, KX1C

Spider Antenna Project Using Ham Sticks
Eugene Bradeen, KX1C

This project came about after seeing an advertisement for a multi-band antenna made from ham sticks. There are several on the market, from MFJ and Chameleon, among others. The antenna looks like a spider when all four bands are installed. Presently, I have only three bands installed, 6M, 10M, and 20M. On the Chameleon website they had a decent picture of the internal construction, along with the name of the company making the octagon box. I ordered a box from Newark. The ham stick mounts, 3/8-24 thread, were ordered from Quicksilver Radio. A chassis mount SO-239 connector is also needed. A parts list with sources is shown below.

The box that I purchased is 5 inches across by 1 ½ inches deep. I drilled holes that were centered in height and symmetrically located round the perimeter. Four of the mounts are wired together and go to the center pin of the SO-239. The other four are wired together and connected to the chassis. I flattened the ends of the ring adapters that came with the mounts to make a wider spot to solder the #12 wire.

I offset the chassis mount SO-239, so that there was room for the mast mount and for tightening the PL-259. Also, a small hole was added to let moisture out, since the box is not waterproof.

The mast mount was made from a piece of bent scrap stainless steel, 3” X 8 ½”. Holes were drilled to attach the mount on the box, allowing clearance for the SO-239 connector and centering the mast on the box to balance the antenna. I drilled two sets of holes in the mount for use with two different sizes of masts. Stepped drill bits worked great. Drilling the holes left a little rough edge. Just a touch more with the bit cleaned up the edges with a slight chamfer!

Two ham sticks are required for each band you want to use. They are mounted in a dipole configuration directly opposite from each other. I put the 10M sticks perpendicular to the 20M ones and the 6M set in between. The antenna balances quite well in this configuration.

Tuning the ham sticks takes a little patience. I started with 20M and adjusted to less than 2:1 SWR. I found the 10M and 6M ones interacted a little. More patience. Tuning back and forth between them got the SWR to around 1.7:1. The auto tuner will take care of the rest.

Using my KX3/KPA100 running at 70 watts on 20M, I made a contact in Maryland. He gave me a 5/4 signal report. Not bad for having the antenna on a 12 foot mast mounted on the back deck!

Watch where you put the antenna. The close proximity to my Davis anemometer caused RFI to give me a high wind speed of 92MPH! Oops…

I think the antenna went together fairly easily. It will be good for portable use, camping, SOTA, or just about anywhere you go.

Parts List:

1. 3/8-24 Antenna mount w/ring lugs Qty. 8, Purchased from www.qsradio.com

2. Newark P/N 61T5010, Octagon Die cast box, Mfg. Hammond, P/N 1590STPC Purchased from www.newark.com. Waterproof version P/N 1590WSTPC

3. SO-239 Chassis mount w/hardware

4. #12 wire – 12”-14”

5. Ham Sticks 2 for each band. Purchased from www.qsradio.com

6. Hardware for mounting to mast, L-bracket with U-bolts or pipe flange.

EmComm Training - WinLink Thursdays

WinLink Thursdays are a great way to learn how to use the Winlink radio email system for effective emergency communication messaging.  See ARES Letter Issues (arrl.org) to read one ham's experience.

Each WinLink Thursday session provides an opportunity to learn a new WinLink feature and practice using WinLink by sending a message to our regional clearinghouse.

To learn more, subscribe to the EmComm Training groups.io groups by going to:

main@EmComm-Training.groups.io | Home , 

and subscribing to the group.  You can also look through the message archive by clicking the Messages "button" in the upper left of the groups.io page to read about earlier WinLink Thursday sessions.

Both Mel, KC1ELB and I are regular WinLink Thursday participants, so we can provide some local assistance as necessary.

Larry, W1IZZ

Falmouth Road Race Radio Operators Needed

From Barry, KB1TLR:

Thank you to all of you that have already signed up or confirmed for the road race. 

I still need 12 more people to sign up or confirm.  Once you signup or confirm, you need to register as a volunteer at  https://app.initlive.com/web-admin/app/#/join-party?k=9amdd0phaqwh6e.

Contact Barry, timefliestoo at gmail.com, to confirm or register.