BARC General Meeting, Thursday, Sep. 21, 7:30 pm

There will be a BARC General Meeting on Thursday, September 21, both at the Artisans Asylum Holton St. building and on Zoom. A period of socializing will start at 7:00, and the meeting proper will start at 7:30.

Our speaker will be John Portune, W6NBC, and he will be talking about: A Double Inverted Delta No-Radial All-Band HF Vertical. A 30 ft, lower, horizontally polarized vertical with the azimuth gain less noticeable but comparable to a small beam on a tower but with similar electrically-steerable azimuth gain. Excellent for Field Day and portable operation.

Information about John:
– Licensed Advanced WB6ZCT 1965 Extra 1972 Commercial Licenses: GROL, General Radio Telegraph
– Bachelor’s degree, Physics, Oregon State University 1960
– Career (Retired) Television broadcast engineer/instructor KNBC Ch 4 Los Angeles, Sony Broadcast
– San Francisco Ham magazine author: QST/OTA (over 35 to date) and others
– Frequent Zoom live radio club and ham expo presentations
– Active on HF, VHF, UHF – SSB, FM, digital modes and ham satellites
– Native of Los Angeles, CA 10 yr. resident of UK. Ham license MØGCK
– Married KF6OEB. 3 children, 12 grandchildren
– Steam railroading, pipe organ and sushi enthusiast
– w6nbcmail@gmail.com, website: w6nbc.com

Here is the Zoom information. As always, if we have problems with the meeting, we will post any updates on this website.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81732522755?pwd=N2pxUHF3NEdvVXZNYng1RlRrUmx6UT09

Meeting ID: 817 3252 2755
Passcode: BARC

SKYWARN mail to charter/hotmail/msn/outlook addresses

Rob Macedo, KD1CY, alerts us to problems receiving where Microsoft is intentionally blocking SKYWARN announcements. The full details are at https://wx1box.org/2023/08/02/special-announcement-charter-hotmail-msn-outlook-email-addresses-blocked-from-receiving-skywarn-announcement-emails/.

I have also noticed a problem where club mail to addresses at outlook.com have silently disappeared, so I will be contacting the few current members who may have be affected.

BARC VE Session, Monday, July 10, 7:30 pm

The Boston Amateur Radio Club will be holding a volunteer exam session on Monday, July 10, 2023, at 7:30 pm at Artisans Asylum, 96 Holton St., Boston, MA 02135. This is in the Allston neighborhood; directions are here.

We give exams for all licensing levels: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. The test fee is $15, and if you pass an exam, you can take the exam for the next higher level without paying an additional fee. More information can be found here.

Testing is by reservation only; we cannot take walk-ins. To reserve a spot or if you have questions, please contact Joe Chapman, NV1W, at joechapman@alum.mit.edu.

Also, please note that the question pool for the General exam will change on July 1, so in the July 10 session we will be using the new General tests.

BARC General Meeting, Thursday, June 15, 7:30 pm

There will be a BARC General Meeting on Thursday, June 15, both at the Artisans Asylum Holton St. building and on Zoom. A period of socializing will start at 7:00, and the meeting proper will start at 7:30.

There is no speaker. We will hold elections and discuss plans for the upcoming Field Day.

Note that we are meeting in the Holton St. Building and not Antwerp St. As previously announced.

Brendan Baldonado, NW1S, will be at the Artisans Asylum starting at 2:00 in the afternoon if you would like to arrive early and see the BARC shack. There will also be an official tour of the facility at 6:15 pm.

Here is the Zoom information. As always, if we have problems with the meeting, we will post any updates on this website.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89266239161?pwd=dmZCdms3SSt2WTFOQm9mQURqVDVLUT09

Meeting ID: 892 6623 9161
Passcode: BARC

BARC Field Day, June 24–25, 2023

Once again, BARC will be holding Field Day in 2023 at the Andrew Cucchiara Learning Center at Hale Education in Westwood, MA. Directions are here. Note that if you are coming to this event, you do not need to pay the normal entrance fee to enter the Hale Education site. Everyone, including guests and those who are not yet licensed, is welcome.

Operating times are from 2:00 pm Saturday, June, 24, until 2:00 pm Sunday, June 25. We will be in class 3A, operating 3 HF stations and a VHF/UHF station using SSB, CW, and digital modes. We are also planning to make a satellite contact. People who wish to participate are encouraged to help with setup on Saturday morning and/or teardown on Sunday afternoon.

We will have pizza on Saturday evening, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday will be provided. Spots for tent camping will be available, though facilities will be minimal (portable toilets and a small sink but no other running water).

Talkaround will be on the BARC simplex frequency, 147.420 MHz.

If you are planning on coming, please let us know using the Google form at https://forms.gle/JFYhn53M8j8BkfZz5.

More information on Field Day can be found on the ARRL website and questions about BARC should be sent to w1bos@arrl.net.

New England QSO Party, May 6–7

(via Tom Frenaye, K1KI.)

The New England QSO Party on May 6th and 7th is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries. You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.

Our goal is to get every one of the 67 counties in New England on the air so we hope you will encourage your friends to join in the fun! Even if you can join us for a couple of hours, we’d appreciate it! Will you be QRV? Let us know with a message to info@neqp.org.

The New England QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep on Saturday night. It runs from 4 pm Saturday until 1 am Sunday, then 9 am Sunday until 8 pm Sunday. Operate on CW, SSB and/or digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters. For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your county/state. Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who sends in a log with at least 25 QSOs will get a certificate. The goal is to work stations anywhere in the world—and their goal is to work New England stations, so you’ll be very popular!

Last year we had logs from 871 stations from around the country and world. There were 295 stations from New England on the air!

The full rules are here: https://neqp.org/rules/

The full 2022 results were posted a couple of weeks ago: https://neqp.org/2022-new-england-qso-party/

This next weekend is the 2023 NEQP. Please get on and make some QSOs even if you don’t want to send in a log!