Halifax Explosion Centennial Special Event

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From December 2 through December 10 the Halifax Amateur Radio Club will be holding a special event using the call CK100VDA to commemorate the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. More information can be found here.

The explosion occurred on the morning of December 6, 1917, when a naval mishap set off a fire on the loaded munitions ship Mont Blanc. The explosion, which killed 2000 and leveled much of the city of Halifax, was the largest man-made explosion until the atomic age.

Fortunately, Boston was able to send a lot of aid quickly. Halifax sends Boston its official Christmas tree each year to mark the friendship between the two cities, and you can do the same by working CK100VDA this month.

BARC General Meeting October 19

n1qd Meetings

On Thursday, October 19, join the Boston Amateur Radio Club at 7:30PM for the monthly meeting at the Brookline Police Headquarters Community Room.

The featured speaker at out October General Meeting will be Rob Macedo, KD1CY. Rob is the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator as well as the MEMA/FEMA Region 1/NWS Taunton SKYWARN Liaison. Rob will give an updated overview on SKYWARN and ARES in Eastern Massachusetts. As the Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net, he will speak on the recent hurricane net operations over the past 6 weeks including the recent Amateur Radio Operators deployment to Puerto Rico for relief efforts on the island.

Antenna / Coax Work Party October 21

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At Field Day this summer, it was discovered that the club’s triband beam antenna was not performing as desired. Specifically, a high SWR was noticed on the 15m and 10m phone bands. On Saturday October 21, the club will have an antenna work party at the home of Mark KB1EKN, near the 220 bus out of Quincy Center Station. We will erect the beam on a mast, and sweep it with an antenna analyzer. If anything appears to be a problem, we will re-tune the antenna as needed. While we have the crew together, we will also take the time to test and inventory the club’s coax. If there are enough people on site, we will break up into teams to work on both tasks in parallel. Sign up for the work party here​. The club will pick up lunch for volunteers. Contact Mark KB1EKN with additional questions.

Baystate Marathon & Half Marathon – Sunday October 22, 2017

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[Via the MMRA “Public Service Events” email list.]

The Lowell CERT Communications Team has been asked to support once again the Baystate Marathon and Half Marathon. This year the event is on Sunday, October 22nd. Our operational time period is from approximately 0700 until event completion (estimated 1400). Our assistance has been requested by Lowell Office of Emergency Management and Lowell Fire Department. The communications team will be employing Amateur Radio to provide this communications asset. Amateur Radio will be used for 2 functions:

  • Medical operations: the purpose of this net is to provide a communications link for medical requests/status to the incident command post.
  • Accountability net: the purpose of this net is to coordinate with a race public information booth the status of runners who are unable to complete the race for any issue to any one is seeking this information.

Race info may be found at http://baystatemarathon.com.

Please contact Terry-KA8SCP ka8scp@wb1gof.org if you are able to assist or would like more information.

Please share this request with your local clubs. This is a pretty laid back event and suitable for first time public event participation.

Terry-KA8SCP

Terry M. Stader – KA8SCP
MEMA Region 1 RACES/Communications Officer
PART of Westford-WB1GOF, Senior Club Advisor
NESMC EMA Director

Advisory: Requests for Information from the Public and the Press

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[From the ARRL via the MMRA’s Public Service Events list]

Many individuals have loved ones in Puerto Rico and they are understandably hopeful that Amateur Radio operators can relay messages to them. As a result, some are contacting amateurs with requests to pass message traffic to the island.

At the same time, individual amateurs and clubs have reported that local press representatives have contacted them to request information about Amateur Radio involvement in Puerto Rico. This is likely to increase as word spreads in the national media about our activities.

For inquiries from the public, ARRL advises that these individuals should be informed that amateurs traveling to the island to support the American Red Cross effort will be tasked with handling outbound traffic only. With that in mind, members of the public should access the American Red Cross Safe and Well System online at https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php. Status information from friends and relatives in Puerto Rico will be entered into the system as it arrives from amateurs stationed there.

For press inquiries, please ask reporters to contact ARRL directly at newsmedia@arrl.org. A system has been established at ARRL Headquarters to respond to press inquiries in a timely and accurate manner.

Steve Ewald, WV1X
Supervisor, Field Organization Team
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio®
860-594-0265
sewald@arrl.org