Field Day Sked & Tips

Field Day has arrived! At our recent meeting, we discussed a sked for making FD contacts on 2M FM simplex (and ARRL suggests it here). Let’s do the following, weather permitting:

  • Saturday, June 27, 2:00 PM EDT: 146.55 MHz
  • Sunday, June 28, 10: AM EDT: 146.55 MHz

Tips:

  • There are some fairly easy bonuses, each worth many contacts.
    • Copy the W1AW Field Day Bulletin (schedule)
    • Swap Messages to Section Manager on our repeaters.
    • All bonuses are detailed in the Field Day Rules.
  • Let’s touch base with each other throughout the weekend on our 146.640 MHz repeater (or 449.075 if ’64 is having a Bad Hear day).
  • For a Field Day FAQ and other info, see the ARRL FD Page.

Field Day Training Sessions, June 17 & 24

In preparation for “WARA Field Day 2020 – Alone Together”, the club will hold two online training sessions.

  • Wednesday, June 17, 2020, 7:30 – 830 PM: N1MM Logger
  • Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 7:30 – 8:30 PM: FD 2020 Q&A

The links to these online sessions will be available by the same methods used for our May 27 online meeting.

It would be helpful if you install the latest version of N1MM Logger Plus before the June 17 session, or at least try, so that you will know what you don’t know. If you are new to N1MM, be sure do the “Full Install” and then the “Latest Update”.

Prior to the June 24 meeting, K8GT’s excellent presentation about FD 2020 is highly recommended: tiny.cc/fdsd

WARA Field Day 2020 – Alone Together

The Waltham ARA, along with many radio clubs around the country, will help slow the spread of COVID-19 by operating “alone together”. The ARRL has made two FD 2020 rule changes to aid in such efforts:

  1. Individual entries can include the name of their favorite club. The ARRL will sum the individual scores for each club and publish these Aggregate Club Scores.
  2. Contacts between home stations using regular commercial power (FD Class 1D) will be counted in the score.

Field Day 2020 will be on June 27 & 28. For more information, see the ARRL FD Page, and a great presentation by K8ZT at tiny.cc/fdsd. And stay tuned to this web site for updates.

May 27 Online Meeting – Contesting 101 for FD 2020

This presentation by Eliot Mayer, W1MJ included contesting basics, the age-old question about whether ARRL Field Day is a contest, some training for popular logging program N1MM Logger Plus, and some thoughts on safely operating “alone together” for FD 2020. The presentation PowerPoint file is available here:

Contesting 101 for WARA FD (PowerPoint)Download

Monthly meeting are now being held online. In order to receive emails with the meeting links, do one of the following:

  1. If you are not already signed up on the WARA Yahoo Group, you may do so by sending an email request to wara64-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
  2. If you only want the meeting link emails and not any other email that might be distributed to the Yahoo Group, send a request to Ron, KG1T, with this form: http://walthamara.org/contact/contactform-president.

Waltham ARA Weekly Net Debuts April 8

Are you a Waltham Amateur Radio Association supporter, but don’t have the time or ability to make it to an in-person club meeting? Fear not, for we now have a solution.

We’ll be running a WARA “meeting on the air” on Wednesday evenings to bring together WARA supporters for connection, conversation, updates and revelry. We’ll discuss topics that might be of interest to Waltham supporters, along with member health and welfare updates, needs for support, or general communication.

All licensed hams are welcome to join the net, regardless of whether they’re up-to-date, club members.

Details:

Wednesday nights, other than in-person meeting nights, at 7:30 PM Eastern Time.

On the 449.075- MHz WARA repeater (88.5 Hz sub-audbile tone)

Email me with any questions or suggestions.

See you on Wednesday, April 8th for the inaugural meeting.

Christine
N1AUP
cshustak@hotmail.com

Boxboro

The New England Division ARRL Conventions, branded in recent years as the Northeast HamXposition, is leaving Boxboro. Starting this year, it will be held at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel & Trade Center, 181 Boston Post Rd., Marlborough, MA. The “regular” date has also moved, to the 4th full weekend of July. However, the 2020 convention has been delayed until November 6-8. For more information, see https://hamxposition.org/.

WARA 2019 Holiday Party

A good time was had by all club members and friends at the WARA Holiday Party on December 18, 2019. As it turns out, this was the last such event to be held at Sichuan’s Garden. The restaurant closed not long after the party. No, the closing was not our fault. Please suggest possible locations for the 2020 Holiday Party. (Photo by George Maier, W1LSB)

Great picture of the repeater site – from Mt. Wachusett!

While at Boxboro a fellow HAM W1AWX introduced himself and showed me this great pic of WARA’s site taken from almost 40 miles away! Thanks Arthur! -Ron / KG1T

WARA Repeater Site from Mt. Wachusett w/ 2000mm lens

“The Jack and Sal Radio Show” – An artistic 04/64 listener named Ruth (that is all we know about her) has sent us this masterpiece of caricature, and provided this name for the commuting-time discussions on our flagship repeater.

Most older posts removed from this page are still available for historical purposes on our Blog.