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Category: Meetings

Posts related to upcoming or past meetings

  • Swap and Sell – April Meeting

    Reminder from Larry, W1AST regarding the meeting this Friday, April 5, 2019.

    Don’t forget to bring in any old gear that you want to get rid of. Rob,
    KC1KCF will be getting there at 7 to get setup as long as someone let’s him in  looking forward to seeing everyone as he missed the last meeting.

    Bring your items to sell and put them on the Swap and Sell table at this
    Fridays HCRA meeting.

    Doors open at 7, meeting starts at 7:30.

    Meeting Subject is Show and Tell. Bring anything you’ve built or completed in the past 12 months, or since the last Show and Tell.

    You’ll have 5 minutes to explain your project and might win one of 4 prizes too!

    I hope to see everyone there!

    73,

    Larry, W1AST

  • March 2019 Meeting Notice

     

    Next meeting is March 1, 2019. The speaker will be John Ellsworth from the Vintage Radio Museum.

     

  • Swap And Sell Is Now Back!

    HCRA’s Swap And Sell Is Now Back

    With thanks to George (KC1V), Paul (NF1G) and Jim (KK1W), the HCRA swap and sell is now back. At our monthly meetings, we will have few tables setup for the members to sell amateur or electronic related items. You may never know what deals may show up at the meeting. If you are an HCRA member and items to sell, just bring them along to the next meeting.

    During the MTARA hamfest on March 11th, We’ve received a donation of equipment to be sold from (Steven) N1IBS. It will be available at the next meeting and all sales from the lot will go to HCRA for future events. Thanks Steven!

  • HCRA March Meeting (Mar 3rd, 2017) – VHF/UHF Weak Signal Communications

    HCRA March Meeting 2017

    Friday March 3rd 2017 at 7:30pm. Holyoke Medical Center Auxiliary Conference Center

    This month HCRA is proud to have Dick Frey (WA2AAU), president of the North East Weak Signal group. He will be discussing working long distance on VHF and UHF. With the solar cycle heading into a null, this would be an excllent meeting for those wishing to try out other aspects of amateur radio.

    This will also be the last chance to purchase KX2 Raffle tickets at the general meeting. If you are interested in becoming an HCRA member, there will be applications available at the meeting. You can also download an application from our website. If you are a member and haven’t renewed yet, we’ve made it easy. You can securely renew online using either your credit card or paypal.

    All members and the general public are invited

    Click Here for directions to the HMC Aux conf center

  • HCRA Clublog Challenge 2016 Winners Are In

    HCRA like to encourage on air activity from our members. We compete in a few contests and challenges every year. This year HCRA participated in the “Clublog Challenge”. The goal was to make as many contacts with as many countries or entities throughout the year. At the end of the year, we would tally up the results and hand out certificates to everyone involved. We used a service called Clublog. Approved HCRA members would periodically upload their log files to clublog where DXCC contacts are sorted and by each band, overall unique DXCC contacts and the sum of unique DXCC contacts on each band. It proved to be very successful in 2015 so we did it again in 2016. We now have 25 HCRA members participating in the year long event.

    This

    [table]
    Category,1st,2nd,3rd
    DXCC,NU1O (248),NF1G (229),NV1Q (199)
    SLOTS,NU1O (882),NF1G (737),KK1W (720)
    [/table]

    Congrats to Christopher Scibelli (NU1O), Paul Kelliher (NF1G), Juegren Malner (NV1Q) and James Mullen (KK1W)

    Band Winners Are

    [table]
    Category,1st,2nd,3rd
    160,KK1W (80),K1NZ (26),WD1S (15)
    80,KK1W (87),NV1Q (71),K1NZ (67)
    60,K1NZ (21),NU1O (4),KK1W (2)
    40,NU1O (190),KK1W (120),W1MSW (109)
    30,NF1G (102),NU1O (84),KK1W (37)
    20,NU1O (211),NV1Q (134),N1FTP (127)
    17,NF1G (186),NU1O (93),AB1WT (71)
    15,NU1O (127),KK1W (121),NF1G (119)
    12,NF1G (88),W1MJB (26),NU1O (24)
    10,KK1W (92),NU1O (75),NV1Q (73)
    6,NU1O (2), W1AST (2),
    [/table]

    Thank you to those who participated. Certificates are available to all those who participated in 2016 at the next meeting. Hopefully we can do this again in 2017 and put some incentives to get members on the air.

    If you’re an HCRA member and you are interested in participating in the Clublog challenge, We’ve setup a step-by-step guide in how to become a clublog member.

    Overall Results

    [table]
    Rank,Callsign,160,80,60,40,30,20,17,15,12,10,6,DXCC,Slots,Range
    1,NU1O,5,67,4,190,84,211,93,127,24,75,2,248,882,29 yrs
    2,NF1G,0,18,0,75,102,110,186,119,88,39,0,229,737,2 yrs
    3,NV1Q,9,71,0,86,24,134,54,118,19,73,0,199,588,38 yrs
    4,KK1W,80,87,2,120,37,126,38,121,16,92,1,185,720,41 yrs
    5,N1FTP,0,4,0,40,0,127,12,79,0,30,1,150,293,8 yrs
    6,W1MSW,0,51,0,109,5,114,18,108,1,47,0,149,453,6 yrs
    8,W1AST,0,16,0,43,1,93,51,51,3,37,2,131,297,8 yrs
    7,K1VOI,0,11,0,42,14,96,34,84,8,32,0,131,321,16 yrs
    9,AB1WT,0,18,0,33,0,76,71,49,13,22,1,125,283,3 yrs
    10,N1HM,1,4,0,25,0,92,26,45,4,10,0,124,207,2 yrs
    11,KX1X,1,30,0,59,4,66,10,86,0,57,0,115,313,19 yrs
    12,K1NZ,26,67,21,86,6,52,11,48,1,11,0,113,329,6 yrs
    13,N1AW,0,12,0,25,5,70,9,22,1,6,1,101,151,3 yrs
    14,W1MJB,0,11,0,10,13,39,50,34,26,8,1,97,192,14 yrs
    15,WD1S,15,34,0,57,4,74,2,36,0,23,1,95,246,5 yrs
    16,AB1XW,0,5,0,44,0,84,0,68,0,9,0,95,210,4 yrs
    17,WN1E1,0,4,0,44,24,59,7,68,2,16,0,92,224,26 yrs
    18,KB1VWQ,1,2,0,14,1,37,3,5,1,2,1,46,67,6 yrs
    19,KC1BDF,0,0,0,5,0,37,0,0,0,1,0,37,43,2 yrs
    20,WA1MOW,0,0,0,2,0,11,7,0,3,4,0,24,27,1 yrs
    21,KB1VSX,0,1,0,2,0,19,2,0,0,2,0,20,26,0 yrs
    22,KC1PUG,0,2,0,11,0,12,0,0,0,0,0,18,25,0 yrs
    23,KC1BTA,0,0,0,1,0,7,0,3,0,3,0,11,14,2 yrs
    24,NT1K,0,1,0,2,0,5,0,2,0,1,0,9,11,7 yrs
    25,N1MFL,0,1,0,2,0,7,1,0,0,0,0,7,11,4 yrs
    [/table]

    Thanks for reading! Stay On The Air
    – Jeff

  • Last Swap & Sell of 2016

    SwapSign
    Last Swap & Sell of 2016 is this Friday, November 4th. There isn’t a December meeting because of the Holiday Party
     
    Let’s end 2016 with a bang! Take a look around your shack and bring in an item or two that will become someone else’s holiday gift :).
     
    From the KK1W shack is an assortment of books and a nice LED desk lamp (with USB charger) to read them under. Some old, some new all good reading that will expand your amateur radio horizons.
    img_20161101_220033775
     
    What are you bringing? Please comment to this post, with photos if possible.
     
    Oh, the desk lamp is brand new AND is rumored to be grey with #87 on it, whatever that means...
    Have you purchased your Holiday Party ticket yet? They’ll be on sale at the meeting. See Harold/N1FTP so you don’t go hungry this holiday season.
     
    See you Friday evening,
     
    Jim/KK1W

  • HCRA Contest University – Slides And Links

    Thanks to all who attended HCRA Contest University. Hopefully it was beneficial. Here are the slides (in PDF format) and notable links.

    HCRA – Introduction To Contesting Presentation

    HCRA – Small station Bang For The Buck Presentation

    VOAcap Online – Propagation Prediction Website/Software
    Contest Calendar – Upcoming Contest Schedule
    3830 Scores – Study your colleagues
    CQcontest.net – Live contest scores

  • “Make a cheap ham HAPPY” night at HCRA!

    Returning Friday, September 9, is HCRA’s Swap & Sell Table. A sight guaranteed to brings smiles of joy to any frugal hams’s face.

    IMG_20160906_083112361

    Take a look at the photos, it gives you an idea of just some of this month’s offerings. That’s correct, you see a 1.3G frequency counter, project boxes, transformers, and more. There’s even a LARGE box of assorted wire and cable, dig through, pick what you want and make your donation. No reasonable offer refused.

    Make the table even better by bringing along your own items for sale. The more we have, the more exciting for everyone!

    NEWS FLASH! Rumor has it N1FJ may have a Mosley Tri-Bander to contribute to the cause. Watch for more info and and bring your roof rack for an HF antenna bargain

    IMG_20160906_083201130 IMG_20160906_083313937 IMG_20160906_092721237

  • Good stuff cheap – Swap & Sell September 9th

    SwapSign

    Swap and Sell will be returning to HCRA meetings for the remainder of 2016. Since the program started this past January lots of good stuff has changed hands, people have gone home with either cash in their pocket or a new trinket to play around with in the shack and HCRA added a few dollars to the club treasury.

    IMG_20160823_223218185

    The photo on the left shows a sample of items that could make their way to the swap table, but we need more! We need YOUR good stuff to keep up the excitement, attract customers and most of all – have fun! It’s like a mini-hamfest at every meeting.

    We all benefit if you have items you’re willing to donate to the cause. Think of all the things you’ve purchased, used for years but they’re now sitting unused in the shack or workshop. You can sell them and make a few bucks or….. Why not donate them? You’ve had your fun, maybe it’s time to pass it along to someone else. Donations benefit HCRA but most of all the new owner gets to take something home and not break the bank. Everyone wins!!! If you do want to sell your items please remember the suggested donation is10%, thanks! All donations are tax deductible under 501 c3 guidelines.

    One last thing. We’re looking for a new caretaker for Swap & Sell starting January 2017. All it takes is 15 to 30 minutes a month, a small donation of time to bring fun to dozens throughout the year. If you’re interested let us know. You’ll be supplied with everything you need to make it happen and at least five minutes of OJT! It’s an easy job that puts lots of smiles on our members faces. Please let me or Jeff/NT1K know if your interested in the job.

    Looking forward to seeing everyone at the September 9th meeting.

    ’73…
    Jim/KK1W

  • Yes, Swap & Sell will be at Show & Tell!

    SwapSign

     

    Here’s a chance to make money on your project. After you win one of the prizes put your hand crafted watchamcallit’ on the swap table and go home with to cash along with your prize 🙂 Or maybe find something on the table for your next creation?

    Once again the Swap & Sell table will be there, how exciting it is falls entirely on the shoulders of you, our members. We know everyone has at least ONE thing they probably should ‘recycle’ and the HCRA swap table is the perfect place. No shipping, no eBay fees, supports the club, makes meetings more interesting and is fun. Need I say more?

    Before coming to our April 1st meeting why not take a look around the shack and find an item or fifteen worthy of creating excitement in someone else’s shack and bring it to the meeting.

    No foolin, see you April 1st!

    Jim/KK1W