Welcome to HCRA

Category: Meetings

Posts related to upcoming or past meetings

  • Yaesu FT-857D for only $10?

    How would you like to add a Yaesu FT-857, all mode, 160 through 70cm rig to your mobile or home shack? It’s easy; you can either pick up the phone, call HRO and order one (and plunk down almost a kilobuck) OR — buy a $10 raffle ticket at the next HCRA meeting.

    We are proudly announcing the latest HCRA *250* Raffle. The prize this time around is a brand new Yaesu FT-857D, HF/VHF/UHF transceiver. Here’s a brief rundown of this cool radio’s impressive features:

    (Yaesu FT-857)

    Features
    • 160-2 meters +440
    • Electronic Keyer
    • 200 Alpha Memories
    • DSP-2 Board Built-in
    • 100 Watts HF Output
    • 50 Watts 2 Meter Output
    • 20 Watts 440 MHz Output
    • Spectrum Display

    The *250* means only 250 tickets will be sold. Even if you purchase only one ticket your chances are much better than the lottery. Buy two tickets and double your chances, buy four and… I think you get the picture….

    This is a great little rig that would look nice in any shack or vehicle. Tickets go on sale starting at our June 7th meeting. The drawing is scheduled for March 7, 2014 HCRA meeting. It could be earlier if we sell all the tickets. Included with the radio is the YSK-857 separation kit that makes it easy to mount the radio in almost any vehicle.

    We appreciate the support you’ve given the club with the past raffles and look forward to giving away this great radio next March.

    Tickets go on sale at the June 7th meeting!

    Don’t forget to buy your ticket(s) early before they’re all gone!

    ’73 and good luck,

    Jim/KK1W

  • Next HCRA Meeting- Indoor Tailgate Party

    In lieu of a tailgate party in the parking lot in Feeding Hills, Hampden County Radio Association is going to have a small-scale flea market on June 7 at the Holyoke Medical Center Auxiliary Conference Center. As space permits, we will allot about 12 square feet of table space to each club member that wants to put out a few ham radio related things for sale — a rig, a reel of wire, books – anything that fits and is not totally junk, but NO computers, NO monitors, NO printers! Table space is free–we are asking a minimum 10% commission on sales for the club’s treasury.

  • K1DG to speak tonight at HCRA meeting!

    On hand, all the way from New Hampshire, is Doug Grant/K1DG. Besides being as close to ‘professional’ as an amateur radio operator can get Doug is also the president of WRTC2014. That’s the group that is responsible for bringing the “Olympics of Amateur Radio to New England in 2014. Doug will give us a brief history of WRTC (World Radiosport Team Championships), enlighten us on the many details his team is working on to make it an exceptional event AND let us know how we can be part of this exciting event.

    Besides his WRTC responsibilities K1DG is an avid contest operator, author and an extremely ‘radioactive’ ham. Here’s a brief bio to get you familiar with the experience tonight’s speaker brings to our group tonight.

    Doug Grant received his first ham-radio license from the FCC in 1967 and his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Lowell Technological Institute (now the University of Massachusetts—Lowell). He has more than 30 years’ experience in the semiconductor industry, mostly at Analog Devices, where he worked in engineering; marketing; and product-line management for analog, mixed-signal, RF, and wireless products. He has logged close to 500,000 contacts with other radio hams in every country in the world. Grant is now an independent consultant specializing in semiconductor and wireless technologies.

    Don’t miss it, see you tonight at 7:30 sharp!

    Jim/KK1W

  • Next meeting is this Friday, April 5th!

    Only two days until the April HCRA meeting.

    It’s no April fool either. Our special guest speaker is Doug/K1DG. Doug is traveling all the way from NH to chat with us about the World Radiosport Team Championship coming to New England in 2014. There are a lot of moving parts to hosting an international competition here on New England soil and Doug is just the guy to show us how it’s done. You’ll learn about WRTC, its history and most importantly how you can be part of a perhaps ‘once in a lifetime’ operation.

    See you Friday night!

    Jim/KK1W

    http://www.wrtc2014.org/

  • April 2013 Zero Beat now available

    Here is the link to the April issue of Zero Beat.
    Lots of good stuff this month, enjoy it and see you at the meeting Friday night!

    Zero Beat Apr 2013

  • 2014 Election draws near, nominations entertained.

    Hi folks,

    The 2014 Election will be held at our June 7th meeting. As in years past many board members have once again raised their hands to help guide HCRA through another year of fun and excitement. For many of them this will be another year of many serving HCRA. Wouldn’t it be great if YOU stepped forward and offered a little bit of time every month to ensure our club is the best it can be? Not only would it provide some ‘down time’ for a present board member – more importantly it is an opportunity to bring new views, different ideas and more exciting activities to our club. Are you ready to give it a try?

    Listed below is the slate as it stands right now. There’s only one position shown open but we are VERY open to nominations for all positions. As a team we are flexible, supportive and willing to move our present positions around to accommodate a new member. If it turns out we have more than one candidate for a position even better. We can hold a run off election in June, how cool is that?

    It says a lot about our present board and their effectiveness that there aren’t a lot of ‘willing volunteers’ for nominations. Unfortunately that’s a double edged sword. Although things are going well, if we don’t encourage new board members we’ll eventually stagnate and then comes the ‘upheaval’. HCRA has been through these in the past and we should attempt to avoid it in the future. Enough rambling on, here’s the slate as it stands on March 16th.

    HCRA Proposed Slate of Officers/Directors for 2014

    Directors:
    At large: John/Kx1x
    Membership: Rich/N1KXR
    Technical: OPEN
    Program: Matt/W1MSW
    Zero Beat Editor: Frandy/N1FJ

    Officers:
    Secretary: Dave/N1MFL
    Treasurer: Dave/AA1YW
    Vice President: Ed/KB1NWH
    President: Jim/KK1W

    Trust me, if you’re interested in making HCRA a better, stronger organization there is a place for you on the board. Contact Jim/KK1W and lets talk.

  • WRTC is coming in 2014 – are you ready to pitch in?

    WRTC is just around the corner. We’re looking to field (literally) a second station this year. Who’s game to give it a go? So what exactly is WRTC and more importantly WRTC-2014? Read on.

    In short you could consider it the ‘Olympics of Amateur Radio’.  Read all about the competition and its history here. The big news is WRTC is coming to New England in 2014. The WRTC-2014 committee is looking for hams throughout NE to help them setup, test and manage 59 operating sites (and 6 spares) for the competition in July 2014.

    Our location last year was the magnificent (?) Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, MA. It’s been said this retired mental facility was the ideal place to put the HCRA team and it they were right! We setup and operated the whole weekend and had a great time! We’re doubling our efforts this year and fielding two complete stations. We need YOUR support to make it happen! Follow this link to see a great WRTC presentation given at last year’s MTARA meeting by Dave/KM3T. Dave’s presentation is a good overview of WRTC, how much fun it is and why your help is needed.

    We’re working right now building our teams for 2013. Would you like to join the fun? Contact Jim/KK1W or telephone  at 413.237-4666 and he will get you started on the road to fun!

  • 2013 Annual HCRA Show & Tell Meeting a Success

    Last Friday’s Show & Tell meeting was a great success.  We had 9 members bring projects that were either completed or close to completion. All of the presenters did a great job explaining their projects in detail to the club and the audience had good questions for the presenters.  Congratulations to Juergen – AB1SU (DK1TM) who scored the most points with the audience and chose the Raspberry Pi microcomputer for his prize.  Jeff – NT1K & Dan –KB1VWQ tied for 2nd place and duked it out over the last two prizes.  After the dust settled, Dan went home with the Arduino Uno Microcontroller and Jeff took home two raffle tickets for the KX3 drawing.  All of the presenters did a wonderful job with their projects and we thank you for taking the time to show your fellow club members what you’ve been working on.   Thank you to everyone who was able to make the meeting, including those who were able to tune in via the live stream on the HCRA USTREAM channel.  A special thank you to Jeff – NT1K who setup the live stream and manned the camera throughout the evening.  It’s never too early to start thinking about that project for next year!

    If you were unable to attend the meeting, you can always see what you missed here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/29659726

    Matt – W1MSW

  • And the winner is… ???

    It brings us great pleasure to announce the winner of the KX3 raffle today. The drawing was held a little after noon at the close of the MTARA Hamfest.

    KX3 Raffle

    Our winner is:

    Chris Snyder/KB1RMA

    Unfortunately Chris was not present to collect his prize. We will be shipping it out to him the first part of the week.

    Thanks to everyone that supported our second KX3 raffle and made it even better than the first. From the folks at HCRA that kept track of the sales, manned the tables selling tickets, promoted the raffle and stuck with it to the very end – thank you to Ed/KB1NWH, Rich/N1KXR, Dave/AA1YW, Jeff/NT1K, Frandy/N1FJ and others I’ve probably missed. Most importantly thanks to all our members and guests who participated and supported our efforts. HCRA is better because of your generosity.

    So what’s next? Who knows, we’re open to suggestions. What would you like to see as the prize for our next raffle?

    ’73…
    Jim/KK1W

  • Visit the HCRA Table at the MTARA Hamfest this Saturday.

    MTARA Hamfest this Saturday, March 2nd – Visit us at the HCRA club table!

    The hamfest/fleamarket season is just getting underway. What better way to break out of the winter blues than to spend a few hours with your local friends, wander aisles of tables full of ham radio bargains, eat food you probably shouldn’t, and overall have a good time than to go to one? I for one can’t think of anything better, that’s for sure. Lucky for us there’s one right around the corner!

    The generous folks at MTARA have again made tables available for local clubs and HCRA will be there in full force. Please stop and say hello while you’re browsing the aisles for that ‘special bargain’. Want to join or renew your membership, you can do that. How about chatting with club members, yep, you can do that too. Buy a raffle ticket or three for a KX3 – most certainly. Pick up a bargain item donated from our members – yes sir. We’ll even have a few projects from the previous nights Show & Tell on display, maybe they will inspire your creative juices and give you ideas of what ‘stuff’ you can pick up to build something yourself?

    KX3 Raffle. The winning ticket for an Elecraft KX3 will be drawn around noontime at the hamfest. Tickets are selling fast (there’s only 250 being sold) so stop by the table early to get yours. Think about how you will feel taking home a $1000 radio for the price of a winning ticket!

    Do you have something you would like to donate to HCRA to sell at our table? If you do please either bring them to Friday’s HCRA meeting or contact Jim/KK1W for pickup. We’re not accepting items for sale, just donations. If you have items to sell yourself contact MTARA (see link below) and see if they have any table space left. And please, no computer monitors, printers or anything else you would have to pay for disposal.

    The MTARA Hamfest will be held at the Turnverein Club in Feeding Hills, MA. Doors open to the public at 8:30 AM. For more details and directions please click here.

    See you at the hamfest!

    Jim/KK1W