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  • Donations wanted for the HCRA table at the MTARA Hamfest!

    HCRA will have a club table at this Saturday’s MTARA Hamfest in Chicopee, MA

    If you have an item or two you would like to donate please contact Jim/KK1W to make arrangements. Just like our old auction there are a few simple rules.

    1. These are ‘donations’ – if you want to sell stuff you should get your own table 🙂
    2. Please put your callsign on the items (tape, label) so we can return them to you if they don’t sell (no, we are not a disposal company)

    At the close of the hamfest we will return any unsold items to you. Thanks as always for your support of HCRA and we hope to see you at the MTARA Hamfest

    Don’t forget to stop by and say “hello” while you’re browsing the aisles!

    See you Saturday,

    Jim/KK1W

  • Still looking for help at the MTARA hamfest this Saturday, March 1st

    This request went out in the February issue of Zero Beat. To date I’ve only had one person ask, and he hasn’t been able to confirm his schedule. Time is getting short and the offer still holds. First person to commit to helping out this coming Saturday gets in free. It would really be nice if a few of our members stepped up and offered to help out. It’s a good time, you’ll get time to walk the aisle and maybe even sell the winning FT-857 raffle ticket!

    Yes, that’s correct, this Saturday will also be your last chance to buy a ticket. There’s still some left, hope to see you there!

    Jim/KK1W

     

    Visit the HCRA table at the MTARA Hamfest on March 1st
    The FT-857 drawing will be held at noon!

    Once again we will have a table at this fun event. While you’re browsing the aisles for that ‘have to have’ item please stop by the HCRA table and say hello. While you’re there you can pick up a raffle ticket for a Yaesu FT-857 transceiver. There are only 250 tickets being sold AND the drawing will be held at noon the day of the hamfest. You could leave a real WINNER – how cool is that?

    Volunteer(s) are needed to staff our table at the hamfest. If you would like to help out contact me directly and I’ll get you scheduled. I have one free entry to the hamfest going to the first person to volunteer!

  • Show and Tell Meeting March 7th, 2014

    HCRA’s Show & Tell Meeting is less than TWO weeks away!  What are you bringing to Show and Tell?

    At HCRA’s annual show and tell meeting, members bring in projects they have either completed or have made progress on over the last year and give a short presentation to the membership. This is a great opportunity to show others what you’ve been up to and for fellow club members to get ideas on projects they might want to try. Past projects have ranged from the simple to the complex and from very small to very large and everywhere in between. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to share and we look forward to seeing what you’re up to! If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

    73,Matt W1MSW

  • Zero Beat Deadline

    Deadline for Zero Beat’s March 2014 edition coming up!

    Please get articles, pictures to me by Wednesday, Feb. 26th or so!
    Thanks
    Frandy
    n1fj@arrl.net

  • The HCRA will be at the MTARA Hamfest, will you?

    On Saturday, March 1st, 2014, the Mount Tom Amateur Repeater Association will host its 26th annual Hamfest. This year it will be held at the Moose Family Center, 244 Fuller Rd, Chicopee, MA 01020.

    The annual MTARA Hamfest offers a good variety of commercial sellers, private sellers and amateur radio clubs. You’ll find new gear, used gear, reconditioned equipment, odds & ends as well as items Hams may no longer need, that might be just what you were looking for!

    In addition to the great things you’ll find there, the MTARA Hamfest a great place for a meet and greet, such as welcoming back those Ham-Snowbirds, or putting a face to that voice you’ve heard on-the-air. As in past years, the HCRA will be there and we encourage our club members to stop by the club’s table and say hello. We’ll have some items of interest, as well as offering HCRA *250* Raffle Tickets.

    You can find more information about this event, by checking out the MTARA 26th annual Hamfest flyer.

  • Board Meeting Minutes 01/07/2014

    HCRA Board of Directors Meeting
    January 7th, 2014

     Location: West Springfield, MA. The meeting was called to order at 7:16PM
    Present: KK1W, KB1NWH, AA1YW, K1YO, N1FJ, N1KXR

     

    OFFICER REPORTS

    Vice President – KB1NWH
    Finished helping Dan/KB1VWQ with his tower project. Also helped Bob/K1YO and     Eric/W1MOR with tower/antenna installations

    Treasurer – AA1YW
    Current financial report: $8410.03
    Status of WRTC Sales: $4875.00 sold to date
    Status of FT857 raffle: 112 tickets sold to date

    Secretary – Open – KK1W will take notes
    Ed is handling USPS PO Box pickup. All mail is up to date

    DIRECTOR REPORTS

    Technical – K1YO
    January’s “Tech Corner” about mobile installations was well received. There won’t be a Tech Corner in March because of Show & Tell. Bob is considering many topics for future presentations including SWR, Test Equipment and Yagi theory.

    Zero Beat, N1FJ
    Discussion about a better (less time consuming) method to handle USPS distribution of Zero Beat. Discussion focused on finding a service that can take the electronic version and mailing list, then print and mail. Frandy will investigate possible vendors to provide the service. Motion made, seconded and approved to allow a $25/month maximum budget.
    Membership – N1KXR
    Current Membership: 71 Regular, 9 Family, 3 Life and 4 Prospects
    Members joining after March 1 will have an expiration date of 8/31/2015
    Membership has dropped about 10% from last year. Rich will be using database queries to generate a list of 2013 members that haven’t renewed and will contact them directly
    Rich gave a short report of the January 4th ARRL Cabinet meeting.

    At Large – Not present
    Technician, General and Extra classes are on track. The first class is scheduled for January 13th. HMC and Mercy have also been contacted about the schedule and the hope is they have interested personnel.
    Program – W1MSW – Not present

    January: Fred/K1VR presentation was well received. The audience learned a lot and posed many questions.
    February: Fred/AB1OC on Dxpedition to Bora Bora
    March: Show & Tell
       April: – OPEN
    May:  Chuck/ARRL on the ARRL’s “Intruder Watch” program
    June: Field Day planning, N1MM workshop, elections

    OLD BUSINESS
       The HCRA/MTARA 2013 Holiday Party was successful. The total cost to HCRA for the party, after ticket sales and MTARA’s portion was $786.08 ($15.72/person). All monies have been received and bills paid. We have reserved the Steaming Tender for December 8th, 2014.
    The ‘cloud database’ project is nearing completion according to Jeff/NT1K. Estimated completion: 30 to 60 days.
         .
    NEW BUSINESS
       Request from John/Kx1x for funding of Venture Crew 510 (Crew DX) of $67. Motion made and approved unanimously.
    We are still searching for an interim Secretary. Jim/KK1W will contact a few candidates over the next month.
    According to Matt/W1MSW Show & Tell planning is done and promotion will begin near the end of January.
    Ed has approached the Agawam Park & Rec department to reserve School Street Park for Field Day 2014 Ed is also putting out media announcements for the event.
    There is still some confusion over PayPal accounting. Jim/KK1W and Dave/AA1YW will get this resolved.
    There was much discussion over the future makeup of the board of directors. With the announcement of KK1W’s retirement and the possibility of a few other long time board members departing in June there is concern over the future of HCRA. K1YO made some suggestions pertaining to BOD planning and KK1W will work on getting the word out to our members. The board encourages all our members to consider volunteering to insure the future health of HCRA.

    2013/2014 Board Meeting Dates
    March 11th
    May 6th
    June 10th

    Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM

    Respectfully submitted by Jim Mullen/KK1W

  • Helpful DXlabs Tip #2156.572

    Want to play in the ARRl Centennial QSO Party and work the W1AW/? stations? Every week they are in two different states. It’s easy using SpotCollettor.

    Simply program one of the eight SQL buttons to do the hard work for you. Never done it before, here’s an example using the “SQL 1” button:

    1. Hold down the <CNTL> key, then left click the button labeled SQL 1 in the SpotCollector screen.
    2. A new window will open called SpotCollector SQL Filter
    3. On line 1, in the ‘Caption’ field type W1AW (or whatever you want the button to say that makes sense to you).
    4. In the “SQL” Field enter, Callsign LIKE’W1AW/?’ (The ? after the slash means you will get ANY listing of W1AW/x. Tonight /3 and /0 are listed.
    5. Close the SpotCollector SQL Filter Window

    Now in the SpotCollector main window click the new W1AW button you created. Yahoo, if you’ve done it right you will be rewarded with a listing of all W1AW/x stations SpotCollector has heard. That’s the easy part, now go work them!

    Be careful, those are single quotes -‘- before the W in W1AW and after the question mark, not double quotes -“-. If you make a mistake don’t fret, simply go back to the SQL window and fix your expression. Want to try some other ones, click on the ‘Help’ button in SpotCollector. When the help screen opens scroll down and click on the  “Filtering with SQL Expressions” link. Dave has given us a lot of examples to try.

    While you’re doing this take a moment to marvel at the power of DXlabs Suite, the fact that it’s available to everyone for free and the tremendous support the author Dave/AA6YQ provides. If you like it, drop him a note of thanks or even better post a positive review on eHam.

    Haven’t tried DXlabs? Here ya go, download it and have fun:

    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/

    Only 48more states to go….

    Jim/KK1W

  • Massachusetts Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Plan

    The Federal Government has a guide to implement Amateur Radio in times of emergency, that guide is called the ‘Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide (AUXFOG). Likewise Massachusetts has it’s own guide, that guide is titled the ‘Massachusetts Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Plan’.

    In it’s introduction, the Massachusetts Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Plan states:
    “This plan contains the details of how the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is implemented across Massachusetts. Instructions and general operating procedures presented in this document are applicable to message traffic handling by RACES and used in all RACES training. All amateur radio operators are encouraged to use this document in training and/or activated net operations.” While the introduction specifically mentions RACES, this operations manual includes sections on RACES and SKYWARN.

    Some of the topics covered in the MARECP include:
    – Identification of Operators.
    – RACES Net Hierarchy.
    – Frequencies.
    – Available Simplex Frequencies – Per NESMC.
    – Net Control Duties and Authority.
    – Net Preamble for Massachusetts RACES Nets.
    – Massachusetts RACES Message Format

    If you’re already a member of RACES, ARES or SKYWARN, your going to want to read this document. After which you may want to print it to keep a hard-copy on-hand. To those interested in these groups, Emergency Communications (emcomm), or Hams simply wanting to brush up on Good Operating Practices, I encourage you to read this plan.

    Please click on this link, to view the Massachusetts Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Plan. Note: it’s in PDF format.

  • Show & Tell Meeting – March 7th

    There are less than two months left before Hampden County Radio Association’s Annual Show & Tell meeting. During this meeting members bring in projects they have either completed or have made progress on over the last year and give a short presentation to the membership. This is a great opportunity to show others what you’ve been up to and for fellow club members to get ideas on projects they might want to try. Past projects have ranged from the simple to the complex and from very small to very large and everywhere in between. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to share. There is still plenty of time to build that kit you have stashed away or put together photos from the project last summer. We look forward to seeing what you’re up to! If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

    73,
    Matt – W1MSW

  • Antenna Zoning Meeting Tonight

    Through rain, snow and FREEZING COLD tonight’s presentation by Fred/K1VR will go on as planned. Join us this evening for an interesting and informative discussion about the roadblocks you may encounter when installing an antenna or tower and methods to get around those impediments.

    Our guest speaker, Fred/K1VR, is an established author and a lawyer specializing in telecommunications law. Many amateurs have benefited from Fred’s help and writings over the years. Tonight’s meeting could benefit you now or in the future. This is information you will want to know that could make a big difference in the enjoyment of your favorite hobby.

    More info about Fred’s book, Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur can be found here. As part of Fred’s visit he will have a few copies available tonight at a 20% discount. This text would make a good addition to your library if you’re considering an antenna/tower project soon.

    So layer up and head out to our meeting tonight. It may be cold outside but the warm greetings from all your friends will make for an outstanding gathering. Don’t forget to purchase some FT-857 raffle tickets too, they’re going fast and the drawing is less than two months away!

    ’73…

    Jim/KK1W