Anita, AB1QB and I did a segment on HamNation last evening (Wednesday, November 27th, 2019). We spoke about the work that The Nashua Area Radio Society is doing to bring new Hams into the Amateur Radio Service and to provide skills development for all Hams. You can view our interview on HamNation below.
We have created a program that we call Ham Bootcamp. Bootcamp to helps recently licensed and upgraded hams to get on the air. We are making this program available to up to 100 HamXpostion attendees on a first-come-first-served basis.
Our Bootcamp program will run from 9 am to noon on Saturday, September 7th in the Federal Room. Bootcamp will feature tracks for both Technician and General class license holders. It is also a great place for folks who are not yet licensed to learn more about Amateur Radio and how to get on the air.
Our Bootcamp program will include:
How to make a contact and join a repeater net
Putting together an HF station
Radio, antenna, and feed line choices
Getting started with FT8 and digital modes
Exchanging QSL cards
Learning Morse code
Tips on upgrading
Introduction to ham radio kit building
Handheld radio programming tutorials
Ham Bootcamp is free. Participants will receive discount certificates for a kit build at the show and for purchase of Ham Radio Gear from Ham Radio Outlet.
I wanted to share our plans for several hands-on activities at HamXposition @ Boxboro in September. We hope that Ham Bootcamp will be of particular interest to folks getting into Amateur Radio. You can learn more about Ham Bootcamp and all of our planned activities via the link above. We hope to see some of our readers at HamXpostion next month!
Dave, K1DLM recently prototyped a simple Raspberry Pi Video Player for use in our Ham Exposition Displays. We’ve built a number of these players to play video content at our upcoming Ham Expo Display at HamXposition at Boxboro in September. The article below shares information on the hardware and software we used to put these players together. The information should provide a useful start for many other Raspberry Pi projects.
Simple Raspberry Pi Computers have many useful applications in Amateur Radio. They can also be used to create a nice general purpose computing platform for many applications.
The hardest part of using the Raspberry Pi is getting the basic hardware and software components together to create a working system. This article explains these basic steps for a simple video player application that we use as part of our Ham Radio Expo Displays. I hope that this information is useful to others who might want to use the Raspberry Pi.
Jamey, AC1DC Presenting in the ARRL Forum at Dayton 2019
The ARRL gave the Nashua Area Radio Society a Forum at the Dayton Hamvention(R)this past year to talk about how we approached Growing and Modernizing our club. The ARRL has produced a video of our Dayton Forum presentation. You can view the Video along with a copy of the presentation via the link which follows…
The Nashua Area Radio Society has grown from about 35 members to over 225 members in less than 4 years. The presentation contains ideas and programs that have worked for the Nashua Area Radio Society’s (NARS) as part of our efforts to modernize and grow our club.
We have been sharing this presentation via the Internet with other Amateur Radio Clubs. All that is required is an Internet connection capable of streaming video and an associated computer with a projector and speakers. We would like to invite our readers who might want us to do a similar presentation at one of your club meetings to reach out to us via an email to email@example.com.
Quite a few Nashua Area Radio Society members are headed for the Dayton Hamvention® this week. The theme of Hamvention 2019 is “Mentoring the Next Generation”. The Nashua Area Radio Society will be receiving some important recognition for our work to bring new Hams into the Amateur Radio service, for our Amateur Radio related STEM learning programs in local schools, and for our many Ham Mentoring projects. We will be recognized as the Dayton Hamvention 2019 Club of the Year. We will also be sharing The Nashua Area Radio Society Story as a forum presentation at Dayton. You can see our planned presentation at the link below.
We are also being recognized by the ARRL as a Spotlight Club for our Mentoring work. The ARRL has dedicated their “ARRL Spotlight on Radio Clubs and Mentoring” forum on Friday, May 17th at 11:50 am in Forum Room 3 to us so that we can share The Nashua Area Radio Society Story including ideas and programs that have worked well for us.
We hope that our readers who will be attending the Dayton Hamvention this year will join us for our Forum Presentation on Friday and will also stop by and see our display in the ARRL Booth at Dayton.
You can see more about what we are planning via the link above. Activities will include multiple GOTA Stations, a Kit Build, a Fox Hunt, Morse Code, and other hands-on activities. We will also be operating a Special Event Station as N1T.
We provide many of these services either free of charge or at a very modest cost. We count on the generosity of our members, friends, and the Amateur Radio community to raise funds to support our work.
We hope that our readers will consider supporting our work at the Nashua Area Radio Society by using Amazon Smile and designating us as your favorite charity and/or by making a donation to our current fundraising campaign (click on the badge below).
On behalf of the many young people and others that we help, thank you very much for your interest and support. We will continue to work hard to provide learning opportunities for young people through Amateur Radio and to continue to make the Amateur Radio Service the best it can be to benefit everyone.
Quite a few Nashua Area Radio Society members have been working on a display to get young people and potential new Hams interested in Amateur Radio. Our display will be part of the New England Amateur Radio Convention in Boxboro, MA on September 8th and 9th. We are also planning a similar display for NEAR-Fest at Deerfield Fairgrounds, NH later in the fall. You can see more about our planned display and the associated hands-on activities via the following link.
I want to share some information about an Amateur Radio event that we will be doing at the Boxboro, MA Ham Radio Convention in September. Our display and hands-on activities provide an introduction to Amateur Radio for young people and include information and a chance to try Amateur Radio activities such as:
You can read more about our plans for the event via the link above.
Morse Trainer Kit
We’ve been working with Steve Elliot, K1EL to develop an inexpensive kit building project to include as part of our displays. We will be including a new kit building activity in as part of our display. Builders can purchase the Morse Trainer Kit shown above for $20 and build it at the show. We will provide soldering equipment and kit building mentors to help builders complete their kit. The package includes batteries and a printed manual. We will have these kits available for walk-up purchase at the show on both Saturday and Sunday.
Creating Successful Youth Outreach Projects
Portable Satellite Station Design, Operation, and Planning for an upcoming ISS Crew Contact
STEM Learning for Young People via High Altitude Balloons Carrying Amateur Radio
Here is our report from the Dayton Hamvention, held May 18th – 20th at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, OH. We visited many vendor booths to see the newest items from each, bought a few new toys, and gained knowledge at the forums. You can read more about what we saw at Dayton this year via the link below.