From nt1k at nt1k.com Mon Nov 2 13:19:58 2015 From: nt1k at nt1k.com (Jeffrey Bail - NT1K) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2015 13:19:58 -0500 Subject: [HCRA] New Zero Beat / Meeting This Friday ! Message-ID: Thanks to Gary Fields (WA1MOW), we have a fresh Zero Beat posted to the website for all of you to enjoy! http://www.hcra.org/zb/nov15.pdf ----------------------- We also have a meeting coming up this Friday at the Holyoke Medical Center's auxilary conference room. This month's speaker will be Joe Chapman (NV1W) and he will be discussing bicycle mobile operations. It should be a very interesting meeting. Meeting will start at approximately 7:30pm. We are still accepting renewal applications and will be selling tickets for our Holiday Party and TS-590SG Raffle. Thanks for being a member and hope to see you all on Friday! - Jeffrey Bail (NT1K) HCRA President From gary.fields at northcomm.net Mon Nov 2 16:13:31 2015 From: gary.fields at northcomm.net (gary.fields at northcomm.net) Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:13:31 -0700 Subject: [HCRA] Something I forgot to put in Zero Beat Message-ID: <20151102141331.68344e51f585b039bd2b53b84027beca.add37928f1.wbe@email13.secureserver.net> Hi Everyone, Matt W1MSW sent this to me for this months Zero Beat. He sent it to an email address I rarely check, so here it is: The HF contest season is here, which brings the opportunity to participate in radiosport events both as an individual and as a club. In recent years HCRA has participated as a club in the ARRL 10 Meter contest. When submitting their logs, club members include ?CLUB: Hampden County Radio Association? in the Cabrillo log headers and the contest sponsor aggregates members? post-adjudication scores for the club competition. I am volunteering to be the HCRA?s scorekeeper this year and in addition to the 10 meter contest, I would like to see club members compete in the club competition for ARRL Sweepstakes coming up in November. This event is split into two different weekends with CW the first full weekend of November (Nov. 7-8, 2015) and Phone the third full weekend in November (Nov. 21-22, 2015). Club members can participate in both or just one of the weekends. ARRL Sweepstakes is the most popular and longest running domestic contest in radiosport. In the earliest issues of Zerobeat written in the 1940s, you will find references to the club competing in the contest as a club. The long and challenging exchange is based on amateur radio traffic-handling and is part of what makes the contest unique. Some operators shy away from Sweepstakes because of the exchange, but it?s a great way to hone on-the-air skills. Along with trying to obtain as high score as possible, operators also attempt to achieve a Clean Sweep, which is done by contacting stations in all of the 83 ARRL/RAC sections. Mark your calendars and start reviewing the rules for these three events. I will be posting more information on the HCRA website, Facebook page and mailing list as we get closer to each contest. If you have any questions about participating in Sweepstakes, submitting your logs or just want to find out more about contesting, please contact me at w1msw at arrl.net. 73, Matt W1MSW ARRL Sweepstakes: http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes ARRL 10-Meter: http://www.arrl.org/10-meter 2014 HCRA 10-Meter Results: http://www.hcra.org/category/arrl-10m-contest/ HARC Sweepstakes Powerpoint: http://www.harc.net/programs/nov-ssv3.pdf Why contesting is important for public service: http://www.arrl.org/news/view/putting-contesting-to-work-for-your-public-service-team Sorry Matt for missing this. Gary WA1MOW From wb1dby at comcast.net Mon Nov 2 16:51:27 2015 From: wb1dby at comcast.net (Larry Krainson) Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2015 16:51:27 -0500 Subject: [HCRA] Fwd: KB6NU Column for October 2015 In-Reply-To: <-5793126021817383993@unknownmsgid> References: <-5793126021817383993@unknownmsgid> Message-ID: Here's my column for October 2015. Sorry for it being a little late. 73, Dan KB6NU ========= start column ========== A new Heathkit! So, why am I not excited? By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from Heathkit. Yes, the NEW Heathkit. you might remember that a couple of years ago, there was all this hype about a ?new? Heathkit and how they were going to start designing new kits as well as revive popular old designs. Then, nothing. They went completely quiet-?until a couple of weeks ago. In an e-mail sent to their ?insiders,? they say: "Dear Heathkit Insider, 'What I really hope Heathkit will produce,' a Silicon Valley colleague recently told me, 'is a new radio kit with a beautiful finish, maybe in rosewood.' Something great to enjoy building and learn from, and also visually stunning, so he could put it in his living room and keep it forever. "Today, my friend gets his wish. They then go on to explain all of the work they?ve been doing in relocating Heathkit to Santa Cruz, CA, acquiring a second company, and securing all the intellectual property rights to the old Heathkit manuals and logos (meaning no more bootleg copies on the Internet). The e-mail continues: "That?s a lot, but there?s more. We?ve designed and developed a wide range of entirely new kit products. We authored the manuals for these kits, complete with the beautiful line art you rely on, preserving and respecting our iconic historic Heathkit style. We developed many new inventions and filed patents on them??We built the back office infrastructure, vendor and supply chain relationships, systems, procedures, operations methods, and well-thought-out corporate structure that a manufacturing company needs to support its customers, to allow us to scale instantly the day we resume major kit sales. All this effort enables us to introduce a fleet of new kits and helps ensure Heathkit can grow, prosper, and continue to bring you great new products for a very long time." So, what?s the exciting news? A new QRP transceiver? Maybe a shortwave radio? A new 100-in-1 experimenter kit for Makers? Uh-uh. Sorry. The "exciting" news is a tuned radio frequency (TRF) AM band (yes, I said AM band) radio kit that costs $150 ( https://shop.heathkit.com/shop/product/explorer-jr-trf-am-radio-receiver-kit-black-case-gr-150-bk-16). Not only is that crazy expensive for an AM radio, it doesn?t even come with a speaker. On top of that, there?s no soldering. You screw all of the components to the board. I?m speechless (well, figuratively, not literally). I?m not sure what the target market is for this product. It?s certainly not amateur radio operators, who expect a lot more (in terms of both functionality and ?fun?) for their money. Nor is it the "Maker" folks, who want something more challenging than an AM radio. I think that if I took this to show off at the local Ann Arbor Maker group, they?d laugh me out of the place. I really hope that they have something better up their sleeves. A strong Heathkit would be good for the Maker movement and for ham radio. ========================== When not thinking about what kit to build next, Dan, KB6NU, operates CW on the HF bands (mostly 40m and 30m). His #1-rated amateur radio blog can be found at KB6NU.Com, and you can e-mail questions, comments, or complaints to cwgeek at kb6nu.com. ========= end column ========== From nt1k at nt1k.com Mon Nov 9 11:50:00 2015 From: nt1k at nt1k.com (Jeffrey Bail - NT1K) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2015 11:50:00 -0500 Subject: [HCRA] Holiday Party Tickets Are Available Message-ID: >From the HCRA Website ------------------------------- http://www.hcra.org/2015/11/06/holiday-party-tickets-available/ Tis the season for Holiday Parties. This year HCRA and MTARA are putting together quite the feast for those who would wish to join us. We will be back at the wonderful steaming tender in Palmer MA on Monday, December 7th, 2015. Doors open at 6, Dinner starts at 7. Tickets will be just $20ea. You can purchase tickets through HCRA or MTARA. There will be good times had by all and we will even have door prizes! For HCRA, you can contact Harold Woering (N1FTP) ( E-mail N1FTP at arrl dot net). You can also mail a check or money order to our P.O. Box HCRA P.O. Box 562 Agawam MA, 01001 Please include a note that you are purchasing Holiday tickets and to include Name, Callsign and phone number for each ticket. If we don't sell a set amount of tickets, the chances are good that we will have to cancel the party and refund those who purchased tickets. This is very nice event that shouldn't be missed. Please purchase tickets. The meal is worth it alone. Sorry no paypal. Hope to see you there! What: Joint HCRA/MTARA Holiday Party When: Monday, December 7th, 2015 Where: Steaming Tender Resturant 28 Depot St, Palmer, MA 01069 Time: Doors open at 6pm, Dinner at 7pm From johnbachand at yahoo.com Wed Nov 11 21:31:18 2015 From: johnbachand at yahoo.com (John Bachand) Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2015 02:31:18 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [HCRA] Tickets References: <617519681.3292899.1447295478323.JavaMail.yahoo.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <617519681.3292899.1447295478323.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> I need two tickets and ll send a check tpmorrow.WA1JAEJohn From nt1k at nt1k.com Sat Nov 21 13:10:52 2015 From: nt1k at nt1k.com (Jeffrey Bail - NT1K) Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2015 13:10:52 -0500 Subject: [HCRA] Holiday Party Ticket Available / ARRL Sweepstakes Message-ID: Joint MTARA/HCRA Holiday party at the steaming tender is just a couple weeks away (Monday, December 7th). We still have tickets available and we still need to sell more! If you haven't purchased a ticket, please do so this week! It will be a great time! Your ticket may win you some prizes as well. Tickets are $20 each. You can still mail a check or money order to our P.O. Box or you can e-mail Harold (N1FTP @ arrl.net ) to help you out. HCRA P.O. Box 562 Agawam MA, 01001 Please note your callsign, name and phone number to be placed on the ticket stub. ----------------- This weekend is the ARRL Sweepstakes sideband contest. HCRA is participating on a club level and the more members that participate, the higher our score we can get. It starts today at 4pm local. It's an excellent contest for those who like to pass traffic and for those who are working on their worked all states (WAS) award. The exchange is Serial, Precedence, Your Call, Check (2 digit year licensed) and ARRL section (WMA). For more information about the contest, rules and exchange, please visit the following website http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes When creating your log, please make sure you list "Hampden County Radio Assn" as your club. Hope to see you on the air and at the holiday party. Thank You, Jeffrey Bail (NT1K)