Month: May 2023

Organizational

KC1NEK Elected to Rhode Island Section Manager Post

- by Phil Temples
Photo of Nancy Austin, KC1NEK
Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, Section Manager Elect of the ARRL Rhode Island Section.

From the ARRL Letter, May 25, 2023:

ARRL Section Manager Spring Election Results

The results of two balloted Section Manager elections held this spring were determined when the ballots were counted at ARRL Headquarters on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

Nancy Austin, KC1NEK, was elected as ARRL Rhode Island Section Manager, defeating incumbent Section Manager Bob Beaudet, W1YRC.

Austin, of Middletown, is the President of the Newport County Radio Club, and she will begin a 2-year term of office on July 1.

Beaudet, of Cumberland, has served as ARRL Rhode Island Section Manager for 21 years.

Organizational

Rhode Island May 2023 Section News

- by Phil Temples

Bob Beaudet, W1YRCRhode Island Section Manager Robert G Beaudet, W1YRC, writes:

Greetings ARRL members and friends:

May is a special month in the Amateur radio calendar. In addition to normally nice weather, it marks the start of sporadic E openings. Our friends down south see May as the start of the active tornado season but here in New England, we see it as better antenna weather and the “get ready” month for Field Day which is only a few weeks away.

ARRL sent out a survey recently asking questions about a dues increase and your views about it. If you filled it out and submitted it, thank you but if not, please do so. It is important and will only take a few minutes of your time. Surveys must be completed by May 31st.

Dayton Hamvention takes place this coming weekend. 33,000 of your best friends will be there. If you’re going, best advice I can give is to hang on tightly to your plastic cards. Temptation to exercise them will be everywhere.

HF band conditions are improving slowly. Six meters opened for a short while to tease us. I managed to snag one new entity. Watch the bands, they are improving. Read about stormy geomagnetic space weather at https://www.space.com/sun-reverse-sunspot-auroras-supercharge. Are you puzzled by the SFI, K and A indexes? You aren’t alone. G3YWX explains them in a 2002 QST article. See Understanding Solar Indices (arrl.org).

As of this writing on May 16th, I do not know if I have been re-elected or Nancy Austin, KC1NEK was elected to replace me. Either way, I thank you for your trust and support. You did vote, didn’t you?

FCC’s ruling on RF exposure takes effect May 3, 2021 with a two year transition period was implemented to allow existing amateur licensees to conduct evaluations and make any changes necessary to ensure that their station complies with the exposure rules. On May 3, 2023, the transition period ended. All licensees must now conduct evaluations of their current station and reassess compliance when making changes to their stations that would affect exposure going forward. An on-line calculator is available so you can determine your compliance. Go to ARRL Helps Radio Amateurs Comply with New RF Exposure Evaluation Rules and select http://www.arrl.org/rf-exposure to access the tools. Chances are good that you are compliant but you must check according to the FCC ruling.

ARRL publishes monthly magazines to address special interests of new hams, more advanced hams and contesters. QEX, NCJ, and On The Air are available in digital format on the www.arrl.org website. New hams in particular find On The Air very useful since it usually targets topics that are most interesting to them.

Members of the Blackstone Valley ARC participated in a Business Expo hosted by the Bellingham, MA Public Library on April 29th. Most of the exhibits were commercial and aimed at business in the community, Amateur radio captured a great deal attention. The club attracted several new members including a 14-yea-old who already holds a Technician license and wants to work lots of countries. His mother seemed fairly interested herself asking if any women are members of the club. The normal BVARC area includes northern RI and the border communities of MA to the north and east. So, setting up an exhibit over the state line in Bellingham is quite normal.

Field Day is June 24-25. As your Section Manager, if I am re-elected, I shall try to visit your Field Day site. The Field Day locator shows a location for four groups. I shall try to visit each of these groups on Saturday, June 24th. Good luck to all, including those who choose to operate from their comfortable air conditioned ham shacks.

Thanks and 73,

——————————————————————–
ARRL Rhode Island Section
Section Manager: Robert G Beaudet, W1YRC
[email protected]
——————————————————————–

Operating

“Rhode Island’s Radio Legacy Continues”

- by Phil Temples
Photo of rhombic antenna at W1OP
Providence Radio Association’s historic Collins antenna used during the recent MARS Armed Forces Day Crossband Test, with PRA Club President Dave Tessitore, K1DT, and Vice President John Good, W1GS

Contributed by Nancy Austin KC1NEK, NCRC and Dave Tessitore, K1DT, PRA

Rhode Island is a small state with a rich history. The Providence Radio Association invests in RI’s radio legacy by maintaining a historic Collins 237B-1 rotatable 13 element log periodic antenna originally installed as part of NAVCOMMSTA Newport’s impressive transmit antenna farm on Beavertail Point, Jamestown RI from c.1964-1975. On Saturday 13 May 2023, the Providence Radio Association again participated in the MARS Armed Forces Day (AFD) Crossband Test using their historic antenna and the equally historic call sign, NAF.

NAF began operation from the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, RI c. 1900, and was among the first US Naval Radio shore stations. Eventually, several naval radio stations were consolidated as NAVCOMMSTA Newport. NAF transmitted from c.1900 until 1975 at various coastal Narragansett Bay locations, including NAVRADSTA (T) Beavertail Point (Jamestown).

The Providence Radio Association shares the next chapter in this rich Rhode Island radio history: “The drastic curtailment of naval operations on Narragansett Bay in 1975 closed all naval activities at Sachuest Point and Beavertail Point. In 1975 the Navy allowed the Providence Radio Association to hold its annual Field Day exercises at the Beavertail Station. Following the decommissioning of the facility and turn over to land of the State, in 1983 the PRA acquired one of the Collins 237B-1 rotatable log periodic antennas used by NAF and erected it at our club facility in Johnston, RI. It has been utilized since then under the Amateur call sign W1OP. Once a year, we either operate from the original NAVRADSTA (T) location at Beavertail Pt, or we use this antenna from our clubhouse in Johnston to participate in the Armed Forces Day Crossband Test, using its original naval call sign NAF.”

Providence Radio Association club president "Tess," K1DT
Providence Radio Association club president “Tess,” K1DT

For this year’s AFD Crossband Test, the Providence Radio Association again got permission to operate as NAF and transmit on their restored original Collins antenna. The W1OP clubhouse on Neutaconkanut Hill (on the Providence/Johnston border) opened its impressive radio station to members and Amateur Radio guests, including: Dom, N1DM; David, W3DRE; Doug, K3DRE; Andy, AJ1S; John, W1GS; Dave, K1DT; Teri, W1PUP; Jeremy, K1JST; Adam, KC1KCC; and Nancy, KC1NEK. Hundreds of phone QSOs were logged on mostly 20m and 40m.

As the ARRL notes: “The AFD Crossband Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military communicators and radio stations in the Amateur Radio Service (ARS), as authorized in 47 CFR 97.111. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise scenario. Military stations will transmit on selected frequencies and will announce the specific ARS frequencies monitored. All of the times are Zulu (Z), and all frequencies are Upper Side Band (USB) unless otherwise noted.”

For more on the history of call sign NAF and their restored Collins antenna, reach out to Providence Radio Association club president Dave Tessitore “Tess”, K1DT, at [email protected].

Radio communication has a long history in Rhode Island. By 1900, Newport’s naval officers were given instruction in wireless technology. Newport’s Torpedo Station was one of the first of a network of U.S. Navy shore radio stations, along with an adjacent site at the Naval Training Center used to train radio operators for the Navy. From c.1964 until 1975, Sachuest Point on Aquidneck Island and Beavertail on Jamestown served as key receive and transmit stations. Today, Amateur Radio offers an experiential learning gateway to 21st century workforce development opportunities in electronics and wireless radio communication, both analog and digital. This highly relevant mission is at the heart of many ARRL-affiliated RI radio clubs.

 

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For more information, see also:
https://www.arrl.org/news/annual-armed-forces-day-crossband-test-1
https://www.navy-radio.com/commsta/newport.htm
https://www.navy-radio.com/manuals/NAVCOMM-history-1958.pdf

Public Information

Blackstone Valley ARC Participates in Expo at Bellingham, MA Public Library

- by Phil Temples

Members of the Blackstone Valley ARC in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, participated in a “business expo” at the Bellingham, MA library on April 29, 2023.

“We set up an HF station and club president, Ken [Trudel], N1RGK, presented an overview of what Amateur radio is all about,” reports BVARC founding member and Rhode Island Section Manager Bob Beaudet, W1YRC. “We had handouts from ARRL  and our club brochure. We picked up several new members and several non-hams who showed interest in getting a ticket.”

Beaudet explained that a club member is a friend of the library director.  “She had us do a similar event before COVID and wants us back any time we can do it again.”

W1YRC presented the library with the ARRL Handbook six-volume set.

[See also: “Blackstone Valley ARC Amateur Radio Day at Bellingham, MA Public Library A Great Success“]