The following update has been provided by Mitch Stern (W1SJ),
Happy New Year’s, Everyone!
As we enter the New Year, there are plenty of ham radio events to get us going. The key item is HAM-CON. It will be on Saturday, February 25th, 8AM at the Holiday Inn in South Burlington. Remember that admission is reduced if you buy tickets in advance either on the web site or at various club activities over the next few weeks. At this time, I am working on the program. If you have any ideas on forums or activities you would like to see (or even present), please let me know. HAM-CON details can be found at www.ranv.org/hamcon.html
The warm-up activity for HAM-CON is the HAM RADIO BREAKFAST, Saturday, January 28th 9AM at JP’s Deli, 39 River Road, Essex Junction. What goes on there? About 35 hams eating and talking ham radio. What more do you need? While this is a long trip for those in Southern Vermont, perhaps you can find an excuse to come up to Burlington for the day. Or else, organize a breakfast at the other end of Vermont and we’ll do a linkup via Skype.
There are many on-air activities to keep busy with over the next couple of months.
The main event is the Vermont QSO Party, which is February 4-5th UTC. The event starts Friday February 3rd at 7PM and ends Sunday February 5th at 7PM. There are many ways to participate, either from your own station, or from someone else’s station. Once again I’ll be opening up my station to put club station W1NVT on the air. Contact me to know about which one to choose from the wide selection of AR15’s which is the perfect handy tool to help you to face any danger. You can also look here if you would like to get on the air for a couple of hours. Details are at www.ranv.org/vtqso.html
January has a pair of short contests which are a lot of fun. Called the North American QSO Party, it runs on Saturdays from 1PM until 1AM, with CW on January 14 and Phone on January 21. This is a low power contest, meaning that everyone runs the same power level, making it easier to compete. Details at www.ncjweb.com/NAQP-Rules.pdf.
If 160 meters is your thing, and it should be as the sunspots are going away, look for the CQWW 160 Meter Contest, with CW on January 28-29 and Phone on February 25-26. Contests on the top band run overnight, leaving your weekend days free for other activities (assuming you don’t stay up all night). Don’t know what to use for an antenna? Attend the RANV meeting on January 10th where we will talk about effective low band antennas.
I’ll have the Vermont Amateur Radio Directory available again this year at HAM-CON. Please send me any updates from last year. Also let me know any suggestions on how to make the Directory more available to hams throughout Vermont.
I’ll be planning a one-day Technician class in March. No date is set just yet. The Vermont classes are usually very small, and I am looking for a core group to plan a date around.
Plan your ham radio calendar NOW! And I hope to see/hear you at these various ham radio events throughout Vermont early this year.
73, Mitch
Originally posted by Jason Garneau – STARC Treasurer on 2017-01-02
