All posts by Jane Greer

LRRA Fall Flea 2019

Lakes Region Repeater Association’s second Flea and Ve.  Our Flea and Ve is a place to buy, sell, and swap amateur radio, electronic, and computer equipment. Hams and non-hams alike are welcome.

These Hamfests are a convention of amateur radio enthusiasts, often combining a trade show, flea market, and various other activities of interest to amateur radio operators (hams).  “Hamfests” were noted as early as 1924 in the U.S.

Our hamfest event was organized by our amateur radio club. We enjoyed our social gathering and promotion of the amateur radio hobby.  Our semiannual event is held over a weekend on Saturday and last from 8am to 1pm. We feature a flea market where the attendees buy and sell radio and related equipment. The equipment found at our hamfest can vary significantly from the newest high-tech gear to used, refurbished, or even antique equipment.

Haggling or bargaining is the most common means of sale at our flea market. Equipment that originally sold at great expense to commercial users (such as public safety agencies) can often be found at a fraction of the price. Likewise, accessories which are no longer available from manufacturers may be found, and many sales of complete systems are made to buyers who only need one or two components.

Cardboard junk boxes are a common site at our flea market. They sit on the tables or floors and frequently contain scraps and remnants from finished projects or equipment long-since gone.

Some hamfests feature demonstration and sales booths manned by vendors and manufacturers of commercial amateur radio equipment. This is something we are considering for the future.

Hamfests may also include meetings of amateur radio clubs, seminars on technical, operational, or legal aspects of amateur radio.

At 1pm we hold a session for examinations for technical, general, or advance license.

Our hamfest is becoming a popular tradition. We included a food vendor, staffed by volunteers, with the proceeds going into our Repeater Fund.

Our second LRRA Flea and VE Ossipee Town HallFall 2019

Ham Radio Antenna Upgrade

Ham radio antenna relocation and upgrade 2020. Work on tower, installation of platform and relocation of LRRA’s antennas.

Thanks to Crown Castle,  Green Mountain Communications and the Technical Committee.

Rockin’ the Lakes Region!!

Check out Jayson’s (KB1RFS) drone shots of the tower in its current configuration. (March 2021)

Ham radio antenna relocation and upgrade 2020.
ham radio antenna
2020 antenna relocation and upgrade

Work on the first phase of the tower project which involved the installation of a platform at 115ft and the relocation of most of the association’s antennas has been completed. During the relocation, the 2 Meter Telewave antenna was upgraded with two additional dipole bays (generously donated by several anonymous donors) and we have already seen an increase in the reach of the antenna do to its increased gain. There is still some adjustments and tweaks that need to be made to fully optimize the system post-relocation, but these are in the very capable hands of Frank/W1WU, Bob/N1EUN and the rest of the technical committee.

During the tower extension project, the safety climb cable between the pegs was replaced with a longer one to reach the top and new grommets were installed alternating with particular care to make sure the cable was not creating any mechanical noise on the tower that would affect our repeaters as it did in the past. 

The association thanks Crown Castle for going the extra mile to help keep mechanical noise on their tower to a minimum.   73!

Weather Station Project.

The tech  committee members,  with equipment donated to the association,  are working to establish a weather station at the repeater site that will eventually be remotely accessible and will provide wind speed direction indoor and outdoor temperature information for the site.   More to follow.

National Weather Servce

NWS Mission

Provide weather, water and climate data, forecasts, warnings, and impact-based decision support services for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.

NWS Vision

A Weather-Ready Nation: Society is prepared for and responds to weather, water, and climate-dependent events.

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Field Day 2020

Field Day 2020

Lrra to Host Next Weekend

Ossipee-Amateur radio enthusiasts throughout New Hampshire’s Lakes Region and southwestern Maine are invited to join the Lakes Region Repeater Association next weekend for its annual Field Day.

This year’s event, which begins Saturday, June 27 at 10 a.m., will run through Sunday, June 28 at noon at Constitution Park on Route 25 in Ossipee. Set-up will begin Saturday morning, and all LRRA members and guest are welcome to enjoy a free lunch at noon on Saturday, with hotdogs and all the fixings courtesy of Hannaford. A couple of members are also planning to bring their RV’s to support overnight radio operations, rest and relaxation.

The LRRA is a happy organization of HAM radio enthusiasts who love to meet, talk and play . The organization owns and manages a two way radio system that re-transmits weak signals at a higher power, enabling them to cover longer distances without degradation and provides back-up for emergency communication needs in the event of a commercial power failure. For more information about the organization, or for further details on Field Day please click here.

The annual event called “Field Day” is the climax of the week-long Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, the national association for Amateur Radio.

Using emergency power supplies, local ham operators constructed emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country.

Their slogan, “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works” are more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.

“The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,” said Allen Pitts of ARRL. “From earthquakes, tsunami and tornadoes, ham radio provides the most reliable communication networks in the first critical hours of the events. Because ham radios are not dependent on the Internet, cell towers or other infrastructure, they work when nothing else is available.”

LRRA Field Day 2020

LRRA Field Day 2020-10
Cal Calvitto WA1WOK & Don Percy W1DND taking it easy!
LRRA Field Day 2020-7
Bob Ness KB1DLX and his clever Drone
LRRA Field Day 2020-9
Bob Nelson N1EUN & Butter Fly Beam
LRRA Field Day 2020-11
Don Percy W1DND, Jane Greer W1REX, Sandy Percy W1SND, Mike Biasin W1MWB chewing the rag.
LRRA Field Day 2020-8
Field Day 2020, Constitution Park, Ossipee, NH command center
LRRA Field Day 2020-12
Field Day 2020, Constitution Park, Ossipee, NH looking west.
LRRA Field Day 2020-14
Cal Calvitto WA1WOK, Frank Hammond W1WU, Bob Nelson N1EUN assembling Butter Fly Beam
LRRA Field Day 2020-15
Frank Hammond W1WU and Bob Nelson N1EUN assembling Butter Fly Beam. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-13
Field Day 2020, Constitution Park, Ossipee, NH end of day.
LRRA Field Day 2020-5
Bob Nelson N1EUN and Cal Calvitto WA1WOK getting ready to play radio.
LRRA Field Day 2020-16
Frank Hammond W1WU and Bob Nelson N1EUN assembling Butter Fly Beam. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-17
Frank Hammond W1WU and Bob Nelson N1EUN assembling Butter Fly Beam. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-3
Field Day 2020, Constitution Park, Ossipee, NH
LRRA Field Day 2020-18
Frank Hammond W1WU and Bob Nelson N1EUN assembling Butter Fly Beam. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-19
Frank Hammond W1WU and Bob Nelson N1EUN (and one of Bob's twin boys) assembling Butter Fly Beam. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-4
Bob Nelson N1EUN and one of the twin boys playing radio!
LRRA Field Day 2020-20
The LRRA gang under a shady tent. Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-21
Picture taken from Bob Ness KB1DLX drone!
LRRA Field Day 2020-1
Bob Nelson N1EUN and Bob Tiffany W1GWU
LRRA Field Day 2020-2
Bob Nelson N1EUN
LRRA Field Day 2020-6
Frank Hammond W1WU

Annual Meeting 2019

Annual meeting of the Lakes Region Repeater Association was held November 3, 2019. It was held at the River’s Edge Grille and Tavern at Indian Mound golf course in Ossipee, New Hampshire. Shawn Marcotte KC1DNA was our acting president. He opened the meeting at 10 am.

annual meeting
annual meeting 2019

The Technical Committee reported some exciting and gratifying accomplishments for the year 2019. Some of the accomplishments are as follows of our annual meeting:

  • Our S-Com controller software was updated and more utilities were added.
  • A new Yaesu DR2X repeater
  • We tested the emergency back-up and added a drop-out AC relay. This alerts us to any AC power failures. We also installed the battery voltage monitor with programing. This is done with the 7330 S Com controller that can monitor battery voltage 24 hours a day in the case of a power failure.
  • We can now announce the time every our and announce the club website on the repeater. The repeater announces the club net at 8pm on Tuesdays during the day.
  • LRRA is now affiliated with (ARES) which is Amateur Radio Emergency Services. We can provide emergency power back-up or AC failures while providing crossover communications between ARES groups.
  • We also asked the membership for opinions on repeater announcements, possible weather station, weather announcements signal report from repeater, and membership access for codes such as time, announcements, and scheduler.
  • Also, Paul Zito N1REN has an APRS repeater that is located at our repeater site on Bennett Hill for anybody who wants to use it.

Some of the highlights of changes for LRRA are as follows:

  • Our club had its first Ham Flea and Ve in the spring of 2019. And we held another in the fall of 2019.
  • The club held a Field Day event at Constitution Park in Ossipee, New Hampshire.
  • We bought a tent for Field Day and Near Fest.
  • LRRA became a 501 (c) (3) March 2019
  • We have club badges that members can order at our website

 

Up in the mountains 2018 Field Day

LRRA Field Day 2018 was held on Gunstock Mountain June 23 and 24. A fun time was had by all.

It’s that time of year again; summer and Field Day! LRRA Field Day 2018 was held on Gunstock Mountain in New Hampshire. Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day. It becomes a “picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!”

The event takes place on the fourth weekend of June. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event.

If you are curious about AMSTAT, it is a worldwide group of Amateur Radio Operators (Hams).  Formed in the District of Columbia in 1969 as an educational organization. You can check the AMSAT status page at http://www.amsat.org/status/ and the pages at https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ for what is available in the weeks leading up to field day. To reduce the amount of time to research each satellite, see the current FM satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellite-frequency-summary/ and the current linear satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/linear-satellite-frequency-summary/.

Good contacts can be made with satellites on Field day, and with some of the less-populated, low-earth-orbit satellites like FO-29, AO-7, EO-88 or the XW satellites.

During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The good news is that the transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous contacts. The bad news is that you can’t use FM, just low duty-cycle modes like SSB and CW.

AMSAT is a terrific organization and for over 50 years, AMSAT groups in North America and elsewhere have played a key role in significantly advancing the state of the art in space science, space education, and space technology.

Many AMSAT volunteers throughout the world have had far-reaching, effects on the future of both Amateur Radio, as well as other governmental, scientific and commercial activities in the final frontier call space.

2018 FD - 4 guys overnight in 1 cabin and we ate chilli!
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2016 Brunch Meeting

LRRA ANNUAL MEETING
1-17-2016

We had our annual meeting with a delicious brunch at the Wolfeboro Community Center. There were 46 people in attendance and we gave a moment of remembrance for silent keys: Dean Halpin, K1ERO; Louise Jeffrey, N1HQD and Joe Fermano, W1RRN. Please visit our Silent Key site.

Dan Morgan, W1WU, President, noted the Lakes Region Repeater Association had started in the 1970’s and he mentioned that the LRRA repeater was the first in the nation to incorporate the courtesy tones. . Dan noted that early 1995 or 96 Frank had offered his site for the repeater free to the club.

Bob reviewed the stats for Field Day: 164th of 2.720 all classes; 33rd of 384 2A class nationwide; 9th of 140 classes New England; 3rd of 26 2A class New England. It was a very good effort for the LRRA.

Some of the annual events that were coming up and talked about were the Smith River Canoe Race for the Lion’s Club , Field Day – end of June which would be located at Dan Morgan’s field on Pleasant Valley Rd, and July 4th Parade for the VFW. LRRA’s job was to position parade entrants and report on any emergencies.

We had nomination for new officers and Dan was given a plaque in recognition of his many years as LRRA President as well as an Amaryllis bulb memento to Mary Morgan for her years of support.

Our new officers were Bob Carollo, NY1H, President; Bob Ness, KB1DLX, Vice-President; Clayton Ferry, N1VAU, Treasurer; Sarah Silk, Secretary; Tom Bates, AA1NZ, Webmaster.

Bob Carollo, as new President, said that LRRA needed an historian to keep track of our history and that dues can now be paid electronically and ARRL insurance is available. He also announced that there is a large NearFest presence with parking passes. He also wants LRRA Field Day to reach the goal of being first in New England

Amateur Radio Field Day 2014

Amateur radio field day June 28-29, 2014 event at Dan Morgan W1UR farm.

Our Letter to the Editor

amateur radio field day
amateur radio field day 2014

Come to Amateur Field Day on June 28-29, 2014

To the editor

I would like to take this opportunity to formally invite the public to the Amateur Radio (AKA Ham Radio) “Field Day” being held in Wolfeboro by the Lakes Region Repeater Association radio club. Our event will take place this year from 1p, m, on Saturday, June 28th, through 4 p.m. Sunday, June 29th, located “in the field” at 451 Pleasant Valley road in Wolfeboro.

There will be opportunity for anyone to operate a properly supervised “GOTA” (Get On The Air) amateur radio station, as well as view our setup for this event. This is a fun field exercise for Amateur Radio operators to simulate conditions of emergency communications and we invite the pubic to see what we are capable of.

More information about the event and our club is available at the following link: shttps://www.lrra.w1bst.org/home, http://www.arrl.org/field-day. We hope to see you all there!

Clayton Ferry Wolfeboro

___________________________

As a Side Note:

Twice a year, ARRL offers an event designed to promote Amateur Radio to our youth. Share the excitement with your kids or grandkids, a Scout troop, a church or the general public!

Kids Day is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people and hopefully foster interest in getting a license of their own. It is also intended to give older hams a chance to share their station and love for Amateur Radio with their children.

  • Dates and Times

Generally the first Saturday in January, and the third Saturday in June, see the ARRL Contest Calendar for current Kids Day event dates at   http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar

Kids Day always runs from 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. Operate as much or as little as you like.

Suggested Exchange

Name, age, location and favorite color. Be sure to work the same station again if an operator has changed. To draw attention, call “CQ Kids Day.”

Suggested Frequencie

10 Meters: 28.350 to 28.400 MHz

12 Meters: 24.960 to 24.980 MHz

15 Meters: 21.360 to 21.400 MHz

17 Meters: 18.140 to 18.145 MHz

20 Meters: 14.270 to 14.300 MHz

40 Meters: 7.270 to 7.290 MHz

80 Meters: 3.740 to 3.940 MHz

You can also use your favorite favorite repeater (with permission of the repeater’s sponsor).

Be sure to observe third-party restrictions when making DX QSOs.