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Mike Crestohl, W1RC, writes on January 27, 2024:

Dear Friends of NEAR-Fest:

Please note this is an updated announcement. Please disregard any other notices you may have read.

Our Spring 2024 hamfest, NEAR-Fest XXXV, will be held on Thursday April 25th and Friday April 26th 2024. There will be no hamfest activity on Saturday due to an unfortunate scheduling conflict with the Deerfield Fairgrounds. We had originally announced that the event would take place only on Friday but due to popular demand and the cooperation of the Deerfield Fair Association we are pleased to announce this new full two-day schedule.

Our 2024 Fall NEAR-Fest XXXVI is scheduled for October 11th and 12th and will be the same as always for the past eighteen years, on Friday and Saturday.

The gates will open on Thursday morning at 7:00 AM for PREPAID TICKET HOLDERS ONLY so you might want to buy your tickets online well in advance starting February 1st 2024 on our Web site, www.near-fest.com, or in March at the Ham Radio Outlet store in Salem NH and at Ross Hochstrasser’s Clock Shop in Whitman MA and get your favorite spot. NEAR-Fest XXXV will end at 3:00 PM on Friday.

Prepaid ticket holders will line up and enter via Gate C as we did in the Fall. They MUST have ALL of their needed tickets and inside parking passes or they will be sent to Gate F. This includes all Campers, RVs, tenters, who MUST also have their overnight camping passes as there will be NO tickets or passes sold at Gate C. Anyone needing to buy tickets or parking passes will go to Gate F and will be admitted starting at 8:00AM. Once the line has entered at Gate C it will close and all others entering the grounds will proceed to Gate F.

For this event only admission per person is $10.00 whether you buy your ticket online or in advance or at the gate. Overnight parking and tent passes are $15.00 regardless of whether you plug into an electric outlet or not. Campers, RVs and overnight stayers will go directly into the Fairgrounds as we will not be using the campgrounds this time. The cost of the pass for RVs, Campers, Motorhomes, etc, is $30.00. All vehicles that remain in the Fairgrounds overnight (after 9:00 PM) will require an overnight parking pass in addition to an inside parking pass for Friday.

Everyone over 21 will need an admission ticket except unlicensed spouses, active duty military, full-time students (with ID) and other valid pass holders.

If you buy something big and heavy in the flea market one of our volunteer staff members will be glad to transport it and you to your vehicle at no charge as we have been doing for many years. As always inside parking for disabled persons is free of charge and they may use a single person “mobility device” as well. NEAR-Fest reserves the right to limit the use of golf carts and “other power driven mobility devices” due to safety concerns and potential liability issues.

Please visit our Web site, www.near-fest.com, or our Facebook page, NearFest NH for any further updates. We apologize for any inconvenience that this modified version of NEAR-Fest may have caused but it is only for this time. We appreciate your indulgence and understanding.

See you at Deerfield!

73,

MisterMike, W1RC

WinterFest 2024
Saturday Jan 20, 2024 9 am to 1 pm
Vendor setup at 7 am
The First-Best Ham-Fest of the Year!

Whitman Amateur Radio Club
K of C Hall Rt. 18 Whitman MA
$5 entry fee with Raffle Prizes (drawn at noon)
VE testing sessions for Tech/General/Extra
Refreshments

Talk-In on the Whitman club repeater: 147.225 MHz +pl67

For vendors to purchase tables ($15/ea)
Use Paypal or Credit Card

Name (and optional) Callsign
Phone Number
PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!

Or send a check to:

The Whitman Amateur Radio Club
P.O. Box 48 Whitman, MA 02382

Be sure to include name/callsign/ph# w/your payment
Table cost: $15/ea
(no refunds unless event cancelled)
Questions call: 781-523-5010

Winterfest 2024 Flyer

W1REX and friends will be hosting a LIVE streamed BUILDATHON over three nights, starting at the end of January.

Three sessions will be held on Sunday, January 28; Wednesday, January 31; and the following Sunday, February 4, centered around building a Tuna Tin 2 40th Anniversary kit. In previous LIVE streamed BUILDATHONS, we have been limited in trying to cram an entire BUILDATHON in a two- or three-hour time slot. The builds were done rather quickly in order to fit everything into the single session with little time for in-depth discussion on the what and why. This BUILDATHON will be much different.  Each session will focus on a different aspect of the process. 

Sunday January 28 4PM EST

Objectives: WHY QRP, TT2 circuit operation, parts identification & sorting, soldering techniques and practice.

We will be talking about all the above stuff then ending with soldering practice, building a couple of elementary pieces of QRP test equipment useful after your successful completion of the 40th Anniversary Tuna Tin 2 kit. Lots of time to cover these topics with Q&A encouraged. Additions to the 40th Anniversary kit will include parts & PCB for a simple straight key, dummy load and RF probe. These three items are much simpler than the actual TT2 transmitter so easier to build. They will make good starting points for those learning to solder, YET very useful when checking out your completed Tuna Tin 2 transmitter.

Wednesday January 31 8PM EST

Objectives: BUILDING a QRP kit!

Since you now know ‘everything’ about the Tuna Tin 2 design and how to solder, we get to work and actually BUILD the kit. With 37 total parts, this TT2 kit is a relatively simple to build and should be able to be completed in one evening. We will take it slow and since this session is not in another event’s  time window, we should be able to take it slowly so that everyone should be able to keep up, now that you are ALL experienced solderers.

Sunday February 4 5PM EST

Objectives: Getting everyone’s kit up & running and testing its performance.

We will have the whole session devoted to getting EVERYONE’s kit completed and running as expected. We will learn how to use the key, dummy load and RF Probe to debug and check transmitter performance.  We will be LIVE streaming this BUILDATHON from Stephen, N1SH, Houser’s QTH and will have plenty of time each evening to get through the objectives. It will be broadcast on my YouTube account (Rex Harper)  and on Charlie “Red” Brown, NJ7V, (Red Summit RF) Podcast channel. All three sessions will be archived on those sites immediately after their broadcast, so latecomers will be able to review any missed material. Times will be 4 PM EST for the Sunday sessions and 8 PM EST for the Wednesday session.

All kits will be shipped via USPS Priority Mail, so US and Canada orders should have ample time to arrive on time. DX orders are a little iffy, unless they are ordered ASAP.

Stay tuned to this product page for more information. I will be posting lots of pre-Buildathon information before the first session. 

Website: http://qrpme.com/ Buildathon page:http://qrpme.com/?p=product&id=LS1

Hope to see you there!

Rex, W1REX

Bruce Tinkler, N9JBT, writes on the New England Sci-Tech ARS mailing list:

“Join thousands of other operators for a fun, friendly HF competition with a unique goal:  Increasing our understanding of how the ionosphere works.”

April 8th, 2024 during the total solar eclipse.  Operate CW, SSB, FT4/8, even WSPR and FST4W.

Information at https://hamsci.org/eclipse

Please bookmark this page and join the HamSCI eclipse mailing list for future announcements related to the HamSCI FoEIS.

[Stanley Pozerski, KD1LE, presented on “HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science” at the 2023 Northeast HamXposition.]

The Northeast HamXposition and New England ARRL Convention would be delighted to have more collegiate clubs at this year’s convention.  Our goal is to attract more youth of any age into amateur radio, but also to highlight the local colleges that have amateur radio clubs and perhaps interest youth in staying in the hobby through their college years.  [Full story]

If you attended the grand banquet at the 2022 HamXposition you saw Dr. Erickson give a terrific presentation on HamSCI and Haystack Observatory’s ionospheric investigations. —Thanks, K1FVK

MIT News article: https://news.mit.edu/2023/philip-erickson-named-director-mit-haystack-observatory-1215