When Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina in the fall of 2024, the damage was swift, unexpected, and widespread. In this photo-rich presentation, Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, will share his firsthand account of the storm’s aftermath and how amateur radio played a crucial role in staying connected when everything else failed. He will also offer practical advice for operators—no matter where they live—on how to prepare for natural disasters, build resilient communication setups, and foster stronger local networks. Even if you think you’re “out of harm’s way,” consider this your wake-up call to be ready. 

Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, has been a ham radio operator since 1997, making most of his contacts in the field with low-power (QRP) gear. He runs QRPer.com, the SWLing Post, and the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, and is a regular co-hosts the Ham Radio Workbench podcast. A 2023 inductee into the QRP Hall of Fame, Thomas has a deep love for chasing weak signals from the great outdoors. 

Digital signals sound just like noise in our narrowband receivers. You may not realize that some of the noise you hear is caused by DTV and other digital transmitters. Join Paul Wade, W1GHZ, who will help you identify this insidious noise raising your noise floor and reducing your receiver sensitivity, and what you can do about it.

Bio:

Paul Wade W1GHZ, previously N1BWT and WA2ZZF, has been licensed since 1962 . He has been a microwave experimenter for years and published numerous articles as well as writing the “Microwavelengths” column in QST. He was past President of the North East Weak Signal Group (NEWS). An ongoing project is the “W1GHZ Microwave Antenna Book” – online at www.w1ghz.org.

In 1997, he was honored to be named by the Central States VHF Society as the recipient of the Chambers Award. He has been honored by the ARRL with the 2000 Microwave Development Award, in 2001 with the Thomas Kirby Eastern VHF/UHF Society Award, and in 2009 by Microwave Update and the North Texas Microwave Society with the Don Hilliard Award for Technical Contributions to the Microwave Community. In 2025, he was honored to receive the ARRL Doug DeMaw, W1FB, Technical Excellence Award. Paul is a Life Member of the IEEE.

After a long career in electrical engineering, including microwaves, computer hardware, and signal integrity, he and Beth, N1SAI, are now happily retired in Vermont with a rescue dog named Daisy. He was also a ski instructor for a time, and now enjoys skiing on a new bionic knee, and skijoring with Daisy. 

The New England QRP Club has announced its full schedule of events and activities at the 2025 Northeast HamXposition on August 22-24, 2025. In addition to meals, a vendor night, and W1B talk-in station, NEQRP will host a Saturday afternoon seminar of talks and presentations. 

See https://hamxposition.org/new-england-qrp/ for the full schedule.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, our original banquet speaker Ned Sterns, AA7A, will be unavailable.

Tim Duffy, K3LR, will be the featured guest speaker at the Friday evening DX/Contest Banquet. Tim will discuss contesting history and what the future might hold with a focus on clubs and youth.

K3LR has been an active amateur radio operator for over 53 years – starting as WN3SZX in 1972.  He has hosted over 180 different ham radio operators from around the world as part of the K3LR Multi operator Multi transmitter radio sport contest efforts since 1992.  K3LR has built a 14 tower station with 11 operating positions.

Tim was the ARRL Atlantic Division Technical Achievement award winner in 1998.  He has been the moderator of the Hamvention Antenna forum for 41 years. K3LR serves as chairman of Contest University (16 years), the Dayton Contest Dinner (31 years), chairman of the Top Band Dinner – as well as co-coordinator of the Contest Super Suite (38 years) in Dayton during the yearly Dayton Hamvention. 

Tim is founder and moderator of the popular RFI Reflector (RFI@contesting.com) since 1999.  K3LR serves on the WRTC2026 Advisory Board. Tim serves on the board of directors of the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) as Chairman and is President Emeritus of the Radio Club of America (RCA).  Tim is multiyear President of the Mercer County Amateur Radio Club (W3LIF/W3JTV). K3LR is President of the North Coast Contesters.

Tim serves on the electrical engineering advisory board for Grove City College. He was elected to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame in 2006.  K3LR was honored with the prestigious Barry Goldwater Amateur Radio service award by the RCA in 2010. Tim was honored in 2016 with the YASME Excellence award.  

K3LR was also honored as Hamvention Amateur of the Year in 2015 by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. Tim is the Chief Executive Officer of DX Engineering. He is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University.

Join Greg Algieri, WA1JXR, for an introduction to what complex Impedance is, how to measure it, and how Impedance is related to SWR. Greg will explain how these concepts apply to transmission lines, and how the waves and power travel from your transceiver to your antenna. 

WA1JXR began his Amateur Radio journey by asking his Dad for a Blue ‘Gillette Razor Blade’ to make his first diode receiver, which lead him to get his Amateur Radio license, higher electronics education, and an entire career with Raytheon, where he worked in radio and antenna design. Greg is active in the Amateur Radio community as a teacher for new and existing hams, restoring vintage radios, and getting on-the-air. He’s been a member of NEQRP since its beginnings, a teacher for Long Island CW Club, and is an ARRL WMA Assistant Section Manager and Technical Coordinator. 

Be sure to visit the HamSCI booth at the 2025 Northeast HamXposition and find out how the organization is helping to answer questions like: 

• How does the ionosphere respond to inputs from space and from the neutral atmosphere?
• How does the ionosphere couple with the neutral atmosphere and with space?
• What are the sources of medium and large scale traveling ionospheric disturbances?
• What are the causes of Sporadic E?

HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, is a platform for the publicity and promotion of projects to advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities.

Also, be sure to catch Dr. Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, our Saturday Grand Banquet speaker. Nathaniel will discuss the results from a number of recent HamSCI experiments, what’s next for HamSCI in the future, and how you can participate in these exciting projects!

Visit the W1 QSL Bureau booth in the vendor area and learn how the QSL Bureau works.  If you already have an account, you can check your status and add funds if needed.  You can open a new account if you do not already have one. 

We will be collecting Outgoing QSL Bureau cards to save you mailing them to the League.  Please follow the instructions on the ARRL web to prepare and fund your outgoing card package. 

At our booth we will also be checking cards for the ARRL DXCC and other ARRL awards.

Program Chair Skip Youngberg, K1NKR, writes:

The schedule is up and running.

As always, HamXposition, the New England Division ARRL Convention, continues to provide an exciting gathering with vendors and an ample supply of thoughts and ideas—also known as workshops, forums, and talks.

The schedule is now posted here on the HamXposition website at https://registration.hamxposition.org/Schedule/. It’s called “preliminary,” because we may add a few more reprise talks Friday and Sunday. The schedule will be off to the printer soon.

Here are the highlights:

• There’s a comedy kick-off on Thursday evening.
• There are five workshops, plus our mini Contest University and a club track on Friday. Plus, at least three fresh talks (which may be reprised later in the weekend) to attend if you’re not out at the flea market.
• Sixty-five talks, on Saturday, some of which will be reprised on Sunday if you miss them. Six talks, plus some reprises on Sunday. Saturday also includes Tech-in-a-Day and two sessions of license exams (with one more session on Sunday)
• A total of no less than 106 hours of talks are available over the whole weekend!
• All that, plus two banquets, gatherings of interest groups like contesting, youth activities, QRP, QCWA, and ARRL Sections. There will also be after-hours socializing.
• And prizes, prizes, prizes.