New editor of The SPARC

Shirley Dulcey KE1L is taking over editing The SPARC as of the October 2023 issue (the next one). All submissions for that issue and subsequent issues should be sent to her at shirleymarquez@gmail.com and not to Joe Chapman. (Joe will send along anything that he has already received.) The deadline for submissions for the next issue is still Saturday, October 7.

Shirley has been a ham since the summer of 1970, receiving her ticket just a bit too late to ever operate her junior high station. (All was not lost; the high school had an even better station.) She is active in the New England QRP Club and especially enjoys operating from field locations. (She is likely to sneak some QRP content into this newsletter, especially if you don’t submit articles!) She has published newsletters for other organizations, including the Boston Computer Society and the Eastern Massachusetts unit of the American Contract Bridge League. She was a member of BARC in its early years, and rejoined in December 2022 to become active in the BARC at Artisans Asylum station and to participate in Winter Field Day 2023, and later at the ARRL Field Day station.

A big thank you to Joe for his service as editor.

BARC General Meeting, Thursday, Sep. 21, 7:30 pm

There will be a BARC General Meeting on Thursday, September 21, both at the Artisans Asylum Holton St. building and on Zoom. A period of socializing will start at 7:00, and the meeting proper will start at 7:30.

Our speaker will be John Portune, W6NBC, and he will be talking about: A Double Inverted Delta No-Radial All-Band HF Vertical. A 30 ft, lower, horizontally polarized vertical with the azimuth gain less noticeable but comparable to a small beam on a tower but with similar electrically-steerable azimuth gain. Excellent for Field Day and portable operation.

Information about John:
– Licensed Advanced WB6ZCT 1965 Extra 1972 Commercial Licenses: GROL, General Radio Telegraph
– Bachelor’s degree, Physics, Oregon State University 1960
– Career (Retired) Television broadcast engineer/instructor KNBC Ch 4 Los Angeles, Sony Broadcast
– San Francisco Ham magazine author: QST/OTA (over 35 to date) and others
– Frequent Zoom live radio club and ham expo presentations
– Active on HF, VHF, UHF – SSB, FM, digital modes and ham satellites
– Native of Los Angeles, CA 10 yr. resident of UK. Ham license MØGCK
– Married KF6OEB. 3 children, 12 grandchildren
– Steam railroading, pipe organ and sushi enthusiast
– w6nbcmail@gmail.com, website: w6nbc.com

Here is the Zoom information. As always, if we have problems with the meeting, we will post any updates on this website.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81732522755?pwd=N2pxUHF3NEdvVXZNYng1RlRrUmx6UT09

Meeting ID: 817 3252 2755
Passcode: BARC

Amateur Radio Communications Support Request: Gardner Centennial Parade September 17

Hi all,

Please find the request from Paul Topolski, W1SEX below:

Fellow Radio Amateurs,

The City of Gardner is celebrating our centennial, 100 years as a city, with a large parade on Sunday, September 17, 2023 at 13:00 hours.

The City of Gardner Office of Emergency Management is seeking assistance from the ham radio community to provide safety and parade logistics communications. We need about fifteen hams to shadow division Marshalls and three command/relay trailers. A minimum of nine hams will need to be able to walk the parade route of up to 1.8 miles. The first half mile is on a slight uphill grade but it’s all downhill from there. Hams are requested to marshal at 11:00 hours and the parade steps off at 13:00.

To volunteer, please reply to ptopolski@gardner-ma.gov

Please feel free to forward this message to any hams that you know may be interested in helping out.

Be safe es 73,

Paul Topolski, W1SEX, Director
City of Gardner Office of Emergency Management

73,
Ethan KC1OIP
BARC Public Service Chair

Amateur Radio Communications Support Opportunity: Head Of The Charles 2023

Hi all,
If you’ve volunteered for the Head Of The Charles before then you’ve probably already seen this but if you haven’t and want to apply to be a volunteer read on!

Amateur Radio is part of the Emergency Services team for the HOCR and the shifts are as follows:

Friday, October 20, from 7:00am to 6:00pm
Saturday, October 21, from 7:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday, October 22, from 7:00am to 6:00pm

There are no partial shifts. We ask that you only apply if you’re available for the entirety of one or more of the above listed shifts.  We would like you to be able to do multiple days if possible, but we will allow single shifts. You must posses a Technician license or higher prior to your first volunteer day.

To register, go to https://volunteer.regattacentral.com/hocr/login and create an account. After logging in you will see two options for Amateur Radio: Land Station and Safety Launch. Please note that Safety Launch is on the water. I don’t believe a PIN is required anymore but if it asks it’s 5713 for all Emergency Services positions.

Finally if you happen to know any certified lifeguards that might be interested please pass the website information along.

73,
Ethan KC1OIP
BARC Public Service Chair

Volunteer Registration Open For The 2023 BAA Half Marathon

Hi all,

Some of you may have already seen this from the B.A.A but Volunteer Registration for the Half Marathon on November 12th is open! Please see the information below from the B.A.A.

The B.A.A. Half Marathon, presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, returns to Franklin Park on Sunday, November 12, 2023. We invite you to join us as a volunteer to support the third and final event of the 2023 B.A.A. Distance Medley. 

Volunteer Registration is ongoing within your B.A.A. Athletes’ Village Account:

  • To apply, log in to your B.A.A. Athletes’ Village account or sign up for an account if you have not yet done so already.  
  • All 2021, 2022, and 2023 Boston Marathon volunteer applicants should have an existing Athletes’ Village account. 
  • Navigate to the Volunteers page on your account. Select the “To Volunteer Click Here” button. Follow the instructions on the form. 
  • Your application is complete once you receive an application confirmation number.

The volunteer registration deadline for the B.A.A. Half Marathon is Friday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Please note, we do anticipate receiving more volunteer applicants than we are able to accept. 

If you haven’t volunteered at a B.A.A event before you will need to create an account and profile. Unlike the full marathon there is only one option for Amateur Radio which can be found after selecting “General” volunteer. 

Hope to see you on race day!

73,
Ethan KC1OIP
BARC Public Service Chair

SKYWARN mail to charter/hotmail/msn/outlook addresses

Rob Macedo, KD1CY, alerts us to problems receiving where Microsoft is intentionally blocking SKYWARN announcements. The full details are at https://wx1box.org/2023/08/02/special-announcement-charter-hotmail-msn-outlook-email-addresses-blocked-from-receiving-skywarn-announcement-emails/.

I have also noticed a problem where club mail to addresses at outlook.com have silently disappeared, so I will be contacting the few current members who may have be affected.