Events

New England QSO Party, May 3–4

nv1w Announcements, Events, On the air

[From Tom Frenaye, K1KI.] BARC is planning to participate on Sunday, May 4 from Millennium Park in West Roxbury. For more information, see the bostonARC@groups.io mailing list or contact w1bos@arrl.net.

The New England QSO Party on May 3rd and 4th is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries. You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.

Our goal is to get every one of the counties in New England on the air so we hope you will encourage your members to join in the fun! Even if you can only join the fun for a couple of hours, we’d appreciate it! Will you be QRV? Let us know with a message to info@neqp.org.

The New England QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep on Saturday night. It runs from 4 pm Saturday until 1 am Sunday, then 9 am Sunday until 8 pm Sunday. Operate on CW, SSB and/or digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters. For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your county/state. Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who sends in a log with 25 QSOs or more will get a certificate. The goal is to work stations anywhere in the world—and their goal is to work New England stations, so you’ll be very popular!

Last year we had logs from 212 New England stations and 516 more logs from around the country and world.

The full rules are here: www.neqp.org/rules. The 2024 results were posted last weekend: https://neqp.org/2024-new-england-qso-party/.

It’s just under three weeks until the 2025 NEQP. Please make some QSOs even if you don’t want to send in a log!

POTA Outing, Saturday, July 27, Herter Park

nv1w Events, On the air, Outdoors

BARC will be having a summer Parks on the Air (POTA) outing on Saturday, July 27, beginning at 10:00 am at Herter Park (part of the Charles River Reservation, park US-8405) in Allston. The location is reasonably accessible using the T, and there is free parking.

Bring yourself and a radio if you have one, and lunch or refreshments. For newcomers to POTA, we can help you activate your first park. You are encouraged to visit the POTA website to review the rules and sign up.

The goal is to have some fun, play some radio, get on and learn HF, especially if you’ve never done so before.

For more information or if you have questions, contact Brendan, NW1S, at nw1s.brendan@gmail.com.

Field Day, June 22—23

nv1w Events, Field Day, Outdoors

BARC will be gathering for Field Day this year at Hale Education in Westwood. This annual event, held on the third full weekend in June, is part contest, part open house, part emergency exercise, part camping trip, and all a lot of fun. People who aren’t yet members of BARC, or who even aren’t yet licensed, are welcome to join us.

The operating period runs from 2 pm on Saturday until 2 pm on Sunday, and will be preceded by setup and followed by teardown. We will have four HF stations in operation, and in keeping with the emergency preparedness theme, power will be provided by generators. Single sideband voice, CW (Morse code), and various digital modes will be used. If you’re licensed but haven’t operated much (or at all), this is a great opportunity to get started on HF.

There will be food and drinks available.

The ARRL Field Day page is here. Directions to Hale Education are here. Talkaround will be on 147.420 MHz simplex. For more information, contact us at w1bos@arrl.net.