Current News and Notices, Club Activities, Upcoming On-Air Events, Upcoming Off-Air Events and Past News and Notices are below.
*** Note the new sections, especially Upcoming On-Air Events and Upcoming Off-Air Events ***

Latest Club Newsletter: February Spark Gaps

Current News and Notices (Note - 2023 Dues are payable by January 1st -- Forms: Word, PDF)

• This is a reminder that April's first meeting has been changed to a ZOOM only meeting due to the school being closed for Spring break. As usual ZOOM information will be sent via the reflector.

• 2023 dues (forms Word, PDF) were due by January 1!  Membership Application/Renewal forms only need to be filled out if any of your information has changed. Please send or hand to the club secretary with proper payment. If you don't have any changes, please send or hand payment only to the club treasurer. Please write your callsign on the check if paying by check. Any questions, please contact club secretary Al Hanzl, K2AL.  
  If you haven't already paid, the grace period ends March 31, 2023.

• This is a reminder that in-person hybrid meetings are normally held on the second Monday of each month at the Salt Brook school except during days where the school is closed (i.e. Summer school break).

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Club Activities (Nets and other Special Events)

• NPARC Sunday Night Net - Al K2AL is the regular net control on the W2LI-VHF (2-meter) repeater (147.255, input +.600 MHz, Tone 141.3) every Sunday at 9 p.m.  We encourage and welcome members and non-members alike to join us on the net.  It is an informal, directed net.  We discuss topics related to our ham radio activities, club activities and other topics of general interest. Note: TCRA has been nice enough to link the W2LI-UHF (70cm) repeater (449.975, input -5.000 MHz, Tone 141.3) in for our net.

• NPARC Digital Net - Dave K2YG and David KC2WUF are the regular net controls for the NPARC Digital Net currently held every Monday at or slightly after 9 p.m. local time. Digital mode and frequency are announced via the reflector sometime during the week leading up to the net. Often the operating parameters are also announced during the club business section of the NPARC Sunday Night Net the night before. We encourage members who are equipped for operating digital modes to check in to the net. Lately the mode of choice has been PSK31 and the signal frequency has been 28.086.000 MHz. The net is a directed net and will be handled round-table format similar to the Sunday Night net as long as conditions permit. The net is a good forum for members who are new to digital modes as there is no pressure to "complete the QSO" quickly.

• NPARC CW Net - Dave K2YG and Al K2AL are regular net controls for the NPARC CW Net currently held every Thursday at 9 p.m. local time. Often the operating frequency will be announced during the club business section of the NPARC Sunday Night Net the night before. We encourage members who are equipped for operating CW to check in to the net. Lately the operating frequency has been 28.050.000 MHz. The net is a directed net and will be handled round-table format similar to the Sunday Night net as long as conditions permit. The net is a good forum for members who are new to CW mode as there is no pressure to "complete the QSO" quickly.

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Upcoming On-Air Events

This is a new section of the home page and will try to list interesting on-air activities that you may want to join in. This list grew out of a request by several club members to be notified about upcoming contests that they might have operated in if they were notified.

Note: If you find an event you think might be of interest to the club members please send any information about it to David Bean KC2WUF for inclusion in this list.

Notable Upcoming Contests:

2023

• CQ WW WPX Contest, SSB: March 25 0000 UTC - March 26 2359 UTC
   
  Multipliers are prefixes once only. Exchange is RS and Serial Number. This is a good contest to collect prefixes. You can operate all 48 hours unless you wish to enter the "CLASSIC" overlay in which case you can only operate 24 hours maximum. This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs and States in the process.

• CQ WW WPX Contest, CW: May 27 0000 UTC - May 28 2359 UTC
   
  Multipliers are prefixes once only. Exchange is RST and Serial Number. This is a good contest to collect prefixes. You can operate all 48 hours unless you wish to enter the "CLASSIC" overlay in which case you can only operate 24 hours maximum. This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs and States in the process.

• ARRL International Digital Contest: June 3 1800 UTC - June 4 2400 UTC
   
  This is the opposite of the RTTY Roundup and allows all digital modes except for RTTY. This contest is mainly meant for the FT modes although any other digital mode besides RTTY is allowed. The exchange is your 4-character grid square (FN20 for most of us). There are no multipliers, but QSO points are 1 plus 1 point for each 500km between station grid square centers. You may only operate 24 of the 30 hours. This one can be worked using just WSJT-X software if you don't want to use a contest logging program.

• ARRL Field Day: June 24 1800 UTC - June 25 1800 UTC
   
  This is the contest where clubs and other groups of people are encouraged to "practice" setting up for emergencies in less than optimal locations under less than optimal conditions. One of the other aspects of Field Day is to help introduce actual radio operation to those who don't or haven't yet set up a home radio station. Please consider joining us while we set up, operate, and break down a number of operating positions.

• New Jersey QSO Party: September 17 1600 UTC - September 18 0359 UTC
   
  For most club members this is a chance to work as the "DX" where everyone is trying to collect the counties of New Jerseyt. Multipliers are NJ counties for everyone plus each state, province and 1 DX. Exchange is RST and your county (if in NJ) or your state/province/"DX" for non-NJ. In addition to section and state bragging rights, the club can be awarded high aggregate score for all members submitting a log with our club name specified in the Cabrillo file. Modes include CW, Phone and Digital as long as you make the proper exchange.

• CQ WW DX Contest, RTTY: September 23 0000 UTC - September 24 2400 UTC
   
  Multipliers are DXCCs and CQ Zones worked on each band. Exchange is RST and CQ Zone. Most of us are in CQ Zone 5 (in NJ). You may only operate 36 of the 48 hours. Band changes are limited to 10 per clock hour. Note: 0 points are awarded for working US stations, but you can get multipliers (DXCC K and CQ Zone 03, 04 and 05 -- often tricky). This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs in the process.

• CQ WW DX Contest, SSB: October 28 0000 UTC - October 29 2400 UTC
   
  Multipliers are DXCCs and CQ Zones worked on each band. Exchange is RS and CQ Zone. Most of us are in CQ Zone 5 (in NJ). You may only operate 36 of the 48 hours. Band changes are limited to 10 per clock hour. Note: 0 points are awarded for working US stations, but you can get multipliers (DXCC K and CQ Zone 03, 04 and 05 -- often tricky). This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs in the process.

• ARRL Sweepstakes, CW: November 4 2100 UTC - November 6 0300 UTC
   
  This is the granddaddy of all contests and was meant to test your traffic handling skills; hence the long exchange.

• ARRL Sweepstakes, SSB: November 18 2100 UTC - November 20 0300 UTC
   
  This is the granddaddy of all contests and was meant to test your traffic handling skills; hence the long exchange.

• CQ WW DX Contest, CW: November 25 0000 UTC - November 26 2400 UTC
   
  Multipliers are DXCCs and CQ Zones worked on each band. Exchange is RST and CQ Zone. Most of us are in CQ Zone 5 (in NJ). You may only operate 36 of the 48 hours. Band changes are limited to 10 per clock hour. Note: 0 points are awarded for working US stations, but you can get multipliers (DXCC K and CQ Zone 03, 04 and 05 -- often tricky). This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs in the process.

2024

• ARRL RTTY Roundup: January 6 1800 UTC - January 7 2400 UTC
   
  The RTTY Roundup returns to its roots and will be RTTY only this year after the influx of FT mode activity the past few years. The exchange is your State in the Continental US, Province in Canada or Serial Number for all others. Multipliers are unique States, Provinces or DXCC once (no matter the band). This is a good one if working on WAS as most States are well represented.

• CQ WW WPX RTTY Contest: February 10 0000 UTC - February 11 2359 UTC
   
  Multipliers are prefixes once only. Exchange is RST and Serial Number. This is a good contest to collect prefixes. You can operate all 48 hours unless you wish to enter the "CLASSIC" overlay in which case you can only operate 24 hours maximum. This is one of the "BIG" contests and you can collect many DXCCs and States in the process.

• ARRL International DX Contest, CW: February 17 0000 UTC - February 18 2400 UTC
   
  This is a contest where US/Canada can only "talk" to DX. The exchange is RST and your State or Province; while DX sends RST and their power. Multipliers are DXCCs once per band. You may operate all 48 hours.

• ARRL International DX Contest, SSB: March 2 0000 UTC - March 3 2400 UTC
   
  This is a contest where US/Canada can only "talk" to DX. The exchange is RS and your State or Province; while DX sends RS and their power. Multipliers are DXCCs once per band. You may operate all 48 hours.

FYI: Our club is now on the 3830 website. Please consider posting your scores when you participate in any contest that is on the site and be sure to select New Providence ARC as the club in the drop-down box.

Further information on upcoming contests can be found at:

• ARRL Contest Calendar - In addition to listing all upcoming ARRL-sponsored contests, there is a link to past Contest Corrals and instructions on how to sign up to receive the Contest Update to your email account. This is one of the benefits of being an ARRL member, please consider using it if you are interested in contesting.

• WA7BNM Contest Calendar Site - Bruce Horn, WA7BNM, has created a site that includes an 8-Day Contest Calendar among many others. The 8-Day Calendar shows all contests for the next 8 days. It also has links at the top of the page to look forward or backward one week from the current 8-Day calendar.

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Upcoming Off-Air Events

This is yet another new section of the home page and will try to list off-air activities that may be of interest to club members.

Note: If you find an event or activity that you think might be of interest to other club members, please send any information about it to David Bean KC2WUF for inclusion in this list.

• 2023 NPARC Auction - Saturday, February 25 2:00pm-4:00pm
   
  The 2023 edition of the NPARC Auction will be held at the Salt Brook School in New Providence, NJ. Minor modification to the event includes only cookies and beverages to be sold. Doors open at 1:00.

• 2023 SCARC Hamfest - Sunday, July 16 8:00am- (6:00am for sellers)
   
  The 2023 edition of the SCARC Hamfest will be held on July 16, 2023 at the Sussex County Fairgrounds. Being the largest in New Jersey Auction many of the local hams will be there. The Fairgrounds are located at: 37 Plains Road, Augusta, NJ 07822

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Past News and Notices

2023

• The annual NPARC Auction was held on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 2:00pm at the Salt Brook School. Doors will open at 1:00pm. Flyer

• This is a reminder that February's first meeting has been changed to a ZOOM meeting due to a scheduling conflict at the school. As usual ZOOM information will be sent via the reflector.

• The January 23, 2023 meeting featured a talk from 2 of our members on "The Basics of Operating POTA". The talk featured Kevin N2TO (69/69 activations at 10 different parks) and Brian W2EMC (3/3 activations at 2 parks - twice in NY for the NY QSO Party).

2022

• This is a reminder that November's in-person hybrid meeting is the annual business meeting where officer elections will be held. Plsn on attending either in person or via ZOOM so that we can make our quorum.

• This is a reminder that in-person hybrid meetings resume on the second Monday of each month at the Salt Brook school.

• ARRL Field Day was a success by all accounts. The stations were manned most of the time thanks to Kevin N2TO for getting station schedules arranged. VHF was a little disappointing after the previous 2 weekends saw opennings to EU and AS that were the best in at least a decade. Food was the usual success. Plenty of able bodied members showed up to help make quick work of setup and teardown. Looking forward to implementing lessons learned and having another great Field Day next year.

• For the month of July while co-net control Dave K2YG is away, we may be operating on 80m as well as 10m for both the digital and CW nets. Please check the reflector and the website for notices. The CW net will probably start on 10m and move to 80m half way through to allow those without 80m antennas to continue to participate. They did this for the July 7th edition. The Digital net will run on 10m for the time being until the NCS station has 80m capability.

• This is a reminder that all meetings during the summer will be on ZOOM as the Salt Brook School is closed during this time.

• Please note the in-person meeting titled "Portable Generator Care and Maintenance" scheduled for May 23, 2022 has been cancelled due to family circumstances with the presenter. We will have a ZOOM meeting instead and the information will be sent via the reflector.

• The March 28th ZOOM meeting featuring a talk by K3LR Tim Duffy was well received. He went over the DX Engineering product lines for people have limited space or no external antennas allowed. A special thanks goes out to Tim for accomodating us while he was in Europe helping to get radio equipment to support the efforts to evacuate Ukranians during these tough times.

• The February 28th ZOOM meeting featuring a talk by VU2RBI D. Bharathi was well received by the slightly larger than normal ZOOM audience. Look to the reflector to find links and other info. Special thanks to Heather Speas KD2VZA for arranging this with Sam KC2OSR.

• The February 28, 2022 Post-ZOOM Digital Net was cancelled due to the lateness of the program during the ZOOM meeting featuring D. Bharathi.

• The February 26th Auction went well by all accounts. Look for photos to be posted in the near future.

• The talk on satellites by James KB2FCV went well on our January 24, 2022 ZOOM meeting. Everyone had a good time and enjoyed the talk. Look to the reflector for a copy of the PowerPoint and also for a link to the ZOOM recording which will be available for a short time only.

• The January 10, 2022 Business Meeting originally scheduled to be hybrid will be Zoom only due to the rise in COVID cases. Please look for ZOOM information in the meeting change notice on the reflector. This also means that there will be a digital net following the meeting.

• Starting in January 2022, we plan on having hybrid meetings on the second Monday evening of each month and continue with the ZOOM meetings on the fourth Monday of each month. The in-person part of the monthly hybrid meeting will be held in the cafeteria at the Salt Brook School in New Providence where we held our most recent auction. We will need to find a different location for the July and August hybrid meetings as the school is closed for the summer.
   
  Information about the ZOOM access for both the hybrid and ZOOM meetings will be sent via the reflector.
   
  We will continue have a digital net every Monday night except for the hybrid meeting nights at approximately 9pm. Generally PSK31 on 28.085 MHz + 1000 Hz. (July Digital Nets are generally moved to 3.585 MHz + 1000 Hz) The special ZOOM edition nets will occur fifteen minutes after the ZOOM meeting ends or 9pm ET, whichever is later.

• 2022 dues (forms Word, PDF) were due by January 1!  Membership Application/Renewal forms only need to be filled out if any of your information has changed. Please send or hand to the club secretary with proper payment. If you don't have any changes, please send or hand payment only to the club treasurer. Please write your callsign on the check if paying by check. Any questions, please contact club secretary Al Hanzl, K2AL.  
  If you haven't already paid, you are now overdue, as the grace period ended March 31, 2021.

2021

• With our in-person club meetings cancelled due to the current COVID-19 outbreak for the forseeable future. We will continue to hold Zoom-based meetings in December on Monday, December 13, 2021 with the Monday, December 27, 2021 cancelled due to the holidays. Instructions will be sent out via the reflector prior to each meeting.
   
  During the time in-person meetings are cancelled; We will have a digital net every Monday night at approximately 9pm. Generally PSK31 on 28.085 MHz + 1000 Hz. (July Digital Nets are generally moved to 3.585 MHz + 1000 Hz) The special edition nets will occur fifteen minutes after the Zoom meeting ends or 9pm ET, whichever is later.

• ARRL Field Day 2021 has come and gone and it sounds like many of us participated in some manner. To see how we did, refer to the December 2021 issue of QST or the ARRL Contest website for all results.

2020

• ARRL Field Day 2020 has come and gone and it sounds like many of us participated in some manner.

• Our June 2020 Zoom-based meetings were held on Monday, June 8, 2020 and June 22, 2020. We seem to be getting the hang of it.

• Our third Zoom-based meeting was held on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Nineteen participants in all.

• Our second Zoom-based meeting was held on Monday, May 11, 2020. Twenty participants in all.

• Although our in-person April club meetings were cancelled due to the current COVID-19 outbreak. We were able to hold a Zoom-based meeting on Monday, April 27, 2020. Twenty-four participants in all. (Meeting Notes)

• Dave K2YG has taken it upon himself to start a CW Net which started Thursday, April 16, 2020 at 9:00pm. Starting with the April 30, 2020 CW Net, Dave started listening on frequency around 8:30pm for those wanting to send at slower speed CW. The net will be held on 10 meters at or near 28.050MHz for anyone wanting to learn or improve their CW.

• The March 9, 2020 meeting featured a talk on Mesh Networks given by Gordon W2TTT. It was informative and received well by all who attended.

• Our annual auction was held on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at the Salt Brook School in the cafeteria. The weather cooperated and a good time was had by all. Look for more information in the Spark Gaps and at our next meeting.

• Our club meeting held on Monday, January 27, 2020 featured guest speaker Ron Bosco WB2GAI. His talk on operating from Crete SV9 was received well by all.

• 2020 dues (forms Word, PDF) were due by January 1!  Membership Application/Renewal forms only need to be filled out if any of your information has changed. Please send or hand to the club secretary with proper payment. If you don't have any changes, please send or hand payment only to the club secretary. Any questions, please contact club secretary Al Hanzl, K2AL.
   
  If you haven't already paid, the grace period ends March 31, 2020.

• Kids Day was held on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence.

2019

• There is a new page dedicated to the tireless work of our retiring Activities Manager, Brain KA2MPG. The page is in the left-side menu and is called Meeting Media. It's purpose is to share links to as much of the information presented at meetings as is possible. So far all of the information on the page is content from Brian, either YouTube videos that Brian presented or links to other information that Brian passed along with the links to the videos via the reflector.
   
  We will try and incorporate any other presentations or other information presented at the meetings past, present or future that anyone would like to provide to the webmaster. If you have access to any of this material, please contact the webmaster or one of the club officers.

• The 2019 Holiday Luncheon took place on December 7, 2019 at the Chimney Rock Inn. A good time was had by all. Photos to follow.

• Our club meeting held on Monday, September 9, 2019 featuring a program given by Ria Jairam N2JR. Her talk titled "2019 State of SDR" was well received by all attending.

• Once again NPARC participated in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade. We had 13 participants this year. Way to go.

2018

• Last year's NPARC Holiday Luncheon was held on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at the Chimney Rock Inn as it has for the past few years. A good time was had by all.

• A big thanks goes out to Jeff Regan NJ5R for giving his talk entitled "Ham Manners: How Not To Be A Lid". It was informative and brought out one of the largest showings of the year.

• Thanks to all who checked in to the Monday, July 16th edition of the NPARC Digital Net. 80 meters seems to have been a good choice for all of our local stations plus everyone had a good communication path with Nantuckett as well. We might consider this for future nets when other members vacation up New England way.

• Another Field Day has come and gone. According to the preliminary filing with the ARRL, we eeked out a slightly better score than last year.

• The Fox Hunt with TCRA was held Sunday, June 3, 2018 at Echo Lake Park. For the on-foot fox hunt, many of our members used the HANDI-Finders that they built, one group even used the version that had full-size dipoles which Bob K2GLS demo'd at a previous meeting. Meanwhile, many of the TCRA members used tape measure yagi's and one even had a commercial unit with auto-attenuation and a poratable aluminum yagi. All NPARC members found the fox, albeit with some consternation and learning. The mobile fox hunt was held afterwards and we are awaiting the results of those who participated in that portion of the fox hunt.

• NPARC once again marched in the annual New Providence Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 28, 2018. Look for a photo of the contingent in the next Spark Gaps.

2017

• Thanks to the efforts of our new club secretary Al K2AL there is a new item in the website menu to the left. The menu item "Meeting Minutes" will take you to a webpage containing links to each of the club meeting minute files provided by Al K2AL via the club reflector.

• Another Field Day has come and gone. By all accounts a good time was had by all. A cursory look at the logs has yielded that we returned to the same neighborhood QSO counts and scores as those attained in 2013 and 2014, while we had the highest digital QSO count from all the records that are available. Final tallies will be made available after the results are submitted to the ARRL.

• NPARC once again marched in the annual New Providence Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 29, 2017. Although there was some rain during the parade, it didn't dampen the club's spirits.

• Don't forget that NPARC will be hosting ARRL Field Day at Governor Livingston High School on June 24-25, 2017. Volunteers will be needed in the morning to help setup, during the 24-hour operating period and after it ends to breakdown everything. Please remember to reserve time in your busy schedule to help make this a successful event. Further information will be forthcoming at future club meetings, through the Spark Gaps and via the reflector.

• At the Monday, May 8, 2017 club meeting Jeff NJ5R of TCRA gave a presentation on the NTS. The presentation was well received by the club members present.

• At the Monday, April 24, 2017 club meeting Gerry AA2ZJ of TCRA gave a presentation on Fox Hunting for a potential Fall club fox hunt. The presentation was well received by the club members present.
   
  Also at this meeting, Paul W2PTP continued his series of short surveys on the sign-in sheet. Tonight's short survey was on Public Service. The 3 questions were:

  1. have you participated in any public service activities?
  2. would you like to see additional information on public service?
  3. do you have any public service certifications? and if so which ones?

  Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.

• At the Monday, April 10, 2017 club meeting Joe Dunphy K9MBA of (ARC)^2 presented information on Gotham Shield, a regional emergency exercise to help test interactions between the Red Cross and other emergency organizations (i.e. FEMA, local and state OEMs, etc.). The presentation was well received by the club members present.
   
  Also at this meeting, Paul W2PTP continued his series of short surveys on the sign-in sheet. Tonight's short survey was on CW. The 3 questions were:

  1. what speed do you operate on CW? (0 is a valid speed)
  2. would you like to increase your CW operating speed?
  3. would you mentor club members on CW?

  Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.

• At the Monday, March 27, 2017 club meeting Bob K2GLS presented information on how he utilized the "Magic Coil", presented at the February 13, 2017 meeting by Jim K2UI, to make his 40m dipole work on both 40m and 15m. It showed how Bob was able to apply the theoretical information previously presented to improve his real-world antenna (a good 40m Phone sub-band antenna) and get the desired results (a good 40m/15m CW/DATA sub-band antenna).
   
  Also at this meeting, Paul W2PTP began a series of short surveys on the sign-in sheet. These surveys are going to be used to help find out members interests and help shape our future activities. Tonight's first short survey was on digital modes. The 3 questions were:

  1. are you equipped for digital mode operation?
  2. would you like to start using digital mode operation?
  3. would you mentor club members on digital modes?

  Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.

• At the Monday, March 13, 2017 club meeting Bill W2UDT presented information on both the outgoing and incoming bureaus. He included a brief overview of NJDXA and how they handle the incoming QSLs. He also discussed the new rules which allow ARRL affiliated clubs to pool their outgoing QSLs for all ARRL members. We voted on and approved a resolution to try this ARRL benefit out. Sam KC2OSR volunteered to be our coordinator and Paul W2PTP sent out general information to the club reflector.

• The annual NPARC Auction was held Friday, February 24, 2017 at the New Providence High School. A good time was had by all. Look for the photos to be posted shortly.

• Our club meeting held on Monday, February 13, 2017 featured a talk titled "Loading Coil Magic" given by our own Jim K2UI. A good time was had by all.

• Due to the inclement weather and unknown status of the facilities, January Kids Day was cancelled.

2016

• The annual holiday luncheon was held Saturday, December 10, 2016 at the Chimney Rock Inn, 342 Valley Rd, Gillette, NJ. A good time was had by all. Look for photos shortly.

• During many of the club meetings during the 4th quarter of 2016, Brian KA2MPG has been kind enough to bring some videos from various sources to help educate the members. Please thank him for taking the time to prepare the material.

• The meeting held on Monday, November 14, 2016 featured a talk given Barry K2JV about batteries, specific emphasis was on Li-ion batteries. The talk was well received by all in attendance.

• The meeting held on Monday, August 22, 2016 featured a presentation by Jim K2UI on his homebrew power meter based on the kit he showed several meetings ago. More information including the "sketch" for the Arduino can be found in April thru June 2016 Mountain Spark Gaps.

• NPARC has recently added a presence on Twitter. Our handle is @NPARC_N2XJ. If you are a Twitter user, feel free to follow us and we might follow you back. We will be tweeting during our Field Day operations to keep everyone up to date on our progress.

• Once again, several NPARC members marched in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 30, 2016. A special thanks should be extended to Rick WB2QOQ for his efforts in organizing the team. In addition to those members who marched, several members of the NPARC ERT provided communications to help the parade organizers during the event.

• The meeting held on Monday, May 23, 2016 at The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence featured a demonstration of the digital station setup to be used during this year's Field Day given by Dave, K2YG.

• The meeting held on Monday, May 9, 2016 at The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence featured a presentation on Alfred Vail given by Bill, W2UDT.

• The meeting held on Monday, March 28, 2016 featured a talk on antenna tower installation given by Sam KC2OSR.

• The meeting held on Monday, March 14, 2016 featured a talk on multimeter usage given by Roy KD2CMS.

2015

• NPARC 50th Anniversary HF Special Event - Various NPARC members operated as N2XJ during 2015 on the HF bands to help celebrate our 50th Anniversary. The assignments were as follows:
  - Overall Event Manager - Paul W2PTP - responsible for maintaining the operator schedule and the overall event.
  - Electronic Log Manager - David KC2WUF - responsible for gathering log files, uploading to LotW and eQSL (when available), and reporting progress through the year.
  - Event QSL Manager - Bob K2GLS - responsible for fulfilling requests for special 50th Anniversary NPARC QSL cards.
  
  More information is available here. There is also a status page available here.

• The meeting held on Monday, December 14, 2015 featured a talk on baluns given by Jim K2UI. He will share links to some of the information displayed during the talk via the reflector.

• The annual holiday luncheon was held Saturday, December 5, 2015 at the Chimney Rock Inn, 342 Valley Rd, Gillette, NJ. A good time was held by all. If anyone has any photos, please pass them along to both David KC2WUF for the website and Frank K2EZR for the newsletter.

• January Kids Day was held Sunday, January 3, 2016 at The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. This is an ARRL event to promote getting kids involved in amateur radio. The flyer was provided via the reflector.

• The annual NPARC Auction was held Friday, February 19, 2016 at the New Providence High School. Look for more details shortly.

• The digital net will be on hiatus while David KC2WUF is off the air or until someone else can pick up the net.

• Another Field Day has come and gone. By all accounts a good time was had by all. Thanks to all those who supported our effort before, during and/or after the event, especially those who braved the elements during the heavy storm period (Basically the entire operating period). Special thanks go out to our Activities Manager Paul W2PTP for all his efforts in organizing all of the pieces needed to make the weekend a success. More information will be posted on this site as it becomes available. Also, we ask that any pictures taken be passed on to David KC2WUF for inclusion in our Field Day archives. Next to the newsletter archives, this is the largest content to our website. 2015 Field Day Archive pages will be created shortly after all information has been submitted for our club entry. The 2014 pages are nearly complete. Sorry for the delay - KC2WUF

• Once again NPARC marched in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 25, 2015. A small contingent represented us.

• Our 2015 edition of the Annual NPARC Auction was held Friday, February 27, 2014 at the New Providence High School. Fun was had by all who attended. If you missed it, please look for our 2016 edition around the same week in February next year. Details will be posted on this website as they become available.

• The February 23, 2015 meeting featured the talk titled "Antenna Analysis with an Oscilloscope" given by our esteemed vice president Jim K2UI.

• Our next scheduled meeting on February 9, 2015 is being cancelled due to the forecasted inclement weather. Many of the members are going to try and have on-air meeting again. Several members "attended" an on-air meeting we had 2 weeks ago when the meeting was cancelled. The on-air meeting will be held on the W2LI-VHF repeater @ 8:00pm barring any other net using the repeater. Depending on availability, the talk scheduled for the past 2 meetings will be made at the February 23, 2015 meeting. Further details on that meeting will follow.

• Our next scheduled meeting on January 26, 2015 is being cancelled due to the forecasted inclement weather. This is to be the beginning of a major snow storm that may include blizzard conditions. Depending on availability, the talk scheduled will be made at the February 9, 2015 meeting. Further details on that meeting will follow.

•  The January 12, 2015 meeting featured a brief review of the 50th Anniversary HF Activity so far.

• January Kid's Day 2015 was held January 4th, 2015 at the The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence located at 15 E. 4th St, New Providence, NJ. According to the accounts received so far it was a rousing success.
  
  Anyone with photos or other personal accounts are asked to contact the webmaster with specifics to post in the historical records.

2014

• ARRL Centennial QSO Party : Wednesday, January 1, 2014 - December 31, 2014. This is a 2 part full year event to celebrate the centennial of the ARRL. The first part is working W1AW portable operation in each of the 50 states and most US territories. During 2014, W1AW will be operating in each state during 2 different weeks as well as many of the US territories. The second part is Centennial Points Challenge where you accumulate points by contacting ARRL member stations. Point values are awarded based on the position(s) held by the station/operator. The W1AW portable operations also counts for the points as well. All scoring and awards from this event will use the honor system with logs submitted to LotW. Since this is more of an event than a contest, WARC bands are acceptable for QSOs. More information is available on the ARRL web site here. The schedule for state portable operations is available here.

• The December 22, 2014 meeting featured a talk given by Barry K2JV on a visit some club members took a few years ago (I believe 2010) to the Battleship New Jersey BB62 and the amateur radio station NJ2BB on board. This was in preparation for a trip some members were planning on taking the following Saturday. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the trip was not completed as planned.

• As 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of NPARC, we have discussed a number of possible events to help celebrate. As was recently posted via the reflector, the first event announced will be the operation on HF bands (160m - 10m) of the primary club call, N2XJ, by club members during the 2015 calendar year. Each member will be able to sign up for individual weeks (Thu 0000 UTC - Wed 2359 UTC) throughout the 2015 calendar year. More information was available in the reflector posting and will be posted on this website shortly. If you are interested and capable of operating, please sign up for one or more operating slots with our Activities Manager, Paul Wolfmeyer, W2PTP. Paul had the list available at the Holiday Luncheon and will again have it at the next club meeting, December 8, 2014. After that, please email or call Paul to schedule a future operating week. It is hoped that we can work both DXCC and WAS (via LotW) as a club during the 2015 calendar year. We plan on having all log entries submitted to LotW (and hopefully eQSL). Paper QSLs should also be available with details to follow. For those of you new to the hobby or who are unsure about operating, please seek out Elmer help from another more experienced or better equipped club member.

• The annual NPARC Holiday Luncheon was held Saturday, December 6, 2014 at the Chimney Rock Inn located at 342 Valley Rd in Gillette, NJ. A good time was had by all who attended. In addition to the meal and good conversation, the following awards were made:
  - Perfect Meeting Attendance, etc. - David KC2WUF
  - Rookie of the Year - Brian W2EMC
  - Grand Ol' Ham - Jim K2UI
  - Wouff Hong Award - Bob K2GLS
  
  Finally, the 2015 officers were presented and Activities Manager Paul W2PTP distributed the "door prize" (2014 ARRL Radio Handbook) to the winner Bill WA2CG. Paul also showed the signup sheet for our 50th Anniversary HF event.
  
  Anyone with pictures are asked to send them in for posting on the website.

• The December 8, 2014 meeting at the The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence featured a program by the Mile 17 Ham Radio group for the 2014 New York City Marathon. Bill WA2CG, Mile 17 Captain, gave an informative talk on the groups preparation and involvement followed by a picture slide show given by Tim KD2EKN and a short montage of videos by Stu KA2HZP. Also present from the Mile 17 team was Brian W2EMC. The slide show and video was accompanied by popcorn. A copy of some/all of the presentation should be made available shortly.

• Elections were held at the November 24, 2014 meeting and the officers for 2015 were elected as follows:
  - President - David Bean, KC2WUF
  - Vice President - Jim Stekas, K2UI
  - Secretary - Tim Farrell, KD2
  - Treasurer - Dave Barr, K2YG
  - Activities Manager - Paul Wolfmeyer, W2PTP

• Our regular club meetings have been relocated to the The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence for the upcoming 2014-2015 school year.

• The "Hands-on Antenna Modeling using EZNEC Workshop" Parts I, II and III were held during 3 consecutive club meetings (September 22, October 13 and 27). Part I included a basic overview of EZNEC by David K2MUN along with a 40-meter dipole and then he added some drooping ends. Part II was run by Barry K2JV with David K2MUN walking around the room to help. Barry began by reviewing the basic operation of EZNEC and then taking the "Back Yard" dipole model that comes with EZNEC and modifying it to show what various changes can do to the results. He also showed the SWR graph of his approximation of his 300 foot loop that he had when he lived in Massachusetts which he proposed to model at the following meeting. Part III was Barry K2JV running through setting up a 4x70-foot sided horizontal square-loop which he hinted at the previous meeting. Many questions were posed during the 3 weeks and many members came away with positive comments on the capabilities of EZNEC for modeling simple antennas.
  
  Finally, both David K2MUN and Barry K2JV have been gracious enough to provide some information about their talks:
      Part I - David's October President's Column. (.pdf and .doc formats) are available.
      Part II - Barry's outline (.pdf and .docx formats) and presentation (.pdf and .ppt formats) are available.
      Part III - Barry's presentation (.pdf and .ppt formats) are available.

• Barry K2JV finished up the "Hands-on Antenna Modeling using EZNEC Workshop" by reviewing an approximation of his 300 foot loop that he had when he lived in Massachusetts at the October 27, 2014 meeting. Our next meeting will be held on November 10, 2014 at the The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence.

• Barry K2JV joined David's "Hands-on Antenna Modeling using EZNEC Workshop" demonstrating a simple dipole and refreshing us on the various settings. Barry has graciously volunteered to continue this subject in a Part III at the next meeting and plans on modeling his 300 foot loop that he had when he lived in Massachusetts. The next meeting is October 27, 2014 at the The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Since it will be hands-on once again, hope to see you all there with your laptops.
  
  Finally, it would be nice if at least a few of you could bring your own "real-world" antenna descriptions to be modeled. Basic element (wire, rod, etc) dimensions (lengths, etc.) and conditions (height above ground, etc.) is all you really need to provide.

• David K2MUN began his sessions guiding us through a "Hands-on Antenna Modeling Workshop using EZNEC". Many members brought their laptops and followed along. David would love to get some feedback and is willing to try to address some particular issues (if he can). Please send your feedback and/or questions to k2mun at arrl dot net. Please try and bring your same laptop(s) with you so that you can follow along some through the more advanced analysis. The second session of this will take place on Monday, October 13, 2014 at the new regular meeting location of The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all there with laptop in hand again.

  During our next 2 club meetings (September 22nd and October 13th), David K2MUN will be guiding us through a "Hands-on Antenna Modelling Workshop using EZNEC". Please try and bring a Windows capable laptop with you so that you can get the freeware version of EZNEC and try out some of your own antenna models. Both of these sessions will be held at the new regular meeting location of The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all there with laptop in hand.

• Our next meeting (September 8, 2014) will feature ???. The meeting will begin shortly after 7:30pm EDT and will be held at the new regular meeting location of The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all there.

• Dave AC2GL gave a brief demonstration of the "DVB-T Dongle & SDR# Software" at the August 25, 2014 meeting.

• The presentation files from the August 11, 2014 meeting have been updated by Jon, AE2JP, based on some of the feedback he received. The new versions of "Software Defined Radio: State-of-the-Art & State-of-the-Future" are available in both .pptx and .pdf formats. August 18, 2014

• The August 11, 2014 meeting featured a short discussion on impressions of the ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford, CT from several of the members that attended at least some of it last month. This discussion was led by Paul, W2PTP. After that Jon, AE2JP, gave a talk entitled "Software Defined Radio: State-of-the-Art & State-of-the-Future". The talk was inspired by two of the talks that Jon saw at the convention. The original slides are available here in .pptx and .pdf formats.

• The second week of W1AW/2 operations from New Jersey starts Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 0000UTC and runs until Tuesday, August 12, 2014 at 2359UTC. The sponsoring club is looking for operators to run some band-mode slots for whatever time you can manage. If you didn't read the email forwarded by David, K2MUN, and would like more information, contact either David, K2MUN, or David, KC2WUF, for a copy of the email from the sponsoring coordinator. They especially expressed a need for digital operators. For those of you looking to see what a pileup sounds like from the other end, you might want to give it a try. You must be able to send in an ADIF file with all QSOs that you make during your time operating as W1AW/2.

• QSL Night - Our next meeting (July 28) will feature QSL Night where everyone is asked to bring some of their favorite QSL cards and share them along with a story or two about one or more of them. The meeting will begin shortly after 7:30pm EDT and will be held at this year's summer location of The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all there.

• ARRL Centennial Convention: Thursday, July 17, 2014 - Saturday, July 19, 2014. Information about this event was presented by Hudson Division Vice Director Bill Hudzik, W2UDT, at the January 27, 2014 meeting. Additional information is available here.

• Don't forget our next big event is Field Day this coming weekend. We will be operating from the first field directly behind Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights as we have for the past several years. Setup will begin around 9:30am and all of your help will be greatly appreciated to get us ready for the 2:00pm start to operations. Make sure you've read the attachment on the email that our Activities Manager, Paul W2PTP, has sent out identifying every members tasks. If you have any problems with the tasks assigned you or you think you were supposed to be identified on the spreadsheet, please contact Paul directly so that things run smoothly this weekend.

• Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, ARRL Hudson Division Director led an informative discussion on several current topics related to amateur radio operations. He discussed RM-11708, CC&R's, recent FCC changes, the ARRL Centennial among other topics.

• Thanks to the find that Al Hanzl, K2AL, made prior to our 2013 Luncheon and the effort being undertaken by David Bean, KC2WUF, to scan them in, additional past issues of Mountain Spark Gaps, starting with 1987, are now available on the website via the Newsletter archive page. Scanning will be done in reverse chronological order as that is how they were filed in the book that Al discovered. Check back often to see when additional years become available.
  
  Additional Mountain Spark Gaps Newsletters from 1986 (January - November), 1985 (March - June and September - November), 1984 (January - June and September - November), 1983 (January - July and September - November), 1982 (January - June and September - November), 1981 (January, October and November), 1980 (January - June and September - October), 1979 (January - March, May and September - November), 1978 (January - June and September - November), 1977 (January - April and September - November) and 1976 (January - June and September - November)  have now been scanned and are available in the newsletter archives.
  
  1983 includes the change to the current club frequency. 1978 and prior include some mimeograph copies resulting in poorer quality scans.
  
  The task of scanning all available Mountain Spark Gaps was completed on June 7, 2014. This includes the first Mountain Spark Gaps circa April 1966.

• Harvey Klein, WS2Q, gave an interesting talk about "Remote Station Operation" at our June 9, 2014 meeting. He discussed the hardware and software he uses to access his HF rig at his Home QTH from his smartphone and tablet devices. He also discussed some of the other communications options he employs for emergency communications.

• The talks scheduled for the last two meetings (Barry, K2JV, and Mike Lisenco, N2YBB) which both had to be postponed have been rescheduled along with a talk by Harvey Klein, WS2Q. Barry will give his "RF Safety" talk at the Tuesday, May 27th meeting. Harvey will give his talk on "Remote Station Operation" at the June 9th meeting. Mike will now speak with us at the June 23rd meeting.

• Once again this year as we have in the past, NPARC will have a contingent of marchers in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade. Please contact Rick Anderson WB2QOQ if you have an interest in participating or any questions. Please consider representing our club in the most public display we have each year.
  
  At the same time we are marching,  the NPARC ERT will be providing communications support to the parade organizers as they have for the past few years as well.

• Hamvention® 2014: Friday, May 16, 2014 - Sunday, May 18, 2014. This is considered the premier ham event in the United States if not the world. It has been said that every amateur radio operator should go to this event at least once in their lifetime. Each year one or more members of our club make the trek to Dayton, OH and have a good time. If anyone plans on attending and wants to see if others are headed there, please start a thread by posting to the reflector. Additional information can be found here.

• Mike Lisenco N2YBB, ARRL Hudson Division Director, will be unable to make tonight's meeting (May 12, 2014). He will need to be rescheduled for a later date. Details will follow as they become available.

• The "RF Safety" talk from Barry K2JV scheduled for this coming meeting (April 28, 2014) needs to be rescheduled for a future meeting. Details will follow when available.