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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:
January Spark Gaps
Upcoming Event Calendar
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February 15, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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February 18, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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February 21, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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February 22, 2021 |
Meeting --
ZOOM based @ 7:30pm.
"See your signal as seen by others on YouTube"
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February 22, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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February 25, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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February 28, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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March 1, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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March 4, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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March 7, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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March 8, 2021 |
Meeting --
ZOOM based @ 7:30pm.
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March 8, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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March 11, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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March 14, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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March 15, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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March 18, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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March 21, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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March 22, 2021 |
Meeting --
ZOOM based @ 7:30pm.
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March 22, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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March 25, 2021 |
CW Net -- Somewhere around 28.050 @ 9:00pm.
... Slower CW can try starting at 8:30pm.
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March 28, 2021 |
Sunday Night Phone Net -- W2LI-VHF or W2LI-UHF @ 9:00pm.
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March 29, 2021 |
Digital Net -- Somewhere around 28.085 MHz RTTY/PSK @ ~9:00pm.
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Current News and Notices (Note
- 2021
Dues
were payable by
January 1st - Grace period until March 31st -- Forms:
Word,
PDF)
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2021
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, 2021.
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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 February on Monday, February 8, 2021 and Monday, February 22, 2021.
Instructions will be sent out via the reflector prior to each meeting.
The February 8th meeting will feature Andrea Black K2EZ giving a talk on Roving.
The February 22nd meeting will feature a presentation on seeing how your signal looks on the receiving end using YouTube
During the time in-person meetings are cancelled; We will have a digital net every Monday night at approximately 9pm.
PSK31 on 28.085 MHz + 1000 Hz.
This will occur fifteen minutes after the Zoom meeting ends or 9pm ET, whichever is later.
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ARRL Field Day has come and gone and it sounds like many of us participated in some manner.
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Our June Zoom-based meetings were held on Monday, June 8, 2020 and June 22, 2020. We seem to be getting the hang of it.
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Our third Zoom-based meeting was held on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Nineteen participants in all.
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Our second Zoom-based meeting was held on Monday, May 11, 2020. Twenty participants in all.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Kids Day was held on Saturday, January 4, 2020 at The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Once again NPARC participated in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade. We had 13 participants this year. Way to go.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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2019
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, you are now overdue, as the grace period ended March 31, 2019.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
- have you participated in any public service activities
- would you like to see additional information on public service?
- do you have any public service certifications? and if so which ones?
Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.
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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:
- what speed do you operate on CW? (0 is a valid speed)
- would you like to increase your CW operating speed?
- would you mentor club members on CW?
Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.
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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:
- are you equipped for digital mode operation?
- would you like to start using digital mode operation?
- would you mentor club members on digital modes?
Look for more of these short surveys at upcoming meetings.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Due to the inclement weather and unknown status of the facilities,
January Kids Day was cancelled.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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The meeting held on Monday, March
28, 2016 featured a talk on antenna tower installation given by Sam
KC2OSR. |
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The meeting held on Monday, March
14, 2016 featured a talk on multimeter usage given by Roy
KD2CMS. |
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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. |
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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.
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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.
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The annual NPARC Auction was
held Friday, February 19, 2016 at
the
New Providence High School. Look
for more details shortly.
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The digital net will be on hiatus while David KC2WUF is off the air or until someone else can pick up the net.
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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
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Club Activities
(Nets and other Special Events)
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NPARC
50th Anniversary HF Special Event
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Various NPARC members will be operating as N2XJ
throughout 2015 on the HF bands to help celebrate
our 50th Anniversary. The assignments so far are 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 which
will be updated periodically (hopefully weekly) throughout the year.
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NPARC
Sunday Night Net -
Al K2AL is 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 repeater (449.975, input -5.000 MHz,
Tone 141.3) in for our net.
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NPARC Digital Net - David KC2WUF is net
control for the NPARC Digital Net currently held on
the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month at 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 SSTV and the signal frequency has been 28.686.000 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.
Note: Talk-in during SSTV is available on the same
frequency during the net and will probably be used
to direct traffic.
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NPARC Kids
Net
- Nick
KC2ONP former net control for our NPARC Kids Net
is away at school. The Kids Net is in
recess until a new net control is identified.
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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 or David Berkley K2MUN for inclusion in this list.
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CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
is Saturday, February 11, 2017 0000UTC to Sunday, February 12, 2017 2359UTC (2/10/17 7:00pm EST to 2/12/17 6:59pm EST).
This is one of the larger contests held each year and is a good way to collect that missing country.
It is also one of the best events if you are chasing the CQ WPX Award for working prefixes.
Many stations will be using rarely used prefixes from many countries.
The CQ WPX Award can be certified using your QSOs that are in LotW.
Note: Our club name for all CQ contests is "New Providence Amateur Radio Club".
This differs from most other contests where you should use "New Providence ARC".
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ARRL International DX Contest, CW
is Saturday, February 18, 2017 0000UTC to Sunday, February 19, 2017 2400UTC (2/17/17 7:00pm EST to 2/19/17 7:00pm EST).
This is one of the larger contests held each year and is a good way to collect that missing country.
Note: Our club name for all ARRL contests is "New Providence ARC".
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Further information on upcoming contests can be found
at:
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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.
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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 calendar.
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Return to top
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 or David Berkley K2MUN for inclusion in this list.
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Placeholder until new information becomes
available
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Return to top
2016
2015
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Once again NPARC marched in the New Providence Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 25, 2015. A small contingent represented us.
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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.
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The February 23, 2015 meeting featured the talk
titled "Antenna Analysis with an
Oscilloscope" given by our esteemed vice
president Jim K2UI.
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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.
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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.
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The January 12, 2015 meeting featured a brief
review of the 50th Anniversary HF Activity so far.
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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.
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2014
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Our regular club meetings
have been relocated to the
The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence for the
upcoming 2014-2015 school year.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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
The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to
see you all there with laptop in hand.
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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
The DeCorso Community Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all
there.
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Dave AC2GL gave a brief demonstration
of the "DVB-T Dongle & SDR# Software" at the August 25, 2014
meeting.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 The DeCorso Community
Center of New Providence. Hope to see you all there.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 -
Jun 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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