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President's Message
We're busy preparing for Field Day as I write this. Actually, "we" consists of only a few, dedicated members. Some key people had other commitments this year, so FARA's Field Day effort has been moderated to a level we feel we can support.
If this concerns you, I encourage you to volunteer early for next year's Field Day. More than enthusiastic operators, we need enthusiastic organizers; people who will take charge of one part of FARA's Field Day preparations and make sure they happen.
This year's Field Day is only possible because a few members wanted it to happen so badly that they spent many hours down at the shack, many dollars on supplies and put many miles on their cars. But even this level of dedication doesn't lift towers and tents into trucks. For that, we need bodies. For set-up on Friday and for tear-down on Sunday. Field Day is all about doing actual work, not just planning for it. Please, if Field Day is important to you, help make it happen! The difference between a so-so and a great Field Day is in every one of our hands.
Peter, KA1AXY
FARA Awards Life Membership to Pete Burrel, W1VAB
By Peter, KA1AXY
The FARA board presented a Life Membership to Pete this past month, in recognition of his service to FARA and to the young people of Framingham.
For those who don't know, Pete was instrumental in starting up a student ham club at Framingham North High School, and acted as its advisor for several years, until his retirement.
Peter also assisted us in dealing with the town to rent the High School cafeteria for our semi-annual flea market.
Pete's old refrigerator serves as the enclosure for the FARA Packet Cluster node.
Make sure to congratulate him the next time you hear him on the repeater or on six meters.
An Evening with Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH
Submitted by Peter, KA1AXY
By Jerry Rogich, AA2T
At the year 2000 reunion ECARS dinner in Ocean City, Maryland we had a very special and rewarding time with Riley Hollingsworth as guest speaker. I was especially pleased to be there for the first time after joining ECARs in the early 70's when K2PJG, K4BX, K3FEC and W1DKS were on daily and I was in High School. Now after getting back into the hobby, I was amazed to find ECARs still in operation and working just superbly! Meeting face to face with some of the present members was extremely enjoyable and shows what a great hobby this continues to be due to the dedication of many people.
The first impression of Riley's talk was that he is a very dedicated ham that enjoys ECARs. I was possibly expecting a mix of government bureaucrat and bouncer, however we were all very pleasantly surprised. He is very soft spoken and presents himself very professionally and his demeanor is unlike the unofficial title of the "enforcer." He honestly does care about the hobby very much as well as its public image.
On the enforcement front, he said the focus has been on 75 and 20 meters and there will be renewed enforcement in the 40M band. Next the FCC will be going
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