Newsletter of the Framingham Amateur Radio Association December 2001, Vol. 68, No. 12

In This Issue
President's Message
Page 2-
FARA VE Session
2002 Dues Due
Framingham Fall flea in retrospect…
Page 3-
QSL Card
FARA - The Early Years
and more...

President's Message
Well, we survived another FARA Flea.  Our fall Flea was one of the most successful FARA fall Fleas in a long time.  Attendance for the fall flea market is usually lower than the spring flea market.  This time, however, we had about the same attendance that we had in the spring - about 500.  This is great, and in a time when flea market attendance, in general, is trending down.  On behalf of the FARA Flea Committee, I'd like to thank all of the hard working FARA members who helped out at this fall's Flea.  Thanks, also, go out from me to our Flea Committee, consisting of Bev (N1LOO), Ed (KB1CQI), Peter (KA1AXY), Martin (AA1ON), and Spencer (N1JWB).
OK, we have smelled the roses.  Now, we have to get serious again.  Our spring flea market presents a real challenge for the Flea Committee.  Framingham High School will be undergoing a major renovation and WILL NOT be able to host our spring FARA Flea.  This means we need to find a new location and get the message out to our 500 loyal attendees.  Bev has been working on this and the Committee will be checking out some possible locations.  We welcome suggestions, however.  Just give Bev or me a ring if you have a suggestion for our spring location.
A few weeks ago, Barry Foote, K1BTF, sent an email to the FARA web site offering to donate his 50-foot tower to FARA.  Barry had been a FARA member years ago but was not currently a member.  We took care of that and gave Barry a one-year membership as FARA's "thank you" for the donation.  Here's what Barry gave us: Five sections of Rohn 25 (already on the ground and ready to load up), a Cushcraft A3 tribander, a rotator, a wire antenna, and a genuine Rohn gin pole.  Peter, (KA1AXY) is really jazzed about the gin pole, as you will find out elsewhere in this issue of the Circuit.  Thank you, Barry, and welcome back to FARA.
Speaking of new members, FARA also welcomes Frank (K1IX) from Marlboro, Dionisio (WP4OQ) from Springfield, Megan (KB1FCA) from Framingham, and Don (KT4OK) from Framingham.  We will look forward to seeing all of you at future FARA meetings and functions.
For the first time in a long time, we activated the Club station for the CQ Worldwide DX Contest.  Steve (AA1IZ), Ed (W1NXC) and I had the station cranking out 600 watts of power and made 371 QSO's .  We worked 52 countries on 10-meters, 65 countries on 15-meters, and 42 countries on 20-meters.  Total points: 223,202.  Not exactly an award winning score but enough points for a lot of fun.  Our FARA club station really plays well on 10, 15 and 20.  We're planning on doing the December ARRL 10-meter contest from the Club station.  Watch the reflector for details.
Peter's been working on Shack improvements.  He has magically come up with a new file cabinet and plug strips to be located behind the station equipment.  He has also built a computer interface for the TS-850 transceiver, which should be useful when running our DXBase logging program and CT contest logging program.  Peter is also working on the 40 meter add-on kit (donated to FARA a few months ago) for the A3S beam.  We may just have to declare Peter "Chief Engineer" of W1FY.
I know I've said this before, but where would we be without our great newsletter and web site.  Thanks to Robert (N1UVA) for the super job he does every month on the paper, email, and web versions of the Circuit.  Thanks also to Sharon (KC1YR) for everything she has done to make FARA.Org the best Ham Radio Club web site I have ever seen.
Last, but not least, I remind all FARA members that if you order your holiday gifts from Amazon.Com, via the FARA web site, FARA makes a commission on every order.  Every little bit helps the Club do more for you.
Happy holidays to all!   Hope to see you on Pizza night!

Thursday, Dec 6
This Month's Meeting

Don't miss FARA's biannual all-you-can-eat pizza feast!!!

Submitting Material to the Circuit

Material may be submitted for publication by sending it directly to the editor.  This can be done by phone, by US Mail, or via the Internet (preferred).  The deadline
for each issue is the
Wednesday, one week before the monthly meeting.

by phone
Home:
(508) 435-2055 (before 9:00PM please!)

by mail

Robert Hess, N1UVA
1 Cold Spring Brook Road
Hopkinton, MA  01748


by internet

[email protected]