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left. Proceed through the parking lot until you see the antennas and MEMA trailer and building. Enter through the door.
From Route 128: Take Route 38 West until you see the Shell station (about 10 miles) and bear right and take your first right.

wthat you've been getting up there. Suffice to say we have perfect antenna weather here.
We plan to be in Boston in early September to attend a wedding and will try to make the FARA meeting.
Regards to all from Karen and 73 from 4 land.

The 27Mhz Problem

By Jon Isabelle N1ZWG

I am sure that many of you have noticed in the past and now more than ever that there is a rivalry between the CBers and the hams on the HF bands.  I have noticed that lately while listening to a channel in Framingham on a friends CB that lots of these people are treating the airwaves horribly but then again that's not really news.  The thing that I found very disturbing was the amount of amplifiers that are readily available to the average person today!
I was also a little irritated to find out that these CBers were not only causing overload but that they were actually transmitting out of their band and attempting to occupy the 10 meter band with foul language and illegal activities.  I have recently spent a little time listening to one of these "Local Channels".  The people that I was listening to I found out are running illegal radios.  Apparently what they do is buy these stock 10 meter radios and modify them to transmit out of band.  Some of these radios that they most commonly use I am told are : The RCI 2950, The Discontinued HR 2510, And many of these "Galaxy" brand radios.  Apparently I am told by local Technicians that these radios are so easily modified that all you have to do is pull a diode or resistor.
Now I know that this is really becoming a problem because recently in the earlier month of January I was in the shack scanning the bands with the HF rig.  As I was on 10 meters I thought it was dead when all of the sudden a major dose of overload hit us.  So we quickly spun the dial to find the source and low and behold it was a nearby CBer transmitting on 10 meters with what seemed like a lot of power.  I think that it is about time that the FCC or the local hams took action to protect our air waves.

or two of thanks and a handshake. Third, and finally, there's the learning experience. By just participating you learn how to operate in a public service atmosphere; it's part of our own long history of self-training.
However,  in the last few years Amateur ranks have grown rapidly and there are many new operators who may not know what ARES or RACES or Skywarn stand for. (ARES is the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, RACES is the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service and Skywarn is the Weather Service reporting service.) Each has different roles, but in Massachusetts, they work together, much of the time.
In working together, there are times when operators in one organization will work directly with the second or third and they need to know how to communicate. In an effort to provide a new level of training and knowledge for new operators (and a refresher for experienced Amateurs), the Mass. State RACES organization under Tom Kinahan, N1CPE, Eastern Mass. ARES under Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, and Skywarn, under Rob Macedo, KD1CY, have organized training sessions across Massachusetts.
The next one is scheduled for Feb. 7 at 1:30 p.m. at the Mass. Emergency Management Agency's Area I headquarters in Tewksbury. It is open to all Amateurs interested in public service communication. To date, other sessions have been held in MEMA Areas II and III in Bridgewater  and Belchertown, respectively.
The Tewksbury session, the third of four planned, will be a great opportunity for new Amateurs or experienced operators to receive training and knowledge of each service and how they interact. All those interested in this type of operation should plan to attend.
To get to Area I headquarters:
Take Route 495 North to Exit 38 (Route 38). Exit the highway and turn left at the lights at the bottom of the ramp. Stay on Route 38 for about two miles until you come to a Shell gas station on the left at a set of traffic lights. At those lights turn left and take your first right into the grounds of the Massachusetts Department of Health hospital grounds. Drive up the driveway and take your second

The Year 2000: Will Your PC Crash?

by Charlie Ross, NC1N

Happy New Year!  It's January, 1998, and there are only two years to go until the "millenium disaster" the media can't seem to stop talking about.
Many hams rely upon PCs in their shacks, homes, and offices.  However, many PCs have BIOS bugs that will cause problems starting on 1/1/2000.  Is yours safe?
NSTL (National Software Testing Laboratories) has prepared a free Y2K test program.  You can download a copy from:
link
Please note that the program must run in MS-DOS mode (a DOS window in Win95 is NOT sufficient).

Southern Club News

by Lew, K1AZE

Hello up there in the Tundra. I thought I'd give you FARA folks an update on MARC (Montgomery Amateur Radio Club)  here in Alabama. I conducted my first meeting as club president , and the only person who heckled me was another former Yankee, who happens to be our new club treasurer. I will be inaugurating their first pizza night out, probably for the April meeting. Take a look at our web page at:
link.
It won some kind of ARRL award for most outstanding web sight. You might get some ideas for FARA's web page.
I just attended an ARRL section meeting for Alabama Section, and when we went around the room to introduce ourselves I got up, gave my name and call sign and said I thought this was the Eastern Mass section meeting, and that I must have made a wrong turn off Interstate 95 somewhere. Broke the place up.
I won't discuss the wx because I know