Newsletter of the Framingham Amateur Radio Association August 1998, Vol. 65, No. 8

In This Issue

President's Message
Field Day 1998
Page 2-

PacketCluster Update
FARA Picnic
Page 3-

ARRL Proposes...
QSL Card
and more...

President's Message

I hope you have all recovered from Field Day.  Those of you who missed it, missed a great one!  In spite of having to move that weekend, our Director came through in his usual fine style, with plenty of chile for all.  I'm sure we all wish Dick and Marsha a quick and easy transition to their new home in Marlboro. In spite of a significantly lower attendance this year, Field Day went smoothly because each FARA member who showed up contributed to the effort.  We could have used more people, but we managed because everyone worked as part of a team. 
Our next activity is the FARA Picnic, held this year on September 6th (see the announcement and get your payment in early!).  There'll be plenty of food, several radios and a waterfront (we'll guarantee lifeguards, something the Y seems to have trouble doing).  You really shouldn't miss this annual FARA celebration of food and our salute to Labor Day.
It's not too early to start planning for the Flea Market, so start getting all that valuable stuff together, and start studying for those upgrade exams!  This fall should be an interesting time.  I should have a ham shack again, and with the progress on the packet node, it looks like I'll have to set up a TNC. There's still time to build something before the winter.  There's always help available down at the shack on Wednesday evenings if you're not sure what to build, or need some advice on just how to cram all those electronics into the box you bought.


73,
Peter, KA1AXY

Field Day 1998: A New Record for W1FY!

by Dave Hoaglin, K1HT

In the last couple of years we've been aiming to raise our score to 10,000, and this year we almost made it. We wound up at 9,944, hampered in part by rain on Saturday morning, which kept us from getting our stations on the air on time. But once we got started, we really racked up the contacts, especially on 20 meters, where we made QSOs during each of the 24 hours. With 815 QSOs on CW and 510 on SSB, 20 accounted for nearly 45% of our 2,976 total QSOs! Here's the breakdown:

Thursday, Aug. 6
This Month's Meeting

Marjie, KA1HIA

Time's are a'changing.  With the FCC and Amateur Radio.
Read about it in this month's newsletter and talk about it at this month's meeting.

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 Thursday, one week before the monthly meeting.


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


by mail

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


by internet

[email protected]

Our score is nearly 900 points better than last year (1100 points if you reduce last year's score by the bonus points that are no longer available).
Propagation played a big role, as the totals on 15 meters and 6 meters also show. We've recovered from the bottom of the sunspot cycle and are well on our way

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