eHam.net News

///////////////////////////////////////////
Framingham Radio Club Still Searching for New Home:

Posted: 16 Dec 2016 04:51 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38256


FRAMINGHAM -- Standing before the Board of Selectmen this week, Sumner
Weisman made it clear he's willing to compromise. After searching
unsuccessfully for more than six months to find a new home for the
Framingham Amateur Radio Association, Weisman renewed his plea for help
finding a municipal building where the group can set up its gear. "Even if
we had a broom closet somewhere in a town space," he said, "we could set up
a radio station." Believed to be among the oldest amateur radio groups in
the country, FARA was long housed in the Danforth Building, but was forced
to vacate earlier this year. Like other tenants, including the Danforth
Museum and the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, the club learned in
late spring that a boiler in the nasement had failed, making the building
uninhabitable. Unlike the other groups, however, the radio association has
yet to find a suitable spot to relocate. The former radio station it
operated from the basement of the Danforth complex has now been
disassembled, and much of the equipment is tucked away in storage in
people's sheds and barns. Weisman said the group also spent $550 to rent a
dumpster, where other gear wound up. With the equipment that remains,
Weisman said they're looking for a small spot - perhaps even less than 200
square feet - where the group can erect an antenna and operate
rent-free. "We're asking the Board of Selectmen if they know of any space
where we could fit in," Weisman said. The club, which has about 70 members,
began in Framingham in 1933. It moved into the Danforth Building in 1978
and established its "antenna farm" on the roof. The group also inherited
some broadcasting equipment leftover from the building's former use as a
civil defense headquarters during the Cold War. Among its activities, the
club administers license exams for the FCC and the American Radio Relay
League, a national association for amateur radio operators. It also hosts a
more powerful repeater antenna at the Massachusetts Emergency Management
Agency headquarters on Rte. 9 in Framingham. The repeater gets heavy use
during the Boston Marathon, when volunteers with handheld radios fan out
across the course to help relay information. The radio infrastructure has
also been used to support road races in Framingham, and was previously
integral to the town's Flag Day parade. Some weather spotters also rely on
the repeater to report severe weather to the National Weather Service,
which operates its own short-wave radio station in Taunton. Weisman said
previously that emergency planners rely on amateur radio as an essential
back-up system to communicate during natural disasters and other
emergencies that threaten to knock down power or overwhelm cell phone
networks.


///////////////////////////////////////////
New Free eBook from Antentop Magazine:

Posted: 16 Dec 2016 01:04 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38255


New free ebook Antenna Manuscript


///////////////////////////////////////////
Foundations of Amateur Radio -- Episode 80:

Posted: 16 Dec 2016 01:07 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38254


Passion has been explained to me once as a
"big elephant". You sit on its back and it
takes you where you want to go. Gentle
nudging makes the elephant change direction,
but if it gets excitable or startled, it'll
go where ever it wants and all you can do is
be a passenger and hold on tight.


///////////////////////////////////////////
VK6WIA -- NewsWest, 18 December 2016:

Posted: 16 Dec 2016 01:06 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38253


In the news this week we give you an update
on the Peel Amateur Radio Group swap-meet, a
run-down on repeater updates from the West
Australian Repeater Group. Glynn has some
news from the North Pole and WIA Director
Andrew VK6AS shares his board report,
recorded earlier in the week. Of course we
have our regular segments too.


///////////////////////////////////////////
WIA Attempts to Derail Call for Meeting:

Posted: 16 Dec 2016 01:05 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38252


The WIA Secretary has written to the WIA
Reform Group outlining the reasons that the
General Meeting called for by members will
not proceed. The letter includes a copy of a
legal opinion which advises that: