Welcome to PART Westford
Alan, K1ALL & Steve, N1BDA operating at Field Day 2010. Click here for more photos
PART of Westford is an ARRL Special Service Club located in Westford, Massachusetts. The club provides radio amateurs with a number of services and benefits including access to its two repeaters (2m and 440), monthly meetings, and access to club events and activities such as Field Day. Club members hold a wide variety of interests including VHF and weak signal work, amateur radio satellites, antenna design, portable operation, QRP, DXing and DXpeditioning, emergency communications, public event communication, digital modes, homebrewing, and much, much more.
Would you like to become a member of PART? Full member dues are $25.00, Family Membership is $30.00 and Student/Senior membership dues are $15.00. Click here for more info and to download an application.
The 2010 K2H 13 Colonies event is behind us, and it was a great success for PART. Between July 1 and July 5, PART operators made 1216 SSB, 376 CW and 102 digital QSOs for a total of almost 1700 QSOs. This exceeds last year's total of about 1350 by a wide margin. We should be especially proud because to the best of my knowledge every PART 13 Colonies operator was using a relatively modest station, 100 watts or less and wire antennas.
New for this year, our “sister” station, Steve, N1GKX/K2H made over 1000 additional contacts, so Massachusetts is well-represented with a total of around 2700 QSOs. The event organizer is anticipating upwards of 30,000 total QSOs, better than double last year's 12,500. Clearly 13 Colonies is becoming a major special event and we should be pleased that we have been a part of it.
I would like to extend my thanks to the eight operators who spent so many hours over the long holiday week end: John, W1JMA; Charles, AA1VS, Andy, KB1OIQ, Bob, W1IS, Rich, AB1HD; Peter; KB1PBA; Rick, W1RAG; and the author, Charlie, K1PUB. Of special note, Peter, KB1PBA operated QRP CW with just 5 watts; and Rick, W1RAG, increased his QSO count from last year by over 13 dB!
We expect to be operating as K2H again in 2011. We plan to institute a few changes, including an on-line operator scheduling system, clarification of correct call sign use, better use of eQSL and LOTW, obtaining hard-copy QSL cards before the event and better guidance and training for operating in what at times becomes a “contest” environment.
Thanks to the PART Board for taking on K2H, and especially to the operators who dedicated so much time on a busy Holiday weekend.
Charlie, K1PUB
2010 13 Colonies Event Coordinator
As of April 3, 2010, the UHF repeater is now a D-Star repeater. Click here for more info.
Looking for a great antenna for 50MHz? Here are plans for a 6m rotatable dipole (Courtesy of Steve, WA1KBE)
The WB1GOF 2m repeater has experienced harmful interference from this voice. Find more samples here.
If you hear any type of interference, please report the following info to "repeater" at "wb1gof.org":
* Time: When did the tracking event happen?
* Observing location: Where were you? Were you mobile?
* Frequency: Input only (146.355 MHz)
* What you heard: Voices, tones, kerchunking or whatever.
* Signal strength: Either by ear (noisy, quiet or full quiet) or S meter
* Radio: To get an idea of the reporters radio situation.
* Most important - what direction: How did you determine direction?
This is the most essential piece of information. Even if it's an estimate as in
"Roughly east" or "from the Northeast" it's useful.
PART would like to spread the word
about College Amateur Radio Clubs. Click on the logo
for more information.