Feb72021

VE Session Results — February 6, 2021

Exams & Training

Congratulations to these hams who passed their exams at the February 6, 2021 VE Session:

  • Jeffrey Brodeaur, KC1OSE, Technician + General
  • Christopher Fowler, KC1NZM, General
  • Timothy Milbert, KC1OSF, Technician
  • Kenneth Mingola, KC1GCN, General
  • Anthony Moniz, KC1OIL, General
  • Nick Riquinha, KC1OSG, Technician
  • Andrew Shaw, KC1OSH, Technician + General

Enjoy your new/upgraded privileges!

Need help to get on the air? Email us @ W1AEC [at] semara [dot] org with your questions and we’ll try to find someone to answer them for you.

Jan302021

Nancy Smith, N1VOA (sk)

Silent Keys
Nancy Smith, N1VOA

Nancy Smith, N1VOA, of Wareham, MA died at age 76 in her home on January 13, 2021. A lifelong resident of eastern Massachusetts, she was the mother of SEMARA member, Scott Smith, KE1CN. Nancy always supported his amateur activities, driving him to meetings and had joined him at the last SEMARA club dinner.

She made her way toward becoming licensed as N1VOA by first being a CB operator and assisting those in need. Until the end of her life, she remained active in several ham radio clubs and contributed to communications at charity events.

She nurtured her spirituality and celebrated her love of music through the Ferry Beach Retreat and Conference Center Circle of Music Program. A celebration of her life will be held at Ferry Beach in August 2021.

In lieu of flowers, charitable donations may be made to a scholarship set up in her name, The Nancy Smith Ferry Beach Circle of Music Scholarship at www.ferrybeach.org/NancySmithScholarship

Our sincere sympathy to Scott and his family for their loss.

Dec52020

VE Session Results — December 5, 2020

Exams & Training

Congratulations to these hams who passed their exams at the December 5, 2020 VE Session:

Blake P. Barrie, -TBI-, Technician
William I. Wade, KO4DLO, General
Raymond A. Guillotte, N1EBW, Extra

Enjoy your new/upgraded privileges!

Need help to get on the air? Email us @ W1AEC [at] semara [dot] org with your questions and we’ll try to find someone to answer them for you.

Nov132020

Red Cross Fall Emergency Communication Drill

ARES/RACES/SKYWARN

The fall 2020 nationwide Red Cross Emergency Communication Drill will take place on Saturday, November 14, in conjunction with ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) groups. The focus of the exercise is sending messages from local sites to a group of divisional clearing houses to simulate and demonstrate amateur radio’s capability to relay information in emergencies and disasters. The drill will get under way at 0900 until 1800 local time in each time zone. The scenario is a major weather event that has caused outages and created hazardous conditions across the country.

The drill will use Winlink as the primary method of delivering pre-formatted messages. The goal is to encourage more operators to become familiar with Winlink and its message templates — primarily ARC-213. This format permits sending standardized messages. The drill aims to bring as many radio operators as possible up to a “basic” level of Winlink proficiency.

A series of Winlink Workshops is held each Thursday at 0100 UTC on Zoom. Join the SEC-ARES group for announcements and discussions. Include name and call sign when registering.

Winlink proficiency goals have been drafted, a Winlink technical support team has been formed, and metrics for drill success have been developed. The proficiency goals are established as a training guideline and reference online training resources. Many hams new to Winlink may find these resources helpful.

Several hundred radio amateurs have already signed up for the event. This event is open to all radio amateurs.

Oct32020

VE Session Results — October 3, 2020

Exams & Training

Congratulations to these hams who passed their exams at the October 3, 2020 VE Session:

David A. De Costa, KD1YZ, Extra
Christopher Fowler, KC1NZM, Technician
Gerald D. Goodson, KC1MAU, General
Mary K. Keefe, KC1NPY, General
Richard. Lords, KC1NPZ, General
Glenn Neto, KC1NZN, Technician + General

Enjoy your new/upgraded privileges!

Need help to get on the air?

Email us @ radioevents [at] semara [dot] org with your particular needs, including antennas, VHF/UHF handheld programming, SSB, CW and/or digital mode operation, etc. When are you available? We may be able to arrange either 1-on-1 or small classes.

Oct32020

MARS Communications Exercise Oct. 3 thru 26*

Radio Events

Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) volunteers will take part in the Department of Defense (DOD) Communications Exercise 20-4, starting on October 3 and concluding on October 26.

Throughout October, MARS stations will operate on 60 meters, and WWV/WWVH will broadcast messages to the amateur radio community.

The MARS focus is interoperability with ARRL and the amateur radio community. “Throughout the month of October, MARS members will interoperate with various amateur radio organizations that will be conducting their annual simulated emergency tests with state, county, and local emergency management personnel,” said MARS Chief Paul English, WD8DBY.

MARS members will send a DOD-approved message to amateur radio organizations.”

MARS members will also train with the ARRL National Traffic System (NTS) and Radio Relay International (RRI) to send ICS 213 general messages to numerous amateur radio leaders across the US.

This exercise will culminate with MARS Auxiliarists sending a number of summary messages in support of a larger DOD communications exercise taking place October 20 – 26.

*Abstracted from 09/21/2020 ARRL Announcement
“MARS Communications Exercise will Involve Amateur Radio Community“

Oct12020

HAMXPOSITION/NE-ARES ACADEMY SCHEDULE

ARES/RACES/SKYWARN

The NE-ARES Academy program’s goal is to offer both basic and advanced skills training based in ARRL ARES training standards.

The first-ever New England Division ARES Academy, scheduled for the Division Convention in November, will instead be held over a period of several weeks in October via Zoom.

AS shown inthe schedule, there are five Basic Track classes for those just getting started, and more advanced classes and workshops for those who already have the basics.

A benefit of the on-line schedule is the opportunity to take every single class and workshop instead of having to pick and choose.

Weeknight class participants will be able to ask questions and interact with the instructor via chat.

The two-hour Saturday workshops are designed to be even more interactive. Academy Instructors are all recognized experts in their subject area.

Building a standardized base of training across New England will enhance our ability to provide better local emergency communications, and an effective ARESMAT (ARES Mutual Assistance Team) response across the region, and beyond.

~Dave Colter, WA1ZCN *

  • Academy coordinator Dave Colter, WA1ZCN, was the original editor and principal author of ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course series in the early 2000s, and creator of the original NH-ARES Academy. He is currently ASEC-Training for NH-ARES.

Aug162020

VE Session Results — August 1, 2020

Exams & Training
August 1, 2020

Congratulations to these hams who passed their exams at the August 1, 2020 VE Session:

Matthew J. Campbell, KC1HEH, General
Mary K. Keefe, KC1NPY, Technician
Richard C. Lords, KC1NPZ, Technician

Enjoy your new/upgraded privileges!

Need help to get on the air?

Email us with your particular needs, including antennas, VHF/UHF handheld programming, SSB, CW and/or digital mode operation, etc. – radioevents [at] semara [dot] org.

When are you available? We may be able to arrange either 1-on-1 or small classes.

Jun202020

2020 – 2024 Extra­ Question Pool

Exams & Training

The new 2020 – 2024 Amateur Extra­ class (Element 4) question pool takes effect on July 1, 2020.

The new question pool incorporates significant changes compared to the 2016 – 2020 question pool (expiration date: June 30, 2020).

The number of questions in the pool is reduced from 712 to 622. This results in 239 modified questions, 49 new questions, and the removal of 139 outdated questions.

Areas of new technology and subjects were added. The 2020 pool has 10 diagrams, which have been renumbered,

It’s important to note that question E3B08 was withdrawn from the new pool and may not be used on exams.
Questions in that section were not renumbered, leaving 11 questions.

Question Pool Schedule
The three current question pools (and any exam designs based on these question pools) are valid as follows:

Technician-class (Element 2) pool effective July 1, 2018 is valid until June 30, 2022.
■ Questions withdrawn from use: none.

General-class (Element 3) pool effective July 1, 2019 is valid until June 30, 2023.
■ Questions withdrawn from use: none.

Amateur Extra-class (Element 4) pool effective July 1, 2020 is valid until June 30, 2024.
■ Questions withdrawn from use: E3B08 deleted from
pool.

Each question pool is reviewed and updated on a 4-year rotation.
No question pools will be updated or released in 2021.
To view all three question pools, visit the NCVEC website at ww.ncvec.org.

Jun182020

Bradford E. Paiva, W1BEP (SK)

Silent Keys
Brad Paiva, W1BEP (SK)
(Mike Ponte, W1BZJ photo)

Brad Paiva, W1BEP (SK) was a long-time member of SEMARA. Brad enjoyed operating amateur radio, especially as a weekly net control operator on 10m.

He was 73 when he passed away at home on June 16, 2020, after a brief illness. He was married for nearly 45 years to Christine R. (Rebello) Paiva.

Brad served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. He was a Police Officer in New Bedford for twenty-eight years, retiring in 1997.
Brad was the owner/operator of Brad’s RV Repair (started in 2006). He was also a member of the Freetown Gun Club.

In addition to his wife Christine, Brad is survived by four daughters, three grandchildren and a sister, as well as several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to either the East Freetown Congregational Church, 2 Washburn Road, East Freetown, MA 02717 or Community Nurse and Home Care, P.O. Box 751, Fairhaven, MA 02719.

Our condolences to Brad’s family in this time of sorrow.