The Worldwide Amateur Radio Club, WARC, is an amateur radio club located on the campus of the television sports network ESPN, Inc., in Bristol, Connecticut USA. The club membership includes employees and retirees of ESPN.
Our Special Event QSO card celebrating ESPN’s 35th Anniversary in 2014.
Join us on Slack!
Employees can find club members in the #warc slack channel. We’re working on a means for alumni members to join in, stay tuned for more on that.
- Today is the day – Field Day 2024!
WARC will be active for Field Day 2024! Members are welcome to join us at the North Campus hamshack.
Please watch us on our livestream found here: https://youtube.com/@we1spn
- Winter Field Day 2024
WE1SPN was on the air for Winter Field Day on January 27th & 28th, 2024. We operated across the permitted amateur bands with contacts on 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m, 2m, 1.25m and 70cm. We also attempted to complete a number of the event Objectives including sending+receiving Winlink email, operating away from home, and operating on at least six different bands. We’d intended to get the antenna setup objective but were not able to erect multiple new antennas and make contacts, being successful with just a single 2m J-Pole. Next time we’ll be prepared for more options.
Special thanks to local operator Michael Berube KC1MJZ for helping us make contacts on 10m AM and FM, and 1.25m FM.
The shack radios worked pretty darn well, though tuning the Tarheel HF antenna was a challenge. The computer in the shack is getting very, very long in the tooth and we’re going to look at an upgrade for that this year. We should get a VaraFM and VaraHF license for the club and a digital interface for the VHF/UFH side for Winlink etc. This year we used an HT hooked up to the VHF/UHF antenna connected to a Mobilinkd TNC driven over bluetooth using RadioMail on an iPhone. It’d be nice to use the mobile radio for that.
Operators this year was just Joshua Warchol KC1SPC, with pre-event support from Mike Nagorski WJ1X and the encouragement of members in the new #warc Slack channel.
For the future we want to work on solutions for some of the objectives we missed:
- Figure out a solution for “deploy multiple new antennas” objectives. Maybe a 6m dipole?
- Try to find a way to run the whole shack on alternative backup power for the duration of operations.
- Operating for more continuous hours. That should have been an easy objective but life gets in the way.
- Find a member who can do satellite work.
What is WFD? The Winter Field Day Association describes it thus:
Winter Field Day is a communications exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club involved. Winter Field Day is open to participants worldwide. Amateur radio operators may use frequencies on the HF, VHF, or UHF bands and are free to use any mode that can faithfully transmit the required exchange intact. Similar to the ARRL’s Field Day, bonus points are earned in several ways, including using non-commercial power sources, operating from remote locations, satellite contacts, and more.
- New England Division Town Hall Meeting – Feb 23rd, 7 pm
Phil Temples K9HI, our Assistant Directors, and I will hold our next New
England Division Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, February 23rd, at 7 pm
ET. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide you with an ARRL
update, get your thoughts on what we should be focusing on, and answer
any questions you might have about the ARRL and what we are doing on
behalf of ARRL members here in New England.We plan to spend a good deal of our time together answering your
questions. If you’d like to send us a question in advance, you can do so
via an email to ab1oc@arrl.org, or you can just plan to ask your
questions during the Town Hall Meeting.We will hold our Town Hall Meeting via a Zoom Webinar. You can get your
personal link to join the Town Hall Meeting via the following link
(paste the link in your browser to register) –After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the webinar.We hope to see you on February 23rd!
——————————————————————–
ARRL New England Division
Director: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC
ab1oc@arrl.org
——————————————————————– - ARRL New England Division Town Hall – 2/23/2023
Phil Temples K9HI, our Assistant Directors, and I will hold our next New
England Division Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, February 23rd, at 7 pm
ET. The purpose of the meeting will be to provide you with an ARRL
update, get your thoughts on what we should be focusing on, and answer
any questions you might have about the ARRL and what we are doing on
behalf of ARRL members here in New England.
We plan to spend a good deal of our time together answering your
questions. If you’d like to send us a question in advance, you can do so
via an email to ab1oc@arrl.org, or you can just plan to ask your
questions during the Town Hall Meeting.
We will hold our Town Hall Meeting via a Zoom Webinar. You can get your
personal link to join the Town Hall Meeting via the following link
(paste the link in your browser to register) –
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-4QVGZj_THG1VXImuTnazQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the webinar.
We hope to see you on February 23rd! - New England QSO Party – May 1 and 2
The New England QSO Party on May 1st and 2nd is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries. You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.
Our goal is to get every one of the 67 counties in New England on the air so we hope you will encourage your members to join in the fun! Even if you can join the fun for a couple of hours, we’d appreciate it! Will you be QRV? Let us know with a message to info@neqp.org
The New England QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep on Saturday night. It runs from 4 pm Saturday until 1 am Sunday, then 9 am Sunday until 8 pm Sunday. Operate on CW, SSB and/or digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters. For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your county/state. Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who sends in a log will get a certificate. The goal is to work stations anywhere in the world – and their goal is to work New England stations, so you’ll be very popular!
Last year we had logs from 283 New England stations and 896 more logs from around the country and world.
The full rules are here -> http://www.neqp.org/rules.html
The 2020 results were posted last weekend -> http://www.neqp.org/results.html
It’s just under three weeks until the 2021 NEQP. Please make some QSOs even if you don’t want to send in a log!
