Most Recent Blog Posts

  • ARRL Field Day 2025 is coming!
    three hams sitting at a table with lots of wires and stuff.. one talking on a radio
    Join us on Field Day 2025!

    We have two pages of information (click on the page names to go there):
    1) Field Day 2025 is the page for visitors and general information about ARRL Field Day and to contact us!
    2) Field Day Prep is the page for members to find a site map and work that needs doing

  • Morse Code Day 2025

    In honor of Morse and Vail’s first intercity telegraph message on May 24, 1844, and the connecting of Boston to Washington via New Jersey in 1846, we held a small commemoration and demonstration at the Kingston NJ Canal House and Telegraph House.

    The goal was to explain the use of the small white building, built as a toll house in 1834 and adapted for a telegraph office sometime in 1846.

    As part of the commemoration, we set up a Morse Code station (CW) and antenna and contacted two other Amateur Radio Stations via Morse Code.

    The photo shows Don, AK2S, demonstrating telegraphy to two of the 30 people assembling for the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park “Pop-up walk” held Saturday morning. Park historian Vicki Chirco and park guide Claire Apel led the attendees to the Kingston Lock, where Charlie N2CTW shared our current knowledge of the Telegraph Office as well as basics of Morse Code using a code practice oscillator.

    Don contacted two other stations, Bob, K2QPN and Rob, KE3TI. As an extra treat, Don sent a radiogram from the Kingston Telegraph Office… the first telegraph message to originate from that location in over 100 years.

    -Charlie N2CTW

    Here’s the Library of Congress’ material on the event:
    First telegraph message, 24 May. 24 May, 1844. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.019/.

    Here’s an enhanced view of the tape- three styli pressed the tape with the Morse code characters…. Three styli recorded the same sequence of pulses. As you can see below, sometimes one stylus’s marks are clearer than the other styli. Vail’s handwriting is below showing the letters received.

    WHAT H    would be .--   ....   .-   -   ....   it can almost be seen in the image with contrast enhanced.  ("What hath God wrought" is the message)

  • Notes from May 2025 Meeting

    Meeting announcement (Edited)

    Once tuning an antenna was a lot of guesswork, with paper plotting
    of SWR and fiddling with matching sections. Now with a NanoVNA you
    can see the match, and watch as you tune up an antenna… across
    the band! If you have a NanoVNA, please bring it!

    Once sending email via VARA HF Winlink required using the current
    solar flux index to calculate a radio propagation model, then select
    an HF RMS node from a list, and hope that it works. Now the new
    Winlink Real-Time HF Connection Monitor application allows one to
    view a live map display of active HF Winlink sessions worldwide,
    including ones initiated by stations near you.

    We will also discuss updates on our ARRL Field Day participation June 28-29, the MORE
    Project, the club repeaters, and our Tuesday DSRC VHF nets.

    Some pictures from N2CTW presentation:

    Well, the demo wasn’t really a demo. We did get to see both NanoVNA-App and NanoVNASaver in action, though not with antennas being tested. Well, maybe the notes below will be helpful.

    The images below show how the frequency response of a shortened dipole made with MFJ Hamsticks changes as you add the extender rods. NanoVNA-App captures.

    NanoVNA shows Smith Chart and VSWR for shortened dipole without extension rods
    NanoVNA shows Smith Chart and VSWR for shortened dipole with one of the extenders added
    NanoVNA shows Smith Chart and VSWR for shortened dipole with extenders in.. resonance on 20 Meters
    sweep from 13 – 15 MHz and marker at 14.4

    Some random helpful text from the Internet:

    https://static.eleshop.nl/mage/media/downloads/Absolute_Beginner_Guide_NanoVNA_v1_6.pdf
    Written by: Martin Svaco, 9A2JK
    email: 9a2jk@hamradio.hr
    Version: 1.6 26th January 2021

    https://github.com/NanoVNA-Saver/nanovna-saverReferences

    Ohan Smit wrote an introduction to using the application: [https://zs1sci.com/blog/nanovnasaver/]
HexAndFlex wrote a 3-part (thus far) series on Getting Started with the NanoVNA: [https://hexandflex.com/2019/08/31/getting-started-with-the-nanovna-part-1/] - Part 3 is dedicated to NanoVNASaver: [https://hexandflex.com/2019/09/15/getting-started-with-the-nanovna-part-3-pc-software/]
Gunthard Kraus did documentation in English and German: [http://www.gunthard-kraus.de/fertig_NanoVNA/English/] [http://www.gunthard-kraus.de/fertig_NanoVNA/Deutsch/]

    NanoVNA
    (Version H2 / H4)
    A Vectorial Network Analyser covering
    50kHz to 1500MHz and a Time Domain
    Reflectometer
    Part 2:
    Manual for the Usage from 50 kHz up
    to 1500 MHz and the TDR function
    Version 1.0.
    Author: Gunthard Kraus, DG8GB
    Tettnang / Germany, May 5th , 2020

    https://rickettslab.org/nano-vna-pc-interface-setup/
    2025 David S. Ricketts. All Rights Reserved.

    https://github.com/sysjoint-tek/NanoVNA-Saver-0.3.10-by_SYSJOINT?tab=readme-ov-file

    https://nanovna.com/?page_id=141 This is the page for NanoVNA-App

    Winlink Real-Time HF Connection Monitor application

    https://downloads.winlink.org/User%20Programs

    “Once sending email via VARA HF Winlink required using the current
    solar flux index to calculate a radio propagation model, then select
    an HF RMS node from a list, and hope that it works. Now the new
    Winlink Real-Time HF Connection Monitor application allows one to
    view a live map display of active HF Winlink sessions worldwide,
    including ones initiated by stations near you.”

    the monitor program requires you to register with VARA… NU3E showed the program which displays a world map, populated with a line every time a station contacts a VARA gateway.

    Rather like the view on https://winlink.org/RMSChannels, but showing connections. NU3E showed how to zoom in, and how to set how long the sessions were displayed (60 minutes is his favorite duration.) Watching the connections gives a good idea of the current propagation distance for each band (we watched 40 Meters), as most stations are one skip-distance away from the RMS node.

  • 2025 N2RE Webpage for ARRL Field Day is up!

    Our guests are welcome to learn about the DSRC’s deployment for Field Day at:

    THIS LINK

    Join us on Field Day 2025! (click photo)

    Our website also has a collection of old field day resources, Click the photo below.

    This way to Field Day 2011
  • Pi Day 2025 HOORAY!
    Pi Day Special Event

    March 14th Pi Day special event is over! With a half dozen operating stations we sent out pi day greetings to stations across the country and Europe and South America!

    Don on SSB, Ben on CW, John on FT8/FT4 on 10 &15, and Jeff, Adam, Walt, Fran, Rebecca at Charlie’s (photos from Charlie’s)

    Don is now assembling the contacts and uploading them to LOTW, etc.

    Adam on 20 Meters
    Host Charlie and Apple Pie

    Soapbox

    Well, PI Day 2025 is in the logs. I did not get China but I had 176 contacts on 20m and another 95 on 40m for a total of 271. How did everyone else do? –Don, AK2S

    Walt operating FT8

    I got 22 QSOs on FT8, 3 on 20m and the rest on 15m. It was my first time working 15m and my first ever contact in South America (Brazil)! Earlier in the day I made roughly a dozen contacts on 40m voice in Charlie’s shack. Jeff was logging those. I also made a contact from the other direction. While Rebecca was taking 2m contacts on the repeater I walked out to the sidewalk in front of Charlie’s house and contacted her. Thanks again to Charlie for hosting us and for the delicious apple pie, and for Rebecca for bringing us pizza. — Walt KC3WHU

    I tried spotting myself via dxwatch.com a couple times … probably made a difference, but not an abundance, and not for very long.  I found that when spotting on dxwatch, the comments must be different from prior times in order for the request to go through.

    Just got a call from Ecuador! I called it quits at 9pm … no pileup … bummer! The China Q was indeed my last one, and it was so weird, I couldn’t even believe it was happening, but it sounded right (polar warble), with good timing relative to my transmissions, and he used our callsign in his exchange … must be real! … Few worries about stepping on other stations’ toes when running QRP!  😉 In the meantime, I got a lot of practice calling CQ and handling exchanges with the bug (Vibroplex mechanical keyer) … getting better!Happy Pi Day! — Ben, AC2YD —

    A shout out goes to Charlie, N2CTW, for hosting us at his “shack in a garage” during the Pi Day N3P special event station operation. I appreciated the opportunity to refresh my HF operating chops while having fun at the same time!  All my QSOs were on 40 SSB with the logging help of Walt, KC3WHU and Charlie.  For self-imposed training purposes, I completed the last four or five contacts while doing my own logging into the computer.I also enjoyed the eyeball-QSO company of Fran, N2FXO in between operating sessions. — 73, Jeff W2JJJ

    And Rebecca brought pizza pie

    Sounds like this might have been our best Pi day ever, with lots of US and International contacts! Thanks to all for participating and Charlie D. for hosting. Picked up Pizza Pi at one of my long-time Lawrenceville faves (Varsity Pizza) on my way to Kingston. — Rebecca K3RPM

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