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On The Cover: November 2009 |
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Doug Troughton, N2RDF, |
On the Cover Our cover this month features Doug Troughton, N2RDF, operating club station W1AQ in East Providence, Rhode Island. The Associated Radio Amateurs of Southern New England (ARASNE) has been active since its founding in 1926. The clubhouse, in which the group still meets and has its station, was built in 1927. ARASNE is one of the few clubs today that has its own clubhouse on its own property. The call, originally 1AQ, has always been issued to the club and Doug, the club’s former president and current Station Manager, says, “We are very proud of being five calls before Maxim,” referring, of course, to W1AW, the callsign of ARRL co-founder Hiram Percy Maxim and now the ARRL station call. The club station consists of a Yaesu FT-1000 transceiver, a Drake L4B amplifier and a Johnson KW matchbox. Outside are two 50-foot railroad signal towers. Doug says they were knocked over by the 1938 hurricane that devastated Providence, but were put back up and stand to this day. Antennas include a Mosley Classic 36 for 10, 15, and 20 meters; dipoles and inverted-Vees for 40 and 80; and a vertical for 10–80 meters, including 12, 17, and 30.
Members meet informally every Friday evening
at the clubhouse to chat and operate, with a business meeting on the
second Friday of each month. The club’s major activity is Field Day, which
it enters in the 1A class. According to Doug, W1AQ usually wins that class
for New England, and he attributes the success to sticking with a single
transmitter, staffed continuously, rather than trying to spread the
operators around to several stations. The club also sponsors a 2-meter
repeater and several members are involved with emergency communications.
(Cover photo by Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI) |
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Click here to return to the November 2009 Highlights page. © Copyright 2009, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted. |
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