Harvard College Wireless Club

W1AF

AMATEUR RADIO AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

-- Since 1909 --
A Harvard Undergraduate Student Run Organization

Welcome to W1AF


Pictured Above: Left, Douglas Maggs '17, former HWC President, KK4UHK. Right, former HWC President Benjamin Lee '20, K7JS.


Thank you for your interest in the Harvard Wireless Club, call sign W1AF, the amateur radio club at Harvard University. Whether you are a student, staff member, alum or affiliate interested in learning more about ham radio or becoming a club member, we're interested in meeting you. In the 21st century, amateur radio remains intellectually challenging, personally fulfilling, and filled with opportunities for public service, both during your years at Harvard and afterward.


You do not need an amateur radio license to join Harvard Wireless Club, but we offer testing sessions every semester for those wishing to get a license or upgrade a current license. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!

To contact us, please send an email to both w1af@harvard.edu and harvardwirelessclub@gmail.com


CONTEST PLAQUES


The Harvard Wireless Club has received various plaques from contests shown below:

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest


Scoring of Wireless Club


ARRL Contest Entry Form

Call Used: W1AF

W1AF participated in the annual ARRL SSB Sweepstakes contest on November 17- 18. We claimed 920 QSO’s this year and claimed 152,320 points. That was 43 more QSO’s and 12, 400 more points than last year. We’re going in the right direction! W1PL kicked off the contest on Saturday working up until midnight, and after a few hours sleep, came in Sunday morning. Many thanks to Chris McNett, K6PR, who worked on Sunday afternoon. Chris was the one to pick up the remaining 8 sections for a CLEAN SWEEP!!! Great job, Chris!!! Later on Sunday, Ryan Conway, KB1WEW came in. Not being an experienced contester, I told KB1WEW I was going to hold him hostage until he made 100 QSO’s, which he did! Congratulations to Ryan, great job! You’re experienced now!!! Our preliminary scores, before log cross checking, are below.
Band    QSOs      Pts  Sec

 3.5     218      436   16
 7       253      506   12
 14      277      554   12
 21      151      302   40
 28       21       42    3
 
Total    920     1840   83
 
            Score : 152,720 

Submitted by:
Harvard Wireless Club, W1AF
6 Linden St
Cambridge MA 02138
E-mail: w1af@harvard.edu

W1AF ARRL RTTY


Scoring of Wireless Club

ARRL RTTY Roundup Contest

Call Used: W1AF

Hello All,

W1AF participated in the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest this past weekend- Operators: Clayton Nall, (NF1R), and Bill Collins (W1PL). I am very pleased with the progress that has been made with RTTY contesting. I perfected the "3- click QSO" method of operating using N1MM. I'm not sure how useful the "grab" window is, as it picks up bad as well as good callsigns. In the next RTTY contest, I will probably try using the "call stacking" command (LOGTHENPOP) to see how useful that is.

All the equipment worked well. The computer needed to be rebooted in the first couple of hours, but after that it was smooth sailing. The ICOM Linear amplifier worked flawlessly. When I took it apart a couple of months ago I noticed some corrosion on the connectors so I cleaned them up and then made sure they were all tight after reconnecting them. The results of the contest are...


Band: 3.5       7.0        14.0       21.0       28.0
      79 QSOs   229 QSOs   315 QSOs   273 QSOs   18 QSOs

Total States/Provinces Total DX Total Points Total QSO's 50 34 76,776 914


73 -Bill Collins

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest


Scoring of Wireless Club

ARRL Contest Entry Form

Call Used: W1AF
The Harvard Wireless Club, W1AF participated in this year’s ARRL Sweepstakes contest (phone) . Those members participating were: Denny Yao, N3ER; Scott Robson, K6AUS; Chris McNett, K6PR; Ryan Conway, KB1WEW; and Bill Collins, W1PL. We more than doubled our QSO total from last year and almost tripled our number of points. We also able to get all 80 ARRL/RAC sections, resulting in a CLEAN SWEEP!!! It was a tremendous effort by all involved. Last year, we were number 1 in the New England division (and received a very nice plaque for the shack), and placed 7th nationwide in the school club category. When the final results are in, we expect to place as well, if not better, than last year. Our claimed totals are:
Band		QSOs		Pts  	   Sec
3.5 97 194 18
7 481 962 15
14 72 144 9
21 147 294 11
28 80 160 27
Total 877 1754 80

Score : 140,320
Submitted by:
Harvard Wireless Club, W1AF
6 Linden St
Cambridge MA 02138
E-mail: w1af@harvard.edu

Field Day 2011 at Oak Ridge Observatory

[Photographer: John Hawkinson]


Field Day was held in 2011 at the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, MA. It was a smashing success. We would like to especially thank our Faculty Advisor and Trustee Paul Horowitz, W1HFA, for securing the site for us. A big thank you also goes out to our Field Day Coordinator, Clayton Nall, NF1R, who did a superb job coordinating and planning. We would also like to thank all those who participated from MIT W1XM/W1MX. It was a great time working with all of you. We operated as a category "2A" with 2 main transceivers and a "free" vhf/uhf station (callsign W1AF), as well as a "get on the air" station (callsign W1PL). Together, over 3000 QSO's were made. When we have the final numbers we will post them. Thank you again to all who participated. (missing from photo: Paul Horowitz W1HFA, George Clark W1XW, Chip Coldwell W1CMC, Quentin Smith AB1IZ)

- The Harvard Wireless Club

Field Day Point Scoring


Scoring of Wireless Club Members


ARRL Field Day Entry Form

Call Used: W1AF GOTA Station Call: W1PL ARRL/RACSection: WMA Class: 2A

Participants: 19 Club/Group Name: Harvard Wireless Club & MITRadio Society
Power Source(s): Generator, Solar
Power Multiplier: 2X

Bonus Points:
100% Emergency power 200
NTS message to ARRL SM/SEC 100
Formal NTS messages handled - No.=10 100
Natural power QSOs completed 100
GOTA Bonus 200
Submitted via the Web 50
Total Bonus Points 750

Score Summary:
CW Digital Phone Total
Total QSOs 1514 0 773
Total Points 3028 0 773 3801 Claimed Score = 7,602

Submitted by:
Harvard Wireless Club, W1AF
6 Linden St
Cambridge MA 02138
E-mail: nall@stanford.edu

Band/Mode QSO Breakdown:
CW Digital Phone
QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W)
160m
80m 64 100 77 100
40m 501 100 167 100
20m 435 100 185 100
15m 193 100 23 100
10m 165 100 47 100
6m 156 100 3 100
2m 5 100
1.25
Other
Satellite
GOTA 266 100
TOTAL 1514 0 773

GOTA Bonus: No GOTA Coach
Name/Call QSOs Bonus Points
George Clark, W1XW 16 0
Scott Robson, K6AUS 23 20
Quentin Smith, AB1IZ 27 20
Bill Collins, W1PL 138 100
Rohit Chaki, KC2UQC 62 60

Supporting documentation for Bonus Points will be sent via e-mail to: fieldday@arrl.org

Congratulations Bill, W1PL

Perseverance pays off. We now have a member who has worked all the states!

He is recognized by ARRL for this achievement.

International Space Station Contact

We have been meaning to put this one up for a while. We recently did some antenna work on our roof, including putting up a new 144/440 MHz antenna. Bill W1PL was testing it out when he checked to see what satellites may be flying by. Luckily the International Space Station was about to shoot overhead. Sure enough when Bill tuned in and called CQ he made contact - the first between W1AF and the space station. A nice contact Bill!

This is one QSL card we are very proud of here at W1AF!

November Sweepstakes SSB Contest

Five people took part, Rohit (KC2UQC), Fred (K1VR), Dennis (N3ER), Bill (W1PL) and Scott (K6AUS). Fred and Dennis are seasoned competitors and managed to work up a lot of contacts while also teaching the other three the ropes. 396 contacts was not too bad, and pretty much what we expected. This was largely a learning experience for us where we got the chance to work with our new setup (hardware and software) and particularly familiarize ourselves with logging.

Bill Collins W1PL sent off our logs from the November SSB Sweepstakes contest we competed in a couple of weekends back. On the bottom is our receipt from the ARRL.

2010 ARRL November Sweepstakes, SSB
Callsign: W1AF
School Club
Operator(s): K6AUS KC2UQC N1VR N3ER W1AF W1PL
Category-Operator: MULTI-OP
Category-Power: HIGH
Category-Assisted: ASSISTED
Category-Station: SCHOOL
Location: Eastern Massachusetts - EMA
Club: Harvard Wireless
Name: William E. Collins
Address: 6 Linden St
Cambridge, MA 02138
Log Deadline: 2010-12-07 03:00:00 UTC
Received at: 2010-11-29 22:29:23 UTC
Reported QSOs: 396
Confirmation #: 4118752.arrl-ss-ssb

Digital Activity!

W1AF webmaster and yours truely Scott Robson (K6AUS) ventured into the shack this afternoon and tried his hand at making some digital contacts.

PSK31 was mostly active on 20 meters with an amazing grayline opening to South Africa. I made 2 contacts into the Port Elizabeth area with 599 reports on both ends. No really, we were both 599 with about 50 watts. I attempted some Olivia digital modes with little success. Thanks to the new software and computer system in the shack these digital contacts are very easy to do and a lot of fun!

Thats a distance of 12968 km or 8058 miles!

HF Activity at W1AF

Just a brief update on some recent activity within the club. Rohit Chaki (KC2UQC), new undergraduate member of the club, got on the air on October 16th.

This was the second time Rohit had been at the controls. He managed a remarkable 10 QSOs (contacts) during the afternoon with a contact as far away as Germany.

The Harvard Wireless Club W1AF
Send comments to w1af.harvard.edu
Enquires about the club and joining can be sent to w1af@harvard.edu