ACARA - Addison County Amateur Radio Association

08/02/2026

A great turnout for our monthly meeting in Middlebury!

07/01/2026

ACARA member Rob, N1TRK, also participated in ARRL Field Day by setting up as 1B VT in a farm field in New Haven, operating entirely from 100% solar-charged battery power. Despite having limited operating time, Rob logged more than 100 contacts from a retired Burlington Fire Department ambulance—now famously known as "The Hambulance!"

Congratulations on a successful Field Day operation, Rob, and thank you for demonstrating another creative and effective example of emergency communications in action. Nice job!

06/29/2026

Another pix from our FD2026 album. Heavy satellite action!

06/29/2026

2026 ARRL Field Day from New Haven!

What a fantastic weekend! The Addison County Amateur Radio Association operated N1FS as 2A Vermont under beautiful blue skies and perfect weather.

Our team made 634 HF contacts using CW, phone, and digital modes. We also enjoyed several satellite passes, making contacts with Alaska and California during one particularly exciting pass.

We came close to a complete ARRL Section Sweep, missing only San Francisco (SF) and Newfoundland/Labrador (NL).

In addition to operating, KE1VT, N1OCI, and WB2BCD conducted an on-site Volunteer Examiner (VE) session, where Jeremy, KR4EKS, visiting from Kentucky, successfully upgraded to General Class. Congratulations, Jeremy!

It truly was a magical Field Day weekend filled with great operating, learning, fellowship, and fun. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, visited, and helped make the event such a success.

We're already looking forward to ARRL Field Day 2027! 📡📻

06/18/2026

This is a general reminder about the 2026 ARRL Field Day, which will be held the weekend of June 27–28. The event will take place at the QTH of Ryan, N1OCI, located at 524 Twitchell Hill Road in New Haven.

Operations and setup will be based inside Ryan's large red barn. Please feel free to park near the barn, and you are encouraged to bring a lawn chair.

Setup will begin around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 27. Please stop by anytime during the weekend to help set up, operate, observe, socialize, or assist with teardown. Everyone is welcome, and this is always one of the most enjoyable events of the year for our club. We typically begin wrapping things up during the early afternoon on Sunday.

Our Field Day site will feature two HF stations and one satellite station. We plan to operate SSB, CW, and FT8 on HF, as well as SSB and, hopefully, some CW on the satellites.

We hope to see you there, and updates will be emailed as necessary. Please feel free to utilize our repeater (147.36) as a talk-in frequency.

73,

Kevin, KE1VT

03/30/2026

ISS SSTV event coming soon:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KZuzqxuHk/

Here's the latest on SSTV Series 31 from the ISS. This 5 day event will start April 10.

More details as we get closer to the start date.

02/28/2026

Ryan, N1OCI passed both his General and Extra Class exams at today’s Ham-Con in Colchester! Tech to Extra in a matter of less than an hour is quite remarkable (after all the studying, of course). Congrats to Ryan and everyone else who became a new ham or upgraded today!

02/27/2026

Ham-Con is tomorrow!

Location: Hampton Inn, 42 Lower Mountain View Drive, I-89 Exit 16, Colchester, and right here at hamcon.org. Go to the BACK of the complex and enter through Door C. If you try to enter via the front of the Hampton Inn, YOU WILL GET LOST!

02/05/2026

It’s the weekend of the Vermont QSO Party! Get on the air and have some fun!

In local time, this corresponds to a start time of 7:00 PM EST FRIDAY night February 6th and an end time of 7PM SUNDAY night February 8th.