Chat with Maine Hams

Curious what amateur radio is all about, and would like to participate in the conversation? Away from home and want to keep up with the local goings-on? Feel free to tune into the resources below.

Chat

Libera Chat
Browse on over to Libera Chat or set your IRC software to irc.libera.chat, and join the #mainehams chat room. The room and bot was created by Joe W1SK and Rob W1IF. Feel free to sign in, either with your callsign or a simple nickname. Registration is unnecessary, but helpful if you change your “nickname” to your call sign with the /nick CALL command, changing CALL to your call sign.

Listen

Tune into our local repeaters with Broadcastify. Radio nets or meetings on the air occur several nights a week. Check the schedule and join us! If you have questions about what you’re hearing, hop in the chat room above, and we can either assist or relay your inquiry to net control. Please note that there is around a 30-second delay between live and streamed broadcast.

W1QUI 147.0900 MHz Repeater
The W1QUI ℹ amateur radio repeater is located on top of the WGME tower on Blackstrap Hill in Falmouth, ME. This is a very active repeater throughout the day, but especially during commutes, due to its wide area of coverage along the i95 corridor. Topics vary from general conversation, occasionally delving into politics, and sometimes the dispensing of technical guidance.

This repeater is the home of the Newcomer’s Net every Sunday night at 6:45 PM, and the Wireless Society of Southern Maine’s on-air meeting the third Thursday of every month at 7 PM (barring major holidays).

KQ1L 146.8800 MHz Linked Repeater System
The KQ1L ℹ repeater system consists of several localized towers linked by microwave in a hub-and-spoke fashion to the primary repeater, which itself has extensive coverage throughout Maine. The primary repeater, which this stream is listening in on, is located on Streaked Mountain in Buckfield, ME.

You’ll often hear SKYWARN net activations for weather spotters to provide storm damage and accumulation reports to a representative of the National Weather Service in Gray, ME. Nets include a weekly SKYWARN training net on Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Miriam’s Swap-Net on Sundays at 6:30 PM (currently on hiatus), and the Oxford County ARES meeting on the air on Mondays at 7:30 PM.

Notes

  • Chat module may not load over HTTPS, since it is a resource loaded from outside of my website. Simply change the URL to http:// or follow the link to Freenode.
  • Broadcastify feeds are available one at a time, and depending on when my radio and PC are running. I am working on a more longterm solution that’ll stay live 24/7.
  • Please note that there is around a 30-second delay between live and streamed broadcast.
  • I tried to have the Broadcastify player embedded in the page, but these require Javascript and Flash. Most browsers are blocking Flash now.