NASHUA, NH: Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, has announced his intention to run for the position of ARRL New England Division Director. Kemmerer has a long history of helping individuals to become licensed, learn new skills, and become active in the Amateur Radio Service. Fred has also served as President of the Nashua Area Radio Society, a club that has provided many hams licensing and development programs over the past six years.
I believe that Amateur Radio clubs and interest groups play an essential role in bringing new hams into the Amateur Radio Service and in helping hams to develop new skills, said Kemmerer. As New England Division Director, I will work with clubs and individuals in New England to help them expand their role as mentors and create a world-class environment for learning based on Amateur Radio.
Fred, AB1OC, also serves as an ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) Mentor and Ground Station, helping schools around to world to participate in STEM learning based upon Amateur Radio. I will help groups and individuals in New England to create projects and programs to bring Amateur Radio to young people across the division, said Kemmerer. Amateur Radio provides a tremendous opportunity for youths to learn about technical topics and to develop valuable skills that they can use throughout their lives.
Kemmerer has been an active amateur for over 10 years with a broad range of Amateur Radio interests. I enjoy many aspects of the hobby, including DXing, contesting, EmCom activities and Field Day, satellites, station building, and weak signal operating on the VHF and higher bands. One of Amateur Radio’s most important strengths is its tremendous diversity and range of interests and activities. We need to work across New England and the ARRL to grow our hobby and protect our spectrum by encouraging our hobby’s broad use.
Fred, AB1OC, continues to devote considerable time and energy to license new hams and help all hams upgrade their licenses and get on the air. I’ve had the pleasure of leading a team of hams who have taught license classes, enabling over 360 people to earn a license or upgrade over the past five years. Kemmerer has created some innovative approaches to new ham development and getting hams on the air. We created a very popular program called Ham Bootcamp, designed to help both new and experienced hams get on the air, build their stations, and participate in new operating activities. The last Ham Bootcamp drew over 480 participants from across the United States. I hope to help clubs and individuals around New England and across the ARRL to develop successful programs to license and assist hams to get on the air and have fun in new activities, he added.
Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, is an electrical engineer by training and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in EE. He has served in many business leadership roles, including Chief Technology Officer, VP of Strategy and Business Development for a large telecommunication equipment company, VP and General Manager of a large data networking and communication business, and a Project Leader at Bell Laboratories in the development of wireless and wired data communications technologies. Fred has also served on the FCC’s Technical Advisory Council where he assisted the FCC in developing public policy related to wireless and broadband communications. Fred holds an Amateur Extra license and has been quite active on the air logging over 100,000 contacts on the HF and higher bands over the past 10 1/2 years. You can read more about his background on LinkedIn here.
You can learn more about Fred, AB1OC’s campaign, and what he is hoping to accomplish as ARRL New England Division director at https://ab1oc-4-director.org.
