Present In Person (6): Hugo AA1XV (President), Steve K1RF, Jeff KB1C (Recording Secretary) , Dave N1DPD (Treasurer), Steve W1SMS (Vice President), Rusty K4SAA
Present Virtually (6): Toy K1WYQ, Rich K1CYW, Steve N1CM, Tom WB2HTJ, Jess ND1L, Andre W2ART
Business Meeting: called to order by President Hugo AA1XV at 7:11
Hugo welcomed Steve N1CM, president of SARA, and Tom WB2HTJ, now in North Carolina.
Minutes of the February meeting as previously distributed were approved, with the modification that the summer party should be changed to summer picnic.
Old Business:
President’s Report: by Hugo AA1XV: We were reminded of the loss of N1ZD last month, and all the memories we have of him, particularly pictures.
He related that no one joined the HF Net last Thursday night, noting band conditions were noisy and hoping this week’s is more active. We have not had a lot of feedback on presentations about antennas in the past, perhaps tonight’s session will help. The more general question is: how many are operating HF with any regularity?
Treasurer’s Report: by Dave N1DPD: Last month, a paid expense was flowers for N1ZD’s calling hours. A goodwill donation to the Westport Astronomical Society to maintain a future relationship is in the works. We may consider selling some equipment to generate revenue. As of today, paid membershipship is at 44.
Secretary’s Report: by Jeff KB1C: Not much feedback of any kind has been received on the newsletter, it’s impossible to determine the extent of readership. Please consider contributing content if there’s anything you think club members might be interested in: announcements, items for sale, suggestions, and especially corrections, etc. Your ideas are welcome! Watch for the April issue…a new puzzle, and a new feature – “Ask Elmer!”
New Business:
Newsletter issues will be archived on the club website.
Steve N1CM will be attending the upcoming Southington Hamfest on 3/22, he may be selling equipment there; he will check with other SARA members. If they do have a table there, he has offered to include GNARC equipment. He was asked if any VE sessions are in the works; as of now testing is on demand, exams are generated using an online tool, and no requests are pending.
Dave N1DPD is running the upcoming Bloomin Metric event in May, for which we offer radio support services. He will be looking for helpers for this, stay tuned!
Rich K1CYW has some equipment to donate to the club, which is much appreciated.
Main Event: Presentation:
Steve K1RF’s talk “End Connected-Off Center Fed Dipole Antennas” (EC-OCFD) was loaded with technical detail on history, construction, testing, and comparison with other types of antennas for various bands. To achieve his goal of building low-cost, easy to build, efficient, hi-power multiband antennas, Steve has extensively researched many different wire models. Accompanied by the origination and evolution of each model, we learned who designed each, what materials are involved, and what works well on various bands.
The precursor models to the EC-OCFD included the City Windom, sleeve dipole, end-fed monocord, banana half wave end fed choked coax model, and single band end fed and center fed portable antennas. Each antenna was presented in detail, including construction and effectiveness. Charts and graphs showing efficiency, and lists of parts needed and where to obtain them were included.
Steve’s highly informative and interesting presentation thoroughly outlined the pros and cons of EC-OCFD vs end fed half wave antennas. Thank you, Steve!
Powerpoint will be available on the club website.
Any questions or more information needed? Contact Steve at K1RF@ARRL.net.
Bonus Presentation: “Operating Opportunities-Get On The Air!”
Rusty K4SAA shared details of some DXpeditions he knows and has participated in. Many stations present uncommon, even rare CW, voice, or digital contact opportunities; details about locations, time frames, and even folks you’ll meet describe terrific goals for Hams to try, some being more challenging than others. Rusty will supply his detailed list for inclusion on the club website. Thank you, Rusty!
Hugo AA1XV informed us that next month’s meeting location will be changing to room 216 here in the Westport Library. The meeting is expected to be on April 8.
The Meeting was adjourned at 8:42.
Respectfully submitted, Jeff KB1C, Secretary
Present In Person (6): Hugo AA1XV (President), Steve K1RF, Jeff KB1C (Recording Secretary) , Dave N1DPD (Treasurer), Steve W1SMS (Vice President), Chuck K1CWT
Present Virtually (4): Toy K1WYQ, Rich K1CYW, Jim KC1FB, Paul W1PPL
Business Meeting: called to order by President Hugo AA1XV at 7:02
Longtime club member Chuck K1CWT attending in person was welcomed.
Minutes of the January meeting as previously distributed were approved.
Old Business:
Treasurer’s Report: by Dave N1DPD: The club’s trailer registration and mailbox renewal expenditures were completed. A summary of last year’s income and expenses left us in the black for 2025, we are hoping for the same in 2026! As of 2/17 paid membership is at 38. Next anticipated expenses will be related to June Field Day and the annual summer party.
Secretary’s Report: by Jeff KB1C: The first issue of the newsletter was well received by a small but mighty group of members. The puzzles will continue, and there might even be math in there occasionally! We will shoot for releasing a new issue at the beginning of every month, so look for Volume 1, no. 2 (March issue) in a couple of weeks. As always, your announcements, items for sale, suggestions, content contributions are welcome!
VP’s Report: by Steve W1SMS: A duplexer has been located and is in the process of being tested and configured. Club President, VP, and Secretary recently visited West Rocks Middle School, long ago a club repeater site, to determine what equipment if any might be found there and its condition assessed; no hardware was found but there is an antenna on the roof though it is not clear whether it belongs to the club. We will maintain a relationship with the school administration to possibly use the school, which is located fairly up in Norwalk geographically, as a future alternate repeater site.
New Business:
President Hugo AA1XV and VP Steve W1SMS reported having dinner with Dan N3DAW to explore a collaborative relationship with the Westport Astronomical Society, expanding on GNARC’s previous use of their facilities for Field Day activities. The goal would be establishing a more or less permanent station there, but right now there are some infrastructure and access challenges, such as environment, availability and security, which make this impractical. It was suggested that the club make a donation in the form of a membership as a good will gesture, to continue the relationship for future considerations.
Hugo AA1XV announced an upcoming meeting at WAS at a future date: Joe Carcia, manager of W1AW at ARRL, will be on hand and presenting, all are invited, stay tuned! This will be in addition to our regular GNARC second Wednesday March meeting on 3/11 at the Westport Library. At that meeting, Steve K1RF will present an end-connected dipole antenna.
Steve W1SMS related his recent pilgrimage to Hamcation in Florida. He promises more detail in his report in the March newsletter, but reported attendance at the event was a bit lighter than last year’s, and offerings at the flea market not as interesting to him. In general he enjoyed the Dayton Hamfest more, but encouraged members to attend a future major event where random personal connections with other interesting hams make the experience very worthwhile.
Hugo AA1XV made a plug for the newly-operational Thursday night HF Net, which he said has started with a small but enthusiastic nucleus of attendees, which he is hoping to grow. You can tune in to 3965 +/- QRM – he will post the exact frequency in use for that evening’s session on the reflector at 7:55 PM.
Business Meeting was closed at 7:46
Steve W1SMS gave the main event presentation of the evening, extremely informative and packed with detail: “A Visual History of Flex Radios, Their Remote Operation Capabilities, and Remote Operation in General.”
Beginning with the definition of Software Defined Radio (SDR), he related how the idea for these communication systems started and evolved; those in attendance were able to hold and pass around the room samples of early and more recent Flex radios Steve brought. He traced the evolution of the various models he owns and uses, the manner in which early models which were more analog became more digital, and the way the radio and computer shared more of the work as time went on. As smaller footprint models were developed, remote and portable operation became more and more prevalent. Software evolved from being open-source with experimentation and expansion encouraged, to the current closed, proprietary product which can run on a desktop, laptop, tablet, even a cell phone. He highlighted and passed around a number of accessories, including a USB-connected knob for users who need to turn knobs! The Flex radios allow for SO2R (Single operator, 2 radios) systems as well as multiple operators sharing a single radio.
During a brief discussion of the seeming complexity of SDR systems, and the challenge involved building and maintaining them as compared with traditional stations, Steve reminded us all that this hobby is technical by its nature, and it is important to document changes as they occur.
We sincerely thank Steve for his interesting presentation! His Powerpoint will be available on the club website.
The Meeting was adjourned at 8:48.
Respectfully submitted, Jeff KB1C, Secretary
Present In Person (7): Hugo AA1XV (President), Steve K1RF, Toy K1WYQ), Rusty K4SAA, Jeff KB1C (Recording Secretary) , Dave N1DPD (Treasurer), Steve W1SMS (Vice President)
Present Virtually (5): Jon AI1V, Peter KC1PWH, Bill W1BKR, Jonathan W1DYN, Paul W1PPL
Social Preamble: 7-7:30 – Early technology and social discussions revolved around the upcoming change of call sign of our repeater trustee, the joys of portable bluetooth speakers, help for DMR programming, and general issues related to the repeaters which became old business.
General Meeting: called to order by President Hugo AA1XV at 7:30
A motion to accept minutes of the November meeting was approved unanimously.
Some discussion and generation of ideas for club activities became folded into New Business (see below).
Treasurers Report:
Dave shared results and finances from the Holiday party which had 25 attendees. All agreed that although costs were higher than last year, the food this year was an improvement.
To date we have 8 paid members. Last year paid membership was 65. Notification and membership renewal instructions will be sent out very soon. A review of 2025 club finances revealed we were once again in the black for the year.
2026 expenses so far include payment for a Zoom account that was implemented successfully for this meeting.
In the upcoming months we will need to file a form 990, and renew our mailbox at the UPS store. GNARC will host the Blooming Metric event in May; Dave will be this year’s point person, he will need help and member participation.
Election of New Officers:
Toy, representing the nominating committee, put forth the slate of officers who served in 2025 to be elected for another year. Club by-laws state that only members who attend in person may vote on new officers. Due to sparse attendance at this meeting, a motion was put forth to temporarily suspend this and allow everyone in attendance, both in-person and virtual, to participate in the voting. This was unanimously agreed upon.
As the club by-laws stipulate, prior to the vote new nominations from the floor were sought three times, none were offered. The current officers were unanimously re-elected.
Old Business:
Some discussion of issues related to the clubs repeaters centered around two issues: the 2 m repeater currently in use whose antenna is located in the tower on Strawberry Hill ave, and the new repeater and antenna to be installed at Norwalk Hospital. Steve says there is a plan in place to get full access to the tower in the event maintenance or problem-solving is needed, but the system is functioning now and there’s no immediate urgency. The new repeater at the Hospital site needs to be fully operational before he can move forward on the tower access project. If we do end up with a calamitous failure, he should be able to fix it, but in the meantime we should view it as a working system and not disturb it. There’s a lot of work involved and he is getting to it as he can make progress. Some members reported sporadic failure during last summer’s Bloomin Metric and at other warm weather times, we should involve “Repeater Steve” if and when this happens.
Some noted that activity on the 2 m repeater has declined, that it isn’t being used much. However we must be able to rely on it when we need to, and as of now that is the case.
New Business:
Hugo noted that the club will be replacing Tom Gunther, W1TEG, as former trustee of the club’s W1NLK call sign, with Hugo AA1XV as the new trustee.
Toy suggested that during the winter months (cold times), we should consider holding meetings entirely on Zoom as was done during the pandemic. Starting earlier might be beneficial for some, the idea that we could postpone the traditional “social” portion of the meeting until later and start the old/new business side of the meeting first at 7:00 has merit. Yet,there are clear advantages to gathering in person. When there is a presentation, it can be done over Zoom but might be better in person.
A larger discussion issue began with the idea that meetings in person enhance the health of the club, but we need a reason to attend. Some challenging questions were posed for us to think about…. Why do people come to meetings? What can each of us do to make the club better?
A review of current club activities includes Saturday morning breakfasts, the Holiday party, summer picnic, field days, service activities (Blooming metric), weekly nighttime nets, POTA exercises. What else are we doing? What else could we be doing to engage our members?
It was noted that much of the core participation group is an aging population. How can we attract more (younger) people and keep them interested? Possibly reaching out to the ARRL periodically for a list of newly licensed hams in the area would be a start.
We must keep reminding ourselves and each other that we are all volunteers!
Hugo reminded us of the list of events and initiatives outlined by The ARRL Connecticut Section Manager in his email to members dated 12/30/25.
Toy reminded us of the profound role Tim W1GIG, now a silent key, played in the club during his years of involvement. He proposed we should do something in memory of W1GIG. We will be working to formulate ideas for memorializing him, perhaps something at the ARRL site in Newington.
Meeting was adjourned at 8;34
Respectfully submitted, Jeff KB1C, Recording Secretary
Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)
Meeting Minutes 11/12/25
Present In Person (7): Hugo AA1XV (President), Steve K1RF, Jeff KB1C (Secretary) , Joe KC1AUH, Dave N1DPD (Treasurer), Paul W1PPL, Steve W1SMS (Vice President)
Present Virtually: Tom KD1FBX
“If the people don’t want to come out to the ball park, nobody’s going to stop them” -Yogi Berra
A Zoom meeting was tried, and seems to be a good fit for the technology and room at the Westport Library. The link was distributed in a last-minute email, hopefully more advance notice will help those wishing to attend virtually next time.
Social Preamble: 7-7:30 – come early to share and get caught up with fellow members’ fix, build and broadcast experiences!
General Meeting: called to order by President Hugo AA1XV at 7:32
Minutes from last month were approved with one correction: Steve K1RF had suggested a need for some major events and meeting programming to get some club excitement going. The word “major” was stricken.
Some discussion and generation of ideas for club activities included:
- Field day (light) – perhaps a POTA style, minimalistic approach
- Learning how to solder class
- Fox hunt – warm weather activity with a stop for refreshments after ?
- POTA events
- HF Net – Hugo would be net control 40 or 75/80M with possible use of club’s 2M repeater as a “duplex” intercom
Further ideas are welcome! (See New Business below)
Treasurers Report:
Paid membership remains at 65. Club finances are in good shape, augmented by sales of donated equipment. Expenses such as insurance and website are being kept current. A review of last year’s Holiday party menu and expenses suggests perhaps similar or slightly higher rates this year which will support some additions to the food offerings. Stay tuned for details.
Old Business:
Nothing new to report on the trailer; the new repeater is a continuing project while our current repeaters continue to function and serve club needs
New Business:
Toy is in charge of organizing and informing the club regarding elections for next year’s officers. Anyone interested should contact him, or Hugo.
We have received donations of a few radios that are for sale to interested club members: A Kenwood THF6 including mike,and a Kenwood TS140 transceiver are currently available.
The beginnings of idea generation for activities during club meetings:
Paul W1PPL has some kits that can be built teaching or reinforcing soldering skills. We would need to find a different location for the meeting if soldering will be involved for all attendees., other construction-based ideas: an attenuator for Fox hunting, simple antennas. Others? Your ideas are welcome!
Some discussion of attracting users to Nets included these thoughts:
What is the purpose of a net? In addition to fellowship and socialization, one relevant objective is making sure your equipment is working properly. There are currently well-run weekly ARES and club 2-meter Nets, structured to serve both strict and loose goals. (See note about new HF Net above.) How can participation be increased?
Presentation:
by Steve W1SMS : “Lightning Strikes”
A very interesting and informative cause-and-effect theory-based explanation of what causes lightning, and what results from a lightning strike. Detailed instructions for protecting buildings and equipment using various grounding systems preceded the story of a personal disaster at Steve’s home QTH and resulting recovery. He included detailed information on grounding: do’s and dont’s, physical equipment and best practices, and a helpful list of resources for further information, planning, and acquiring equipment. The presentation in electronic form will be available on the club website.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:56
Respectfully submitted, Jeff KB1C, Secretary
Hugo AA1XV, our club president, recently wrote to our Congressman and our two Senators to support the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act. His letters are shown here
Letter to Representative Himes
We urge all hams and supporters of ham radio to contact your Representative and Senator to support this legislation.
Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)
Meeting Minutes 10/08/2025
Held at the Westport Public Library
Present: W1SMS (Vice President), N1DPD (Treasurer), AI1V (recording), K1RF, K1MGD, W1PPL, K1CYW. We were unable to run internet access due to technical problems.
Meeting called to order at 7:30 pm
Minutes of the September meeting were approved.
Treasury: Good financial shape. We paid our CT Business Registration Fee ($50). Our insurance and website payments are coming up which will be about $375 total.
We have 65 current members, pretty much the same as last year.
Website: Nothing to report.
Repeaters: W1SMS has been busy and has not made any progress on the hospital repeater. He is still working on getting an MOU with the hospital to make sure we are covered there. He is planning on integrating Echolink into the repeater site rather than having it external to the repeater.
N1DPD was at the trailer and noticed a little rust on top of the back door. We will need to address it sooner rather than later.
It is time to start planning the holiday party – hint hint.
New business:
K1RF pointed out that we need some major events and meeting programming to get some club excitement going. WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO ORGANIZE EVENTS AND ORGANIZE MEETING PROGRAMS!!!
Next meeting:
The next meeting is expected to be November 12 at the Westport Public Library. Informal gathering at 7pm, formal meeting to start at 7:30 pm.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20 pm.
Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Time: In person 7:00 PM, Remote access starts at 7:30 PM
Location: Westport Library – Room 210,
20 Jesup Rd. Westport, CT 06880
Our informal session will run from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM, providing a great opportunity for discussion and brainstorming. The formal part of the meeting will begin at 7:30 PM with audio/video access available. Topics will include upcoming fall activities, event planning, and general club updates.
If you cannot attend in person, you can join the meeting online. Instructions will be sent out to club members.
Hope to see you all there.
