Here are a few photos from our annual gathering!
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”65″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″]Present (15): W1IP, AI1V, W1SMS, W1PPL, KC1AUH, W1LYZ, K1CYW, KC1TX, N1ZD, AA1XV, N1DPD, K1WYQ, KC1KSO, KB1OIE, K1RF
Meeting opened 7:30 by W1IP
July minutes approved.
Department Reports:
Finance: Checking and savings both good. We were able to sell a number of pieces of donated equipment at good prices.
Communications : No communications of note.
Board : No Board actions.
Technical Committee: No problems noted.
With Curt’s imminent move to North Carolina, we need to find a chair for the Technical Committee. Please contact any of the Board members if you are interested. You don’t have to be the world’s greatest techie, you just need to be someone who will work with the club to find the right person to fix things when they need fixing.
Because of rain getting through the roof of the Comm Center, the router we were using for open internet access was destroyed, which took away both our wireless internet at the Comm Center and also our Echolink access. We have offered the Fire Dept a replacement router, but so far they have not installed it.
Public Service:
● Lighthouse to Lighthouse is coming up 9/14. Due to other commitments on our parts, we have asked Jeff Cronin from GFARA to head up the coverage.
● The Parkinson Walk is coming up Oct 5. It’s a short (1-½ hour) operation where we cover the route of a 1-½ mile walk by Parkinson Disease victims who are raising money for research. Parkinson is a horrible disease since it slowly robs people of their ability to walk, talk, digest food, and think clearly. We were shocked last year to discover how many Parkinson victims we individually knew. Pizza and tee-shirts.
Although not quite public service, we did a Lighthouses on the Air (LOTA) deployment at Sheffield Island Light House on August 18. We activated on both 40 and 20 meters, and despite generally bad propagation managed to get contacts well out into the mid-West. Many thanks to KC1GBZ who just happened to bring along a “spare” antenna that we wound up needing to use when we couldn’t get the club’s end-fed to work.
Education Committee: Tech Class scheduled to start 9/26. We have 18 people signed up for the class. About half of them are CERT, the other half are just people interested in getting their licenses.
VE session last Saturday. Two new techs. One upgrade from tech to general. Candidates came from as far away as Middlebury CT (near Waterbury). We remain one of the most active testing centers in CT.
Holiday Party: The annual holiday party will be held on Wed Dec 11 at 6pm at the Laurel Athletic Club in Norwalk. Pricing details to follow.
The meeting was closed at 7:52 pm.
Thank you to Steve, W1SMS, for a very interesting AND eye opening discussion of antenna
tuners – or as he called them “antenna couplers”.
The Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (www.gnarc.org) will be offering an amateur radio
licensing class that will get you your entry level technician amateur (“ham”)
radio license.
The classes will run for six weeks starting on Thursday September 26.
Class is 6:30 to 9:30 at GNARC’s communications center at 100 Fairfield Avenue
in Norwalk (convenient to I-95 and Route 7). There is no charge for the
class, although you will need to buy the Amateur Radio Relay League’s training
manual ($25). We suggest that you purchase an entry level radio so you can
begin to listen to things right away. They cost about $35 on Amazon. Details to
be provided.
At the end of the class, you will be able to take the FCC exam at GNARC and get
your license.
Getting a ham radio license requires learning some rules and regulations, the
basics of how radios and antennas work, and simple electronics.
Update: All three HF radios have been sold! Power supply sold!
Hygain CD45II Rotator system – New in Box – with control cable! – $300!
Please see the PDF attachment for the excellent presentation given by Steve, K1RF on end fed half wave antennas.
Today a group of GNARC members operated portable form Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. Attending were Paul WB2JVB, Joe KC1AUH, Jon AI1V, Paul W1PPL, Steve KB1YLQ and Curt W1FSM.
We had two antennas, an end fed multiband and a Buddipole set for 20m. The end fed was used on 40m.
Conditions were surprisingly good! We had no problems making contacts up and down the East coast, the mid West and into Canada on 40. When we switched to 20, we talked to several European stations (Germany was one) and out to Minnesota. Jon and Paul JVB did the operating.
This was a very fun day, perfect weather and good HF propagation. We plan to do this again, as Sherwood is now free to get in, and it is an official park, Z1715, so if you get spotted, you get lots of calls.
Here are a few pictures from the day.
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This past Saturday, local hams provided communications support for the 2018 Lighthouse to Lighthouse Race. Hams were in two support boats, on Sheffield Island, in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary tower and on the beach. We used the 146.475 repeater, and also coordinated comms on various marine channels. We assist in tracking progress of the race, helping stranded paddlers, and ensuring that all paddlers are accounted for at the end of the race. We were in communications with the USCG and support boats on marine channels as well as using our repeater.
Thanks to Marilyn KB1YYO (boat), Dimitri K1DCG (tower), Jon AI1V (boat), Paul W1PPL (Sheffield Island) for volunteering and doing a great job on the radios.
Thanks also to Greg KC1CRT and Bill WG1HM who were on coast guard duty and relayed info to Dimitri in the tower.
Michael N1PLH and Joe KC1AUH also showed up on race day to help me at race control. I would have had a much tougher day had they not appeared.
N1PLH also brought his drone, and you can see some of the photos attached.If you look at the race control tent, you can see my buddipole tripod setup with a J Pole configuration on top. This was for the marine channels. A small mag mount on a pie plate was used on top of the tent for 2 meters.
Also a link to his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YuY4Dd185o
The radio box (Yaesu FT-8800 and SeaRanger marine radio) was powered by one 15ah Bioenno battery.
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