Monthly Members Meeting
July 14, 2021 – Meeting Minutes
Attending: Officer members –Jon Perelstein AI1V, President; Paul LaVorgna W1PPL, Treasurer; Peter Healy KC1GBZ, Vice President; Tom Gunther W1TEG, Secretary. Other members in attendance included: Dee-N1ZD, Jonathan AB1HI, Jonathan K1RFD, David W1DPW, Jim KC1FB, Hugo AA1XV, Steve N1CF, Steve K1RF; Marty KA1WBN; William; Don.
Minutes: Meeting called to order at 7:30 PM by President Jon AI1V;
Order of Business
- Reminder Bloomin Metric is moved to Sept 19th Bloomin’ Metric (bloominmetric.com) Members will be needed to support this event.
- The GNARC picnic at Lyz Richards is scheduled for SUNDAY August 29th. Save the date.
- Tower/Trailer – has been scrapped
- Field Day was a success with 6054 points recorded.
- VE Session is Saturday 7/31 at SoNO mall – Readiness Collective at 1:00 pm
- Jon is preparing to offer a Tech License class in the spring and a GENERAL class in September.
- FD Outreach – no response as yet but will be followed up.
- Future meetings at Shop Rite? Zig N1ICL is the contact to follow up with. Also the Coast Guard Aux building at Calf Pasture Beech is also available as an alternative.
- Meeting Presentations – Jonathan K1RFD “What’s New in EchoLink” to discuss Internet Connectivity – EchoLink updates. Jonathan is the creator of Echo Link. Latest version is V2.3 for PCs; V2.16 for IOS devices. See www.echolink.org for more info.
- Treasurer’s Report –– $16K+ remains in our accounts with little or no spend occurring other than for Field Day. Once all invoices are processed an updated report will follow. The club finances remain strong.
- Activities – Discussed a summer show & tell focused on “mobile radios”. More discussion to follow.
Next meeting will be August 29th … at the GNARC Picnic. Stay tuned for details to follow.
Meeting adjourned 8:25 PM
W1TEG, Secretary.
Attending: Officer members –Jon Perelstein AI1V, President; Paul LaVorgna W1PPL, Treasurer; Peter Healy KC1GBZ, Vice President; Tom Gunther W1TEG, Secretary. Other members in attendance included: Dee-N1ZD, Jonathan AB1HI, Steve K1RFD, David W1DPW, Jess ND1L, Toy K1WYQ, Jim KC1FB, Pete KC1PWH, Hugo AA1XV, Jonathan K1RFD, Steve KC1MDK, Steve N1CF, Beth Morgan, Ray WB1U.
Minutes: Meeting called to order at 7:39 PM by President Jon AI1V;
Order of Business
Trailer – Discussed the need to have the tower trailer disposed of as scrap ASAP. Hugo indicated he may have a person to take it.
Future Meeting Presentations – Next month (May 12th) Jonathan K1RFD to discuss Internet Connectivity – EchoLink updates.
Treasurer’s Report — $16,260.94 remains in our accounts with little or no spend occurring. With no holiday party expenses, the club finances remain strong. We have 69 paid members – down from our usual ~120.
Education/Testing – The class for new Tech license is concluded yesterday with Jon. The recent testing produced 6 new licensed Tech’s – mostly from the Wilton CERT class taught by W1IP. A few more are expected to take the test on 4/17.
Field Day Planning – We expect a “lite” version this year and focused on discussing a portable antenna i.e. BYOA as an approach. AARL will have some new rules this year including BYORadio.
Activities – Discussed a summer show & tell focused on “mobile radios”. More discussion to follow.
Presentation: Grounding a Station by Jon P. Some key points covered: A/C, RF and Lightning protection; Chasis to building grounds; RF ground approaches; see “The Wireman.com and Radio Works for more info .
New Business: Should there be a picnic in the summer? Pandemic rules will probably rule.
Bloomin Metric: tentative date is Sunday August 29th, Sherwood Island to Fairfield. Save the date to attend and support this event. For more info see:
https://www.bloominmetric.com
Next meeting will be May 12th. Preso to be made by Jonathan K1RFD on Internet Connectivity and “EchoLink updates”.
Meeting adjourned 8:46 PM
W1TEG, Secretary.
Location: Via ZOOM video/audio conference platform
Meeting called to order by President Jon (AI1V) at 7:30 PM. Finance report: account balances were reviewed by the Treasurer Paul (W1PPL). No mail reported in our mailbox. Technical Report: repeaters are working. Discussion of Saturday Morning net was had, with issues noted on using EchoLink.
Field Day Discussion – led by Hugo (AA1XV). ARRL advises to be flexible and creative this year due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions for gatherings. Hugo spoke to a representative of Norwalk Parks & Rec who indicated all parks will not be open for gatherings probably through July 2020. One approach discussed was “individuals” appearing in the Park; or gathering at a member’s house/property to set up and operate; or individuals operate from their own property and we aggregate contacts as a club for scoring. Additional research is ongoing to use K1TA’s property or the other options discussed. Some members questioned the wisdom of any physical gathering for Field Day during the pandemic. Also discussed were software options for logging calls.
Meeting Presentation: “Deploying an Amplifier” by Tom K1TA. The slide show and discussion were well researched, packed with details and greatly appreciated by the members. We will seek to get the PPT posted to our website.
Meeting Adjourned: 8:36 PM
Attendees (27):
• Jon AI1V
• Dee N1ZD
• Tom W1TEG
• Tom K1TA
• Jonny AB1HI
• Paul W1PPL
• Paul W1IP
• Andre W2ART
• Rich K1CYW
• Steve K1RF
• David K1SZO
• Hugo AA1XV
• Jim N1ZFS
• Sam NV1P
• Rachel KB1VWJ
• Mike Cavaliere
• William KB1IFY
• Jess ND1L
• Joe KC1AUH
• David N1DPD
• Toy K1WYQ
• Tom KB1FBX
• Peter KC1GBZ
• Steve N1CM
• Ilan KC1LDQ
• Fred K1FC
• Jeanine KY1Q
• Ted ?
Present (16): K1TA, W1IP, W1PPL, AI1V, N1DPD, KB1FBX, W1SMS, W1TEG, N1ZD, ND1L, K1WYQ, AA1XV, KC1GBZ, KC1JGY, K1ISA, KC1MAF
Meeting opened 7:30 by K1TA Oct minutes approved.
Department Reports:
Nominating Committee: Due to a sudden, last-minute drop-out of a candidate, we have to delay the announcement of the proposed slate for Board of Directors by 24 hours. A vote was taken to approve the delay and was passed.
Finance: Checking and savings both good.
Communications: No communications of note.
Board: No Board actions.
Technical Committee: We are having a problem with the Echolink/IRLP node because we are sending courtesy tones to Echolink and IRLP, which we should not be doing. There is a module we need to add to the repeater. KC1GBZ and N1PLH are working on the problem and expect to have it taken care of shortly. Until then we are blocked from certain IRLP reflectors.
With Curt’s 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.
Public Service: No items of note this month. Nothing in the immediate future.
Education Committee: Tech class ended 10/31. So far nine of the students have taken their exam, with eight passing. We expect two more to take the exam in December, plus the one who did not pass – which will give us a “graduation number” of 11.
Read More →Meeting opened 7:30 by K1TA
Sept minutes approved.
Department Reports:
Finance: Checking and savings both good.
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:
- The Parkinson Walk took place on Oct 5. It’s a short operation where we cover the route of a 1-½ mile walk by Parkinson Disease victims who are raising money for research. Although a short walk by our standards, it’s a very very long walk for people suffering from Parkinson’s. We had eight people show up and the event organizers were extremely grateful.
The CT Section Simulated Emergency Test will take place on Saturday Oct 26. If you subscribe to the CT ARES reflector you should be receiving information about it. If you are not receiving the information, please contact AI1V (ai1v@arrl.net).
Education Committee: Tech Class started 9/26. 20 people signed up for the class with another 6 on the waiting list. About half of them are CERT, the other half are just people interested in getting their licenses. The second class on 10/3 had 18 people, which is actually better than expected.
VE session last Saturday. 3 new Tech licenses.
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 7:48 pm.
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”.
Meeting opened 7:30 by K1TA
June minutes approved.
Department Reports:
Finance: Checking and savings both good. Spent $710 on Field Day, including some supplies for the summer picnic.
Communications: No communications of note.
Board: The Board met to discuss FD trailer situation. The trailer itself is old and cannot be licensed. The tower is welded to the trailer. The Board wants to put together a committee of interested parties to explore options – including moving the tower to a different trailer, replacing the existing beam with a smaller and lighter beam, mounting a flip-up tower to our equipment trailer, and whatever else comes to mind. Please contact K1TA if you are interested in participating on the committee.
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