Monthly Members Meeting
June 12, 2024 – Meeting Minutes
This month we were unable to secure a room at the Comstock Center of Wilton. A virtual meeting was held.
Called to order by the president, Hugo AA1XV, at 1930 hours.
Attending: Officer members – Hugo AA1XV, President; Dave N1DPD, Treasurer. Other members and guests in attendance: Pete, KC1PWH; Paul, W1PPL; Jon, AI1V; Toy, K1WYQ; Steve, W1SMS; Dan (callsign?); Jim, KC1FB; Steve, K1RF; Johnny,W1DYN; Andre,W2ART.
Treasurer’s report: Our club is solvent. No changes since last meeting. No new paid members nor new expenses.
Committee Reports:A committee previously appointed on the matter of club assets, credentials, and technological evaluation of the repeaters and GNARC licenses and coordination, integrated by Steve W1SMS, Paul W1PPL, and Peter KC1PWH, presented a report on the current state of GNARC’s repeaters. This is a first step towards ensuring continuous availability of VHF communication by creating enough redundancy to address power loss, hardware failure, site inaccessibility, or any other unforeseen situation.
Peter KC1PWH put forward a motion for the Board of Directors (B.O.D.) to consider, and if adopted, authorize the expenditure of funds to cover the purchase of a new Yaesu Fusion repeater, a new collinear antenna, and other necessary hardware complemented with donated material to be installed at the Norwalk Hospital.
Subsequent steps for the broader scope of this committee will include:
- Installing an Echolink node
- Securing access to the current 2-meter repeater site
- Creating necessary maintenance documentation
- Ensuring rights to access the locations of the equipment
- Assuring the club’s rights over these locations.
Old Business:
Johnny, W1DYN, and Dave, W1DPD, provided a brief overview of the Bloomin Metric Bike race held this past month. Firstly, there were no injuries or accidents among the participants. However, it was noted that some areas on the route do not have reliable cell phone coverage, highlighting the convenience and reliability of radio communications to support the event.
New Business:
Toy, K1WYQ, expressed concern about the gnarc.org website. His concerns included outdated information and the vulnerability of membership email addresses to spam and exploitation by malicious actors. In this vein, I’d like to ask again for help: We’d like to have a permanent webmaster or someone willing to take care of our webpage on a more permanent basis.” Jon, AI1V, stepped in to help when Paul, W1IP, stepped down as webmaster after many years of dedicated service, for which we are very grateful. We are looking for volunteers who can dedicate a few hours a month to keep the website current and secure. If you are interested, please step forward and let us know.
Announcements:
This June 22 and 23 is the annual ARRL Field Day. GNARC will not participate as a club, but some members will join the event at the Westport Astronomical Society, collaborating with two other clubs. Setup will be on Friday, June 21st. If you want to reserve an operation slot, please visit: Field Day Signup Form.
The meeting was adjourned at 2100 hours.
