At this year’s holiday party, Charles and Erika were among those recognized for supporting the club above and beyond the call of duty. Charles revamped the club web site, partnered with Curt W1FSM to greatly upgrade our repeater systems, and initiated a liaison with Norwalk’s Emergency Management Group. GNARC now sits in on the monthly EMD meetings, which is a great partnership.
But the major milestone in 2014 was the establishment of a GNARC communications center. With Chris WO1T, Charles was able to secure a permanent space for the club in one of the FD buildings. He managed virtually all of the project, including the installation of the tower (which first had to be removed from the old Red Cross building!), beam and all sorts of other equipment. We would not have the center without his work. Charles led the clean up, painting and outfitting of the space, and organized the many many GNARC volunteers who helped.
In recognition, Charles received a beautiful painting of his boat, crafted by our artist in residence, Dan N1ZZ.
Erika KC1BLS has given up much of her time to work on the center as well. From cleaning, painting, organizing to installing the beam, she pitched in wherever needed! And she puts up with Charles spending so much time with us. For this, she was awarded dinner for two at Paloma restaurant.
Some photos from the recent GNARC 2014 holiday party.
Effective Tuesday, November 18th 2014, the Norwalk 440 repeater will be converted to a new digital mode called “DMR”. Digital Mobile Radio, which is based on international standards, allows repeaters to carry multiple “talk groups” and be linked regionally, nationally, and of course worldwide.
For this experiment (which is what ham radio is all about!), the analog repeater you are familiar with at 448.075 will be digital for a test period of several months. If you have programmed your radios to scan this frequency, it will stop and just hear digital white noise.
The normal New Canaan 440 repeater will be back to analog on Wednesday, and we are actively looking at moving echolink/irlp over to that machine as it will not be available on Norwalk during the digital test.
Thank you for your patience during this test of an exciting new mode of operation!
If you would like more information about DMR, please reach out to W1FSM, WB2JVB, N1LLL or N1PLH.
This link has good information on DMR: http://www.dmr-marc.net/
Here are some other FAQs about DMR: http://www.k1tmm.info/dmr-faq#faqnoanchor
Several GNARC members have bought a ConnectSystems CS700 radio to experiment with DMR. It costs about $180. Look for the “CS700” at the web site below:
http://www.connectsystems.com/
As discussed at the November meeting last night, an online sign up sheet has been created so any member can come help with THEIR club communications center. Please see the link to the right.
Please check often to see when the center will be open for work to be done, and of course hang and chat with your ham pals at the same time!
Emails will be sent on the reflector when the signup sheet has new items on it.
You do not HAVE to create an account on signup genius. You can just select the item, click the large sign up button on the bottom and fill in your info. If you want to create an account you can, but it is not needed.
Thank you in advance for your help!
N1ZZ working some DX!
Led by Curt, W1FSM, and Dee, N1ZD, some major progress was made in the radio room today! The right side is primarily HF and the left side is VHF/UHF. The desks have been positioned, and placement of various items like the antenna patch panel have been decided. We await a 240v outlet to power the amp. There are power supplies installed at each table for the radios.
Power will be distributed via a Rigrunner powerpole panel at the center of each table. Some rigs have build in power supplies. There is a 8 foot long power strip bolted to each table that allows easy access to 120V as needed.
Next steps will involve setting out radios and hooking them up. Building coax jumpers and the antenna patch panel. Deciding if more monitors/computers will be needed for DX spotting, etc other than the main computer shown in the pictures.
If you want to help, please contact Curt, he is coordinating the room build out and more help is needed! We want you to make this room your room!
VHF/UHF
HF Table
HF Table
ARES
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service ® (ARES ® ) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service and when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES. You can read the official ARRL material on ARES here.
ARES is organized regionally. The regions match the regions used by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. In Southwest CT, we are in region 1. There are five “district emergency coordinators”, or DECs that report into the SEC. You can learn much more about ARES in Connecticut here: www.ctares.org.
ARES members can participate in public service events to provide communications support that enhances the safety of the operation. Events like charity bike rides and runs are classic examples where amateur radio provides the organizers with communications that cover a wide area. These events help ARES members practice their skills in deploying their equipment and operating on a “controlled net” to practice effective communications skills.
At this time, we are looking to create relationships with local agencies and organizations to provide assistance during large events and during emergencies. It is important to realize that ARES members don’t “self deploy” during disasters, but are part of an overall emergency preparedness team.
Local Nets
There is a periodic region 1 CERT/ARES net. When called, this net occurs on Tuesday at 8:00 PM. All amateurs are welcome, and encouraged to check into the net. Frequencies for the CERT/ARES net are 146.475 (+ 1 MHz Split) with a PL of 100.0 Hz. At this time GNARC officers are looking into a way to link one of our repeaters into the statewide net that occurs on Sundays.
You can also learn more about CERT, which is a fast growing emergency preparedness organization across the country, see http://www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams. You can also contact local CERT leaders in Wilton, Stamford, Fairfield, Westport and other Region 1 towns. More towns are turning to CERT to help in emergencies, and the addition of amateur radio to the CERT is important to operations.
For more information, please contact Paul Lourd, WB2JVB, DEC Connecticut Region 1.
