The powerpoint presentation recently given by Jess ND1L is HERE. Clicking the link will download the file. You must have powerpoint or a powerpoint viewer to read.
Minutes from February 12, 2020 Monthly Meeting
Attendance: see list at the bottom (16 MEMBERS)
Call to Order: 19:35 EST by President Jon Pearlstein
Prior meeting minutes: Will be posted shortly by Jon, for member review and approval at next meeting.
Membership Renewal: Members were reminded to pay their dues to update their membership.
Financial Report: The Treasurer was away at Hamcation. No official report at this meeting, but a reminder to pay dues was delivered.
Saturday Mornings at Comm Center: Members were reminded to stop in at the Comm Center (Fire House on Fairfield Ave, Norwalk) on Saturday mornings (9-12) for some radio related time. Recently members were on RTTY making 30 contacts globally and the prior week on FT8 also making lots of global contacts. Some may say the bands are quiet but the data modes can still be quite active for DX. Come by and give it a try.
Hamcation: Several members recently attended the Feb 7-9 Orlando Hamcation event. Notes from the field indicated a nice review of new equipment including radios and antenna.
Field Day: Time to start thinking about the upcoming June Field Day. Discussion on possible locations included, Vets Park, West Rocks School, Cranberry Park, Norwalk Niki site and Sherwood Island Park. No decision was made on next location.
Other planned activities: No immediate public service events are scheduled. The following are on the horizon: Bloomin Metric (End of May); MS Ride (will probably not occur in 2020 in Norwalk); Fairfield ½ Marathon (1st Sun in June).
Here are a few photos from our annual gathering!
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”65″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″]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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