Wednesday, 2/15 was the first night of the technician class.  Jon AI1V and Paul WB2JVB are lead instructors. Supported by Tom K1TA and perhaps some guest teachers.  We have a good crowd and a few are ALREADY talking about upgrading and getting to HF!  Here are a couple of photos.

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”52″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

Paul W1PPL, Paul WB2JVB, Lisa KC1YL watching Tom K1TA do something interesting! I don’t remember what it was, but I think we were looking on a sked page to get a MT contact, which is all that N1EV needs for 50 states!

Please don’t be shy, come on down any Wednesday. We usually have pizza or Chinese food and enjoy some ham radio operating and discussion. Check the reflector for details.

73!

Thanks to all who came to our holiday party on Wednesday. We had a great turnout, good food, good drink, and of course Toy K1WYQ was the master of ceremonies! Lisa KC1YL was awarded a certificate of appreciation for her contributions to the club over the past year.  She spearheaded many club activities this year: fox hunt antenna building, Sheffield Island Expedition, Ambler Farm “Fall out on the air”, summer picnic and more. Thanks Lisa for helping GNARC stay active! VP Paul WB2JVB presented the award.

Today, a small crew from GNARC replaced the failed rotor on the tower. Mike N1PLH and Paul WB2JVB climbed the tower with ground crew support from Tom K1TA, Curt W1FSM and Dee N1ZD.  Charles N1LLL was the safety officer.  Please see one of the tech committee for training on how to use the new rotor system.

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”47″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”46″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]For those who never come to the comm center, you are missing out on the fun! Last night we worked on RDF antennas, installed FLDIGI and got it working with the IC-7200 for digital modes and had a generally good tech time!

Today a bunch of GNARC members showed up to operate portable at Ambler Farm in Wilton CT.  The excuse to operate was that today is “Fall Out” day, started by the 100 Watts and a Wire Group.

We had two antennas, a G5RV about 35 feet up and an end-fed wire about 30 feet up at one end. Rigs were Icom IC-706 and IC-718.

KC1YL and WB2JVB got the antennas up during the week.  Thanks to the following hams who showed up today and helped, or just shot the breeze:  K1TA, N1PLH, KC1GFO, AB1QK, N1ALF, KB1YLQ, KC1EAA, KC1YL and WB2JVB.

Contacts were made on 20m SSB and 40m SSB and CW. We even had a rare DX contact into the next county in NY, our previous president NE2Q! A few DX contacts in Europe and many US contacts. Lots of donuts and coffee were consumed.

A group of kids who apprentice at the farm heard our presentation on ham radio, and a couple were definitely interested.  We also had a fox transmitter setup a couple of miles away and played with the tape measure antenna to try and point at it.

An excellent time had by all!

Getting ready for the upcoming GNARC fox hunt (date TBD), a few hams got together and made some tape measure antennas. If you don’t have one, better get on board! They were super easy to make.

This is the link for the instructions we used: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Tape-Measure-Antenna/

We tested the SWR and it is 1.1 to 1.4 across the band. Make one!