Present In Person (10): Hugo AA1XV, Steve K1RF, Jeff KB1C, David N1DPD, Steve
W1SMS, Peter KC1TMT, (with guest/chauffeur Peter G), Jon AI1V, Zig N1ICL, Dan KC1WSE

Present Virtually (4): Toy K1WYG, Paul N1II, Paul W1PPL, Jeffrey KB1HVC
(Some members dialing in virtually continue to have trouble with audio)

Meeting called to order by President Hugo AA1XV at 7:32

Minutes from last month approved

Old Business:

Treasurers Report
Treasurer David N1DPD reported the club continues to be in good shape financially, with 59 paid members. Recently the sale of an amplifier brought in $1000.

Anticipated expenses: small donation to Westport Astro Soc for those who participate in Field Day there this year; some taxes are coming due; summer picnic

Webmaster
Douglas WA1SFH had requested TUESDAY eve CERT Net be announced, Jon AI1V reports we have already Published it on the website.

Repeaters
Steve W1SMS reports further progress in the works: a visit to Norwalk Hospital is planned for next week to establish best access to the roof and scout sites for antennas.

New Business:

Bloomin Metric Report
David N1DPD reported on Ham Radio participation in recently held Bloomin Metric cycling event, All went well with help from GNARC and the Stamford Club numbering 8 altogether. Steve Urso N1CM can’t do it next year and is looking for us to take over ownership of the course monitoring next year. David may Be the man for the job, he will need help, we will see what we need to organize when we get closer to Next year’s event.

Field Day
Field Day weekend is upcoming, the last full weekend in June, 6/28-29.

No official participation for GNARC but all who are interested are invited and encouraged to join the group at the Wesport Astronomical Society whose setup has worked well in the past. GNARC will donate to WAS based on our participation number. We are also invited to Stamford’s FD.

Miscellany
There was some good/informative discussion and interesting sharing of stories involving various 2m-6m-HF Nets in the East, and various TV/cable/radio interference/pranks/achievements. We must move our trailer to a new home, currently there is no good option; we have one more month in its current location.

Any interest among club members in using a Remote Station?
FLEX radios are becoming inexpensive enough to make this kind of setup feasible; many different bands can be covered with better antennas and can be accessed even from a cell phone. If the club puts something up will people use it?

The meeting was adjourned at 8:46
Respectfully submitted, Jeff KB1C, Secretary

REMINDER: THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE THURSDAY JULY 10 INSTEAD OF WEDNESDAY JULY 9. THE MEETING WILL BE AT THE WESTPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY. WE EXPECT TO BE RETURNING TO A WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE AFTER THAT.

Dear GNARC Members and Friends,

Please note a change to our upcoming meeting schedule due to room unavailability on the regular dates:

• June Meeting: Moved from Wednesday, June 11 to Thursday, June 12
• July Meeting: Moved from Wednesday, July 9 to Thursday, July 10

Both meetings will be held at the Westport Library in Room 210. Doors open at 7:00 PM, with a call to order at 7:30 PM.

Please save these new dates on your calendar. We’ll send a reminder closer to each meeting.

Thank you for your understanding.

73,

Hugo W. Catta – AA1XV

Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)
Meeting Minutes 05/14/20
Held at Westport Public Library

Present In Person (13):  Hugo AA1XV, Steve K1RF, Rusty K4SAA, Jeff KB1C, David N1DPD, Steve W1SMS, Paul W1PPL, Elliot K1MF, Rich K1CYW, Peter KC1TMT, Pete KC1JGY, Jeffrey KB1HVC, Dan KC1WSE

Present Virtually (2): Tom KD1FBX, Jon AI1V

Meeting called to order by Hugo AA1XV at 7:30

Hugo welcomed new faces and old

Presentation on Weather Satellites

By Peter, KC1TMT

The main types of satellites and how to contact them and receive and/or decode their data were reviewed. There are hardware and software considerations, depending on the kind of satellite being sought; Peter presented a lot of very interesting information gathered from his experience, results, and research on weather satellites.

His presentation was well done and well received! Thank you, Peter!

The full presentation will be available on the GNARC website.

Old Business

Treasurers Report

 David N1DPD reported the club continues to be financially solvent; We have 58 paid members

Recently, the club received a donation in memory of TIm Walker. So far, one radio (706) has been sold.

Repeaters

VP Steve W1SMS reported progress on the new 2M repeater installation at Norwalk Hospital, Next steps include inspection and installation of the antenna and repeater. The repeater has 440 capabilities, but transmission on both 2M and 440 bands at the same time is not possible. For now, the repeater will remain 2M for club use. There was some discussion of linked repeaters vs DMR vs Echolink, which is located with Jon AI1V.

GNARC Meeting Locations

Rusty K4SAA has been exploring alternate sites (eg, Norwalk Senior Center) for club meetings or Field Day.  Ideally a location within the City of Norwalk such as a business would serve us well.

Hugo AA1XV has been exploring Manresa Island as a possibility at some point far in the future.

Field Day Sites

Vets Park in SONO continues to be a possibility, but a complication has arisen: the City now requires us to pay a fee for us to use the Park. The Westport location used in the past remains an option, but it has disadvantages. No final decision was made.

The benefits and enjoyment of POTA were brought up. Sherwood Island is great for this, but the Park must be cleared out by sunset, so this is not a good candidate for our Field Day.

POTA, or a Lighthouse on the Air, is potentially a good way to get people involved in the club and the hobby!

New Business:

Steve Urso N1CM,  of the Stamford club, is running the Bloomin Metric Bicycle Event this Sunday, and he is still looking for help from anyone with a 25- or 50-watt mobile radio and mobile antenna to drive or accompany a SAG vehicle, keeping track of the cyclers and monitoring the rest stops.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50

Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)

Meeting Minutes 4/09/2025.
Held at the Westport Public Library

Present in person (13):  AA1XV (President), AI1V (recording), N1DPD (Treasurer), W1SMS (Vice President), W1IP, W1PPL, KC1PWH, K1WYQ, KC1JGY, KB1HVC, KC1TMT, WB1K, Peter (not yet licensed)

Present virtually (2): KC1FB, K1RF

Informal chat started at 7pm. General discussion. Personal introductions. Discussions about club support for people needing to put up antennas.

Formal meeting called to order at 8pm.

Minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

Treasury:  Good financial shape.  Current income matches current and expected outflows except that there is only very limited funds for a holiday party.

Website: Nothing to report.

Repeaters – dealing with various administrative issues.  No real physical progress although the new repeater is being tested at W1SMS’s location and has been running successfully for a few months.

AA1XV is taking steps to make sure we are properly represented in the CSMA.

A suggestion was made to change the callsign on the backup 2 meter repeater to that of a recently deceased club member.  However, those present felt it would be confusing to users and would reduce our repeater flexibility during times of emergency.  An informal vote was taken and those present voted down the suggestion.

Once the new repeater is installed at the hospital (the backup 2 meter repeater) we will then address the primary 2 meter repeater.

Field Day – no progress on finding a suitable FD site other than going back to Veteran’s Park, which some members do not want to do.  AA1XV prefers that we should have our own FD and not combine with other clubs as we’ve done in the past few years.

New business:  

We have a number of saleable radios that we have received as donations.  They will be catalogued and then an email will be sent out to all club members listing what we have available for sale.

W1IP reported that the Ham Alert app makes it possible to find out if any particular ham is currently operating based on data gathered by spotting networks.  Not perfect if the ham is not spotted, but people operating POTA, SOTA, IOTA, etc. are generally spotted.

Next meeting:

Next meeting is expected to be May 14 at the Westport Public Library.  Informal gathering at 7pm, formal meeting to start at 8pm.  KC1TMT will be doing a presentation on weather satellites including how to find them on the air and how to decode their data streams.  We expect it will be a hybrid in-person and on-line meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 8:55pm.

Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)
Meeting Minutes 03/12/2025

Present In Person (10):  Hugo AA1XV, Jon AI1V, Chuck K1CWT, Steve K1RF, Rusty K4SAA, Jeff KB1C, David N1DPD, Steve W1SMS, Andre W2ART, George WB1K 

Present Virtually (6): Toy K1WYQ, Pete KC1PWH, Tom KD1FBX, Paul N1II, Jonathan W1DYN, Paul W1PPL

Informal Meeting opened ~7:00 PM by AA1XV

Steve K1RF and Hugo AA1XV  presented boxes of miscellaneous adapters/equipment to the club from the estate of Tim W1GIG. There is a lot of remaining equipment.

Hugo also mentioned being in contact with another collection of books and surplus usable equipment, some vintage; the need to test, catalog, and possibly price for distribution/auctioning was brought up.

As people began to join the virtual meeting, difficulties were encountered with the Westport Library’s Internet/networking setup. Troubles with video and audio arose as more members came online.

Formal (business) meeting started by Hugo at 7:36 PM.
Feb meeting minutes were approved.

Department Reports:

Treasurer:  David N1DPD reported the club continues to be financially solvent; we have 52 paid renewals to date.  Members are urged to please renew if they haven’t already. Some revenue can be generated by the sale of some unneeded equipment now.

Webmaster: Members suggested listing items for sale on the website. We were reminded there is a link to available GNARC “merch” (logo shirts) via the GNARC Store link.

Old Business:  

Repeaters: Steve W1SMS, the club’s Repeater Committee Chair, related progress on the implementation of the club’s new 2M repeater. As warmer weather is now here, the new hardware will be soon installed onto the Norwalk Hospital roof top. In preparation for the new 2M installation and the Norwalk Hospital, non-operating equipment was removed and the cabinet was cleaned.  He is also auditing other various sites to identify equipment, including antennas and radios that are currently active or to be used as stand by radios. He is also working to revise the various CSMA (Connecticut Spectrum Management Association) coordination filings to update the published point of contacts to responsible and active GNARC members.

Trailer Cleaning/Upkeep: Once the weather warms up a bit, volunteers will be able to more easily wash/organize it.

Member Survey Responses: Rusty K4SAA summarized trends revealed in the 11 responses received so far, which he notes represents only ~20% of membership. Items of interest included SOTA, POTA, lighthouse on the air, homebrew projects, operating (including QRP), Field Day, antennas… interest in technical presentations in  these or related areas was expressed. It was suggested that the responses be posted on the website. SOTA/POTA seemed especially of interest, though Jon AI1V and others have tried offering opportunities in the past with limited participation. This will be revisited next month.

Field Day Site Research: Rusty reported that Waveny is not a viable option, Sherwood Island may be an option but we would need approval to remain in the park overnight. The Norwalk Senior Center site was investigated and use of the outside fields rejected due to ongoing baseball games that time of year. There may be a room inside we could adapt to our needs and use; Rusty will follow up on this possibility. Next month we will make a definite decision.

Remote  HF Station: Paul W1PPL is continuing to explore the viability of our club implementing this with our ICOM 7300 and other available equipment.

New Business: 

We agreed that the “Hybrid” model we experimented with for this club meeting seems useful, but still needs work. Primary advantage is the inclusion of more members. The suggestion was made that virtual attendees be encouraged to communicate with the group using the Chat feature of the software. Possibly a better microphone and/or different meeting management software could be tried, ideally a pre-meeting trial could help iron out kinks. 

Hugo expressed that those interested in surveying the estate of Tim W1GIG contact him so that this could be done soon; a lot has been donated to the club and donated to an Antique Wireless Association group.  GNARC members have 2 weeks left before disposal of remaining equipment.

Hugo reported on an anonymous donation to the club of a new ICOM 7300, which he will be custodian and responsible party for, as requested by the donor.

No upcoming VE sessions are planned; members interested in becoming a Volunteer Examiner to join the grading fun are encouraged to contact Jon AI1V.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:47PM

Next meeting is anticipated Wed. Apr 9

Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club (GNARC)
Meeting Minutes 02/13/2025

Present (8): Hugo AA1XV, Toy K1WYQ, Steve K1RF, Pete KC1PWH, Rusty K4SAA, Jon AI1V, David N1DPD, Steve W1SMS

Meeting opened 7:00 by AA1XV
Jan minutes approved.

Department Reports:

Finance: Checking and savings both good. However, we have had only 32 paid renewals so far this year which is running behind last year at this time. Please don’t forget to renew.

Communications: No communications of note.

Board: No Board actions.

Technical Committee: Steve W1SMS continues to work on getting the new repeater and new antenna ready for the hospital site. Once the hospital site has been upgraded we will then address the Strawberry Hill site.

Public Service: No items of note this month. Nothing in the immediate future.

Education Committee: Nothing new.

Other Old Business: We still need to deal with the trailer at the firehouse since we are going to have to move it. We either need a place for the trailer itself or at least a place for the equipment in the trailer.

New Business:

We are doing a survey of what club members want out of the club. The survey has been put on-line and a link has been sent by email to everyone on the reflector mailing list.  Please respond to the survey so that the board can better plan club activities and meetings.

We will try a hybrid meeting next month – both in-person and on-line. Apparently there are a number of club members who prefer to not be driving at night, especially given rush hour traffic in lower Fairfield County.

We discussed Field Day 2025. Hugo AA1XV would prefer a more traditional Field Day than going to the Westport Astronomical Society, but so far has not found a suitable place. While Vets Park is probably available, it is a tough place given the lack of trees for antennas and lack of shade. Rusty K4SAA suggested that we look at Waveny Park. Hugo has also suggested that if we cannot find a place of our own that we consider combining with another club such as Stamford.

We also discussed the desirability of a remote HF operation. We do have an Icom 7300 that was set up for remote operation but was not used very often. It was suggested that we talk to the Norwalk Senior Center to see if we can get room in there as a permanent shack and also for a permanent remote HF operation, perhaps with a 40-10 HF vertical which would probably be more practical to implement, especially if we’re going to be someplace like the Senior Center. It was pointed out that as good as the 7300 is for remote operations, it’s a lot easier to set up a Flex Radio for remote operations.

We also talked about re-implementing the formal member database that was allowed to get out of date over the past year or so.

The meeting was closed at 9:00 pm.

Next meeting is expected to be WEDNESDAY March 12.