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.
