GNARC Bulletin On Line

 Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club             

April 2004      Founded in 1934     Issue Number Four            

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

NOTICE, NEXT  GNARC  NEWSLETTER  WILL  NO  LONGER  BE  SENT  BY  MAIL BECAUSE  OF THE HUGE COST OF $1008.00  A YEAR.   IF  YOU  DO  NOT  OWN  A  COMPUTER YOU  MUST  CONTACT  ME  AT, 203-353-8422.  Leave Your NAME AND MAILING ADDRESS. You will receive the On Line Version.  More Information Below. 
 2004 Fun Fly - Sherwood Island State Park. Photos.   03/29/2004 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

GNARC Bulletin Breaking News & Updates.  Bulletin Viewed in HTML. 600x800

Please I Need Articles! Send Your Articles to, wb1grb@hotmail.com.  Article in Subject Line.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Next Club Meeting will be Wednesday, April 14, 2004

April Program: Group Project  We will build a 2 Meter Portable Tape Measure Beam designed for Direction Finding. 

The Club will be purchasing the parts necessary to build a 2  Meter tape measure antenna project for direction finding activities that are soon to be planned. This is a club project in conjunction with ARES and Direction Finding. The cost for members will be $10.00. Contact z.fekete@snet.net. We will build them during our April meeting. The Club needs a commitment to purchase the items necessary to build the project antennas so please respond sooner than later. Also check our poll on the GNARC  website.
Any thoughts? Zig

Regular Club Meetings start at 8:00 pm and are held in the Community Room at the Shop Rite on     Connecticut Ave. (Rte-1) in Norwalk. Talk in: 147.390 no PL.

Next ARES Net Monday, April 5, 2004 at 8:00 pm on 147.390, NCS will be W1AGU.     

Malicious Interference Report Form
———————————————————————————————

  President: “Ned” Bassick KA1CVV / Vice President: Allan Valeo NN1H (203) 762-9302
Secretary: John Sabini WB1GRB (203) 348-3983 / Treasurer: “Zig” Fekete, N1ICL.
April 2004 GNARC on Line Bulletin: John Sabini WB1GRB.

GNARC Membership Dues Are Due For 2004!

Senior Membership: Individuals over 65 years of age……….....….$15.00 per year
Standard Membership: Individuals under 65 years of age…….......$20.00 per year
Student Membership: Individuals under 18 years of age………..….$10.00 per year
Family Membership:……………...………….………...……….....….$25.00 per year

Send your dues to: “Zig” Fekete ~ 45 Stoehr Place ~ Bridgeport, CT. 06606
 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

GNARC Minutes of the Meeting 3/10/04

Ned KA1CVV started the meeting at 8:00pm.

Officers present. President: “Ned” Bassick , KA1CVV / Vice President Allan Valeo, NN1H / Secretary: John Sabini, WB1GRB / Treasurer: “Zig” Fekete, N1ICL.

Old Business. There was a discussion to E-Mail the GNARC Newsletter to save money.

It cost $84.00 each month to send the newsletter. It was decided to stop sending the newsletter to people that would rather receive it by e-mail.

Everyone on the GNARC web site mailing list will receive the newsletter. If you are not on the list or if you have not been receiving the On Line Bulletin, please contact Ed K3EIN via E-Mail, and he will update the Membership Page on the web site.  Make sure your e-mail is not blocked!  

Skywarn. Phil....WX1CT. (Fairfield County) Wednesday April 28 - 7:00-9:00 pm. Co-Hosted by: Ridgefield Fire Department and Connecticut Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) Area 1. Location: Ridgefield Fire Department Central Firehouse, 6 Catoonah Street. Ridgefield, CT. Registration  Phone: (631) 924-0517 x412. Amateur Radio Talk-In: W1QI Repeater (CARA) 147.300 MHz, +600 KHz Offset, PL 100.0 Hz. Advanced Skywarn Training Class.

Fairfield County Skywarn: http://www.FairfieldCountySkywarn.com

New Business. John WB1GRB. Monday night I was on the 147.390 repeater, and we had someone playing with their touch tone microphone again. This type of malicious interference has become a problem on repeaters in our area. I very carefully made a “Malicious Interference Report Form.” If we want to stop this interference before it becomes a bigger problem we must keep detailed information. This information is very important and this form will be automatically forwarded to the appropriate repeater owners, trustees, etc. This report may be forwarded to the FCC in the future, so consider placing as much detail as possible in your reports in an effort to help them as much as possible. 

Chris W1CWS helped me and we are using his link on the SARA web site. Ed, K3EIN  will have a GNARC link to this same form. Remember to ignore malicious interference and take time to fill out this report form.

Public Service: OPERATORS NEEDED FOR THE MARCH OF DIMES WALK AMERICA.
Walk date: Sun, April 25th. Start time: 9:30am. Finish: around 2pm or earlier. Venue: Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. Operators needed: (8).  Contact person: Toy, Home phone 853-2407.  Cell 524 5541.

Treasurers Report. Zig reported that we now have 127 members. Club dues should be paid  for 2004.  Please send your club dues to, Zig” Fekete ~ 45 Stoehr Place ~ Bridgeport, CT. 06606.  He gave a complete treasurers report which will be at the next meeting.

Fund Raiser: Zig ” N1ICL. “We are planning a trip to Mohegan Sun. It will cost $25.00 per person and the bus will be out of Westport. We will need about 35 people. You will receive a $10.00 food voucher. GNARC will need to make a decision to do this and then we will set a date and make up tickets and sell." Contact “Zig” for more information. 

Flashback Pictures From July 2003

March Meeting Photos

         More March Meeting Photos

            1                         2                          3                       4                        5   

1. & 2. Antenna Direction Finding: We than had Allan NN1H talk about his direction finding antenna he built and demonstrated how it work.

3.  Rich, K1OF demonstrating a direction finding antenna. 

4.  Photo of club members at the March GNARC meeting. 

5. "The Do" Zig, Toy, and John.        

Coffee Break 8:45.

 Meeting continued at 9:00 pm. Ned, KA1CVV then talked about Telpac.   Telpac is a Packet Radio application that uses packet radio to retrieve E-Mails from the Internet.  

Meeting Ended at 9:45pm.

ARES News

My thanks  go to Gary, K3OS for running last month's ARES Net. Gary ended the Net by passing the total count for the session in a formal message to the EC following the ARRL Amateur Message Form. It was a nice addition to the operation of the net and a good example of the right way to handle traffic. 

If you have any doubt as to whether your registration has been processed with CTARES please check the Membership page on the www.ctares.org website. It has both the current active registrations and those that  need updates listed.  

Skywarn is a service that we can provide for the Weather Service that really does make a difference. See if you can fit into one of the scheduled training sessions listed below.

Basic Skywarn Training by  

Connecticut Department of Public Safety, 1111 Country Club Road, Middletown, CT 06457. Tuesday April 13th, 7:00-9:00 pm (registration not required)  

Amateur Radio Society of Norwich, Franklin Congregational Church, Pound Hill Road. Franklin, CT. 06254.Thursday April 15^th, 7:30-9:30 pm.   

Ridgefield Fire Dept. and CTARES Area 1, Ridgefield Fire Dept Central Firehouse, 6 Catoonah Street. Ridgefield, CT. Wednesday April, 28^th, 7:00-9:00 pm. Register  call (631) 924-0517 x412.  

Advanced Skywarn Training by

Shore Point Amateur Radio Club, East Haven High School, 35 Wheelbarrow Lane. East Haven, CT 06513. Thursday May 20^th, 7:00 – 10:00 pm. Register by phone (631) 924-0517 x412. (Pre - req.  Basic Skywarn Training)

LICENSE EXAMINATION  at the Stamford Government Center. Check-in at 9:30 AM and the exam will start at 10 AM. Pre-registration is NOT required. Walk-ins are encouraged. The fee for the test session is $12.00. You can find up to date information at: www.qsl.net/wb1grb/VEtest.htm.  May 8, 2004.  Saturday  at 10:00 AM.  Directions / Map.

____________________________________________________________________

Computer Corner   by ROGER GILER 

The Internet is continuing to grow. There are now 150 million users in the U.S. alone, and it has become a great source for buying products and services. The largest area has been the travel industry where last year 41 billion dollars were spent. Total Internet spending this year is expected to top 100 billion, and this explains why Congress and State legislatures are salivating at the thought of getting their pound of flesh from that source. This may not be easy as the Net spans the whole globe. Another item of interest is that 35% of the U.S. homes have now broadband (cable or DSL) access. Five years ago that number was zilch.

Listen To Local Traffic Chopper
For those of you who commute, and can't find someone on the local repeater to give a traffic report.  Turn your radio to the WICC 600 AM traffic chopper at FM 161.700 MHz.  I have my mobile radio programmed with this frequency, it has been extremely helpful at times.
The chopper is usually up during the morning and evening rush hour drive.  The reports include The Merritt and Route 95 from New Heaven to the Connecticut / NY border. Chris - W1CWS. http//:w1cws.southern.vg/
 

New England QSO Party

Hello!

We'd like to invite you and your club members to join us in the New England QSO Party this year. The 3rd running of the NEQP will be taking place on May 1st and 2nd this year.  

Last year we had more than 250 entries from all across New England, most states and a number of foreign countries.   This is a nice low pressure operating event where New England stations are the center of attention!

Please pass this message along to club members in your newsletter or at your next meeting!

The full rules and other information is located here (and in an attached file) --> http://www.neqp.org/

Certificates are awarded to anyone making more than 25 QSOs, and there are (so far) 26 very nice plaques to be awarded.  The plaques include one for the top New England club score, as well as the top school club score.    A listing of all plaques and special awards is located here --> http://www.neqp.org/plaques.html  Let us know if your club would like to sponsor a plaque.

We also hope to field a lot of mobiles so we can cover all 67 New England counties during the contest.  Last year we had ten mobiles out across New England.   Whether you plan to be on from home or while mobile, please let us know so we can update the Reserve Your County section and work to make sure all counties are covered -- > http://www.neqp.org/ryc.html

                          Very 73!!
                                           Tom Frenaye / K1KI and Bob Hess / W1RH

New England QSO Party - May 1-2, 2004.    

New England QSO Party Rules 

Object: To contact as many New England stations in as many New England counties as possible.  (New England stations work anyone)

Date: First full weekend of May (May 3-4,2003; May 1-2,2004).

Contest Period: 2000Z Saturday until 0500Z Sunday (4pm ET Saturday until 1am ET Sunday) and 1300Z Sunday until 2400Z Sunday (9am ET Sunday until 8pm ET Sunday).

Categories: Single operator high power, low power and QRP categories, plus multi‑operator, single transmitter.  Same four categories for mobiles.  Single operator stations using assistance during the contest (packet or Internet spotting nets, etc.) will compete in the multi‑single category.

Contest Exchange: Send signal report and state/province (DX stations send signal report and "DX").  New England stations send signal report, county and state.

Valid Contact: Work New England stations once per band/mode. New England stations work anyone and must copy the county for New England stations worked). CW contacts must not be made in the phone band segments.  Mobiles can be worked again in new counties.  County line QSOs should be logged as two separate QSOs.  Cross mode, cross band and repeater QSOs are not permitted.

QSO Points: Count one point per phone QSO, two points per CW (includes digital modes)QSO.

Multiplier: Stations outside of New England use counties as multipliers for a total of 67 CT/8 MA/14 ME/16 NH/10 RI/5 VT/14).  New England stations use states(50), Canadian provinces(14) and DXCC countries as multipliers.

Scoring: Total score is QSO points times the multiplier.   Mobiles count QSO points per county and multipliers from all counties (counted once).

Suggested frequencies: CW - 3540 7040 14040 21040 28040, Novice/Tech - 3705 7130 21130 28130, SSB - 3880 7280 14280 21380 28380

Reporting: Logs should indicate times in UTC, bands, modes, calls and complete exchange.  Multipliers should be clearly marked in the log.  New England stations put your club's name on the summary sheet.  Entries must be submitted within 30 days and sent to NEQP, P O Box 3005, Framingham MA 01705-3005. Send a large SASE for a printed copy of the results.

Awards: Certificates will be awarded to the top scorers (25 QSO minimum) in each New England county, U S state, Canadian province and DXCC country. At least twenty plaques will also be awarded to top scorers, and some special awards are available to non-New England stations (check the web site for the current list).

More information: The New England QSO Party web site is at  http://www.neqp.org/.  Check there for information on planned fixed station and mobile activity from New England counties, contest software information, county abbreviations, plaques to be awarded, and information on New England state county awards.  NEQP results will be posted on the web site when they are complete. 

New England stations: We hope you will be able to get on for at least a short period of time to make some QSOs!    Join in the fun!

Changes from last year: Contest is 80-40-20-15-10m only.   Added two hours Saturday night and deleted two hours Sunday morning.   3/5/2003

This is a public service event announcement  

Looking for volunteer amateur radio operators to provide route safety communications for a major national bicycle race, of approximately 100 miles in length, going around Lake Candlewood, with start and finish in downtown Danbury, on Sunday May 23. Name of event is  HOUSATONIC VALLEY CLASSIC and is part of  the TOUR OF CONNECTICUT. Full detailed race information is  available on the internet at, www.Spartacycling.com/  For further information, please contact Herb at, 1-203 - 748 - 8909.

Southington Amateur Radio Association

Flea Market/Ham Radio Equipment, Electronics, Computers, and more. Sunday April 25th, 2004 / 9:00 AM to 1 PM. Southington High School, 720 Pleasant Street, Southington, CT. Talk-in / 145.49 / 224.80 / 444.25 / 147.345  Pl - 77hz.  www.chetbacon.com/sara.htm     Contact – Alex Joyce @ 860-214-3013.