Connecticut Section News - By K1EIC

[N1API]

Section Leadership:
Section Manager (SM) Betsey, K1EIC
Assistants (ASMs): Emeritus Al, W1FXQ; Jim, KD1YV; Larry, K1HEJ
Official Observer Coordinator (OOC) Chuck, K1DFS
Public Information Coordinator (PIC) Dana, KA1WPM
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) Wayne, N1CLV
Assistants (ASECs): Rod, N1FNE; Brian, K1BRF; Art, AF1HS; Ron, K1VSC;
Bill, W1GTT
State Government Liaison (SGL) Jon, WF1H
Section Traffic Manager (STM) Anne, K1STM
Technical Coordinator (TC) Steve W1SMS

I regret to report that Walt Sebastian, WA4QXT is a silent key. I just
heard from Kevin KA6PDG that Walt passed away at the Pendleton Health
and Rehabilitation Center; he was only 68. Years ago, Walt was very
active in both ARES and NTS, on the air each day. He used to help out
at the Red Cross in New London in the Amateur radio room and was an
active member of the CT Phone Net as well as the Eastern CT Traffic
Net. He was a very fine operator and very much enjoyed Amateur radio
both in CT and in Florida. His mom used to bring him to the picnics
when we had NTS gatherings. He was as active as he could be at the
Southeast CT Center for the Blind. Walt was an active member of
SCRAMS; he was a past president. He has been, and will continue to be
missed. May he rest in peace.

Thanks and bravo to the ECARA and Southington clubs for holding their
hamfests this month. These events represent a ton of work so don’t
forget to write clubs and say a special thank you. Tell them your
stories—tell them how much fun you had.

The forums at the Southington hamfest were well attended—special
thanks to presenters TC Steve W1SMS, OO Chuck KA1CQR and DEC George
AB1GL and SEC Wayne N1CLV. The ARES forum was attended by over 55
volunteers this year!

SM Betsey K1EIC and SEC Wayne N1CLV were privileged to present a plaque
to EC Paul Gibb KB1TOR in recognition of his outstanding service to ARES
Region 5 and to Amateur radio in CT. Paul was instrumental in securing
funding for EOCs in Region 5 to be equipped with amateur radio
equipment, personally made sure that every town in Region 5 had the
opportunity to have a radio, provided oversight to all the
installations of the ICOM 7000’s installed in the region, was
responsible for implementing the 6M repeater in Region 5, has designed
and ran several region-wide exercises to test the communications
capability. In addition, Paul organized numerous Tech Training classes
and has worked tirelessly on behalf of amateur radio in general and ARES
in particular. Paul narrated a very fine video which I personally
viewed. The first part talks to emergency managers about the
capabilities of ARES; the second part gives detailed instructions on
the installation and setup of the IC7000 transceiver and the third part
gives operators hints about operating their own stations in an
emergency. I told the assembled ops at the ARES meeting that Wayne and
I concur with the comments of Paul’s DEC Mike Walters W8ZY: “Paul
has worked tirelessly to be the voice of ARES and Amateur Radio in the
Region 5 government arena. His efforts have helped to make the region
better equipped and better trained to handle emergency situations.
Paul embodies the qualities that all of us strive to achieve. He is the
true meaning of ‘VOLUNTEER’. Congratulations again Paul and thank
you for outstanding service.

Paul recently gave a talk to The Southern Berkshire ARC regarding
Emergency Management and Emergency Communications via Amateur Radio in
the Northwest Connecticut Region. A member of The Northwest Hills
Council of Governance, he primarily discussed the project to install
Amateur Radio into Connecticut Region 5 Emergency Structure and the
interface between the Connecticut towns and ARES.

Your Section dollars have gone toward the creation of a brochure about
the ARRL Field Organization in CT which was handed out to many of you
at the hamfest. Thanks to Douglas WA1SFH and Rod N1FNE for the help on
the layout and the rest of my cabinet for editorial assistance and
support. If you would like one, send a SASE to Public Information
Coordinator Dana Borgman, KA1WPM, 72 Wetmore Ave., Winsted, CT 06098.
Please put the word “Brochure” on the envelope to make mail sorting
easier. Thanks.
SM Betsey presented a certificate of appointment as our State
Government Liaison to Jonathan WF1H and Section Traffic Manager (STM)
Anne K1STM gave Tom WX1T a certificate as the new net manager of The
Connecticut Phone Net at the ARES meeting. Jim N1DIO, NM of this net
since October, 1995 has asked to step down and Tom, new to traffic
handling has agreed to learn on the job and take the Section net as NM.
Jim did a very fine job as NM; we have all appreciated his cheerful way
on the air each night and his absolute commitment to CPN and to the
First Region Net with which CPN liaises. It is real important that we
have representatives from CT check into the Region net to receive
traffic coming back to CT and to take “through” traffic to the
region net for further relay. Many thanks to Jim for service for many
years and welcome aboard Tom.

Thanks to the very hard work of ASEC Art AF1HS, the CTARES.org web site
has been reworked. Visually impaired users will enjoy some new
accessibility features, too. Enjoy the new look and feel!

The Section was pleased to see an article in the most recent ARES
E-letter about our work in the blizzard this winter. If you haven’t
seen it, go to http://www.arrl.org/ares-el and click on Current Issue.


Our clubs have been as active as they can be with this weather we’ve
had; many meetings were cancelled this winter but members continue to
communicate on the air and through their club reflectors. On
Wednesday, April 1, the Greater Fairfield Amateur Radio Association
will enjoy a presentation by noted author Paul Danzer N1II who will
give a presentation on oscilloscopes. The meeting is at 7:30 at The
Fairfield Police Station, Reef road. Paul will discuss the following
topics: Scope Intro, application – Measuring PEP, a bit of history,
old Scopes vs Digital Scopes, digital Scope Info, Software scopes –No
hardware!

The announcement continues: “For those of you who have worked with
scopes in the past, there's been a lot of change in oscilloscopes from
what you may have used 10, 20, 30 years ago. Paul is going to talk
about the major developments such as digital scopes and software scopes
(for example using your computer as a scope). For those of you who are
new to the subject, oscilloscopes are a major piece of test gear that
can be used to observe your radio's waveforms to see if your rig is
producing what it should be producing. Oscilloscopes are the go-to
piece of test equipment for debugging problems with radio and other
electronic gear.”

This Thursday, April 2 is the date for the meeting of the Stamford
Amateur Radio Association. President John WB2RYV announces that this
particular meeting will be in three parts: 1. Fred K1FC will talk
about ecologically friendly amateur operations, with a focus on green
antennas and energy sources. Some of the antennas may be especially
useful for those whose operations are limited by Homeowners
Associations’ restrictions. 2. Andy N2CN will debut the results of
our efforts to develop crowdsourcing CW reception. This exciting new
development will enable run-of-the-mill CW operators to work together
to copy CW at contest speeds. 3. Jon WB2RYV will talk about a planned
SARA DXpedition to one of the most difficult places on earth to get a
QSL card. This meeting is held at the Stamford Government Center, 888
Washington Blvd, 6th floor 8:00 PM April 2.

Speaking of CW, Dan W1QK, assisted by Harlan W1QH and Roger NG1R, is
running a CW course for members of the Candlewood Amateur Radio
Association. This is an 8-week course for CARA members consisting of
16 1-hour sessions. It is expected that those who attend will be able
to send and receive Morse code at a speed of at least 13 WPM. They
have been granted permission by Rob Brownstein, K6RB, President of
CW-Ops, to use their instructional materials and award a certificate of
completion to those who successfully finish the course. Good work!

SEC Wayne spoke at the Meriden and Greater Norwalk clubs recently about
ARES and the DMR network and toured GNARC’s new comm center. The
Meriden Club is getting very focused on our annual Nutmeg Hamfest which
this year will be held on October 18 so mark your calendars today!

SM Betsey K1EIC spoke at the Valley Amateur Radio Association on the
topic of DMR. The small group assembled was engaged and seemed
interested.

QCWA Chapter 149 announces their annual spring luncheon to be held on
May 9 11:30 a.m. at Tommy’s Restaurant, 845 Saybrook Rd., Middletown.
Fred W1CKV will speak about his trip to Antarctica. Fred is a
wonderful speaker; you won’t want to miss this program.

Here’s a report of an exercise coordinated by ASEC Bill W1GTT in
which operators from region 4 participated in really nasty snow.
“The following amateurs provided communication support for the 8th
annual O'Niantic 5k in East Lyme. Bill, W1GTT, Chuck KA1CQR, NCS
Wayne N1CLV, Alt NCS Nancy W1NRR, Dave WA1IKN and his grandson Jackson,
Jim AI1T, Ed KE1LV, Addie KC1DGF, ADEC Chip N1MIE, Chris KB1FUO, Jamie
K1JSH, Bruce KB1KHC, Jeff N1ESA Larry WR1B, Tom KE1R Gabe W1GAP and
Dave W1RED. Dave was the bicycle SAG and rode the whole course in a
snow storm. The race was on Saturday, March 21st and was run in a cold
and sloppy spring snow storm. 975 runners participated. 1200 had
pre-registered.
Net control was conducted from the Region 4 MCU.” Thanks Bill for
the report—great work from a very dedicated team!

The Eastern VHF/UHF Microwave Conference sponsored by The Northeast
Weak Signal Group will be held on April 17-19 at the Baymont Inn &
Suites
20 Taylor Street
Manchester. Talk-in 144.200; contact Mark K1MAP email
map1@mapinternet.com. Check out the club web site http://newsvhf.com.

The RASON auction will be held on April 25 9:00 a.m. at the Gales
Ferry Firehouse, 1772 Rt 12, Gales Ferry. Talk-in: 146.730 & 449.725
(PL 156.7) via N1NW repeater system. For further information, contact
Gary, WT1SND WitsEnd@portone.com. This is an annual event that
promises to be lots of fun so come on out and bid on just what you’ll
need for needed antenna work or sprucing up the ham shack.

Congratulations to Assistant Section Manager Larry K1HEJ and Lee KB1NAL
for appointments by NTS Eastern Area Digital Coordinator Dave WB2FTX as
Digital Relay Stations. This is an NTS appointment; Rusty NM1k and Van
W1WCG have both been digital relay stations in CT for many years. These
stations relay message traffic on digital modes or from digital modes to
voice and CW nets. Larry and Lee take traffic from an MBO in MA to the
W1HAD or W1WCG systems; Rusty NM1K and Van receive traffic on digital
modes for further relay. Van has run his packet station for many years
and relayed traffic all over the country to designated NTS ops. The
W1HAD, W1EDH, K1YON, N1URO and W1SP systems have been on the air for
several years, some for over 20 years, for connection by users. N4GAA
and N1API as well as K1UOL ran packet BBS’s for years and paved the
way in the digital arena. Thank you all.

Help make ConnJam 2015 a big success May 16 in Orange. Section Youth
Coordinator Douglas WA1SFH is coordinating this event. He has
permission to use the call WA1BSA and needs volunteers as well as some
equipment. There will be several thousand boy scouts so it’s a great
PR and educational opportunity for Amateur radio. Please contact
Douglas wa1sfh@arrl.net.

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ARRL Connecticut Section
Section Manager: Betsey M Doane, K1EIC
k1eic@arrl.org
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