Welcome to the ARRL Connecticut Section Web Page
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Welcome to the ARRL Connecticut Section Web Page
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 Here are
some links to some important resources
Who's getting it done for you?Section ManagerBetsey Doane, K1EIC 92 Mohegan Rd Shelton, CT (203) 929-7759 k1eic@arrl.org Assistant Section Managers Al Cohen, W1FXQ 42 Jeffrey Ln Newington, CT 06111-1616 (860) 667-2864 w1fxq@arrl.net Jim Ritterbusch, KD1YV Anne M West, K1STM Official
Observer Coordinator Public
Information Coordinator 11 Monticello Dr East Lyme, CT 06333-1228 (860) 441-2777, (860) 739-6384 n1clv@aol.com State
Government Liaison Section
Traffic Manager Joseph P Wonoski, N1KHB 1121 W Lake Ave Guilford, CT 06437-1350 (203) 457-9770, (203) 785-2998 n1khb@aol.com |
Section Newsfrom Betsey Doane, K1EICSection Leadership : K1EIC SM; ASMs: K1STM, KD1YV, W1FXQ; OOC K1DFS; PIC KA1TCH; SEC N1CLV; ASEC N1FNE, K1BRF, AF1HS; SGL K1MK; STM K1HEJ; TC N1KHB.The time has finally come for the eighteenth annual Nutfest, formally called The Nutmeg Hamfest and ARRL CT State Convention Mountain Side Wallingford. This coming Sunday doors open at 8:00 a.m. The Hamfest, sponsored by The Meriden ARC is an annual event we all look forward to so come on out, attend the forums and maybe win a prize, shop till you drop and just have fun. Talk-in 147.36 R, +600, no PL. The weather promises to be good too which adds to the occasion. I can't wait to see all of you! The weather held out for the Western CT Hamfest in September and I hear that the weather promises to be great Sunday. The number of forums has doubled in response to your requests. Your Section Manager K1EIC, Division Director K1KI and Vice Director K1TWF will be on hand for the ARRL Forum. Learn about antennas at "Antenna University" where you'll hear a number of experts give talks and answer your questions. Fred Hopengarten, the one who wrote the book on zoning laws, K1VR will be on hand to talk about zoning laws and Amateur radio antennas! Noted astronomer John Wallace will talk about radio astronomy. You'll hear talks on multiband HF antennas by QST Technical Editor Joel Hallas W1ZR and hear ARRL lab supervisor Ed Hare W1RFI talk about the best DX antenna. Don't miss the Yankee Clipper Contest Club's October meeting, the VE session and meet QST's "the doctor" to get your questions answered! What a terrific list of forums! For the full schedule go to http://www.nutmeghamfest.com/event_in.htm Fall has really been very busy. I just want to thank everyone involved in special event and other display activities. There have been special event stations at Goshen Fair, Woodstock Fair, Hebron Fair, Community Preparedness Awareness Day in Cromwell sponsored by the Middletown Chapter American Red Cross, Positively Pomfret and this coming weekend Northville ARC will be running a special event station at The Warren Fall Festival. Please be patient with me if I've missed your event; these are the ones I know about at this point. In addition, The Greater Norwalk Amateur Radio Club has partnered with The Norwalk Public Library to give Norwalk residence a chance to experience "the thrill and adventure of ham radio" as the news release puts it. You see, GNARC members Jay NE2Q, Kurt W1FSM, and Gus W1BV installed a shortwave receiver and a 66-foot inverted v. The staff has been trained to use the receiver and now those who visit the library can pick up a headset at the main desk and experience the thrill of listening to the HF bands. The news release is at http://www.norwalkplus.com/nwk/ information/nwsnwk/publish/Local_2/ Experience-the-adventure-of-shortwave- radio-at-the-Norwalk-Public-Library_np_ printer.shtml CT welcomes a new ARRL affiliated club: The Orange Amateur Radio Association. Their president is Faustino, NF1Y and vice president EC Al KB1QEX. I will be visiting them soon to present the charter. Welcome aboard! Members of The Southington Amateur Radio Association participated in the Apple Harvest Festival Parade coordinated by ASEC Rod N1FNE. I always remember Milt Chafee W1EFW, former Division Director BTW, talking about this event. Often, he rode in that parade! Milt was a phenomenal mentor and a thoroughly versatile operator, even into his 80's. And yes, he learned how to do the digital modes! Speaking of digital, K1YON-2 is a new Flexnet packet node on 145.07. The BBS is K1YON-4 located in East Hartland so go ahead and connect folks and enjoy the network. The New York State QSO Party will run on Saturday, October 17 at 1800 UTC for 12 hours. NY fixed stations send: <call sign>, signal report, County (3 letter abbreviation); NY mobile stations send: <call sign>/M, signal report, County (3 letter abbreviation); outside NY send: <call sign>, signal report, State or Province. See full details at http://www.nyqp.org. NARL had as their guest speaker Cary Carroll. Mr. Carroll is a Senior Chief Electronic Technician, Submarine Squadron Two, Communications. He is a career US Navy Submarine radioman with a distinguished record of service, and he recently returned from sea duty. His interesting talk, "A Submarine Radioman's Life in Today's Navy," described the automated computerized systems used in modern underwater and surface communications. EC Armando, KB1PRP, recruited volunteers from NARL to help with communications at the Regatta that was held on October 4. The BEARS of Manchester were involved in communications for a canoe race in Glastonbury on that same day. There are also plans to hold a joint exercise with New Britain's CERT team in November. Region 2 ARES is sorry to see Chris W1HVN resign as DEC. Chris has just moved and has a job that requires a serious time commitment and lots of responsibility. Chris, as you know, has spent a great deal of personal resources outfitting and maintaining the MCU which ARES has designated as the Region 2 vehicle. Happily, Chris will continue as EC for West Haven. Thank you for all your work Chris as DEC and for your tremendous outlay of personal resources for the benefit of ARES and for the public. We're glad you're still able to help us out. Mark your calendar: October 16 & 17 The New England Amateur Radio Festival - NEAR-Fest! GNARC News describes it as follows: "This is a truly New England happening continuing a 30+ year tradition. The 2 day event is located at the fairgrounds in South Deerfield, NH 30 minutes northeast of Manchester, NH. For full details visit the website: http://www.near-fest.com/ November 14 is our annual Simulated Emergency Test in which all CT radio amateurs are encouraged to participate. This year, SEC Wayne N1CLV has described SET as an exercise divided into 4-hour segments during which participants may be active in any or all segments of the test. The SET Players' Handbook can be downloaded at http://www.ctares.org or by writing your DEC. Contact n1clv@arrl.net if you need further assistance. Here's more news for ARES members. Dana N1OFZ has run the ARES reflector discussion@connares.org for many years and is no longer able to do it due to personal and family commitments. Dana, thanks so much for handling this important resource for so long--we have all appreciated being able to communicate with each other especially in time of critical need. The new reflector will be up I expect within a couple of days of your receiving this letter. I know the SEC will want to write you all about it when it comes up so this is just a note to expect a message from Discussion list. If you have been subscribed to the former list, you will automatically be subscribed to the new list. Once we know everything is working, all ARES members will be added. Of course, you can unsubscribe but we're hoping you will find the list a good resource. The SEC and other leaders often use the Discussion list to get important information to all members. For those of you who know about list software, we're using Mailman which is a wonderfully flexible mailer. More to follow! And now, see you Sunday! ARRL Connecticut Section Section Manager: Elizabeth M. Doane, K1EIC k1eic@arrl.org |
A Message from HeadquartersBecause contesters know to
expect this situation in advance, it's a good reason to make an extra
effort to avoid non-contest users of the bands, particularly emergency
communications and service-type activities. For example, look up the times
and frequencies of state- and regional-level traffic and emergency nets you
are likely to encounter. Make a list and post it near the radio to remind you to
listen first when near those frequencies. The same goes for wide-coverage
nets or special event stations operating on the higher bands. If there
is activity, give these non-competitive stations a little extra breathing
room - 2.5 kHz above (for your signal) and below (for theirs) is a reasonable
margin. (proportionately less margin on CW) If a net is on 3965 kHz,
for example, keep your carrier frequency above 3967.5 or below 3962.5 kHz.
And it should go without saying that everyone's signal should be clean and free
of splatter. If you unintentionally open up on an ongoing QSO or net,
apologize and move. Just as we ask others to recognize the legitimacy of
contesting, we should return the favor. Take a deep breath, have fun, and
play nice! Because net managers and emcomm
leaders know to expect this situation in advance, it is a
cue for nets and other on-the-air activities to activate and exercise their
Plan B. Everyone must have
a Plan B - an alternate frequency or band or time or even mode. It's
unwise at best to expect that our chosen frequencies will always be noise-
and interference-free in an emergency, so why not take advantage of the
flexibility unique to the Amateur Service? 75 meter nets could try
out 60 meters - to which amateur access was granted on the basis
of the need for emergency communications. Changing net or scheduled
contact times to avoid contest activity also works well. For example,
when solar activity is low, 75, 60, 40, and 30 meters are often quite
useful for regional communications during daylight hours. If you choose to
stay put, remind the participants that under strong signal conditions, it's best
to turn off noise blankers and preamps, turn down the RF Gain, and even switch
in a little attenuation. They may be pleasantly surprised at how
clean and quiet the band sounds! Why not take the opportunity to make
this a training exercise? It will improve your group's operational
abilities at any time!
Flash! Discussion list back onlineAfter a technical hiatus, the mailing list which serves CT ARES members is back online. All previous list subscribers of discussion@connares.org will be automatically re-subscribed. Any new members who wish to subscribe can visit the sign-up page at http://www.connares.org/ .Special thanks to Dana, N1OFZ for hosting the original and long standing discussion@connares.org list. And thanks to a great team for putting together this replacement list. Contributions have been made by John, N1IWT; Wayne, N1CLV; Art, AF1HS; Al, KA1TCH; Betsey, K1EIC; and Jim, KD1YV. And thank again to Al, KA1TCH for hosting this site. More details will be posted in an e-mail announcement.
Foxhunt in Griswoldby Dean, N1XSLStarting on Friday evening, 10/9/2009,
there will be a hidden transmitter aka fox in the Hopeville State
Forest in Griswold CT. Here is the web link about the park
which contains a map and directions.
http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325218 Visiting the ARRL HQby Paul Ciazniak, K1SEZWe oft times miss out on things that are too close to our vision, an optical condition called hyperopia. It's the opposite of myopia, where you can't see things in the distance very well. Just to the north of central Connecticut is the headquarters of the American Radio Relay League or ARRL as we know it, in Newington. From downtown Wallyworld (Wallingford, CT), it's a hop, skip, and jump … about 20 miles or so to the center of the world for many American hams, as well as lots of foreign hams worldwide. The work, awards, and programs of the ARRL are highly respected around the world. The DXCC award is still the most sought-after ham radio award in the world. Earlier this year, I was asked to help out as a tour guide there, which means a four hour stint sitting in the lobby waiting for folks who'd like a tour. Each group, small or large, is usually eager and happy to be walking around the hallowed halls here and relating to the archives of our hobby. In this unique chosen hobby of ham radio, we are fortunate to reside within a good stone's throw of ham-Mecca, Newington, where the hobby began in the early years of the 20th century. Radio was a new phenomenon to many households at that time. (article continued on page 2 -- click here)
National Traffic System (NTS) CornerSchedule of NTS Nets
Calendar of eventsThe WebCalendar is continually being updated with meetings, training, events and so on. Follow the link above to view them all. Hams are encouraged to post their events. Follow the link in the next paragraph to get your own access to post. The WebCalendar is designed so that club officials, section leadership and other hams may post events for public viewing. Follow this link for instructions. 
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