Who's getting it done for you?

Jim Ritterbusch, KD1YV
8B Kayview Ave.
Bethel, CT 
06801-1527
(203) 837-0143
kd1yv@arrl.net

Anne M West, K1STM
22 Pine Grove Rd
Southington, CT 06489-1462
(860) 628-6454
annejon1@allbraille.com

Official Observer Coordinator
Bob Brill, W1GC
85 Tyler St
West Haven, CT 06516-6824
(203) 934-3535

Public Information Coordinator
Albert E Petrunti, KA1TCH
77 White Pine Rd
Torrington, CT 06790-2354
(860) 626-8572
a@petrunti.com

Section Emergency Coordinator

State Government Liaison
Michael J Keane, K1MK
360 Cherry Ave
Watertown, CT 06795-2818
(203) 797-5154, (860) 274-9307
k1mk@arrl.net

Section Traffic Manager
Larry Buck, K1HEJ
262 Winthrop St
New Britain, CT 06052-1623
k1hej@yahoo.com

Section News 

from Betsey Doane, K1EIC

Section Leadership : K1EIC SM; ASMs: K1STM, KD1YV, W1FXQ; OOC K1DFS; PIC KA1TCH; SEC N1CLV; ASEC N1FNE, K1BRF, AF1HS, K1VSC; SGL K1MK; STM K1HEJ; TC N1KHB.

A very Happy and healthy New Year to you all. It's amazing that it's already mid January and ten years after the big Y2K event. Do you all remember that New Year's Eve? Many ops spent that Eve together at EOCs in a standby mode!

Let's make this Section better than ever--what are your ideas? I have some of my own which I will share with you next month; I need time to get back from the holidays and get organized.

Congratulations to Kay Craigie, N3KN as she becomes the 15th president of ARRL! You can read about her many accomplishments and contributions to Amateur radio at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/16/11292/?nc=1. Some years ago, Kay was a speaker at the Nutmeg State Hamfest in Wallingford. I have known Kay and her husband Carter, N3AO for many years and am personally thrilled that Kay will be leading ARRL as president. As you will read in the story cited above, she was a Section Manager, a director, a vice director, vice president and has served on all of the standing committees of the Board. Hearty congrats to Kay!

Your Section Manager attended the New England Division cabinet meeting which, twice per year, meets just before the full ARRL Board meeting. Director Tom Frenaye, K1KI invites Section Managers, Assistant Directors appointed by him, club presidents and advisory committee representatives to this meeting to discuss potential agenda topics and get input on topics of interest to all of us. Six CT clubs were represented: Radio Amateur Society of Norwich, BEARS of Manchester, Valley Amateur Radio Association, the Pioneer Valley Repeater Association, the Insurance City Repeater Club and the Newington Amateur Radio League.

Club officers have the chance to talk with other club leadersabout what they're doing and look for ideas about how to handle the more difficult aspects of leading a club. Everyone is looking for a program speaker. So if you have a topic you would like to present and if you are willing to travel to a club when time permits, please let me know and I promise I will pass your info to CT clubs. We've tried a speakers' bureau before but have had little response. Let's do it again--lots of you have something to share. For now, contact me please and if there's interest, then I'll assign this project to one of my cabinet members to chair.

Some volunteers were specially recognized at their club holiday parties. This is often a time in which the ham of the year and the Elmer of the year are recognized. I was pleased to be able to attend the NARL dinner at which outgoing president Mary Hobart K1MMH received the ham of the year award and was recognized for her outstanding work as club president. All were pleased with the new venue for the NARL Hamfest at St. Mary's School and the many activities which the club has undertaken. Congrats to Steve Ewald, WV1X on his election as the new president of NARL.

I was also pleased to present the QST cover plaque for September QST to Paul Danzer, N1II for his article A Simple Transformer To Measure Your Antenna Current at the meeting of the Greater Norwalk ARC. I've known Paul for many years and have had the pleasure of working with him on the volunteer and professional levels.

While at GNARC, I heard an amazing talk given by the well-known contester Dan, N1ZZ who showed some extraordinary slides of the PJ2T Caribbean Contest Club operation. Handling 1,000 feet of seven-eighth-inch hard line, carrying it up steep slopes and burying it which involved splicing the pieces is just one of the many challenges they overcame. Yes indeed, we hams continue to be creative and adventurous! The Meriden Amateur Radio Club awarded their Elmer of the year plaque to Rich, WA1TRY. This award was named after Adolph Goodsell, W1ICQ who was Rich's mentor. Rich wrote an inspiring story about how he got licensed and the way in which he was mentored. You can read it at http://www.w1nrg.com/forum/KeyKlix/KKJan10.pdf. Congrats Rich--we've been on the air together for many years. Good work!

CT ARES deployed the Region 4 Mobile Communications Unit (R4MCU) to Norwich today at the request of the Emergency Management Director, Gene Arters. As you may have heard on the news, there are many residents in the Norwich area who have families in Haiti. They set up at the Haitian First Baptist Church in Norwich to provide residents the opportunity to go online to the International Red Cross Family Links website to enter requests for information on relatives and friends in Haiti. The Red Cross, Norwich Emergency Management, and a State Behavioral Health Team were also on site to assist. Many thanks to the following hams who assisted: DEC4 Bill Covey W1GTT, ASEC Ron Pariseau K1VSC, ADEC4S Chip Griffin N1MIE and his wife Liz Griffin N1LMG, Chris Poss KB1FUO, Kevin Clark KB1DQC and his wife Kerry Clark KB1SBD, and SEC Wayne Gronlund N1CLV. At this writing, I can report that there was some PR on this event on FOX61 News. Good work gang!

See you next month. Stay safe in this winter weather.

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ARRL Connecticut Section Section Manager:

Elizabeth M. Doane,

K1EIC k1eic@arrl.org

A Message from Headquarters

Because 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!

Upcoming November contests that will create very heavy band loading include CW Sweepstakes (Nov 7-8), Phone Sweepstakes (Nov 21-22), and CQ World Wide CW (Nov 28-29).  These events have been running on the same weekends for decades, so no one should be surprised that they will be loading up the bands again this year.  Take this opportunity to inform yourself and your group and to adjust your operating technique and plans.  Reasonable and informed expectations coupled with flexibility and a spirit of accommodation will help us all make use of our spectrum more effectively at any time of the year or solar cycle.

Flash!  Discussion list back online

National Traffic System (NTS) Corner

Schedule of NTS Nets

Calendar of events

The 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.