This month we had a packed house for our guest speaker Geoff Haines, N1GY. Geoff is the Technical Coordinator and Assistant Section Manager for The West Central Florida Section. He has authored many articles for QST.  Geoff gave a great demonstration on his portable 2meter emergency kit made from components around his house enclosed in a stylish Tool Box.

At the February meeting Geoff will be making a presentation on “Antennas for small Florida lots and deed restricted communities”.  This was a great presentation.  Geoff spoke about using Vertical antennas in Limited Spaces.  Lots of choices, “some kind of antenna is better than no antenna at all”.  Almost any kind of antenna and a tuner can work the world.

He is also Editor of the WCF E-magazine "The Experimenter", President of The West Central Florida Group, (operators of the NI4CE linked repeater system), and Past President of the Manatee Amateur Radio Club Inc. He is a member of The Manatee ARC, Meriden (CT) ARC, W1YU, the Yale ARC and The WCF ARC. His ARRL appointments include: Assistant Section Manager, Technical Coordinator, Technical Specialist, Official Bulletin Station, Official Emergency Station, Official Relay Station, and Net Manager (x2). Geoff is actively engaged in antenna research and development and in developing projects suitable for the newly licensed amateur radio operator.

N1GY's web site www.n1gy.com contains a number of interesting projects for amateur radio enthusiasts and also some small commentaries on various aspects of amateur radio.

Mr Haines is the winner of the December 2007 QST Cover Plaque Award, the 2009 ARRL Technical Service Award, and the 2009 WCF-ARRL Outstanding Service Award.

A big thanks to Geoff for coming out and Bill NG4L for arranging this presentation.