[Corkradioclub] CRC Club Meeting Tuesday October 15th - here's what you missed!

[Cormac Gebruers]

Everyone,

Thanks to all those who were able to make it along to our first post Summer
meeting held last evening in Carrigtowhill. For those who couldn't make it,
here's a summary of what we got up to:

We were treated to an informative movie on the 5X8C DXpedition to Uganda
starring Dave EI9FBB (and 24 other DXpeditioners but they were all second
rate compared to our Dave!). It was really interesting to see the other
side of a successfully mounted DXpedition and also some fascinating scenes
of daily life in Uganda. The movie was based on footage taken by Dave and
very professionally edited by Jim EI8GS. Lessons learned? When trying to
work a DXpedition on data, transmit well off their frequency. If you don't,
they'll never decode your signal because it'll be completely obliterated by
the pile-up stations most who (auto)tune precisely to the DX's exact
frequency. Oh, and when the DX station says you're in the log, take it
you're in the log and go away...

We were then treated to a short movie about the 2004 joint EI7M & Bristol
Contest Club EJ2MT IOTA expedition to Bere Island. It was a real trip down
memory lane for yours truly who remembers it well, especially the battle of
wills between a stubborn 80 metre dipole that wouldn't tune and Jerry EI6BT
- no prizes for guessing who won in the end! That huge open fire in the
martello tower stays long in the memory as well. I can still feel the heat
and several members recalled the resulting condensation dripping off the
roof of the tower onto the linears...

After the movie-night a bit of a general Q&A session ensued where various
topics were covered including the design of Marconi telegraph stations (did
you know there was one at Roches Point?) and a cheap and cheerful but high
performance SSB transmitter design.

Serious business followed with a discussion about events for the coming
year. A strong indicator that socially all is well with the Cork Radio Club
was that the date for the Christmas party was top of the list - put *Friday
November 29th* in your diary (provisional), spouses invited of course -
we'll confirm the date and location ASAP.

After much discussion it was agreed that the Chairman will put together a
candidate list of events and activities that will be circulated to all
before the next meeting (lighthouses, castles, CW Field Day and a whole
pile of other possibilities were mentioned). At the *next meeting*, to be
held in *Carrigtowhill on Tuesday November 19th at 8pm*, the Club will
decide what events and activities we'll do in 2014 and also WHO (!) will
take a lead for each event to ensure they happen. Prepare to volunteer/be
volunteered!

It would be remiss of me not to mention specifically that a number of
members commented very positively on the great CW Field Day weekend many of
us enjoyed on Ringarogy Island, Baltimore as a result of the good offices
of Tim EI2KA who did such a good job of host that (sorry Tim!) we're likely
to go there again - if you'll have us! There was also a brief discussion
about quick put-up/tear-down but no performance compromise station designs
for short duration special event stations.

Other decisions taken were to hold a number of meetings around the County
next year, up North, away West and down South-West in recognition of those
members who travel long distances to the centre of gravity of the
membership i.e. East Cork, that *Don EI8DJ will give a talk on QRP
construction at our next meeting* (thanks Don!) and to sell the club's
FT2000D to enable the purchase of a rig and additional equipment better
suited for club activities. The Rig, PSU and matching speaker will be
offered for sale to members of the Club in the first instance. Dave EI9FBB
kindly agreed to take on the sales task. Details will follow shortly.

The business of the evening completed, the meeting disintegrated into a
series of lively, entertaining and noisy conversations about all things
radio (the QRM was something terrible). Everyone stayed far too late
however many seemed to be learning new things and certainly seemed to be
having a jolly good time when yours truly extricated himself to go home.

The Chairman has failed to mention a promise made (by him) to sort out a
website for the Club. It will be done "soon", I promise.

Finally, a member has had an NCDXF beacon monitoring system running since
June. It provides an interesting insight into propagation as we see it
locally here in County Cork including beacons heard and path. You can see
the reports at http://86.43.106.118/ei4hq/faros/

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

   - NEXT MEETING: Tuesday November 19th, 8pm Carrigtowhill Community Centre
   - CHRISTMAS GATHERING: Friday November 29th, Midelton Park Hotel
   (Provisional - TBC!)

As the Club's complaints department is permanently closed, please direct
your ire or any corrections/clarifications or addtions re the above to
ei4hq.mail at gmail.com.

Regards
Cormac, EI4HQ
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