[CVCC] CVCC December Newsletter

[Ed Moore]

CVCC,

Here is the December issue of 599 VA.  The full color document with graphics will be available on the website; c-v-c-c.us  


Prez Sez:

With CQWW Contests and Sweepstakes behind us, the month of December brings us the ARRL 160 Meter Contest (Dec 2-4) and the ARRL 10 Meter Contest (Dec. 10-11). Both of these events should prove quite interesting with our current solar situation! Get on the air and have some fun! Thanks to everyone who participated in Sweepstakes this year. While the results are not final, it appears PVRC has made a respectable charge to the front with our increased participation effort. 

As always, I am looking for your input on Club Meeting presentations. Please drop me a note if you have any suggestions. 


I hope to see everyone at the Club Christmas Dinner Dec. 5, at Topeka's Steakhouse on Parham Rd. Best wishes to all for a joyous Holiday Season! 


Vy 73, 

Ed, NW4V


DX de DR:

The month started badly for me on Nov 11 just after sunrise I heard HL3IUA on 1824 with an honest 569 signal and no pileup. I thought this is a sure thing, but after 10 minutes of calling and only a few QRZ's in response and with the sun fully up I knew it wasn't in the cards. In 35 years of dxing on top band I had never heard a signal like that from Korea and probably won't ever again. The next morning low band conditions were still good and I did work VK9CG, Cocos Keeling on 80 meters via the SW. Charlie worked lots of east coast stations on 80 and higher and a fair number of western stations on 160. R1MVW put on a great show from rare MV Island and even worked lots of US on 160 as did 3B8/OM5RW and KH6ND/KH5. The OH2 guys really made OJ0B available on all bands that weren't above the low MUF we have at this time in our sunspot cycle. I mentioned last month the fun I had working Asians on 40 meter SSB long path during the CQ WW. I decided to check 40 cw on Sunday afternoon around 21 GMT during the CQ WW CW contest and was amazed to hear JA3YBK coming through over the north pole. After working him I swung the beam slightly to the east of north and was surprised to hear all kinds of long haul dx who were both loud and easy to work. Over the next hour I worked a bunch of Europeans plus 8Q7, 3B8, TZ5, 4L8, A45, UK9, UA9, 4X, UP5 and VU2... all before local sunset. 

I do have two stories with happier endings than the HL. My friend Jon Rudy was on a 5 day dxpedition to East Timor from Nov 24 to Nov 28. We had a daily schedule on 80 around my sunrise, but due to antenna problems on his end, OTHR from China, a power black out in Dili the schedule had not been completed by my sunrise time on the last day. I was supposed to tune a 10 Khz range for 4W3ZZ who would call me. Just at SR I detected a signal about 1/2 db over esp on 3594.5 and I called and gave him a report. This cycled several times, but I wasn't 100% sure until the next day when I received a congratulations email from Dili. Jon managed to work 2400 qsos from Timor of which 1500 were JA's. If you look at the ARRL's DXCC web site for single band DX totals you would have seen that your editor was one entity behind DJ2BW on 15 meters. Since the only current entity I need on that band is BS7 I wasn't likely to catch BW anytime in the next 5 years unless I could confirm one or more of the three deleted countries I have worked and not confirmed: FF8AP, I5TUF and either VS9AJC or VS9ALV. My research revealed that I5TUF, an American oil man never had a US license and had died some years ago. Through the internet I was able to find that VS9AJC was now G3TTJ. I contacted him only to learn that a terrorist attack on their camp in Aden had set his tent on fire and all of the paper logs were burned up. No one in England knew where VS9ALV was except one guy thought his first name was Les. Then I got an idea...go to K8CX's Hamgallery.com where there are pictures of qsls from every dxcc entity since WW2. Sure enough FF8AP's card was pictured and his name was readable as Maurel Louis and VS9ALV was pictured with the name Les Lawbuary. I then went to QRZ.com and typed in these two names. Nothing on Maurel Louis, but bingo a hit on the other one. There was a Les Lawbuary listed as EA5AVL in Spain. For some reason that call sounded familiar to me. I checked my personal computer logs and found nothing, but when I checked the YK9A logs I found that I personally had worked Les on 75 meters from Syria. I immediately wrote Les a letter with reply postage and a W4QCW qsl for our 1967 qso on 15 meters in the ARRL DX Contest and two weeks later I had my VS9 qsl. Sadly in the meantime DJ2BW moved up one to 361 so I am still one short of a tie for first, but maybe I can get second place alone if the other 3 europeans at 359 don't pull a rabbit out of the hat. A reward is posted for anyone who can find Maurel Louis alive or find a copy of his logs! 


Yesterday W4HJ and I helped Duke, W1ZA put up 3 more sections of his Rohn 55 tower and now only 3 more sections to go before putting 3 monster beams on the mast. 

 This morning right a my SR I caught YN2N on 75 and asked him for a qsy to 60 meters which he had done for N4CH a few days earlier and I got my 13th country on that band. 

 Enough stories for now. May Santa make your wildest dreams come true. Don't forget to update your DX Totals on the CVCC Web site at the end of the year. 

 Bob W4DR

  

TNX QTH News

 The new W4TNX property is still under development and is consuming much of my spare time. I have been meeting with builders, architects, surveyors, soil scientists, county engineers, county planners, etc. to get things going. All this is really eating up my DXing / Contesting time. A small consolation is that the OP DX Bulletin of 11/28 says only 237 DX entities were active the past week and the Solar numbers as I write this are: SF=101, A=12 and K=2. Maybe I'm not missing much, after all.

 The new property does continue to provide radio possibilities. The previous owner was somewhat of a scavenger and had acquired a collection of 10 and 20 foot schedule 40 galvanized pipes (that he thought might make fence posts), and 15 and 30 foot structural "beams" (not the you-know-what radio kind of beams). The 30 foot "structural" beams are galvanized and would really make some nice vertical antenna supports.  The 15 footers would make nice tower anchors a-la-K4JA. Then there are a couple of 10 foot railroad rails that would also make nice vertical supports and/or tower anchors. 

Progress on the new QTH house plan is progressing at a faster clip than I would have thought possible. Kat and I are actually agreeing on things - like the radio stuff is going to be in either the garage, the basement, or the attic (imagine that)! Also, we had previously agreed that we need a floor, roof and a kitchen for the house (I tried to start with the basics before I negotiated for radio space and you can see where I got). I have a feeling that I'm coming in second in negotiation skills.

We would like to break ground in time to sell our existing house and be moved into the new one  by August 1, 2006 (probably this dictates a March ground-breaking). That will allow for the new buyer to move in before the school year and allow me to re-start some serious contesting and DXing in the 2006-2007 season.

I have noticed that FR/G (Glorioso Island) is expected to be activated by 8 French ops from 3/17 to 4/7. That is one of my last 7 needed DX countries and something I'm looking forward to, sunspots or not! There is always a way to get through, it's just a matter of finding the right time, band and mode (and a little perseverance helps)!

I'm sure CVCC readers would like to hear more than my new QTH updates, so send me some material!

MC es HNY de W4TNX

John

 
Upcoming Contest Dates:

 
ARRL   10M 0000Z 12/10 to 2400Z 12/11

·        ARRL VHF SS 1900Z 1/21 to 0400Z 1/23

·        CQ 160M CW 0000Z 1/28 to 2359Z 1/29

·        ARRL DX CW 0000Z 2/18 to 2400Z 2/19

·        CQ 160M SSB 0000Z 2/25 to 2359Z 2/26

 

Note from Kyle:

 

The time to submit your DXTOTALS is fast approaching, be sure to start counting early. The CVCC website has a new page that allows you to submit your totals online this year. You are welcome to help me test the page, I need users to submit fake totals to ensure the page doesn't have bugs.



Follow the directions on the page and that's it, don't worry I'm going to remove all fake entries on 12/31/05.

Thanks,
Kyle, WA4PGM


 
Please send any newsletter (NL) items to me the Friday before a monthly CVCC meeting and I will try to get your info into the NL.

 
Tnx, John