[PVRCNC] NC Chapter November Meeting Minutes

[Jim Price WW4M]

PVRC/NC Meeting Minutes, 
7 November 2002, Ryan's Steakhouse, Crossroads Plaza, Cary 

Attending: K2AV Guy, KO7X Alan, K4QPL Jim, N4YDU Nate, N2NFG Bob, W2DZO
(ex N4VHK) Henry, N4CW Bert, NX9T Jeff, K4NYS Chuck, K4HA Bob, KR4LO Bill,
N4AF Howie, WW4M Jim, N4TL Tom, WJ9B Will.  Regrets from K4TMC Henry.

K2AV Guy appeared early and promptly left, begging off with a newly
discovered bad cold, so Carnac was not available to take notes this month. 
 
According to a next-day report from Carnac, Guy had driven the whole
distance from work to the meeting with a clothespin on his nose to keep
from snotting on his shirt. Was so out of it by the time he got home he
couldn't remember what rooms the beds were in. Under medication got up the
next morning without the clothespin, but tried to fry an egg without
taking the shell off first. XYL banned him from anything using electricity
so he wouldn't burn the house down.

Club News

WW4M reported that PVRC has purchased additional name badge blanks from
TheSignMan.com (including 20 that say "North Carolina"), paid from the
club treasury. Members interested in ordering new/ replacement badges can
contact The Sign Man via his website, unless you ordered earlier through
Dave WR3L.  (PS - I got home and found an email message saying it turns
out that the badges aren't actually finished yet, due to hurricanes,
required parts, etc.)

Guy K2AV has paid QTH.net for the annual renewal of the pvrcnc.org domain
($14.95) and a year of we bhosting ($120).  Not sure whether he still
needs additional contributions to cover the cost, although in the past he
had passed a hat around and received private promises of assistance.

Tom N4TL asked the manager of the Applebee's on Six Forks at Sawmill in
North Raleigh about providing an alternate place for our meetings,
separate checks, etc.  Apparently he feels things are too busy to handle
us Thursdays through Sundays, but Mon/ Tues/ Wednesdays would be fine. 
They have a private room (sheltered from the smoke in the rest of the
restaurant).  It was suggested that perhaps we could have a trial meeting
there to see how it meets our needs.

Member News

This past month K4HA and K4NYS worked on putting up Rohn-45 at K4ITL (not
a contester) -- they are still waiting for 3 sections to arrive so they
can bring the tower to 90 feet and finish the job.  Bob dabbled in
CQWW-SSB a bit but didn't submit a log.  Chuck worked the ARRL VHF contest
and did submit a score.

NX9T had fun in CQWW SSB.  Jeff skipped SS CW in order to earn brownie
points with the XYL so he can operate SS Phone.

KO7X announced he will operate in the U category for Phone Sweepstakes. 
This prompted everyone to wonder aloud where in the world K3KO and W2CS
were hiding following their heated email exchange on the merits of going U
or B in SS.

N4TL operated in CQP, SSCW, and even got on for CQWW Phone, which was
amazing considering that his daughter got married that weekend.  Tom
mentioned that he ordered a pin and cup but has received no reply and his
check hasn't been deposited.  N3OC will be looking into matters for him. 

K4QPL operated SO-assisted and racked up 805 Qs and 78 mults in SS CW.  He
said the wire 40m yagi he hung in the trees made the difference.  For
show-and-tell he brought his customized wrist rocket, to which he had
mounted a fishing reel with the hardware from a 1980s-era cell phone
mobile mount.  He recommended brass fishing weights over lead weights.  A
passionate discussion of the merits of bows and arrows and other launching
devices followed.  Jim promises to plug in a mic for SS Phone.

N2NFG operated SS CW but not in CQWW Phone -- he has been working every
Saturday and Sunday, which doesn't leave much time for contesting.  Using
a recently purchased Icom 706 and a 80m dipole he scored 50K points and
thought the rig held up well in a contesting environment using 350 and 1.8
filters (but he won't use it for SS Phone).  Everyone agreed the 706 makes
a great second rig.  Bob is looking for a mobile antenna and no-frills
keyer for his long commutes to and from work.

N4YDU is happy that his old neighbor has moved to California.  His new
neighbor lets him put aluminum in his trees and hasn't had any RFI
complaints.  Nate tried out a new protein drink called "Red Bull" during
CQWW Phone -- he was pooping out when he tried it and got a second wind
that lasted 2 hours.  He suspects its secret ingredient is amphetamine (he
had built up a tolerance when he tried it again on Sunday and didn't get
as big a kick with the second dose).

Nate didn't operate much in SS CW, but he recently got a rig blaster and
will be on the air this weekend for WAE, trying out various antennas.  He
also recently purchased a 75V1 with slide dial for his dad, and he is
tempted to keep it.

N4AF reported that CQWW Phone was fun on Saturday but a lot of work on
Sunday.  He's getting ready for CQWW CW and will be putting up a new
rotatable stack on 15m.  Howie announced he has no plans for SS Phone and
invited guest ops over for that contest -- K4QPL immediately took him up
on the offer.  Lots of laughing about K4QPL operating from K4PQL.

KR4LO got on for CQWW and discovered that his four 450-foot long wires
that had worked so well last year didn't this year.  Bill discovered the
cause was water that had accumulated in the conduit that carried the feed
line.  He'll be laying out a new feedline for CQWW CW, and he received
numerous suggestions from twin coax feeds to sump pumps.  He also has
plans to erect a Sterba curtain. (This type of ant. was used for
transatlantic communications in the 30's thru the 50's. They are also used
by VOA now.)

WJ9B proudly reported that he finally broke 1,000 Qs in SS CW, and it all
happened by accident.  After making his first Q he knocked the computer
mouse off the desktop, causing the computer to lockup.  A watched computer
does not reboot quickly, and he became so angry that he took his first
30-minute break and walked away.  Resuming the contest, Will decided to
try SO2R by running on 40m and doing S&P on the other bands, and he was
excited to find that it worked and he found a rhythm.  Almost all of his
run Qs were on 40m (696 contacts).  

There followed a group discussion on the merits for low power/QRP stations
of not operating at the very start of a contest.  People also said they
were surprised by how close they could work other stations on the high
bands in SS CW.  

W2DZO (ex N4VHK) brought greetings from the Winston-Salem area club
members.  He described the groups past M/S ops as W4WS and how this year
they started to create a new club station (making sure it was inside the
PVRC circle), only to have someone back a trailer over their new tower 2
weeks after it was erected.  So KG4NEP will be hosting their efforts this
year and they are putting their efforts into putting up antennas on his
property, describing it as a champagne station on a bad beer budget.  PVRC
members are invited to come on out and operate with them.  He says the
receiving stations can still use some work.

Henry's new callsign was his grandfather's, so he used his grandfather's
check ('32') in SS CW, resulting in a good deal of confusion.  After using
monoband yagis this year he is now a convert.  He asked for suggestions
for a good (tunable) amp to replace some old SB-220s, and the unanimous
reply was the AL-1200.

N4CW had fun chasing mults in CQWW Phone.  He had just returned to Raleigh
at 10pm, got on by 11pm and was exhausted by 2am.  Bert was tickled to
receive a certificate from ARRL for first place SOHP in NC for the 160m
contest, using just an inverted vee.  He recommended that people check out
the log-checking reports available on the ARRL website, and brought to
everyone's attention the write-up for the 2001 10m contest by our own
AA4NC.

WW4M brought in his plaque for first place 2001 Phone Sweeps, Roanoke
Division, Bravo category to show that even modest ops can receive a trophy
if they operate from a good station (K3KO), work all 24 hours, and make
sure not to operate in the same category as the big guns.  That said,
everyone expects him to have to operate as Unlimited this year following
the email exchange between K3KO and W2CS on the subject of using packet.

To quote a ham sage, "Meeting turned over to miscellany and scientific BS
at 7:15."

73, Jim WW4M