[PVRCNC] NC Chapter November Meeting Minutes

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 12:46:20 -0500

Correction:  Wont' reopen the subject, but I operated SO UNASSISTED in SS
CW!
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Price WW4M" <[email protected]>
To: "pvrcnc" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 11:17 AM
Subject: [PVRCNC] NC Chapter November Meeting Minutes


> 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
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