[PVRCNC] PVRC NC Chapter, September minutes.

[Guy Olinger, K2AV]

PVRC, NC Chapter meeting, 5 September 2002, Ryan's Steakhouse,
Crossroads Plaza, Cary

Attending: N4CW Bert, K4CIA Bill, K4QPL Jim, K3KO Brian, NI4S Andy,
NT4D Jay, KO7X Alan, NX9T Jeff, K4HA Bob, K4NYS Chuck, K2AV Guy, N4TL
Tom, WW4M Jim, K4WES Wes.

QRM reduced to 20/9 for communications purposes at 6:20, late mostly
fault of chapter Pres K2AV, who got boxed in at work, showing up late
and actually having to eat during BS session. Unable to bang on salad
plate per usual to get everyone's attention since it was still loaded.
Might have been interpreted as an inducement to a food fight. Or at
least that was the excuse that Carnac got. It seems to have some
credence as the notes have a problem with gravy stains. The attendance
list was finally completed by telling TRLog the list was a contest,
and using super-check partial to fill in the missing letters.
Unfortunately Carnac kept typing and fed in the notes as well. Happy
to report that you can put ANYTHING in Cabrillo format.

As it was the first meeting back after the summer hiatus, the most
popular song, which apparently has more verses than "99 Bottles of
Beer on the Wall", was how Summer was too long, too short, too hot,
too cold, too dry, too wet, too inverted, too busy, too many bugs, too
many ..., to get any work done on antennas.

Carnac has gone into a dither trying to compose an epic ballad
inspired by the September notes. Something based on a tune that sounds
a lot like "Mary had a little lamb". Verse 76 starts with "Berty had a
little amp, little amp, little amp..."  Verse 77 starts with "Brian
had a little amp, little amp..." Chapter members are pre-warned not to
let Carnac get toasted at the October meeting and start singing.

NI4S: Summer was a bust. Something about a rash. Super-check partial
returned rush, rich, ratchet, as possible alternatives.

K3KO: Emerging from the notes: FT100 ... S. Pacific ... 6 ... Full
Power ... Swish ... Nostalgia. Which emerges from TRLog and Cabrillo
as: "K3KO took his FT100 to the South Pacific for 6 weeks and ran it
at high power the whole time until it went swish and left him with a
lot of nostalgia".  The line was flagged as a dupe and a multiplier in
TRLog.

K4QPL: (past most of the gravy stains) Did some multi stuff over
summer with KO4PY, field day at Jordan Lake, and others. Told a story
about a crowing rooster heard plainly in the not-so-background on 40
SSB, giving new meaning to "chicken-bander".

K4CIA: Complaining about bum summer and no AC in the Garage. Some
peanut gallery comment about doing stuff on the kitchen counter
instead, proving that Carnac has never been to finishing school.

N4CW: Reports doing WAE, State QSO parties, VHF test, WITHOUT blowing
up any amps. Under hypnosis and cross-examination later, was forced to
reveal that unknown to him at the time, the amp had been unplugged all
summer.

N4TL: Reports working much DX, and getting cards too. Also had a
run-in with Larry Lightning, zorching an Astron PS. The trauma of it
has him in a pathological ground rod driving frenzy.

K4NYS: Spent the summer at his daughter's wedding. TRLog would not
accept this entry as a valid QSO and had to post-edit this line into
the cabrillo.

K4HA: Had a terrible summer, built a new deck, and installed all new
windows. This WAS accepted as a valid QSO by TRLog. No accounting for
taste.

K4WES: Worked the RTTY contest and reports no ill-effects or recurring
nightmares.

NI4S: Hibernated all summer. Except did the IARU, which smoked his
computer. Anybody got the Intel manual which gives the key-down times
and CCS ratings of a Pentium III?

KO7X: Says he had a hard time relating to a NC summer. This remark
produced the only collective verbal pause in the meeting.

NT4D: Says that his rotor has been broke since SS. The first query
heard on that one was "when did he first notice it, or did he deduce
that".

WW4M: Ever the recruiter, reported on some classy newbies he
discovered over FD. Appropriate elmering functions engaged.

K2AV: Reported that Howie has finally figured out how to properly
string all the wires on the wire monster at N4AF (a lot more complex
than meets the eye), and now that wires are mostly in the design
relationships with each other, getting some very good results. As in
how does one work 500+ contacts in the YO contest. As in being called
by W4AN on 40 and told that he couldn't hear the EU stations Howie was
working.

On a general note, was agreed that most of us missed the meetings over
the summer, and would not skip the summer meetings next year, but do
them in varied settings. More to come on that.

Meeting turned over to miscellany and scientific BS at 7:10.


Regards,
Guy, K2AV