[PVRCNC] NC-East minutes from June 3, 2004

[Jim Price]

PVRC/NC East Meeting Minutes 
June 3 2004, Golden Corral, Dillard Drive, Cary 

Several members gathered for an impromptu rag chew at the door, then
entered en masse to adopt the GC diet, appropriately stuffing their
faces with the  cholesterol enhanced cuisine. 

Members Present: 
Summer attendance was boosted by 33% with the arrival of the Brookover
clan--Jay, NT4D; xyl Debbie, WD8EBI (DEBI -- Get it??) ; 1st harmonic
Stephanie, KG4CXA; and second harmonic, Meredith, NYL (Nice Young Lady,
Not Yet Licensed). Others in attendance were Keith, W4KAZ; Bob, N2NFG;
Bill, K4CIA; Wes, K4WES; Will, AA4NC; Jeff, NX9T; and Jim, K4QPL.  

A special welcome to Rob, KA1ARB, attending his second meeting. After a
heated discussion which mostly involved questions about how certain
other members had ever been admitted to the club, he was nominated and
welcomed as a member of PVRC. 

Regrets: Ed AE4EC, Pete AD4L, Guy K2AV, Jim WW4M 

Member News 
Your secretary, WW4M, was absent having given some cockamamie story
about a conflict, and your chairman, K2AV after laying claim to the 40M
run position at NY4A for 52 straight hours out of 48 in WPX, was
reportedly still asleep and unlikely to be seen before IARU.* Anarchy
ruled until W4KAZ provided a slip of note paper slightly larger than a
postage stamp to K4QPL who allegedly took minutes. After trying in vain
afterwards to decipher notes like "N2NFGwpxtoweroneofthesedays" he gave
up and decided to write a fictionalized version which follows:  

W4KAZ was in WPX but as his log was written in the same notepad he
brought to the meeting, he will purchase a microscope and then determine
his score.  KA1ARB enjoyed WPX also. He says next time he will turn on
his transmitter.  

N2NFG report is above; K4CIA had no contest activity but in addition to
a trip to Dayton, Bill has planted several acres of radials in
anticipation of a good crop of counterpoises for shunt feeding his tower
on 160M. K4WES also brought the family. He's looking forward to FD.
AA4NC quipped that it was really considerate of Wes' mother to give him
the same name as his call sign. NT4D was also in WPX giving out mults
with abandon to the needy including NY4A. AA4NC has been QRL with other
things and no contesting. Tried to break away from a business trip to CO
to join a friend for WPX but ended up in Aspen for the weekend. Real
hardship, Will! NX9T also went to Dayton under the mistaken theory that
would give him a free pass for not appearing in any contests this month.
Wrong! K4QPL was part of the quintet operating NY4A M/M in WPX at N4AF.
Mildly waxed by another PVRC station KM4M M/2 (at K4JA) for top US score
reported, but should finish stateside top M/M. WW4M later received a
report from a field mouse that the self proclaimed 'OFs' at NY4A
achieved this high score despite 2 MPs blowing up, the logging program
crashing, and missing the first 30 minutes of the test, and operating
while crammed into a small room with 4 amplifiers, several radios, 
various computers, two dogs and temperatures around 90 degrees. 

The meeting descended into further chaos. Rob, KA1ARB proved he was
worthy to be a member of PVRCNC instigating a bun fight by asking for
recommendations on the best low budget radio for a newbie contester.
With spirit not seen since the last Writelog-TR rumble, the relative
merits and demerits of older ICOM, Kenwood and Yaesu radios were thrown
about until Rob decided he might be better off with a Cobra 27 Mhz
"Trucker Special." QRO at half the cost of an Ameritron linear. 

After emptying the soft-serve machine and a barrel of M&M's, the meeting
broke up about 8 p.m. 

Member News via Email
Ed AE4EC wrote "Have a conflict tomorrow evening so cannot make it but
thought i would report that I made 200 q's with 147 mults for a score of
67448 in the WPX. First time Ive been able to reach 200 Q's so I am
either getting better at this game or had lots of luch this time." 

Pete AD4L says "I've just about got my wireless broadband setup stable
enough that I can focus on the next priority, which is reviving station
in time for WAE. In fact I'm going to drive about a half dozen ground
rods this weekend. So, although I sold two of three radios and some
antennas and the like, don't get the wrong idea. :-)  

* From K2AV: 
"Actually K2AV had been detained by Homeland Security and was being
quizzed for conduct on WPX weekend, to wit: sending coded number groups
to large numbers of stations on 7 MHz that the FCC monitoring station
could not copy, and therefore presumed did not exist. The numbers being
sent were clearly too high to be serial numbers in the contest, and did
not increase by one from contact to contact as observed with other
stations in the contest. The excuse that another member of the team had
misconfigured the logging program was deemed not credible. 

"He was finally let go when he confessed that the REAL 40m operator was
a gentleman named Karnak who could usually be found fishing off the
Florida Keys. They apparently were well acquainted with Karnak, though
they had never managed to bring him in for interrogation." 
      
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submitted by K4QPL, amended by WW4M