[PVRCNC] PVRCNC Joint meeting minutes- 10/13/04

[Henry Heidtmann]

PVRC/NC Joint Meeting Minutes
October 13 2004, Golden Corral, Burlington, NC
WX: pouring rain.

Members Present:
Guy K2AV; Wes, K4WES; Jim K4QPL; Jack W0UCE; Jeff, NX9T; Rob KA1ARB; Tom
N4IOZ; Gene WB4MSG; Henry W2DZO; Bill K4CIA; Nate N4YDU; Robert KG4NEP;
and Don WS4NC. 

Club News
K2AV yelled to start the meeting around 7:15PM, Tom N4IOZ gave a
reminder about the upcoming FARC Swap Meet in Winston-Salem on January
8, 2005.Tom also mentioned the passing of Chuck K3FT and that a card
will be sent from PVRCNC.

Member News
Guy K2AV reports that they'll be doing a rebuild of fixed NE antennas
and feedlines at N4AF in time for CQWW CW.

Jeff NX9T is happy that everything still works at his house.

Gene WB4MSG is working mucho OT at work, so his operating time is
limited, but did manage to get some more radials down.
 
Henry W2DZO invited folks to help out at W4WS for CQWW SSB. He commented
that they have ears on 80 now (new beverage) and that he entered the
Yaesu world by picking up an FT920. 

Bill K4CIA was glad to be there and reprted country #317 on 160 snagging
VK9LA.

Rob KA1ARB eplaced his TS830 with a TS850, and he is thrilled. 
Now he has to get the KT34XA out of the driveway and into service.
He was strong armed by Henry to come play in WW SSB in exhange for an
antenna lifting party in Chapel Hill. 

Jim K4QPL is enjoying his new shack and and new garage, but is
sandwiched between CIA and UCE which causes QRM on his QRN.

Jack W0UCE stated "160,160,160." His QTH was the guinea pig testing
ground for K2AV's new 160 directional antenna design (called a Z-slope).
So far beating out his other antennas to NE.

Guy K2AV then took the floor and expounded the Z-slope design with a
great Powerpoint presentation on the big screen. High points:

Two driven elements, a sloper and a "Z". Directivity is from high point
of sloper toward low point. Feedpoint for both elements is at the low
end of the sloper. Does not use ground as a current sink for shield of
feed coax. Six unconnected parallel wires 4' apart run on the ground
underneath entire antenna. Uses one elevated folded radial.

Footprint of the antenna is 250-300 feet by 20 feet. Can be supported by
a single tree or single tower. Tower has to be behind the Z-slope, in
the F/B null, to keep from detuning it. 70' tree can support same size
Z-slope as 100' tower.

Version up at Jack's place subject to tweaking, but already has 12-15 db
front to back and obvious better performance than Jack's other antennas
in the pattern. Clear and obvious advantage to Z-slope on weak NE
signals.

Jim K4QPL then started new new tradition of having a door prize at joint
meetings (translation- a good way for all of us to give away stuff we
dont want.) NX9T won the inaugural priz- a 12V power supply/wall wart
replacer. N4YDU won second place- a key chain. 
K2AV won a free pass to the January 2005 swap meet in Winston-Salem, and
W0UCE won a free ticket to the Winston-Salem Hamfest in June, 2005.

Meeting concluded at 8:43PM. Agreement was reached to meet again in 6
months.
WX: much drier, thank you.

Submitted by W2DZO