[PVRCNC] PVRC/NC-EAST April Meeting Notes

Wed Apr 11 19:55:10 EDT 2007

PVRCNC-EAST April Meeting Notes
April 5, 2007, Manchester's, North Raleigh.

We had a good turnout at the April meeting, with all of the following 19 
in attendance: Barry, K4CZ; Marty, W4MY; Laurie,N1YXU; Bruce, N1LN; 
Larry, K1ZW and XYL Kathy; Kent K9EZ; Bert, N4CW; Keith, W4KAZ; Jim, 
K4QPL; Bill, K4CIA; Brad, AL4T; Jerry, NT4Q; Jeff, NX9T; Frank, KE4GY; 
Guy, K2AV; Jack, W0UCE; and Jay, NT4D. Attending his first meeting was 
Ray, WA4WGA.

The hot air was circulating, and K4QPL took until 7:19 to crack the 
whip, cut through the QRM, and herd the cats into some semblance of 
order. 'QPL then tapped K2AV to begin the evenings member reports, which 
gave Jim plenty of time to dive back into his meal. (Smooth move Jim...)

Around the Table:

K2AV, Guy: As it turns out, Guy did not have much radio activity to 
report, but had done some work rigging car towing connections.

W0UCE, Jack: Jack has discovered a fondness for QRP operating, and 
nabbed #2 in the Pesky Texas Armadillo event. He also announced his 
Canine "Great Escape" QRP event, similar to the Pesky Armadillos and 
Roadkill roundup, but with operation on two bands, 40 and 80 meters. 
There will also be a fall contest that will be on 160 and 80 meters.

K4CIA, Bill: Bill put in a day at the Raleigh Hamfest doing QSL card 
checking for DXCC. He's also reached his personal goal of working more 
than 250 DX entities on 160 this year

NT4D, Jay: Jay has also develped an interest in QRP operating, and has 
participated in several QRP events. He also was happy to announce a 
personal best in the SSB WPX, where he nabbed 1150 QSO's in the SOAHP 
category.

N1LN, Bruce: Bruce was happy to reveal that he expected delivery of 
concrete in the a.m. to fill several holes dug by K4QPL. He was also 
expecting to have additional holes drilled and filled for the guy 
anchors. (ed. - another NC QSO machine is born!)

N1YXU, Laurie: Laurie has been gathering JA and other exotic DX QSL 
cards for lining the bottom of the N1LN tower bases.

NT4Q, Jerry: Jerry toyed with WPX, logging 100 QSO's in the time 
available. Tower work outstanding.

W4KAZ, Keith:  NT4Q's tower work remains outstanding because W4KAZ was 
laid up with the respiratory crud. Same said crud, having taken up 
permanent residence in W4KAZ's vocal cords, kept him QRT during WPX SSB. 
He did not have the crud early in the month, and enjoyed operating ARRL 
DX SSB from NT4D, along with Jay and NT4Q. Together, with a modest and 
casual approach, they managed 950 Q's from NT4D.

KE4GY, Frank: Frank is happy that work slowed down enough that he has 
managed to get his 40 foot tower up, and he also has his guy anchors in 
place for the bigger tower. Hoping that N4CW will be able to help with 
getting antennas up on the 40 footer in the next couple of days.

K1ZW, Larry: Larry enjoyed operating WPX SSB, and had fun following NT4D 
around while chasing spots. He is happy with the 40 meter element added 
to his SteppIr, but noticed an uncomfortable amount of flex in a portion 
of the .25 inch thick mounting bracket. Plans to replace the bracket 
with .5 inch material at first opportunity.

NX9T, Jeff: Family obligations have limited the amount of time Jeff has 
available, so he has been chasing some of the recent DX, and only put in 
a few scattered hours into WPX SSB.

W4MY, Marty: Marty has become interested in operating state QSO parties 
as a mobile. He related the story of his flat tire during the rainstorm 
on the day of the NC QSO Party, after his tire found and retained a 
'great big chunk' of glass. The competitive spirit settled in, and Marty 
completed an additional 125 'sopping wet' QSO's AFTER repairing the 
tire. (ed. this qualifies Marty as a "Butt in Chair Award" finalist!) 
He's also happy with reaching a goal by winning 1st place in a Fist 
Sprint as a QRO operator.

WA4WGA, Ray: Ray was attending his first PVRC/NC meeting, and says he 
became interested in contesting after operating Field Day for many 
years. Marty, W4MY and Ray have been working on getting N1MM and 
JAWS(Job Access With Speech, a screen reader for the blind) to play well 
together. While there are still some kinks, they have had a great deal 
of success.

K4CZ, Barry: Barry gave the new antenna system another work out in WPX 
SSB, raking in 750 QSO's. He's also discovered that the new ears have 
made the rather wide front end of his TS-930 a bit of a problem, but he 
hopes the Inrad roofing filter will solve that once he gets it 
installed. He's also gathered in enough DX on LOTW to qualify for DXCC. 
Future plans are to look towards a recieve antenna for 160 meters.

AL4T, Brad: Brad has not had an oportunity to play radio at all since 
Sweeps, as work has kept him too busy. He did make the front page of the 
CW Sweeps write up, along with his 'guest Op'. He's put a small amount 
of time into building a controller for his 'ultimate stackmatch' 
project. Brad's big news is that he and his XYL are expecting twins. 
(ed. Congrats!)

K9EZ, Kent: Kent got an opportunity to guest op at W4RM for ARRL DX CW, 
and had a blast when got to run stations non-stop on 20 meters. He has 
also recently moved into his new home, which came with a roomy 'ready 
made' hamshack , as it is pre-equipped with a beer tap and billiards 
table. (ed. Man den?) He's glad that his days of operating on a chair on 
the back porch are over. For work he's been working on the testing of 
NVIS and short skip equipment.

K4QPL, Jim: No operating to report, missed the phone contests. Looking 
forward to WPX CW in May. Jim also reports that the scores at NY4A seem 
to be holding up for both ARRLDX and CQWW DX.

Reports via e-mail:

K4TMC, Henry: Unable to attend.

KA1ARB, Rob: Rob was unable to attend, but reports that he did put in a 
full effort in ARRL DX SSB as N1FD with WB1ADR up in New Hampshire. He's 
begun planning tower placement, but besides DX SSB, has otherwise been 
inactive.

Paper Contest and Program:

The ever challenging W0UCE paper contest stumped and stymied the 
participants again. Coming up with a solid first place showing was K2AV. 
Protests by K4CIA that the vote counting was tainted, since K2AV scored 
and tallied the results, were shouted down by a group happy to see 
someone besides K4CIA or NT4D win the contest.

Announcements K4QPL announced that the May meeting would be the "semi 
regular whenever we can do it" combined meeting with the PVRC/NC West 
chapter. The mid point location is yet to be determined, but will be 
somewher in the Burlington area. The combined meeting will be on May 
3rd. Carpools are encouraged. Jim and Henry will be announcing the 
winners of the "NC Chairmen's Challenge" from the 2006 November Sweepstakes.

Program The evening's program was a group discussion of "RM-11306", the 
proposal by the ARRL to the FCC for a rule change that would make wide 
band(3kc) digital operation legal throughout the segments of the bands 
currently reserved for CW.
Summary of discussion, as perceived by W4KAZ:

1) W0UCE is vehemently opposed to this ARRL proposal.
2) Most, if not all, of the group are also opposed to the basic premise 
of a de-facto elimination of the CW band segments. A minority (ed. W4KAZ 
included) are less vehement in their opposition than W0UCE.
3) One proper response is to comment on the FCC's web site. K9EZ, 
drawing on his broadcast industry experience, indicates the FCC staff 
are very open to hearing comments from the public, but stressed that 
comments should be made in a professional and businesslike manner to be 
taken seriously.
4) A second proper response is to seek more information from the ARRL. 
Again--professional manners apply.

For more information
The original request filed with the FCC in 2005: 
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518181567

To FILE a comment, type RM-11306 into box#1 ("proceeding") at this FCC 
web site: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

ARRL notice of ex-parte meeting as of 2/14/2007 requesting changes: 
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518726280
NOTE:This request was amended on 3/22/2007 
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518914061

ARRL position as of 3/23/2007: 
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/03/23/101/?nc=1

To read the MANY comments previously filed with the FCC, type RM-11306 
into box#1 ("proceeding") at this FCC web site: 
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

Finally, if you remember how to log in to the PVRC Archives, you can 
read the notice from Jim, WX3B to the entire PVRC membership regarding 
setting up a meeting with ARRL in the DC area to discuss the issue.
See: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/private/pvrc/2007-April/017041.html

--  Whew!  --

73, Keith W4KAZ, PVRC/NC East Scribner

Scribe's DISCLAIMER!  The accuracy of these notations is suspect, and 
creative license has been applied where the scribe's memory is 
fragmented or when reality was just less interesting. Perception IS 
Reality. Corrections to the permanent record will be made upon request.