[PVRCNC] PVRCNC-East Chapters June Meeting Minutes

[Keith Zeringue]

PVRCNC-East Chapters June Meeting Notes
June 7th, 2007, Manchester's, Raleigh, NC, USA.

There was a light turnout for the June meeting, with twelve members in 
attendance. Having a cozy little group, K4QPL allowed the casual QRM to 
continue until well after the nominal 6:00pm "official" meeting time. 
After persistent CQ'ing louder than anyone else, 'QPL had the herd 
reigned in long enough to begin member reports.

Around the Table

KA1ARB, Rob:  Rob got on for WPX CW and worked a quick 100 Q's for 
practice. He's going to be unable to operate Field Day, and will operate 
IARU wherever he's needed. Rob has begun initial planning for a Trylon 
self supporting tower project.

K4CIA, Bill:   Bill is looking for 6 meter openings. He managed to bring 
his total of DXCC entities up to 369 by bagging the BS7H DXpedition.

W0UCE, Jack:  Jack enjoyed his trip to NY4A for the CW WPX, except for 
the water moccasin greeting committee on Howie's porch. He's also not 
sure if Scamp has yet accepted him as a regular. He's also just 
beginning the process of downsizing, and may have seveal items from his 
shack for sale soon.

K2AV, Guy:  As a PVRC trustee, Guy has been involved in many of the 
discussions regarding the circle. He's also working with Howie to get 
prepared for IARU from N4AF. Also planning for CQWW from N4AF.

K9EZ, Kent:  Kent is on the lookout for suitable tubing for a 40 meter 4 
square. As he's settling into a new QTH, station reconstruction has been 
slow. His TS-940 and 100MP are still boxed, and an amp is in the future. 
For now, Kent is going to concentrate on the low bands.

KE4GY, Frank:  Frank had many thanks to Bert, Bill and Tom for help 
getting a problem with his antenna fixed. He was happy about being able 
to establish and hold a run on 15 meters during WPX. Frank is planning 
on operating Field day @ DFMA(Durham FM Association), and he's still 
working towards his 20 meter antenna project.

AD4L, Pete:  Pete is looking for a chair for IARU, expecting to operate 
during Field Day to "break the rust and cobwebs".

W4KAZ, Keith:  Looking forward to IARU. Will be operating Field Day with 
N4YDU, N4PY, K9EZ and K4CZ in Franklin county under the special event 
callsign N4Q.

NT4Q, Jerry:  Jerry breifly considered relinquishing the note-worty 
partial callsign '4Q' in favor of 'NT4F', but ultimately chose keep what 
he already has. His 40m dipole is UP, and the mast/rotor/antenna switch 
are mounted. The Yagi soon to come. He's also reached a personal 
milestone, as oldest daughter graduates high school and is now off to 
college.

K4WES, Wes:  Was out for Bruce's rohn 45 raising(the first of three 
towers). Wes also noted that he had received IARU paper for the 2006 SSB 
category. He's expecting to operated Field Day with WW4M.

N4TL, Tom:  Tom expects to operate during the VHF contest(either to QRM 
K4CIA or to enjoy the pileup). He's also happy to have bagged the BS7H 
DXCC entity to match K4CIA with 369 entities. He also demonstrated that 
ordinary coleman lantern mantles were radioactive(so be sure you dispose 
of the ash carefully.)

K4QPL, Jim:  Jim worked with Jack at N4AF for the CW WPX contest, where 
they operated multi/single. Snakes? Scamp? Do mocassins copy CW? Jim 
plans to operate Field Day with the CARS group again, hoping to 
evangelize for contesting and contesters. He also related the story of 
delivering a LARGE spool of hardline to N4AF's prior to WPX, and relayed 
Howie's thanks to the individual(unamed in this permanent record) 
donating the gift of the low loss line. Many thanks.

Jim made a few closing comments regarding the circle. With the change to 
the circle being considered, the NC area will benefit(ed note: The 
change has since been announced as official-de W4KAZ)  With this comes a 
responsibility for PVRCNC to step up. We can best show our appreciation 
by working to build the membership and by simply having fun and 
operating when we are able.

There was also a discussion of IARU. The stations will be registered by 
Howie with the ARRL, as the W1AW callsign is given with the permission 
of ARRL, via its trustee K1ZZ, David Sumner, and N4AF, Howie is 
responsible for the station assignments.
The current expectations for assignments are as follows, as of 06/07/07:

     * CW 160 -- unassigned
     * CW 80 --N4AF
     * CW 40 --N4AF
     * CW 20 --N4AF
     * CW 15 --N4AF
     * CW 10 --AA4NC??

     * SSB 160 -- unassigned
     * SSB 80 --WB4MSG
     * SSB 40 --AA4NC
     * SSB 20 --AA4NC
     * SSB 15 --KG4NEP
     * SSB 10 --KG4NEP

IARU Operating:

     * The station host will be in the best position to schedule and 
coordinate operators
     * It's hoped that all operators involved put their best face 
forward - Good Operator practices should be used.
     * The goal should be to 'hand out the mult' to as many stations as 
possible, rather than maximizing score.

After the member reports the meeting began to break up, K4QPL wisely 
waited until K4CIA had already left the table to remember to turn the 
floor over to W0UCE for the paper contest. But even this transparent 
ploy was not a contest winnig strategy for 'QPL. There was a three way 
tie between K9EZ, AD4L, and K4WES. The official contest scorer was 
forced to resort to technicalities to assign a winner. After the dust 
had settled, K9WES walked off with first place and a nice set of knife 
sharpening stones.

The meeting soon fell into anarchy at this point--propagation failed and 
the bands were soon dead.

Text of the June paper contest below--Consult W0UCE for the answer key.

73, Keith W4KAZ

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.

Paper Contest June 2007--All about IARU

    1. Your Callsign???
    2. What does IARU stand for?
    3. When is the IARU 2007 World Championship Contest?
    4. The IARU now endorses only four band plans.   True? False?
    5. IARU scores must be submitted in what file format?
    6. IARU rules: Multi 2 is permitted; Multi-multi is not.   True? False?

    7. The IARU was founded in what year?
    8. Which country is the 2007 International Secretariat?
    9. What is the standard IARU contest exchange?
   10. Mult Question1: There are how many IARU Regions?   2? 3? 4? 5? 6? 
7? 8?

   11. Mult Question2: Iraq withdrew from the IARU in 2006.   True? False?