[PVRCNC] ATTN PVRC/NC de K4QPL

[Howie Hoyt]

From: "James F. Jordan" <jfj at jordanlaw.com>
To: <pvrcnc at mailman.qth.net>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 20:27:28 -0400
Subject: IARU HQ W1AW/4
Breaking news!

Did you ever dream of operating a big dx contest and saying, "CQ TEST
from Whiskey One Alpha Whiskey? Or the same thing in code?

Dream no longer!  ARRL (through Dave Sumner, K1ZZ to Howie, N4AF/NY4A)
has offered North Carolina the opportunity to be an official Hq
station for the 2007 IARU HF World Championships on July 14-15!

Because a decision had to be made quickly, Howie and I, having
ultimate faith that PVRCNC would rise to the occasion, made an
executive decision and told Dave, "YES!" Regardless of your concerns
with some current ARRL policy issues, ARRL remains our only
organization with a long and prestigious history.

Here's how it works. We put as many contest-quality stations and
operators on the air as we need to provide 24 hours of non-stop
running on as many bands as are open to anywhere on both CW and SSB.
It can be a multi-multi with more than one radio on more than one
band. Or it could be several separate stations each having a
designated band and mode. For example, one station could be on 160 cw
and another on 40 phone. Both would sign W1AW/4.

Howie has agreed to put the potent NY4A on as multi/multi for
80-40-20-15 CW. Lots of cw ops needed. 160 cw and 10 cw (well, we can
always pray for sunspots!) stations and operators are also needed.
SSB is wide open at the moment for volunteers and suggestions. Having
a big clean signal is very important as we will be the voices of
amateur radio in the USA.

The contest is only 24 hours so it's not a killer and virtually no
band is open for the full time. Hopefully there will be low QRN for
the low bands and good openings for the high ones. While we need to be
good, we will be providing the mults to the world and our own results
are secondary. This can be a great opportunity for teamwork in
operating and logging and gaining experience.

All stations must be located in North Carolina but of course operators
from anywhere are welcome to volunteer. We'll obviously get good
internal publicity from ARRL and hopefully we can attract some media
attention as well. To have your station selected to sign W1AW/4 is an
obvious honor.

I'm confident that everyone who doesn't have ironclad commitments
already will want to reserve that weekend to participate in one way or
another. Let us know what you want to contribute. Howie, Jay NT4D,
Henry, W2DZO and I will be an ad hoc committee to evaluate the
available assets and talk with you further about the best way we can
deploy them.

First of all, stations. First rate equipment with a reliable
legal-limit amp is a must. The better the antenna setup for the
designated band(s), the better. If you want to volunteer your station
as a M/M,  interference between positions must be under control and
you must have good antennas since the event will be almost 100% run
mode. If you have found from experience that you get killer results on
a particular band, tell us about that. It would be great if we have a
primary choice for each band with an alternate in case of weather or
Murphy. This is July and local T-storms could be an issue.  Also let
us know how many ops you need and can accommodate in your shack.

Operators: Obviously if you are a station volunteer, then you will be
the lead and control operator. For those of us who have high
aspirations and low antennas, tell us your preference for band, mode,
and any travel/time limitations. I'm hoping we'll have enough folks
turn out that we can have two person teams to help log and pull out
the weak ones while giving experience to some of the newer ops.

Once we know what we have we'll start working on assignments and
rosters. Oh, yes, and we'll have some pretty heavy duty qsl work. Let
us know if you can lend a hand on that.

I'd really like for this to be a predominantly NC-manned operation and
well distributed among our members. Give me your info as soon as
possible so we can go outside our circle if we have to.

For those of you who were at the meeting Thursday and caught the
excitement from W2DZO from his DXpedition with KG4NEP, here's your
chance to get a similar high without even leaving the state!

73,

Jim, K4QPL