[PVRCNC] PVRC/NC-East Chapter - January 3rd Meeting Minutes

[Keith Zeringue]

What a crock!  First I naively allow myself to get railroaded as 'scribe 
for life', THEN you guys pack the house.  What a deal!
The NIL/Busted report is sure to be long this time.....de w4kaz  :>


PVRCNC-East Chapter - January Meeting Notes
January 3rd, 2008, Manchester's, Raleigh, NC, USA.

The first PVRC meeting of 2008, the January 3rd meeting of the NC-East 
Chapter, kicked off 2008 with a bang. The meeting began with an 
impromptu game of musical chairs, as the slowly increasing turnout 
finally came close to bursting the seams of our Manchester's meeting 
area.   We had a total of 25 people, a new high for recent meeting 
turnout, beating even the ten year anniversary meeting held last November.
What a great "problem" to have, and a great way to start the year!  It 
doesn't pay to come late if you want a good seat.

Much of the crowd was initially distracted by Ooooh'ing-and-Ahhhh'ing 
over the toy du'jour, a newly arrived Elecraft K3 that Henry, K4TMC was 
kind enough to share for the evening.   K4TMC was quick to deny rumors 
that there was a 'K3 door prize', despite the wishful thinking and 
vehement protests by the rest of the crowd. (Go figure.)
K4QPL was seen skulking in the shadows, having finally shaken the 
chairman's monkey from his back.   But the monkey must have been 
sleeping.   When AA4NC attempted to modulate his water-glass CW-sounder, 
it turned out his spoon-swinging fist is nearly as poor as W4KAZ with 
paddles.   So AA4NC resorted to his 'dread' EssEssBee skills to break 
the normal raucous QRM period and gain some measure of order.   AA4NC 
then recognized the guests present, and thanked K4QPL for his multiple 
years of service.   As food was arriving AA4NC launched the group into 
member reports, setting down the "food-vs-minutes" logging challenge to 
el Escribano Inexacto. (Judging by the NIL and busted QSO rate on the 
minutes, it is child's play to guess which wins out!, ed. W4KAZ)


Around the Table:
W0UCE, Jack:   Jack introduced the two guests attending their first 
meeting, WB6JZY, Jack, and his XYL, Mary Anne. 'UCE noted that rumor has 
it WB6JZY's new QTH came with a 'really nice set' of low band antennas 
already installed. 'UCE also gave a word of thanks to outgoing NC-East 
chair K4QPL, who stepped from the shadows to accept a round of applause 
from the group.(OK, 'QPL didn't really 'step', but he did lean forward 
in his chair a bit, ed, W4KAZ)

WB6JZY, Jack & Mary Anne:   Jack introduced himself as a newly relocated 
resident, having fled Sunny California after 44 years there. He's had a 
career in industry as an RF Engineer, and acknowledges his being hooked 
on electronics by his 'first love' of ham radio. Jack is still doing a 
bit of consulting work, but expects to wean his employers from their 
habit to gain more personal time.

N4XD, Ron:   Ron has been spending a lot of time working on house 
construction projects. He worked the ARRL 160 from the new QTH and 
racked up a 'best ever' 1100+ QSO's. He also operated the Stew Perry 
contest.

N1LN, Bruce:   Bruce was able to put in a 'little' time in the Stew 
Perry contest, thanks to his 'ace ground crew'. He had put up a 
'temporary' 160m antenna. His first QSO on the 'temporary' antenna was a 
Russian, so he figured it 'was time for a Beverage' (of the ANTENNA 
variety! ed.,W4KAZ). He also noted that he had hit DXCC Honor Roll.

N1YXU, Laurie:   Laurie has been too busy 'being the ace ground crew' to 
get anything else done.

KE4GY, Frank:   Frank has been continuing to make slow progress on his 
tower projects, but not much spare time since the last meeting.
N4GU, Mike:   Mike modified his 80m vertical for low band by adding a 
160m L element. He was able to put the mod to use by operating Stew Perry.

K4QPL, Skulker of Shadows:   Jim wished AA4NC good luck as NC-East 
chapter chairman, and quipped that the large crowd for Will's first 
meeting as chair was a sign - 'of something'. Beyond that, Jim hasn't 
had much time to play radio, but expects to be at NY4A for ARRL DX. He 
also was sporting a christmas present, a "CW Forever" wristwatch.

N4YDU, Nate:   Nate has worked a lot of part-time efforts since his last 
meeting, but was able to put a strong effort into CW Sweeps. He enjoyed 
playing in the ARRL 160, and has been following his normal routine at 
the QTH of swapping out antennas and radios to see what works best.

K4CZ, Barry:    Barry has discovered the downside to having the whole 
family interested in radio. Beginning his report with "When he gets a 
chance to use his radio", Barry noted that he had operated ARRL 160m. 
He's also reached a personal milestone, and gathered enough 5M points to 
qualify at th end of this season. Project wise, he's installing a 
Butternut vertical at the QTH.

KI4GUO, Jordan:    Jordan has made amateur radio the focal point of a 
school project. She's doing a 20m propagation study, based on the 
NCDXF/IARU beacon network.

KI4ZWQ, Jeanne:   Jeanne is continuing to work on her upgrade to general.

W4KAZ, El Escribano Inexacto:    Keith has been putting in part time 
efforts, putting in a couple of hours into ARRL 160m, five minutes into 
ARRL10m, and some SWL'ing for Stew Perry, claiming 'my best DX in Stew 
Perry was N1LN'. It also appears that the summer IOTA expedition(N4YDU & 
W4KAZ as "N4A") may have resulted in the unlikely occasion of W4KAZ 
being a member of a 1st placed team. N4A has apparently won the North 
America low-power expedition category. Thanks to N4YDU for providing 99 
percent of the QSO's, and a hat tip for K4TMC, whose company(The Mast 
Company) was the source of much of the gear used to get the N4A 
antennas' height above mean sea level on the island expedition.

NT4D, Jay:    Jay has been busy helping Jerry, NT4Q with a pile of 
various new radio toys.

KZ1X, Steve:   Stephen put some time into the excruciating ARRL 10m 
contest and into the Stew Perry contest.

K4TMC, Henry:   Henry reiterated that the K3 was only present for the 
evening, and was going to remain handcuffed to his arm until he was in 
his car and out of the parking lot. Henry had hoped to put the K3 
through its paces for Sweepstakes, but that did not work out. He was 
able to use it for the ARRL 10m, but everyone agreed that this years 10m 
contest was probably a poor test. He's settled on a 40m vertical, and 
has been working on beefing up the ground plane.

KZ1W, Larry:   Larry also "operated" the ARRL 10m "fiasco". He's been 
warming up the soldering iron and removing"hacked mods" from his Heath 
SB-221 refurb project.

KA1ARB, Rob:   Rob was able to operate SSB Sweeps due to a last minute 
antenna hoist. On game day, he reports he was out with the chainsaw 
felling trees to make room for the hoist, and thanked Bruce for helping 
out on short notice with the last minute job. (Bruce then interjected 
that they: 'finished with "a couple of hours to spare", so it can't be a 
"real" last minute job').

K2AV, Guy:   Guy stressed the fact that he had operated BOTH halves of 
Sweeps, and feels like he did well with the time he had available for 
the contests. He plans on being part of the NY4A team for ARRL DX.

N4TL, Tom:   Tom logged five QSO's in the painful ARRL10m contest. He 
warned the crowd that he had agreed to provide several of the upcoming 
"Paper Contests"

NX9T, Jeff:   Jeff has done a lot of part time operating, including the 
ARRL 10m, ARRL160. He then foolishly granted El Escribano Ineacto carte 
blanc to invent other activities out of thin air.
(Well, I would, but since there's so many at the meeting, I'm gettin' 
tired O'typin'..... ;) ed., W4KAZ: )

K4CIA, Bill:    Bill notes that he's done with the house painting, so we 
can all pack our brushes and rollers away. Not the sort to back away 
from a challenge, Bill 'dabbled in ARRL 160m as QRP' and dabbled in ARRL 
10m. He's also been chasing the DX, same as always.

N4CW, Bert:   "Nanook du Nord", recently back from tropical Maine,
reports operating ARRL 160m and ARRL 10m.  Bert will also be operating 
as part of the NY4A team for ARRL DX. He noted that no one had yet 
mentioned the upcoming RTTY RU and January NAQP's, and plans to operate 
as time allows.

A4NC, Will:   Will noted that he had not been active much after Sweeps, 
and re-iterated his plans to vacate the chairman's chair after a single 
year term.

NEW BIZZNEZZ:
Three new members were attending their second meeting, and were accepted 
as full members of the NC-East chapter of PVRC. They are: KI4GUO, 
Jordan; KI4ZWQ, Jeanne; and KZ1X, Stephen. Welcome to the group!

RKRU: The subject of the North Carolina Road Kill Round Up QRP contest 
was broached, but there was some doubt about the viability of the 
contest. W0UCE is currently "Internetus Interruptus" (i.e., no service), 
and N1LN was not certain of his availability to sponsor the contest. 
Critters should stay tuned for more details.

ANNOUNCEMENT:  K4QPL announced that Brad, AL4T, would be relocating to a 
spot on the map significantly outside the circle. The good news is that 
there will probably be a new contester handing out the "OK" multiplier 
in future Sweepstakes.
Brad says via e-mail about their long-distance house hunting: "The 
leader is 80 acres (that's 1/4 mile by a 1/2 mile, if you didn't know) 
of antenna farm!".
(Good luck to you and the family Brad!, ed, W4KAZ)

Program:
K4TMC fielded questions from the group of his impressions of the K3 and 
discussed features he found particularly useful for his own operation. 
He was able to exit the premises with his K3 in hand, much to the 
chagrin of the assembled crowd.

Addendum: Ron, N4XD, provides this link to a full K3 review by G4AON.
http://www.astromag.co.uk/k3/

Next meeting of the NC-East chapter is February 7th.


73, Keith W4KAZ

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