[QCWA] QCWA Ch91: March meeting at Neighbor's Restaurant on Saturday, 10 Mar 07

Mon Feb 12 13:30:42 EST 2007

QCWA Chapter 91 Meeting Announcement

March 10, 2007
11:30 AM
Neighbors Restaurant
Shopping Center at Park St. and Cedar Lane
Vienna, VA.

PROGRAM:
----------------
We're going to do something that has proved popular in the past.  
We're going to tell our favorite stories about ham radio and the most  
interesting characters we've met along the way.  In the past, such  
story-telling usually got started in an uplanned way.  This time,  
we're going to set aside the whole meeting for it, and long-time  
member Bill Leavitt, W3AZ, has volunteered to lead off with such  
items as:

(1) How he learned from Nort Richardson, W4KFT, about the surprising  
win of some up-start, W4KFC, during the sweepstakes of 1946 and about  
Nort's efforts to gain back the title. This led to the formation of  
the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC). Many years later, Bill and Vic  
Clark (who was W4KFC) swapped stories about the "shenanigans" they  
used to pull on each other.

How many remember the January 1984 issue of QST that featured a  
moving tribute to Vic, written by David Sumner, K1ZZ, after Vic died  
suddenly the morning after Thanksgiving in 1983?  At time, Vic was  
serving as ARRL's President; Vic's photo was on the cover of that issue.

How many know that Vic Clark was a long-time member, and served as  
the President, of Chapter 91?
How many know the name of Chapter 91 was before it was changed to the  
"Vic Clark Chapter?"

(2) Bill joined Chapter 91 at the insistence of Bill Grenfell, W4GF.  
How many members still remember W4GF and can tell tales about him? I  
know such tales exist because Bill Miller, K4MM (now SK), told Jim  
Wilcox, W3WV, and me some of them.

(3) Stories about A. Hoyt Taylor and Leo Young, the pair who  
discovered by accident the principle of radar while conducting  
propagation studies at VHF in 1922. These tests were conducted from  
the Naval Research Lab site on the eastern shore of the Potomac  
River, where both they and Bill worked.  Bill worked for Leo for a time.

In those days, VHF and above was unexplored territory.  NRL used its  
ham radio station, and the call W3NKF, to talk with other hams and  
gain characteristic data for these frequencies.

Bill also knew John Miller, the fellow who discovered the "Miller  
effect" in vacuum tubes; Bill has a couple of stories he can tell  
about Miller...

If you aren't bursting to tell a few stories of your own by now, I'd  
be very surprised. Save them and bring them to the 10 March meeting.

That reminds me: Leo Young held the call W3WV back then; Chapter 91  
Life member Jim Wilcox holds it now. We've not seen Jim at chapter 91  
events in recent years, so our newer members will not know that Jim  
was president of the chapter for three years, 93-95.  Jim also  
started our Sunday Morning Net, still held each Sunday morning on the  
146.79 repeater, starting at 9:00 a.m. Jim once told me that he held  
the first net on Sunday, 16 September 1990.

Lew Bradley told me recently his log shows that he first checked into  
the net in 1991, and 4 members called in that day.

I first discovered the Sunday morning net -- as well as QCWA and  
Chapter 91 --  the very day after I bought a used 2m handheld at the  
Manassas hamfest in 1995. I had recently retired from The MITRE  
Corporation after 31 years. I bought the handheld to use while  
walking my two German shepherds around the GMU campus.  Jim, then  
K4JAP, conducted the net... but I digress.  See, it just happens!

I know that Jim has many stories to tell, and he's promised to share  
some at our March meeting.

I hope you will come and do the same. My expectation is that we will  
run out of time before we run out of stories, but that's OK, we can  
do it again.

Bring your friends!  Also, bring your audio and/or video equipment to  
record the event if you like.

Bill Leavitt has been an avid DXer and member of the Potomac Valley  
Radio Club, but here's a fact about himself that maybe even he  
doesn't know. This morning, I sorted our current membership database  
to find those with the lowest QCWA-member serial numbers. Here's the  
result:

                                                          QCWA#
William E.Leavitt           W3AZ     04875
Wendell R.Dunning      K4YG     05157
Elmer D.Jones               K4EUX   09108
David L.Wiesen             K2VX      09130

I then opened an earlier version of the database, that I saved on 22  
Dec 2001, and did the same sort with this result:

                Silent Key date
William E.Leavitt            W3AZ      04875
Charles A.Stay               W4HE     04890
Frank M.Kratokvil           K4RE      05078               15 Mar 2002
Wendell R.Dunning       K4YG      05157
John H.Swafford            W4HU      05851
John J. "Jack"Kelleher W4ZC       06045               28 Feb 2002
Irvin "Irv"Hershowitz      W3HQG   06253              27 Mar 2005
Elmer D.Jones               K4EUX     09108

So, it is most appropriate that Bill begins the story-telling  
session, but he's expecting you to help him out.

PLEASE NOTE:
--------------------
Bill and Helen recently moved to Riderwood Village, a gated  
retirement community in Silver Spring, MD.
http://www.ericksoncommunities.com/rwv/directions.asp
He needs a ride to the meeting and back home. If one of you can  
volunteer to provide his transportation, please let me know and I  
will provide you detailed driving directions by return email.

OTHER ITEMS:
---------------------
We'll also have our latest 33-33-33 drawing. No one has yet won the  
cumulative pot, and Frank Haynes, W4NUA, told me Saturday that it now  
exceeds $500!  Drawing tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.  You can buy  
them from Frank at the meeting.

We'll also auction off any goodies that you bring in. All proceeds go  
to the chapter, unless some other arrangement is negotiated before  
the meeting.

So come out and enjoy a good lunch and swapping stories with the rest  
of us!

73,
Dick Rucker, KM4ML

PS: VP and Program chair Tim Donovan, WA4CLK, was overseas on  
business, so I filled in for him while he was away.