December 2002 Newsletter
Thu Dec 05 13:42:30 2002
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Ham Radio Outlet
The RF Connection
The paper edition was mailed at Arnold MD at 10:05am Nov 27th.
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PVRC NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER 2002
PVRC HOLIDAY DINNER by Jack Hammett, K4VV
The Holiday Dinner will again be at the Olive Garden in Vienna
this year. The Olive Garden is The event is scheduled for
Monday, December 9, 2002. The Olive Garden (tele 703-893-3175)
is just west of the 495 Beltway at 8133 Leesburg Pike which is
Route 7. (Off from 495, the Leesburg Pike exit number is old 10
or new 47. -editor) We will begin to gather in the bar about
5:30 or 6:00 PM for the early arrivers, and migrate to the dinner
area about 6:30 to 7:00 PM, and get seated and begin ordering
about 7:00 PM. The program will begin about 8, featuring Awards
and our special speaker Ken, K4ZW.
Journey to Mongolia chronicles the visit of Ken Claerbout K4ZW
and Karl Renz K4YT to Mongolia in November 2001 and September
2002. The purpose of this trip was to assist Chak, JT1CO with
the installation of some low band antennas at his new house 25-Km
northwest of Ulaanbaatar. The project's origin goes back to an
early 2001 visit of JT1CO to the Washington DC area. During this
time we had a chance to meet Chak and talk with him about our
desire to help bolster his low band capabilities. Anyone
involved in chasing 5BWAZ or 160 meter WAZ knows just how hard it
has been to work zone 23 on 80 and 160 meters. Chak's new QTH
provided the perfect opportunity to address this demand.
The 30 minute slide show covers the typically DX and contest
interests. Included are audio clips of a 160-meter pileup to the
West Coast and another clip of a European pileup on 10 meters
during the 2001 CQWW CW contest. The presentation also provides
a look at the far-flung country of Mongolia and the capital
Ulaanbaatar. Ken's November visit was the headline article in
the March 2002 issue of CQ Magazine.
To sign up pass an email ([email protected]) or pass a packet message
to N3OC. Let's talk up the dinner with our friends. Recall that
family or other interested guests are welcome.
Building The W3SO, FN00sn, Contest Station
By Roy Goshorn, W3TEF, and Ed Steeble, K3IXD
It began with the purchase of mountaintop property 100 miles east
of Pittsburgh on top of Wopsononock Mountain in the Allegheny
Mountains by W3YOZ. The location is not far from his hometown of
Altoona, PA. Those three acres are the now the home of W3SO, a
competitive Limited-Multi (LM) VHF contest station in grid square
FN00.
Beginning with portable field-day type equipment and operating
from tents and using the call W3YOZ, experienced VHFers KA3EJJ,
KC3EK and N3CDY, and some top notch PVRC operators found the site
to be a good one for VHF communications. Subsequently the
Wopsononock Mountain Top Operators got their own call, W3SO, in
May 2000.
Today, the QTH has a permanent two room wooden building with all
the features of a home shack, namely electricity, a full bath,
and a kitchen! Because of the round the clock noise from the
various operations taking place during a contest, the group stays
either at local member W3TEF=FEs home or at a motel for a good
nights rest.
When configured for VHF, there are now six operating positions,
one each for 50, 144, 222, 432 MHz., the fifth is for 146 MHz FM
and the sixth is a spare. Currently the 50, 144 and 432 MHz
operators are in oneroom and the 222 and 146 FM operators are in
a larger room that also houses the kitchen and a small storage-
workshop area.
W3SO began by operating with low power VHF rigs and has evolved
to now operating with an ICOM 756PRO on 50MHz, an ICOM 746PRO on
144MHZ, a classic ICOM IC-375A and a 130w Mirage brick on 222
MHz, and a Yaesu FT736R on 432 MHz. On 50, 144, and 432 MHz,
Lunar-Link Systems amplifiers provide 1.5kw PEP output. To help
the operators dig out the weak signals, SSB Electronics pre-amps
are used.
Being on a mountaintop means that the receivers are susceptible
to a lot of out of band signals, especially from "paging"
systems. Also the transmitter at one position may interfere with
a receiver at another position. To combat these problems, in
addition to using good receivers, all signals are routed through
DCI filters to eliminate or reduce the interference.
At the 50, 144, 222 and 432 MHz positions are 486 computers with
DOS running the CT contest software. A planned station upgrade
is to network the computers. Currently the operators use paper
slips to inform each other of stations that are being moved from
one band to another, and each band's pass frequency.
Initially the antennas were small beams on 40 and 50 feet high
field day type masts. Today there are five towers. This year,
in the time between the January and June ARRL VHF contests, coax
runs to all antennas were replaced with half inch or 7/8 inch
hardline, resulting in W3SO=FEs highest contest score yet.
The VHF antennas today consist of a seven element C3I beam on 50
MHz at 75 feet, a 17 element Force 12 beam on 144 MHz at 70 feet,
a 10 element M2 beam on 222 MHz at 85 feet, and a 25 element C3I
beam on 432 MHz at 95 feet. For 2m FM QSOs W3SO has a Diamond
vertical mounted on a telephone pole at 30 feet, also fed with
hardline.
As with all evolving projects like this, everything is interim,
antenna wise, and plans are already well in the works for higher
gain beams on taller towers.
Current operators of the station consist of K4VV, WR3Z, AI3M,
K3IXD, K3RUQ, W3PAW, W9NET, W3TEF and W3YOZ. Occasional
operators are WX3B, N3SB, W3BZN, and WB3EFQ. W3YOZ and W3TEF
handle the majority of the installation and erection of the
towers and antennas. W3TEF is the QSL manager. K3IXD submits
the logs electronically.
W3SO participates in the January, June and September ARRL VHF
contests as a limited-multi (50 MHz, 144MHz, 222MHz, and 432MHz).
For the CQ July VHF contest, W3SO enters in the single-operator
category. For ARRL club competition contests, W3SO is one of the
Potomac Valley Radio Club=FEs (PVRC) entries. The W3SO operators
wish to thank the PVRC members and the other readers of
Newsletter for many QSOs and they look forward to giving out FN00
in future contests.
The paper edition ran a photograph of:
Standing L-R: K3RUQ N1WR K4VV W3PAW W3YOZ AI3M WR3Z & K2PLF
Kneeling L-R: K3IXD W3TEF
Missing: KD3SA
PVRC PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR DECEMBER 2002,
by Brian McGinness, N3OC
This newsletter edition is going out a little early so you will
receive it in time to receive the details for the annual PVRC
holiday dinner to be held on December 9. See the article in this
issue for the details, and we hope to see you there!
I am writing this just after Phone Sweepstakes. While we made a
good showing, and the scores seem higher per log than ever, I
also heard more W9's on than I thought possible. It seems they
were executing a plan, which included working each other on 40
meters during a particular time period. So keep your fingers
crossed, and we'll have to see how it shakes out. Make sure to
send your logs in, and tell the robot it is for "Potomac Valley
Radio Club". The robot does not like "PVRC" or any other
variation.
PVRC has won the WPX USA club competition the past several years,
so maybe we should be thinking about a serious effort in that
next year. We will be giving out the two WPX plaques we have
received as well as some gavels at the holiday dinner.
This is my last president's report. Jack Hammett, K4VV will be
taking over in January, and I can assure you PVRC will be in good
hands. I have a whole list of unfinished business to give him,
and he even has a few good ideas of his own. I'm sure he will
continue to rely on the trustees for guidance, and be a great
leader for our club.
I won't be going anywhere, I seem to like PVRC so much that I
will be sticking around as one of your VP's. As you may have
noted we will have two VP's next year, one up north and one down
south. This will allow the regions down south, the NC region in
particular, to participate in PVRC decisions at the top levels.
It has been an honor to be president of PVRC for three years now.
I first learned of PVRC from a guy I used to chat with on 146.94
simplex (no repeaters on 94 back then!) when I was a newly
licensed kid. His call was W3BQV (now W3ZZ), and he encouraged
my interests in ham radio so that when I really got serious about
things, PVRC was the first thing that came to mind. Never in my
wildest imagination would I have thought I would end up being
president of PVRC, and sitting at W3LPL on 80 meters keeping the
W1's honest.
I really need to thank those that do so much for PVRC. There are
a bunch of guys who do things behind the scenes on a monthly
basis, to help bring you the newsletter, the 5m award, the web
site, tracking our contest scores, keeping our finances in order
just to name a few.
Dick Wilder K3DI has been our newsletter editor since February
1996. Dick and his helpers compose the newsletter, merge the
addresses from the secretary's database, duplicate and mail the
newsletter. This is a big job, it involves doing things and
going places to meet deadlines. Thank you Dick for a job well
done.
Bob Dannals W2GG (Mr. Excel) not only maintains our membership
databases, he also tracks our contest scores for each and every
contest, and attempts to verify they receive each of your logs
that he knows about, and analyze the results. This too is a big
job, collecting all your scores from email, reflectors, packet,
and maybe even smoke signals some times.
Our treasurer, Dave Baugher WR3L has maintained our finances
perfectly for us over the past few years. Our voluntary donation
in lieu of dues program has been a real success, so we have the
money to publish the newsletter, support contest plaques,
purchase our 5m award plaques, and make the occasional donation
on PVRC's behalf.
Our webmaster (since the passing of K3SA) has been Pete, N4ZR.
Although Pete recently handed this off to Howie N4AF, Pete put a
lot of time and effort into the web site and the 5m award program
over the past few years. Pete, thanks for your work and your
advice! And Howie, thanks for taking it on in spite of your own
busy schedule, and to Glen WM3T for taking on the 5m award
tracking.
All the regional coordinators have been great. Thank you for
conducting all the meetings, getting all the minutes posted, and
coordinating all the presentations that have been given
throughout the regions.
To the Trustees, I appreciate your guidance on the important
issues that have effected us the last couple years. We will
continue to rely on the trustees in the coming years, perhaps
even more so as we fine-tune the leadership responsibilities now
that we have spread out so far.
And my heartfelt thanks to our VP the last three years, Jack
Hammett K4VV, who will be our president in 2003. Jack has
coordinated all of our major events that last three years, and we
have had in some excellent speakers as a result.
We will be working together to bring in more speakers and
programs of interest this coming year.
So there you have it. I'm outta here.... sort of! I'm off to
put up some towers! THANK YOU! GO PVRC!
PVRC/NC NOVEMBER MEETING MINUTES by Jim Price, WW4M
The 7 November 2002 NC meeting was held at Ryan's Steakhouse,
Crossroads Plaza, Cary. Attending: K2AV Guy, KO7X Alan, K4QPL
Jim, N4YDU Nate, N2NFG Bob, W2DZO (ex N4VHK) Henry, N4CW Bert,
NX9T Jeff, K4NYS Chuck, K4HA Bob, KR4LO Bill, N4AF Howie, WW4M
Jim, N4TL Tom, WJ9B Will. Regrets from K4TMC Henry.
K2AV Guy appeared early and promptly left, begging off with a
newly discovered bad cold, so Carnac was not available to take
notes this month.
According to a next-day report from Carnac, Guy had driven the
whole distance from work to the meeting with a clothespin on his
nose to keep from snotting on his shirt. Was so out of it by the
time he got home he couldn't remember what rooms the beds were
in. Under medication got up the next morning without the
clothespin, but tried to fry an egg without taking the shell off
first. XYL banned him from anything using electricity so he
wouldn't burn the house down.
Club News
WW4M reported that PVRC has purchased additional name badge
blanks from TheSignMan.com (including 20 that say "North
Carolina"), paid from the club treasury. Members interested in
ordering new/ replacement badges can contact The Sign Man via his
website, unless you ordered earlier through Dave WR3L. (PS - I
got home and found an email message saying it turns out that the
badges aren't actually finished yet, due to hurricanes, required
parts, etc.)
Guy K2AV has paid QTH.net for the annual renewal of the
pvrcnc.org domain ($14.95) and a year of we bhosting ($120). Not
sure whether he still needs additional contributions to cover the
cost, although in the past he had passed a hat around and
received private promises of assistance.
Tom N4TL asked the manager of the Applebee's on Six Forks at
Sawmill in North Raleigh about providing an alternate place for
our meetings, separate checks, etc. Apparently he feels things
are too busy to handle us Thursdays through Sundays, but Mon/
Tues/ Wednesdays would be fine. They have a private room
(sheltered from the smoke in the rest of the restaurant). It was
suggested that perhaps we could have a trial meeting there to see
how it meets our needs.
Member News
This past month K4HA and K4NYS worked on putting up Rohn-45 at
K4ITL (not a contester) -- they are still waiting for 3 sections
to arrive so they can bring the tower to 90 feet and finish the
job. Bob dabbled in CQWW-SSB a bit but didn't submit a log.
Chuck worked the ARRL VHF contest and did submit a score.
NX9T had fun in CQWW SSB. Jeff skipped SS CW in order to earn
brownie points with the XYL so he can operate SS Phone.
KO7X announced he will operate in the U category for Phone
Sweepstakes. This prompted everyone to wonder aloud where in the
world K3KO and W2CS were hiding following their heated email
exchange on the merits of going U or B in SS.
N4TL operated in CQP, SSCW, and even got on for CQWW Phone, which
was amazing considering that his daughter got married that
weekend. Tom mentioned that he ordered a pin and cup but has
received no reply and his check hasn't been deposited. N3OC will
be looking into matters for him.
K4QPL operated SO-assisted and racked up 805 Qs and 78 mults in
SS CW. He said the wire 40m yagi he hung in the trees made the
difference. For show-and-tell he brought his customized wrist
rocket, to which he had mounted a fishing reel with the hardware
from a 1980s-era cell phone mobile mount. He recommended brass
fishing weights over lead weights. A passionate discussion of
the merits of bows and arrows and other launching devices
followed. Jim promises to plug in a mic for SS Phone.
N2NFG operated SS CW but not in CQWW Phone -- he has been working
every Saturday and Sunday, which doesn't leave much time for
contesting. Using a recently purchased Icom 706 and a 80m dipole
he scored 50K points and thought the rig held up well in a
contesting environment using 350 and 1.8 filters (but he won't
use it for SS Phone). Everyone agreed the 706 makes a great
second rig. Bob is looking for a mobile antenna and no-frills
keyer for his long commutes to and from work.
N4YDU is happy that his old neighbor has moved to California.
His new neighbor lets him put aluminum in his trees and hasn't
had any RFI complaints. Nate tried out a new protein drink
called "Red Bull" during CQWW Phone -- he was pooping out when he
tried it and got a second wind that lasted 2 hours. He suspects
its secret ingredient is amphetamine (he had built up a tolerance
when he tried it again on Sunday and didn't get as big a kick
with the second dose).
Nate didn't operate much in SS CW, but he recently got a rig
blaster and will be on the air this weekend for WAE, trying out
various antennas. He also recently purchased a 75V1 with slide
dial for his dad, and he is tempted to keep it.
N4AF reported that CQWW Phone was fun on Saturday but a lot of
work on Sunday. He's getting ready for CQWW CW and will be
putting up a new rotatable stack on 15m. Howie announced he has
no plans for SS Phone and invited guest ops over for that contest
-- K4QPL immediately took him up on the offer. Lots of laughing
about K4QPL operating from K4PQL.
KR4LO got on for CQWW and discovered that his four 450-foot long
wires that had worked so well last year didn't this year. Bill
discovered the cause was water that had accumulated in the
conduit that carried the feed line. He'll be laying out a new
feedline for CQWW CW, and he received numerous suggestions from
twin coax feeds to sump pumps. He also has plans to erect a
Sterba curtain. (This type of ant. was used for transatlantic
communications in the 30's through the 50's. They are also used
by VOA now.)
WJ9B proudly reported that he finally broke 1,000 Qs in SS CW,
and it all happened by accident. After making his first Q he
knocked the computer mouse off the desktop, causing the computer
to lockup. A watched computer does not reboot quickly, and he
became so angry that he took his first 30-minute break and walked
away. Resuming the contest, Will decided to try SO2R by running
on 40m and doing S&P on the other bands, and he was excited to
find that it worked and he found a rhythm. Almost all of his run
Qs were on 40m (696 contacts).
There followed a group discussion on the merits for low power/QRP
stations of not operating at the very start of a contest. People
also said they were surprised by how close they could work other
stations on the high bands in SS CW.
W2DZO (ex N4VHK) brought greetings from the Winston-Salem area
club members. He described the groups past M/S ops as W4WS and
how this year they started to create a new club station (making
sure it was inside the PVRC circle), only to have someone back a
trailer over their new tower 2 weeks after it was erected. So
KG4NEP will be hosting their efforts this year and they are
putting their efforts into putting up antennas on his property,
describing it as a champagne station on a bad beer budget. PVRC
members are invited to come on out and operate with them. He
says the receiving stations can still use some work.
Henry's new callsign was his grandfather's, so he used his
grandfather's check ('32') in SS CW, resulting in a good deal of
confusion. After using monoband yagis this year he is now a
convert. He asked for suggestions for a good (tunable) amp to
replace some old SB-220s, and the unanimous reply was the
AL-1200.
N4CW had fun chasing mults in CQWW Phone. He had just returned
to Raleigh at 10pm, got on by 11pm and was exhausted by 2am.
Bert was tickled to receive a certificate from ARRL for first
place SOHP in NC for the 160m contest, using just an inverted
vee. He recommended that people check out the log-checking
reports available on the ARRL website, and brought to everyone's
attention the write-up for the 2001 10m contest by our own AA4NC.
WW4M brought in his plaque for first place 2001 Phone Sweeps,
Roanoke Division, Bravo category to show that even modest ops can
receive a trophy if they operate from a good station (K3KO), work
all 24 hours, and make sure not to operate in the same category
as the big guns. That said, everyone expects him to have to
operate as Unlimited this year following the email exchange
between K3KO and W2CS on the subject of using packet.
To quote a ham sage, "Meeting turned over to miscellany and
scientific BS at 7:15."
CENTRAL MEETING MINUTES, 11/11/02 by Brian McGinness, N3OC
Here are the minutes from the November central meeting.
The meeting was held in Temple Hills at 7:30. Members attending
were N3OC, K3PN, W3TOM, and WR3L.
The meeting began with a discussion on how to re-vamp the central
region. It was felt that more programs and speakers and less
club business would probably help attendance. It was also
suggested that PVRC explore the possibly of setting up a
contesting academy to help show some of the newer members the
ropes, and that would possibly help meeting attendance.
N3OC gave a brief president's report. The annual holiday dinner
will be held 12/9 at the Oliva Garden in Tyson's Corner Va. Send
email rsvp's to [email protected] or via packet to n3oc. The results
of the annual elections were announced, all candidates being
elected.
The annual push is in progress for SS. The CW section is over,
and it looks like we are in about the same position as we were
last year, although it does seem some of our individual scores
are better.
We need input and suggestions for future meeting programs,
topics, and speakers. This is a difficult task to keep up with
over the years, and we could use some fresh ideas and
suggestions.
WR3L gave the treasurer's report, and had the balance sheet
available for inspection. Dave also advised he renewed our
sponsorship of all the contest plaques that PVRC sponsors.
The remaining time was devoted to war stories.
N3OC went to V26B for a three-person multi/2 effort, and they did
around 21m points and almost 12,000 QSOs. He advises he will be
going to Greensboro to pick up a tower Friday before SSB
sweepstakes, and will arrive home just before the start of the
contest. Only a few more sections of Rohn 45g are needed to
complete the two towers, then construction can start. In the
meanwhile, he has an A-4 w/40m kit on a rocket launcher and some
beverages up at the new QTH in Brookeville, Md.
WR3L was on for a multiop effort for CW SS, and will do the same
for SSB. WR3Z and K3FT come over and help Dave operate.
W3TOM will not be at the holiday dinner as he will be travelling.
He hopes to get on for SSB SS.
Ed K3PN will be on for SSB SS with his new call for the first
contest. Ed went to IH9P (African Italy) for CQWW SSB. They
spent three days setting the station up, two days operating it,
and one day taking it all back down. Everything is transported
to the island by ferry boat from Sicily. The IH9P group has some
stuff stored in garages on the island, and some they bring. They
take over the hotel for a week and turn it into a multi/multi
station. Ed says they did 53M this year, and the IH9P group is
interested in making a future presentation at one of our meetings
about their operation. The meeting was adjourned at 9pm. GO
PVRC!
11/12/2002 CVCC MEETING by John Youell, W4TNX
The cold and rainy evening kept down the "pre-meeting" crowd at
the "Crazy Greek" restaurant as we only had 11 people present.
Tonight we held our meeting in the cafeteria of the Henrico
Doctors Hospital on Parham Road, about 5 miles west of the "Crazy
Greek". The cafeteria closes at 7PM and is available to be
reserved, after that time, so we may be using this place for a
few meetings and decide on its future suitability.
Bob (W4DR) opened the meeting at 7:30PM (we allowed an extra half
hour over our normal time for people to find the new meeting
location, this first time - we will revert back to 7PM in
January). In keeping with recent tradition, we did introductions
around the room asking for a recent good or bad radio related
experience. Bob started with the good news that if we liked the
new meeting place, the rent was free. Paul (K4JA) has been busy
in CQWW SSB with #2 USA in M/2, Bruce (W3BP) has 2 new antennas -
a 5 element beam and an 80M vertical, John (W4TNX) is about to
upgrade (finally) the shack computer from DOS to Windows, while
Jerry (K4KJL) has been busy at work. Jerry's wife Marie (K4KML)
worked a 7Q on 15M today - FB Marie! Rick (K4GAU) was happy to
have the evening off and to be able to make the meeting. Rosalie
(N4CFL) said hi to all, and Jim, our guest speaker W4PRO,
bemoaned the fact that his new QTH presently only sports 100
watts and a wire antenna. Jim's new wife Linda (KG4UKS) was
happy to be present. Bob (W4MYA) is #6 USA M/M in CQWW SSB and
#11 in SS - he also put in a RTTY effort in last weekend's
contest. Ronnie (WU4G) is still in the job hunt mode and AJ
(W4NM) just got his Dulcie Island QSL. Ralph (N4EHJ) noted that
N1BIC has been kind enough to give us permission to put
Buckmaster on our cluster. Jim-Bob (KC4AUG) has just installed a
couple of new 12v batteries at his QTH and is ready for power
outages and emergency communications. Ed (KG4SNK) is a new ham
recently retired from AT&T and heard about the meeting on 2
meters - welcome Ed! Another Ed (NW4V) had fun in the CQWW SSB at
W4MYA's M/M effort and also worked the Vatican on 15M for a new
band country this morning. Bob (NK4H) worked so many new
countries that he couldn't remember all the names, got confused
and didn't log them - he figures, if they really want his QSL,
they will send for it! Dave (N4DWK) came in after intros, but
without his recent cane, so it looks like his foot injury has
improved.
Bob (W4DR) asked about upcoming contests and noted that the ARRL
SS SSB is this weekend and the CQWW DX CW Contest is the next
weekend. The PVRC is really looking for SS scores, so if you can
get on the air this weekend and make some SS points, they will
really be appreciated. This is the first time in a number of
years that the CQWW DX CW Contest has not been on Thanksgiving
weekend, so that excuse should be out the window for all you CW
operators out there! Only about 5 operators present tonight
showed interest in operating at W4MYA's for M/M. Paul (K4JA)
indicated he has 6 operators lined up for his M/2 operation.
The Va. QSO Party Sponsors asked us what we thought about
dropping the hours in that contest. Our group discussed this and
felt that a 24 hour format would be OK. We have traditionally
used this as a fun training contest. The thought was that maybe
8AM to 8AM would give all-around propagation, band and band
conditions. W4TNX will send an e-mail to SPARC with these CVCC
recommendations.
Paul's (K4JA) packet spots are really providing a
"shot-in-the-arm" for contests. In the CQWW DX SSB, there were
several hours of over 1K spots/hour and about 35K total. Paul is
doing this with a "dial-up" link!
Roy (WK4Y) wasn't present, but sent an e-mail to Bob (W4DR),
requesting that people firm up their Christmas Dinner
commitments, as we have reserved a minimum number of "seats" and
could incur some expenses with "no-shows". Details are in our
last newsletter. Please respond to Roy ASAP, if you haven't
already.
After some discussion, it was decided we will use the Henrico
Doctors Hospital cafeteria again for the January 2003 meeting.
This meeting will be at 7PM, back to our old meeting time. The
Shoney's at Broad and Skipwith will be the "pre-meeting" place
for the pre-meeting "eat & meet" crowd (optional at 5:30PM).
Our guest speaker tonight was Jim (W4PRO), who has been kind
enough to have been a previous co-presenter with W4DR on their YK
DX-Pedition. Jim is a retired engineer who worked for NASA. The
topic was a "Home-Brew Time Domain Refloctometer (TDR)". The
device Jim built was in a small "Bud box" and contained 2 ICs, 2
caps, 2 resistors and a crystal + batteries and connectors. This
device, when used with a decent Oscilloscope (>10Mhz) will give a
good indication (distance) as to where you may have an impedance
mismatch or problem with a transmission line. The TDR is
basically a square wave pulse generator and based on the way you
use the 'scope, you can either determine the "length" of
transmission line to a problem area (connector, kink, etc.) or
the velocity factor of the coax. For those stations with lots of
buried or "up the tower" coax, knowing a "problem" distance would
be great troubleshooting information. Bob (W4MYA) regularly uses
TDRs and I could tell Paul (K4JA) was interested. Bob (W4MYA)
reported on several successes he has had using TDRs at not only
his place, but at least one at W4DR's. Good program, Jim
(W4PRO), & good programming, Bob (W4DR)!
Next meeting is the Christmas Dinner in December - check our
newsletter or call Roy (WK4Y) for details.
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA CHAPTER PVRC NOVEMBER MEETING MINUTES by David
Jones, N4JED, Sec SWVA Chapter
Southwest Virginia Chapter PVRC met Friday November 1 at the
Roanoker Restaurant. Among the illustrious hams in attendance
were K1GG, KC9LC, N4EL, KC4D, W4JAM and W0MAN, W4YE and his wife
Sarah, Chairman N4GU and Secretary N4JED. WM3T and KF4OKG were
noticeably absent preparing for the imminent birth of their child
that weekend.
Following an excellent dinner, Mike N4GU mentioned he was playing
with a 1940's J38 which led to a spirited debate of the merits of
bugs, paddles and straight keys. General opinion that there were
many operators using bugs, but not intelligibly.
A general discussion of CQWW followed. W4YE pounced and hunted
838 contacts. W4DF passed along his proud thrill at beating out
'MYA and 'LPL in 160 meter pileups. KC4D tallied 120 contacts.
W4JAM pounced on 600+ stations in spite of loosing the receiver
in his 756 PRO half way through. After realizing the bands
weren't dead, a quick switch in rigs kept him going. N4JED rang
up an additional 520 contacts on his low power vertical. New
members were reminded to send their totals in to PVRC in addition
to the contest sponsor.
A passionate discussion of the club name was led by W4YE (no bias
there...). After reviewing the club history, name, how the
circle of coverage worked, etc., all present wished to express
their support as an outlying chapter to keep the club name as is.
A unanimous vote followed.
As is tradition, the Holiday meeting of the Southwest Virginia
Chapter PVRC will be held January 3rd at the Roanoker Restaurant.
After reviewing contest schedules for the coming year, first
Friday meetings were selected for the coming year. So mark your
calendars. Look for April's meeting to be held in Lynchburg -
site to be announced.
Everyone was encouraged to get on the contests and turn in scores
- no matter how small. Every point counts for the club total.
The meeting then adjourned to the parking lot for further radio
tales.
The PVRC NEWSLETTER is in dire need of an advertising manager. I
pick up extra advertisers only for the jumbo May issue that
contains the club roster. If somebody did follow up, this
newsletter could generate a monthly profit for the club.
NORTHWEST MEETING NOTES FOR OCTOBER 2002 by Ed Steeple, K3IXD,
chairman, NW Region (These notes were received in Oct. -editor)
The NW region met at City Buffet in Frederick, MD on 15 October
2002. In attendance were: K3DNE, WZ3AR, N3FX, W8ZA, K3IXD,
K2PLF, W3KHZ, N3VOP, AA3XZ, W3ARS, and W2CDO.
The business part of the meeting:
1) This was W2CDO, Peter, second meeting. We voted him in as a
new PVRC member. Welcome Peter.
2) We voted for new club officers for next year and the tally has
been emailed.
3) The dates for the contests through January were given.
Several mentioned that they had already made plans so they would
be off from work on the contests weekends.
4) It was reported that W3ZZ is recovering from successful hip
surgery.
Around the table:
K3DNE, Ed mentioned that W3ZZ is the new QST VHF editor. Ed said
that W3MC is looking for some assistance with the JOTA and will
be operating in Anne Arundel county. Ed has begun plans for a
new, higher, tower so he can add more UHF bands. He will be at
W8ZA for CQWW.
WZ3AR, Nat was home during mid-semester break. When asked about
the college station he said they can use more donations, for
which the donator gets a tax deduction letter. Donators can
contact Nat at .
N3FX, Tony had a power surge last summer. He is planning on
being on for SS. He worked the TARA PSK Rumble and had several
hundred QSOs.
He ran K3IXD through the bands (40m through 6m).
W8ZA, Bob is getting ready for CQWW. He has installed two,
phased, 75m verticals.
K3IXD, Ed made 29 QSOs in two hours of operating in the TARA
Rumble and got several new band/mode countries from N3FX. Ed has
a new IC-706mk11G, some Ham Sticks, and is looking forward to
trying HF mobile. He will be at W8ZA for CQWW.
K2PLF, Marty had a power failure and it took out his Quadra Amp
power supply. It is on its way back to Yaesu. He, initially,
had his 6m beam installed too close to the HF beam. But now with
a 6 foot separation, he is working 6m DX. Marty said N4RV might
not be ready for CQWW so his CQWW plans haven't been firmed up.
N3VOP, Mike announced that the Carroll County Club will again
have a demonstration contest station on at the hamfest. This
will be during CQWW SSB. They are asking for any PVRCer who
attend the hamfest to stop by and guest ops to insure that the
score qualifies for PVRC. Their demonstration contest station is
successful in recruiting new contesters.
W3KHZ, Art got an FT 847 for 6m DX and then the bands went dead.
He said he needs 49 more states for 6m WAS and 335 countries for
m Honor Roll. He has a 5 el, m beam to replace his m dipole and
a 40 foot tower that is still on the ground. While he was at
Prince Edward Island this summer, he kept in touch with K2PLF via
EchoLink. EchoLink links computers through the internet to
repeaters. The web page is: .
AA3XZ, Brian has been too busy at work to do contesting.
W3ARS, Clint was glad to finally be able to attend a NW meeting.
He entered the 10-X contest and the VHF contest. At home he
works 160m through 222 MHz. He will be adding 432 MHZ soon. He
likes to operate from hilltops in the VHF contests and built a
144/432 quad (7 el on 144, 11 el on 432) and used it in the June
contest..
W2CDO, Peter joined PVRC at this meeting. He got his half square
40m antenna up and worked some DX before a support rope broke.
He will be on SS CW low power, and maybe a little in CQWW,
depending upon work.
Seconds:
There was a reminder to submit your contest scores, no matter the
what the claimed score is, and also send W2GG a copy so he can
insure the club gets proper credit. To win the club competition,
PVRC needs everyone to get on and make some QSOs, and to submit
them to ARRL or CQ, as appropriate. Be sure to mark your entry
"Potomac Valley Radio Club."
There was a question about whether or not the club would be
issuing SS incentive certificates again this year. No one
present knew the answer.
W8ZA couldn't transfer a Carbillo file on a 3 1/2 inch disk from
his contest computer to a Compaq Presario computer. It was
mentioned that Presario's are known for having trouble reading
floppy disks that are created on other machines.
Several mentioned that it is possible to turn in a respectable SS
score in the low power category. There are only so many station
to work.
Next meeting is November 19th, and is at the City Buffet, 1306 W.
Patrick Street, Frederick, MD, 301-682-6066. It is in a small
shopping center. From W. Patrick Street, turn up McCain Dr. (the
Mountain View Diner is on the corner), then turn right into the
shopping center, then turn left and search for a parking place.
The City Buffet is tucked back in the left corner of the shopping
center behind Mountain View Diner; you can't see it from the
street.
The NW Region meetings are on the third Tuesday of the month.
Most arrive about 6PM for dinner and informal discussions; the
meeting begins at 7:15 PM.
OVER-THE-HILL LUNCHEON, 11/20/02 by Bill Leavitt, W3AZ
The Over The Hill Group met November 20th at the Holiday Inn at
the junction of Route 1 and the Beltway. Those attending were
W3ABC, W2BZR, K3ZO, W3CB, N7PD, K6IR, W6AXX, W3GN, K3WX, W3BE,
AA4XU, and W3AZ. It sounded like the phone Sweepstackes with a
number of simultaneous QSOs around the table dealing with about
any topic of amateur radio. In between good food was enjoyed by
all.
EDITOR NOTES by K3DI
Last month, I ran a list of calls of members that one might wish
to spot during domestic contests. The list was inappropriately
labeled as "eligible members." I needed a quick way to pick out
actives and used an eligibility selection process based on what
was later discovered to be an obsolete logic. The result was
some actives calls were not on the list and some inactive calls
were listed. Please do not be concerned. The actually
eligibility determination used by the club uses a current and
correct logic.
The REFERENCE PAGE has been omitted from this issue. It will
return in January. One change since November is under
Woodbridge, Jack W4NF info is now:
H:703-791-3302 W:703-739-7636 [email protected]
Howie, N4AF, is working on putting a calendar of PVRC meetings on
www.pvrc.org. As a start, he'll probably extract meeting
information from the PVRC NEWSLETTER reference page. Please
watch for the calendar on the web page and help him keep it
updated.
The USPS is busy again changing stuff! I just found out that in
June there was a change to how "presorted standard mail" (bulk
mail) is prepared. Previously, I needed to put rubber bands
around 21 bundles based on zips and stick a green-3 or pink-A on
certain bundles. Now, no rubber banding; in fact they charge
extra if I do use bands. Now, I toss zip codes starting with
210, 211, 212, and 214 into four separate trays and all the rest
sorted in zip code order into one or more trays, as needed.
We've dropped the bar code; we now send the newsletter as
"machinable" so the USPS will bar code zip+4+route to sort
directly in order for the delivery route person.
S C O R E S by Bob Dannals, W2GG
Corrections, additions, etc. to [email protected].
### =3D missing data
WAE RTTY 2002 #2 15-Nov-02
Single Op - High Power
CALL QSOs QTCs MULTs SCORE
K4GMH 1073 1396 670 1,654,230
K3KO 457 0 131 127,182
N4CW 137 130 49 26,166
K3SV 64 130 75 14,550
Single Op - Low Power
W0YR/4 527 260 312 318,735
K4WES 147 190 94 70,433
N4YDU 103 22 42 10,875
Logs: 6 Club Score: 2,222,171
CQWW SSB #7 18-Nov-02
Call Pwr-Bnd Qs Zones Countries Score
Single Op - Unassisted
K4ZW C 3202 150 547 6,353,852
K3ZO C 3136 137 486 5,547,192
NX9T C 1860 115 382 2,563,526
WR3Z C 1416 127 417 2,139,008
NR3X B 1320 103 111 1,651,188
K2UOP C 1002 115 384 1,397,699
W4ZV C10 2022 34 157 1,106,463
N3UM C 873 90 301 951,694
N4MM C 762 109 319 905,220
N4CW C 800 87 294 853,821
W4YE C 838 78 269 816,144
K3JT B 734 79 258 683,436
N4GU C 607 95 257 596,992
N3HBX C15 1273 35 130 585,750
W3LL B 610 80 258 562,094
K3DSP B 638 72 228 530,400
K1KO C 577 67 231 476,502
K3WA C 500 75 243 441,702
K4EU B 510 94 220 426,098
N4JED B 520 69 195 375,936
N4EL C 500 65 199 361,416
N4MO B15 566 33 129 258,714
KO7X C 347 79 158 224,202
W3AZ C 359 61 161 221,334
KE4MIL B 351 47 163 203,490
W3CP B 274 69 163 175,160
K4UVT B 260 64 172 165,672
AA4KD B 211 60 120 94,680
KR4LO B 313 35 120 138,260
K3SWZ B20 312 32 104 115,328
N3FX C 216 55 116 101,232
N8II C 200 60 121 98,283
K4WES B 201 52 112 83,312
W4RIM C 165 36 90 53,460
N4TL C 147 44 90 52,394
W4XP B 145 45 90 49,815
N8CH C 118 32 82 38,760
KC4D C 115 37 80 36,036
W3JRY B 100 34 81 31,510
N3FNE B 120 28 63 28,938
W3ARS B ### ## ## 26,160
N3ZR B 84 25 47 15,624
N3XL B 13 8 12 520
Single Op - Assisted
K2PLF C 2117 135 500 3,817,620
W4RM C 1847 119 440 2,972,203
N3AM C 1675 119 435 2,656,984
K3LP C 1227 127 454 1,966,685
WX3B C 1257 90 327 1,508,706
KV3R C 1067 112 361 1,443,596
K3KO C 725 111 383 1,000,350
W3HVQ C 508 113 337 616,950
N4GG C 595 76 256 551,784
KO4MR C10 285 146 32 144,892
K3SV C 250 78 206 118,192
K2YWE TS 38 17 36 5,459
Multi-Single
W4WS C 2208 149 574 4,306,911
W3LJ C 728 93 316 807,366
W3LRC B 310 53 152 169,330
W3SO C 75 23 45 13,804
Multi-2
K4JA C 4893 177 717 12,171,810
K3DI C 2346 151 558 4,629,061
Multi-Multi
W3LPL C 7676 186 761 19,379,408
W4MYA C 4999 178 698 11,723,508
W8ZA C 2479 150 578 5,562,648
A: QRP
B: Low Power
C: High Power
TS: Tribander + single element 160-40
BR: Band Restricted
R: Rookie
Logs: 62 Club Score: 107,106,284
Operators (non-PVRC):
K3DI: W3ICM K3DI (W4EE SM0WKA)
K4JA: K4JA W3BP K4MA K7SV KE9I (AJ9C)
NR3X: N4YDU
W3LJ: W3LJ W3IDT KA3UBJ (K3NCO)
W3LPL: K1HTV AI3M W2GG W3LPL KD4D K3RA K4ZA KE3Q K1RA K1RZ
K3MM NK3R (4X6FR)
W3LRC: K3HDM KB3BWR KT3D W3YD
W3SO: W3YOZ W3TEF
W4WS: WS4NC KG4NEP WB4MSG W2DZO KB6MTH (AG4RZ KG4CZU WA4IAM)
W8ZA: W8ZA K3DNE K8OQL K3IXD WD3A
WR3Z at N1WR QTH
KO7X at KI7WX QTH
ARRL CW SS#6 18-Nov-02
Call Prec QSOs Sec Score
N4AF B 1318 79 208,244
W4MR U 1249 80 199,840
WR3L M 1198 80 191,680
KD4D U 1119 80 179,040
N4ZR B 1117 79 176,486
K3ZO B 1125 78 175,500
WJ9B A 1035 78 161,460
W4MYA U 1009 80 161,440
NY3A # 1021 79 161,318
W4NF U 996 80 159,360
N8II A 941 80 150,560
KO7X U 939 80 150,240
W3EF A 970 75 150,228
N4MO A 850 79 134,300
N6ZO U 826 80 132,160
N3AM B 827 79 130,666
K4TX B 826 78 128,856
K2PLF A 800 80 128,000
W3PP B 784 80 125,440
K4QPL A 803 78 125,268
N4GU A 819 76 124,488
N3UM B 801 77 123,354
N3SB A 792 77 121,968
W4IDX A 777 78 121,212
K3KO U 725 80 116,000
K3JT A 732 79 115,656
W4YE A 714 80 114,240
W4ZYT M 714 80 113,920
K4EU A 721 79 113,918
K3TM A 730 78 113,880
K1HTV A 661 80 105,760
W3HVQ U 659 78 102,804
K7SV A 638 80 102,080
W3BP B 671 75 100,650
W2CS Q 635 77 97,790
NC3Y A 622 77 95,788
N3OC U 591 80 94,560
W3CB A 606 76 92,112
K3DI U 572 80 91,520
N3II B 581 78 90,636
K4MA B 575 77 88,550
K3WA B 550 78 85,800
WX3B U 539 78 84,084
K3SV U 521 80 83,360
N4CW B 520 79 82,160
W3MC # ### ## 77,400
N4GG B 483 76 73,416
WK4Y B 528 66 69,696
W4TNX U 434 80 69,440
W2CDO A 455 75 68,250
W3AZ B 425 77 65,450
K2UOP B 388 77 59,752
K4ZW B 388 75 58,200
K2AV B 401 72 57,744
W3CP A 340 75 51,000
N2NFG A 361 70 50,540
W3LJ M 335 75 50,250
W3DAD A 343 71 48,706
W4RM B 386 57 44,000
W4HM A 298 70 41,720
KN1DX A 272 72 39,168
W2GG A 286 68 38,896
N4MM A 215 80 34,400
K4EC B 235 65 30,550
W4RIM A 213 66 28,116
W4HJ A 196 70 27,440
K3DSP A 189 69 26,082
N4TL B 154 55 16,940
W4PW A 162 49 15,876
W8ZA B 130 56 14,560
NR3X A 118 49 11,564
KC9LC A 118 52 12,272
N3FX B 107 51 10,914
K3YDX A 104 52 10,816
K1SO A 1 1 2
Logs: 74 Club: 6,898,718
Other Scores of Interest
WP3R by KE3Q
B 1511 80 241,330
Operators (non-PVRC):
KN1DX: K1SE
NR3X: N4YDU
W3LJ: W3LJ (K3NCO)
W4MR: AA4NC
W4ZYT: W4ZYT W4SD N8CH KU4EC W8RJL W4WV WD4GOY K1KO AG4JT AF4CD
WR3L: K3FT WR3Z
KO7X at KI7WX QTH
KD4D at N3HBX QTH
ARRL PH SS#3 19-Nov-02
Call Pre QSOs Sec Score
AA4NC B 1788 80 286,080
K3MM B 1714 79 270,812
KD4D U 1573 80 251,680
W4MYA U 1533 80 245,280
K3ZO B 1521 80 243,360
W4NF U 1509 80 241,440
K4MA U 1469 80 235,040
K2PLF U 1443 80 231,360
KM4M M 1374 80 219,840
K3PN B 1282 80 204,960
WR3L M 1243 80 198,880
NX9T B 1063 80 170,080
N3FX B 1022 80 163,520
N3PZN M 952 80 152,320
N4GG B 940 80 150,400
N3AM U 832 80 133,120
N3II U 813 80 130,080
K3DI M 766 80 122,560
WX3B U 706 80 112,960
K4QPL B 1191 80 109,400
W3HVQ U 681 80 108,960
K3DNE A 685 78 106,680
N4GU B 651 80 104,160
W4IDX A 637 80 101,920
W3MC # ### ## 94,200
W3ZZ B 570 79 90,060
W3LJ M 556 80 88,960
W3LL A 550 80 88,000
N4CW B 546 80 87,360
K2UOP B 436 80 69,760
K3DSP A 417 78 65,052
N4MM A 383 80 61,280
WK4Y A 340 80 54,400
K3KO U 326 80 52,160
K4EU A 341 72 49,104
K1KO A 275 76 41,800
K3SWZ Q 264 71 37,488
AF4CD A ### ## 36,960
W3DQ A 242 75 36,300
K3SV U 226 80 36,160
W4TNX A 223 80 35,680
K4TMC A 283 55 31,130
K1SO A 215 69 29,670
AJ3M B 201 69 27,738
W2GG A 200 69 27,600
W4HJ U 206 65 26,780
W2CS B 280 46 25,760
W4SD A 200 64 25,600
KT3D A 144 61 17,568
W3CP A 141 58 16,356
W4ZYT B 100 57 11,400
W3DAD A 98 48 9,408
Logs: 52 Club: 5,568,626
Other Scores of Interest
WP3R by KE3Q
Operators (non-PVRC):
K3PZN: N3VOP K1RH AK3Z N3YIM W3ARS WX3B WX3F
AA3XZ K3ZE N3SB (N3GQJ N3GQK)
KM4M: K4JA W3BP
W3LJ: W3LJ W3IDT (K3NCO)
W4MR: AA4NC
WR3L: WR3Z
K3FT at WR3L QTH
K4QPL from N4AF QTH
KD4D from N3HBX QTH