NOTES FROM 23 AUG 2014 PVRC RAPPAHANNOCK CHAPTER MEETING

Meeting held at NR4M (Da Farm) QTH, called to order at 10:15 23 Aug 2014.
 
New Business: None
 
Old Business: None
 
Monkey Business: Plenty
 
Once around he room:
 
We missed K4EC and K4ZW at the meeting. Both of theirs wives currently have serious health problems. Your thoughts and prayers for Katie and Sue are appreciated.
 
K3ZM Peter - Had loads of fun on top band for the first shot of the ARRL Centennial celebration for VA. He also mentioned how much fun it was working the IARU contest under the W1AW/4 call sign. In particular he liked the camaraderie afforded by the networking between the physically separated stations. Peter does it again; N4PN operating from W8JI claimed a higher score in the CQWW 160 Meter contest. After log adjudication, Mr. Peter came out top dog!
 
K4EU Steve - First a personal note from the editor. Steve did a tremendous job in organizing operators/stations for the ARRL Centennial W1AW/4 on the air celebration for the first Virginia stint! It was very time consuming. Kudos to Steve.
 
Steve met his goal to work all the WRTC special calls during the IARU on cw. He has worked with N2YO to develop a web based self scheduler for the second VA W1AW/4 effort.
 
K4GM George - Discussed the state of the art remote operating. He operated the IARU contest using the remote W7DXX site in New Mexico. He had a lot of fun, and there were not a lot of glitches. George just passed the 50 year mark as a licensed radio amateur!
 
K4IA Buck - Says he hasn’t been doing much of anything, but we know he’s been Elmering a new and rather young ham.
 
K4GTF Gary - Is a new ham. He’s a member of the Culpepper Amateur Radio Association and operated field day with that organization. He worked the VA QSO party and garnered the rookie high score. Gary has expressed an interest in the CWA. He’s enjoying ham radio, is interested in contesting and is a great candidate for PVRC membership.
 
K3UI Richard - Hasn’t been doing much related to the hobby but is looking forward to the CQWW RTTY contest at the end of next month.
 
N4NW Tom - As one of the PVRC trustees polled the group regarding the length of time one can/should remain in position as a trustee. Tom also worked the bands as W1AW/4 and compared the pileups with those experienced in his operation as TN4NW. Tom mentioned a web site called Suspicious0bservations.org (yes that’s a zero). It provides lot of understandable information on sunspots and dxing. It also discusses the impact of sunspots on the earths climate.
 
N4JOW Joe - Still busy chasing DX. He recently replaced several coax runs which resolved some long standing problems!
 
W0CN Dan - Operated field day with the W3AO group. He said the massive operation is something to behold. As a twist, he operated the ARRL Centennial as W1AW/KH6 using his remote link to a pal in the islands. He operated the ARRL SSB DX contest from KH7XX (physically in Hawaii). He said they had a blast and ten was great with five hours of 400 QPH runs. At the moment he plans to be back there for the CQWWSSB contest.
 
N2YO Chip - Operated W1AW/4 on 80, 40 and 30 meters. He enjoyed operating the WPXCW contest M/2 with the N3HBX crew. He did a “dxpedition” to Romania to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his Romanian Amateur Radio web site, signing YR10RRO. Chip had a great time at Dayton. He is getting ready to work the YO HF contest, probably from N3HBX.
 
K7SV Larry - Has been quite busy since retiring from the USCG in November. He’s been active with the CWOPS group doing the CWT contests on Wednesdays as well as the NCCC mini-sprints cw and rtty on Thursday evenings. He is also preparing to participate as an advisor to a level one group for CW Academy. The Academy helps individuals to learn CW and level 1 is beginners. Level 2 and 3 help improve skills of those that already know CW. He has been busy hanging wire in trees. He rebuilt his 160M inverted L, got his 80 dipole back up at about 75 feet, put up a 40 meter dipole for more flexibility with SO2R,  and put up dipoles for 30 and 17 meters. His first real WARC band antennas. He’s also busy helping improve wiring at NR4M.
 
N3ZV Whit - Had fun working as W1AW/4. He’s now got 262 countries for DXCC.
 
N4DXS Steve - Still having fun with RTTY.
 
K4GMH Mike - Has pulled both of his SteppIRS down for refurbishing. He’s also taken one of the 2 el F12 40s down. Plan was to pull the other one, but he managed to break his wrist playing tennis, so that one has been delayed. He’s going to replace the F12 40s with a pair of Moxons.  It looks like he’s going to have the high score in the DL RTTY contest. He had over 3000 Qs on RTTY as W1AW/4.
 
KA4RRU Mike - Has been very busy with family activities, including getting one daughter ready for her first year of college. He’s decided that rather than doing multi efforts on RTTY from home, he and his gang are going to be throwing their lot in with the NR4M gang. He plans on doing the second VA W1AW/4 session from home, but no weekend multi blowout as last time.
 
KS4Q Skip - The man formerly known as KC4QP is now known as KS4Q. Skip did W1AW/4 with K4GTF. They had antennas problems so ended up doing it mobile. Skip had fun in NAQP RTTY. He added a 17 meter stub to his hi-tower and is putting a radial screen under it. He’s also installed a 40M beverage and says it hears really well.
 
W6LWG Dick - President of the Culpepper Amateur Radio Club talked about the club and how it has been public service oriented, but has been venturing into other mainstream activities including contesting. Dick has a TS2000 that was struck by lightening. He’s got an interesting story about the east coast repair facility refusing to touch it and how the west coast facility accepted it and returned in in worse condition than received! While in his early years Dick was active on CW, he wants to get back into it and is looking at CWA. Another prospective PVRC member!
 
NR4M Steve - Let the crew know of certificates/awards received. RTTY Roundup first place orange county. Russian DX 1st place M/1. CQWWCW 1st place 4th call area. CQ RTTY contest high score North America. Worked field day with the Culpepper Amateur Radio Association. Built a new FD trailer and rebuilt a TH7DX for FD use. Rolled up all the unburied station feed lines in preparation for burying them. Replacing much of the rotator and antenna control switching with Green Heron RF devices or TCP-IP to RS-232. Getting ready to put up transmitting 4SQRs for 40, 20, and 15. This is to replace receive 4SQs using active elements. This is primarily to get away from active devices in the non-resonant antennas that were greatly impacted by the plethora of RF on various frequencies at the farm. It will also be very advantageous to be able to transmit on the 4SQRs. Also building a pair of Moxons for 40. He’s been testing N1MM+. Rebuilding a pair of Hy-Gain 205BAs based on Yagi Optimizer has been problematic with the resonant frequency being about 200 kHz below the 20m band. Decided that efforts to have two stations on a band will concentrate on search and pounce rather than having capability of two ops milking the run frequency.
 
The meeting adjourned and the group enjoyed burgers, brats, beverages and lots of talk.