NOTES FROM 22 OCT RAPAHHANOCK CHAPTER PVRC MEETING

Meeting was called to order at 10:20.

There was no new business or old business to discuss. We were once again pleased that a contingent from the SWVA chapter made the trip from the Lynchburg area. We were also honored to have KT0P make the trip from Charlottesville. As usual we went around the room discussing the general activities of each member, then took a poll on planned activities for SS and CQWWCW.

N3ZV - Whit recently picked up a fairly large quantity of surplus wire from FT. A.P. Hill to use as radials for his 160M antenna. He has a new crank-up tower in the side yard awaiting availability of resources to sink it in 25 yards of concrete. This will support several rather large Optibeam multiband yagis.

AJ4FM - David has added a Butternut HF9V vertical with 20 radials to his wire antenna and is finding it quite effective. He spoke of his friends current operation as VK9CX and the fact that he still needs zone 29!

K4GM......H - (Not to be confused with K4GM) Did a somewhat limited effort in the CQWW RTTY contests due to family commitments. He did very well in the Macrothen RTTY test. He replaced an EHU motor unit on his lower SteppIR and replaced his 80M dipole in preparation for the season. He will operated both modes SS from home and WWCW from NR4M.

KT0P - Scott is using a loop antenna and is building a YCCC SO2R box, so he obviously has plans! He'll be active both modes SS and isn't sure about WWCW.

AK4DR - Gary has been licensed a year. He uses a 40M dipole with a K3 and a Henry 2K-2 applefrier. He also has the panadapter for the K3 and a Classic 33 to go up on a rocket launcher.

W0CN - Dan just retired from the USAF and has returned from Hawaii where he operated quite a bit using a friends remote station and his call WH7Z. He'll be on from the KH6MB station in WWSSB. Operating from Hawaii in last years SSSSB he placed 4th worldwide using a 2 el vertical dipole array on the beach. He's going to operate SS SSB from NR4M.

K1SE - Bill is still having fun with his horizontal loop. He recently worked the 3D2R and T32C operations on several bands. He'll be doing SSCW from home.

KC4D - Bill is building a K3 and is planning to go SO2R. He uses his tower as a reverse fed ground plane (N4KG) on top band. He sold his trusty Thunderbolt amp to NR4M who has wanted one for ages. Bill has a recently restored Collins 32V2 as well as a restored COLLINS R390A for sale. Bill will contribute highly to the club SS efforts by doing a M/S from his terrific station both modes.

K7SV - Larry spoke of repairing antennas in preparation for the season. He corrected a feedline problem with the KT34M2 and a separate feedline problem with his broadband 80 meter dipole as well as putting up a new inverted L for top band in the front yard and fixing the 20M dipole at the bottom of the hill which is used for SO2R. He spoke of the superb conditions on the high bands in recent weeks with 10 having been wide open to Asia. He plans to make some effort both modes SS and will be on from NR4M in WWCW.

K4EC - Frank has been rather inactive from home, but has put in a lot of effort at NR4M His L4 is broken, so he's awaiting a part to repair it. He uses an R5 antenna from home and plans to be on both modes of SS from home and WWCW from NR4M.

NR4M - Steve with more than a little help from Mike K4GMH has gotten the box working to allow use of a second radio on the same band. The primary problem was isolation between the two bands and Mike has achieve something like 90db in the new design. The 40 meter computer had to be replaced and it's been much more of an ordeal than planned. He replaced all of the stub filters in the station to improve band to band isolation. The middle 5 el yagi in the 15m stack has developed a problem so that needs to be removed to do something with the feed. Two 25 ton window A/C units were added to the shack to preclude 90 degree temps during summer contests. The KT36XA and 2 el 40 KLM have been pulled from the crank up tower and temporarily replaced with the first of two Mosley 3 el 40M shorties for testing. The two Mosleys will be stacked on a 190 foot tower pointing SSE. David AJ4FM helped Steve with aligning two of the OMNI VI xcvrs in the shack. An M/2 effort in the CQWW RTTY test netted 7.3M points. The meeting was adjourned and everyone enjoyed converstation, brats and burgers.

73 de Lar K7SV