NOTES FROM RAPPAHANNOCK CHAPTER PVRC MEETING 4/6/2019

The meeting was called to order by K4ZW 11AM

Attendees - N4CF, N3ZV, KA4RRU, W4SEH (first meeting), WC4J, N3AIU,
W0CN, K4GMH, K4GM, K4QS, K3ZO, KS4Q, KN4DEB, NR4M, K4ZW, K0OO, K2WK,
N4DXS, W6LWG, K7SV

New business - Presented the 2M endorsement for the 5M certificate to N4DXS..

Old business - none

Meeting was adjourned and we went around the room discussing what we
had done recently in contesting and ham radio.

N4CF - Has worked a number of contests. Played with remote ham radio.
(Mike is NOT planning on joining the NSS group),

W6LWG - Has had fun working several recent contests. He had a terrible
time getting RTTY to work,but finally has it in the bag. He's working on
repairs to one of hisTS-2000S. He's also working on plans to put a
couple of 50ft towers up with various antennas.

N3ZV - Still recovering from a lightning strike. Interestingly, his
amplifier was damaged on the input side. The only band he can work at
the moment is 160. He has a crane coming within the next month or two
with a man bucket to help repair antenna damage. He purchased a used
FT1000MP. An AL800 amplifier was included for the good price he paid for
it. He managed to resell the amplifier before he received it.

K4QS - K7SV had a laptop malfunction and lost Chucks comments. Shame on
Larry and the piece of junk Chromebook he was trying to use!

N3AIU - Same as above entry

KA4RRU - Worked VAQP from his qth M/M signing W0VA - Ops included W0CN
and NR4M! Hes been helping with maintenance at NR4M quite a bit since
K7SV became a slacker!

W4SEH - Seab came with W6LWG for Seab's first meeting. He's just getting
back on the air after a long hiatus. He's participating in a CWops CW
Academy class. Using an OCFdipole on the HF bands and is looking to get
VHF and UHF antennas up. He talked some about digital modes. His efforts
in VAQP weren't real productive.

WC4J - Talked some about his remote station and working with KA4RRU at
Mikes QTH to get things set up. He's going to replace his tank antenna
with a 40 meter vertical. Looking for a small amplifier.

W0CN - Has been quite active in contests. Did the ARRL SSB DX as J68HZ
multi-op with WA4PGM and K9HZ. The J68HZ station ran K3s with legal
limit amps to a db42 at 60ft. He did VAQP with the W4VA group. Plans on
WPX SSB M/S with NH6P. He also plans on joining the NSS cross band effort.

K4GMH - Continues to prepare antennas for restoration after the
windstorm took down his tower last year. He's been having a great time
working contests on 80 and 40 with dipoles. Surprised at how well
dipoles at 25-30 feet work.

K3ZO - Has graduated to an FTDX 5000 with a spare (says he's already
broken the first one!). He garnered 6M point in doing 29 hours in WPX
SSB. He discussed the importance of the additional points earned for low
band Qs. His point per Q rate was real high at 3.07. It helped to have
the big beams on 80 and 40. His plan to start the contest working Eur on
40 didn't pan out and he ended up beaming south working a bunch of LU
and PY stations. He found that calling CQ while beaming south was more
effective using English than Spanish. He's going to Visalia next week
and looks forward to visiting with old friend N6AA and discussing ARRL
happenings.

KS4Q - Thanks Ken for working him and confirming Ethiopia. He worked
most of the RTTY contests from NR4M or from home. He worked the Stu
Perry trying to add countries to his DXCC count on that band. He
finished building a remote antenna/rig switching system. To celebrate
his birthday he planned on climbing his 100ft tower but a month after
having that thought he had a mild heart attack and his doctor nixed any
plans of tower climbing. Fortunately he's doing well.

K0OO - Has been working a lot of contests under various call signs from
the WA3EKL station.

N4DXS - Is recovering nicely after having a lung transplant completed
some months ago. He's been fairly active in contests and is looking
forward to becoming even more active.

K2WK - Continues to enjoy the three one hours CWops mini-tests (CWTs) at
13Z and 19Z on Wednesdays and 03Z on Thursdays

KN4DEB - Recently got a second HF radio from his father-in-law. At the
Frostfest he purchased a center fed two band antenna that is now in the
air. He's played with re-orienting it to see what the pattern looks like
and to figure out his skip zones.He's worked a lot of South America. He
now has a mast to use while operating portable from his travel trailer
where he'll be QRV from time to time during the summer.

NR4M - Did both the ARRL and CQ160 contests. He worked the CQ WW RTTY
contest and nothing broke before the ARRL CW DX contest. He had a great
M/M crew for that contest and ran up a nice score. For the first time in
a number of years the top 40M OWA at 190 feet can be rotated from within
the shack with a working direction indicator. N3AC, K4GMH, NR4M and K7SV
fixed it a couple weeks ago, with N3AC doing the climbing. He's pushing
to drop the yagis in the 15 and 20 M stacks, rebuild them and get the
back up before WPX CW at the end of May.

K4ZW - Has been QRV from Ethiopia again while on work travel. He hit a
real good 20M opening that was a blast. While he flew out of Ethopia the
day of the airline crash, he was fortunately on a different aircraft.

K7SV - Has had some thought about adding another ten feet to the tower
and replacing the a3s with a Skyhawk, but with thoughts of moving to a
single level home in the same sub-division within two years, isn't sure
what he wants to do.

K4GM - Works the bigger contests from NR4M and the state QSO parties and
CWTs from home. He tried FT-8 and gave it the" watching paint dry
evaluation" heard from some. He's using an IC7300 to wires and is
thinking about getting an IC 7610.

Discussed WPX CW DX in May with K4ZW, K4QS, KA4RRU, K4GM, N3EIU,K4GMH,
KN4DEB, K7SV and NR4M indicating plans to work it with the NR4M group.

Brats, burgers, donuts, cookies and wet refreshments were enjoyed by all.

Lar K7SV