published by n2yo on Tue, 2016-11-29 23:41
"Mr Murphy" showed up with his whole family this weekend. Spent all my off time fixing stuff or try to minimize things that were too bad to fix at the time.
published by n2yo on Mon, 2016-09-26 23:03
Had a HUGE crew, but some were in/out and we had SIX 'newbies'. Some of them had not done any RTTY before, so there was a bit of slowing down and explaining things and a bit of hand holding. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but with 6 beginners in major contest, some allowances were made. I would not have any issue having each one of them back again.
published by n2yo on Tue, 2016-06-21 23:14
Meeting at QTH of K7SV was called to order by Larry K7SV at 10:30AM. Larry discussed why recent efforts to revitalize the chapter did not come to fruition. Demographics precluded evening weekday meetings largely due to the work commute of the majority of working folks to northern Virginia or Washington DC. Weekday lunch meetings were poorly attended. Scheduling recurring weekend meetings doesn't work due to conflicts with contests, hamfests and other related happenings.
published by n2yo on Wed, 2016-06-01 01:10
Conditions were down, so things were slower. Really miss 10 meter, but we'll have to get used to it.
published by n2yo on Sun, 2016-02-28 13:06
Had a pretty good time, overall. Had enough people and plenty of food. 160 meter 8 circle is still 'AOL'. Frustrating! Beverages worked really well. The recent work with filtering and switching paid off. Lots of QRN from far off thunder storms Saturday night. Made things really tough at times on the low bands. When the storms causing that thunder arrived on Sunday about 1700 UTC, the rain static from hard rains made things difficult on 15 and 20 meters.
published by n2yo on Mon, 2016-02-15 20:38
Bands noisy first night, much better second night. Three 'newbie' ops with limited experience. One of the ops for the upcoming Heard Island DXpedition stopped by to see how RTTY is operated, so will at least be familiar with it while on the Island.
published by n2yo on Mon, 2015-12-07 19:23
Steve and Larry (K7SV) teamed again for this running. Steve worked from the beginning to about 03Z and Larry operated from 03Z to about 08Z. Steve took over from about 09Z to sunrise. That was both nights. Conditions were not stellar, but certainly not bad. QRN was minimal but at times the band was really packed. We had a problem with the 8 circle, so RX antennas were NE, SE and NW beverages. Transmit antenna is a pair of phased Tees with about 100ft vertical. rig = K3 driving a single 4-1000Z.
published by n2yo on Mon, 2015-12-07 19:19
Another one in the books. Enjoyed the good propagation on most bands. Really kept things hopping. Never enough operators. One night time op had to go home sick, another canceled on Friday, and two could only put in 3 hours each, which made things kinda 'thin' at times. This was especially true with two first time operators. But, overall, this kind of operator shortage was expected with this family holiday weekend. Always a tough weekend for ops.
published by n2yo on Tue, 2015-11-03 00:38
Frank K4EC called the meeting to order at 11AM 31 Oct 2015
Old business - none
New business - Steve NR4M spoke to the requirement for members to participate in contests to qualify as chapter members, specifically two of the 5 milllion award contests per year. On a little different slant, to wear the Goat Farm Contesters tee shirt, members should work at least two contests from NR4M.
published by n2yo on Mon, 2015-09-28 22:57
Like everyone, we would have liked 10 meters to be in better shape. At least the flux stayed at 120 with a low K value.
Just before the contest found that the top 40 meter yagi would not turn, although there was voltage at the base of the tower. Rotators for the 15 meter stack are still acting 'squirrely' and had to be rotated from out in the equipment shack, not locally.
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