PVRC NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2001
PVRC CALENDAR
Weekly Wed
BWI Regional weekly breakfast. Wednesdays 7:30 am,
Basil's Deli, Elkridge Landing Rd near BWI.
Monthly
Over-the-Hill Luncheon. TBA.
Apr 5 Thu
PVRC/NC meeting
Apr 9 Mon
Central meeting at the Virginia location.
Apr 17 Tue
Northwest region meeting in Frederick, MD.
Apr 17 Tue
Tidewater Colony meeting night.
Apr 20 Fri
SWVA meeting at Shoney's in West Salem
May 3 Thu
PVRC/NC meeting.
May 18-20
Dayton 2001 Hamvention, Dayton, Ohio
May 26-27
CQ WPX CW. A 5-million award contest
June 1-3
PVRC Reunion-on-the-air. Details in the jumbo may issue!
June 23-24 Field Day.
Please support the PVRC W3AO FD effort. K3RA is the organizer.
TREASURERS REPORT by Dave Baugher, WR3L, Treas.
Thanks to all that ordered badges, about 80 in all. Some are
still pending being received, so don't worry about them. They
are due any day now. Twenty blanks still at The Sign Man. If
anyone wants one but has not ordered, please let me know.
I would like to thank the following for donations to PVRC in
February and March: N3HXB, W4CE, W4BQF, K3RR, K6ETM, N3FX, WZ3AR,
KC8FS, K7LU, N3AM, W3EKT,K9JY, WE9V, N3HQX, WA7LT, W4DM, WR3Z,
K4FPF, W3JRY, WK3I, W3TOM, W8JVP, K4TMC, K1SO, K4HOT, K5TK,
VK6WW, W4RX, K2YWE, W4HJ, W3LPL, K3IXD, W0CN, KM3V, N8II, K2UOP,
K8OQL, W4JVN, and WA8WV.
JAY TERLESKI, WX0B IS THE PVRC SPEAKER IN APRIL.
Jay is an accomplished contester and a practicing Electrical
Engineer who has developed a deep understanding of the theory and
application of stacking or phasing beam patterns of various
antennas. Details of Jay's background and the presentation were
given on page 6 of the March 2001 issue of the PVRC Newsletter.
Two briefings are planned. First, on Friday night, April 6th,
there will be (or was) a dinner with Jay at 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at
the Olive Garden on Route 7 in Tysons Corner in Northern
Virginia. This will be followed by a briefing at 7:30 PM at the
SAIC Tower Complex (where K4VV works) in a conference room that
seats 45+, located very close to the intersection of Rt. 7 and
Rt. 123 in Tysons Corner.
Then, on April 9, there will be a dinner at 5:00 PM with Jay the
College Park Holiday Inn. Followed at 7:30 PM Jay will speak at
the Capitol College.
Jay will use the same briefing materials for both events. He
welcomes questions in advance, so that he may be sure to address
most of our interests in the sessions. Please send me your
questions or specific suggestions for him, and I will combine and
forward them with or without attribution, as you wish.
Directions:
Holiday Inn: From the Capital beltway (I-495) preoceed north
on US route 1. The Holiday Inn is on the left (west) side of
route 1. The dinner is in the Tree Room.
Capitol College: From the Holiday Inn, proceed north on US Rt-1
and turn right on to Powder Mill Road. Take Powder Mill Road
through the Agricultureal Research Center. Turn left on
Springfield Road. Travel aprox 1 mile and turn right into the
Capitol Collge campus.
Jay will be the third in a series of very knowledgeable speakers,
following Tom Schiller, N6BT and John Devoldere, ON4UN.
THE MAY ISSUE WILL BE THE ANNUAL JUMBO EDITION
As usual, the May issue will be the annual jumbo issue with the
full listing of all PVRC'er worldwide and announcement of the
PVRC reunion-on-the-air. The circulation will be to all members;
once a member - always a member.
Please review the REFERENCE PAGE and let K3DI know of any
changes.
Please let W2GG know if our database info need updating. I
suggest that you refering to your listing in the last roster
printed in April 2000.
Get in touch immediately with K3DI if you would like to
advertise in the May issue with a circulation of 700 at the same
rate as other issues with a circulation of about 430. The rate
is $100/page or $33/one-third page, etc.
Deadlines for the May issue.
Roster changes = Apr. 16th
Articles & ads = April 20th
PVRC/NC MEETING MINUTES, 3/1/01 by Pete Soper, KC4XG
The meeting was held at Ryans Family Restaurant in Cary and
attended by Guy K2AV (chair), Bob K4HA, Chuck K4NYS, Jim K4QPL,
Brent KO4PY, Pete KS4XG (notes), Bob N2NFG, Bert N4CW, and Jim
WW4M. Regrets from K4MA, AA4NC (preparing to operate from 8P9JA
this weekend)
Membership: This was the first meeting for Chuck Wright N2NFG.
Chuck is sponsored for PVRC membership by Bob K4HA. Chuck is
interested in becoming active in contesting and recently took
part in the CQ 160 phone test. Chuck has concrete and components
in place for an 80 foot Rohn 25 tower and expects to put a TH7
plus 2 and 6 meter yagis on top. Chuck has been running barefoot
up to now but plans to boost his signal with a Hercules II in the
future. Welcome Chuck! Membership remains at 39.
Announcements. The chapter will be hosting a table or three for
junque clearance and contesting info at the Raleigh Hamfest on
Sunday April 8th. There will be "RUFZ Part Deux" to energize the
area with some loud and fast CW music and annoy the nearby
computer vendor booths, hi.
In conjunction with the Hamfest there will be a PVRC meeting at
11am at the booth for the convenience of members that have
trouble making the regular monthly meetings. Details to follow
via email.
The annual May special dinner meeting is being planned. Watch
for K2AV email.
Well known contester Chad Kurszewski WE9V will be in the RDU area
with his wife on the 9th of March and staying a couple days to
explore a possible move to this area. AA4NC and K4MA will be
hooking up with Chad (KS4XG too if possible) so contact one of
them if you'd like to meet.
Pete KS4XG needs help to do a quick tear down of his old antenna
farmette in Apex, NC on Saturday March 10th (house going on the
market on the 12th!). Please email [email protected] if you can
help. Directions and details will go out on the 6th.
Pre-Meeting Banter. N4CW cracked us up with descriptions of
tuning procedures with the early rigs that he and his buddies up
North used when Bert was younger. With a 6 watt transmitter Bert
"tuned for maximum smoke" using his finger as a power meter
(ouch!) while his buddy looked for optimum arcs drawn from a
pencil tip he touched to his transmitter output!
Member News. KO4PY was active in the NC QSO party and managed to
use TR for logging. Manual post-processing of the log is
required for handling mobile stations covering multiple counties
but this sure beats paper. Brent will provide example TR
configurations and notes for other QSO party support and WW4M
will put it on the chapter web site (http://pvrcnc.org).
K4HA suffered through the 160 phone contest with terrible
conditions. Bob is heading down with K4CIA and K4NYS to visit
Alan K4PB (Alan is a PVRCer now living in south Florida). The
plan is to put a TH11, 40 and 30 meter dipoles on 60 feet of Rohn
25 that Allan has gathered up down there. They hope to active
the new equipment in time to take part in the second half of the
DX test.
N2NFG described his first CW Sprint experience, especially the
relief that came when the test was finished! Bob discovered in
this contest that his typing speed was the limiting factor. He's
considering taking a typing class at a local community college.
Bob said he was really energized by Sprint and looks forward to
"enduring" it in the future as a means of boosting his skills.
Bob amplified K4HA's complaints about the 160 contest. He also
recently got a TS940 and said it is clearly out performing his
IC751.
WW4M was not on the radio at all last month. Jim is sending out
resumes and publishing his thesis. Jim had success with the PVRC
reflector advertisement of his FT290R 2 meter all mode rig as
K2AV is buying it. Jim would like to borrow or share a station
for the WPX phone contest the weekend of March 24-25. His email
is [email protected] .
K4QPL described his stress with getting a full 10 team members
together for CW Sprint (AA4NC joined in the 11th hour). Jim said
he found Sprint very stimulating also and remarked that regular
contests seemed to be running at half speed in comparison. Jim
also took part in the NC QSO party but gave up on it after just a
few dozen painfully sparse contacts.
K2AV described the M/2 DX/CW effort at N4AF. Along with Howie
N4AF and Gary W2CS Guy piled up a 9mil score on a weekend of
incredible propagation. There was one incredible run on
21.027mhz that lasted eleven hours with the three of them doing
super fast operator changes so they never missed a beat.
N4CW was at KC1XX for the DX test as a relief operator. Bert
described the awesome station and antenna farm (see
http://www.kc1xx.com). All the run rigs are IC-781s and each
position has highly automated antenna switching and computer
controls. Spots are passed both within the operator's local
network and via outside packet traffic. The 80 meter delta loop
stack on a 300 foot tower (booms made out of Rohn 25) was
aspectacle to behold. Bert will be joining the N4AF gang for WPX
but may return to KC1XX for CQWW this Fall.
Antenna Farm Agronomy by KS4XG. In planning an antenna farm at
his new home SW of Apex, KS4XG has been doing terrain analysis
with a computer. Pete shared some high points with the group,
demonstrating his analysis toolkit with a laptop.
Starting with raw terrain data for new station location
laboriously gathered by K3KO from computer maps, Pete used some
custom Perl programs and the N6BV program "YT" to identify the
best combination of antenna placements.
Input parameters for HF signal arrival probabilities as well as a
variety of antenna configurations were fed to YT and it's
analysis results were extracted and compiled into a database of
performance data. The Perl programs automatically executed YT
every few seconds for a a few dozen hours to compile a complete
catalog of results for individual 2-8 element antennas 35-140
feet above ground and pointing in the six "interesting"
directions (EU, AF, SA, OC, JA, AS). The results were compiled
once with flat terrain surrounding the antennas and once with the
new KS4XG station terrain data.
More Perl code was written to process an "antenna configuration
file" that specifies the type, height and band coverage of a
collection of antennas as well as which directions they can
point. Then for each combination of antenna/band/direction a
"figure of merit" is computed as the sum of products of the gain
computed by YT for an arrival angle and the corresponding arrival
probability (where it is nonzero). So, for example, a four
element 15 meter monobander fixed on Europe at 115 feet might
have a gain (reinforced or inhibited by the local terrain) of
16dbi for a signal arrival angle of 4 degrees. If the (highly
averaged) probability of arrival of signals at 4 degrees from
Europe is 15%, then the partial merit is .15*16 or 2.4. For all
the rest of the angles with non-zero probabilities partial merit
values are computed so that the overall "antenna figure of merit"
is derived. So for this example the data might be something like
this:
angle probability gain merit
2 deg 10% 15 dbi 1.5
4 deg 15 16 2.4
5 deg 20 17 3.4
9 deg 55 10 5.5
Overall Merit 12.8
(this example data is both fictional and oversimplified for
brevity!)
So this antenna, for this path and at the specified height above
the KS4XG terrain scores 12.8. Additional antennas on the
property contribute to an overall "antenna farm figure of merit".
This can be compared with results computed while varying height,
rotatability, etc to arrive at the maximum performance with a
given set of hardware. This exercise could be repeated with the
terrain data of other stations to compare relative performance.
K3KO recently reported some rough comparisons of his location
with the new KS4XG location and estimated a 4db advantage for
KS4XG on some bearings.
The $64 question is whether the terrain effects predicted by YT
are valid. It's actually a lot more than $64 since undoing and
redoing antenna placements is an expensive and time consuming
venture.
The new KS4XG QTH has a pronounced downhill slope with lots of
"ripples" in the terrain in the direction of South America. YT
predicts the most effective single antenna height for this path
on 10 meters is 35 feet: a much higher antenna is absolutely
counterproductive. This is hard to swallow given all the "higher
is generally better" messages in the contesting literature. An
encouraging contrast however comes from the periodic writings of
N4KG on the Towertalk reflector (http://lists.
contesting.com/_towertalk). Tom preaches that higher is
definitely not always better but for this case on 10 meters YT is
preaching that lower is always better! And there are more
prounounced terrain enhancement effects predicted for the KS4XG
QTH by YT for the low bands. Some of these seem like a "too good
to be true" story. Time will tell.
One other interesting conclusion suggested by YT is that upward
sloping terrain is not necessarily bad. The terrain at KS4XG
toward Europe slopes from 430ft ASL to 450ft ASL over the course
of 10000 feet with lots of "dips and bumps" in between. For some
antenna combinations there is a pronounced advantage to this
undulating terrain when compared with flat terrain.
Next steps are to automatically generate data for stacks and
support for specifying these in the antenna configuration files.
The Charlotte arrival data also needs sanity checking by seeing
that it produces results that are in harmony with the data for
Washington and Atlanta. The next meeting will be Thursday April
5th, 6pm at Ryans.
SVWA CHAPTER MEETING MINUTES, 3/9/01 by R. Michael Barts, N4GU
The SWVA chapter of PVRC met March 9, 2001 at the Western Sizzlin
in Roanoke, VA. In attendance were N4EL, KA4BSA, K4IQ, WM3T,
KF4OKG, K1SO, KG6AR, KC9LC, and N4GU.
There has been a general lack of activity within the chapter with
almost everyone too busy with work commit-ments for serious
contesting. KG6AR did put in about 6 hours during ARRL SSB and
was pleasantly surprised to find that you can actually hear (and
work) Europeans on 75m from here on the east coast. All the
other 6's think we're making them all up.
Emily, KA4BSA, XYL of Nat, N4EL, was voted in as a new member.
She and Nat will be working the special event station K2BSA for
the national Boy Scout Jamboree this summer, so she'll get plenty
of practice handling pileups before next contest season.
N4EL has a new C3S and rotor to mount on his tower as soon as
warm weather arrives. Even sitting in the box the antenna is
already improving his contest performance as he experienced the
thrill of running Eu on 15m during the ARRL SSB test for the
first time this year.
Randy, KC9LC got an Elecraft K1 for Christmas but hasn't had time
to get past the parts inventory yet. With the weather warming up
maybe the soldering iron will too.
Several members are going to be active for the VA QSO party March
17-18. Jerry, K1SO, is going with the Roanoke Valley ARC, W4CA,
up to Bath County for the contest. Anthony. WM3T, will be doing
a massive mobile effort with K4UK to hand out lots of
multipliers. N4GU is undecided how seriously he will try to
defend his single-op title from last year (probably not very).
The next meeting of the SWVA will be April 20 at the Shoney's in
west Salem, dinner at 6:00 PM followed by a business meeting.
CARROLL COUNTY PVRC MINUTES, 03/12/01, By Jim Nitzberg, WX3B
The Carroll County PVRC group met Monday, March 12, 2001 at the
Westminster, MD Fire Training Center. The meeting was jointly
held with the Carroll County Amateur Radio Club.
PVRC Members in attendance were: WX3B, N3YIM, W3XG, WB3AVN,
N3FNE, N3VOP, K3CTR, K3IXD, W3ARS, WX3F, W3LPL, NY3A, and N3UN.
Guests were N3MNM, N3SOK, KB3EMN, N3ZVI, and William Hoge
(W3JJH's son). There were many other hams attending from the
Carroll County Amateur Radio Club.
Although there was no formal PVRC business, it was great to see a
big PVRC turnout!
There was a reason for the large crowd. We were fortunate to
have Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, (from the FCC's enforcement
division) speak at our meeting. Riley spoke in his distinctive
soft, down to earth and direct way about the work that has been
done to clean up the bands over the past two years. Riley is
entering his 3rd year of work, and categorizes his success as
measured, but with more work that needs to be done.
Riley has a powerful message for all amateurs; the message
reiterates our responsibility to monitor how we behave and what
we say AT ALL TIMES when we're on the air. This is especially
true on the HF bands, where people from all over the world are
listening to everything we say. He continues his discussion
describing the huge commercial desire for the shortwave spectrum
and the importance of maintaining a professional attitude on the
air, which is by far the best way of protecting the amateur
frequency allocations.
After an hour presentation, Riley entertained questions and
received a warm round of applause for a job well done. I
encourage those of you who agree that Riley is doing a great job
to join me in writing a letter to the FCC Chairman at the
following address:
The Honorable Michael K. Powell
Chairman, FCC
Room 8-B201
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20024
Written letters are preferred over electronic mail.
The PVRC meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Good luck to all in
the WPX Contest!
NORTHWEST MEETING MINUTES FROM NOTES BY Bob Biss, W8ZA
The NW region met at Tully's Grill in Frederick on 20 February
2001. In attendance were: W8ZA, W3LPL, NE3H, K3WC, K2UOP, K8OQL,
N4MM, K3SKE, N8II, K3CTR, N3VOP, N3HBX, N3FX, and WZ3AR.
W8ZA, Bob, chaired the meeting for K3IXD, Ed, who had successful
cataract surgery earlier on Tuesday. Bob opened the meeting
about 7:20 PM after most everyone had finished having dinner.
John Hoge, W3JJH was voted into membership of the PVRC. He was
not in attendance but has already attended the mandatory two
meetings. John is sponsored by WX3B. On Johns' behalf Gene,
K3CTR and Mike, N3VOP made favorable comments about John and his
ham radio activities.
Bob Biss, W8ZA asked Frank Donovan, W3LPL (head of the Packet
Cluster) why we were getting all of the west coast spots and also
the double spots.
Frank gave about a 10 minute dissertation on what was happening
and why. Seems like the packet protocol (designed some 14 years
ago) didn't expect the internet to come into existence and
therefore doesn't have a means for regionally filtering out
unwanted input. (That's my short interpretation -W8ZA).
Individually, there are some programs out there that would help,
but to take care of it at the hub is big bucks.
Maybe K3DI, Dick, could get Frank to write it up for the PVRC
newsletter, since everyone was all ears and interested.
At the end of the meeting it was suggested we go for Mongolian
BBQ sometime soon. I said that I would let Ed, K3IXD make that
scheduling change.
Everyone was reminded of the Timonium Hamfest and also of Jay
Terleski, WX0B, talks on the 6th and 9th of April.
Nice turnout and plenty of conversation during the 2 hours prior
to the start of the meeting.
From around the table. NE3H: Joe has moved his node across the
Susquehanna River from where it was onto the WITF tower and it is
now about 1400' ASL. Joe had a problem with a Stackmatch Box and
talked with Jay Terleski , WX0B, who said "You know they have a
lifetime guarantee, send it back and I'll replace it". So said
and done, but Joe doesn't know what he did wrong to begin with
and Jay couldn't figure it out after examination either.
K3WC: Dusty has a NEW Force 12, 80M dipole waiting to go up along
with the tower that's been waiting about a year now. He has also
acquired a 6M modified SB-220 amp, also waiting for the tower to
go up with a 6M beam. Come-on Springtime.
K2UOP: Tom talked about the performance of his Phased verticals
on 40M this past contest season but is looking (make that
thinking about) putting up a 40M beam atop the ridge where he
lives near Romney, WV. Tom also received the pair of rocket
launchers that he had ordered and is thinking about putting a
catenary line between them and suspending a pair of 80M verticals
and phasing them. Tom will be on in the WPX contest.
K8OQL: Jerry is contested out for until the fall season. Jerry
was the Star Border at W8ZA this past winter having SO several
contests from there along with the major DX contests. Jerry is
going to the Visalia Hamfest for the first time.
N4MM: John is also going to the Visalia Hamfest. John was able
to put a little time in to support the VA QSO Party recently, for
300+ Q's. He also talked about the multitude of scenarios that
the CAC is working on regarding Club Area definition. All In
All, probably there will end up being someone (CLUB) not happy
with the results. John talked about the code requirement
discussions that are ongoing and referred to K1ZZ recent
editorial. He also touched on the 40M situation.
K3SKE: Dan said that there wasn't much going on at his QTH
regarding ham radio. He is trying to adjust to a schedule of
working every other weekend. Dan said that Norm 'NRS was with us
in spirit and tried to sign him in attendance. No such luck.
N8II: Jeff was limited to part-time at W8ZA for ARRL Phone this
year due to work schedules. When he arrived on Saturday evening
and sat down at the 15M position he thought the band had been
worked out since there was nothing showing in the spot
window...not realizing that the window was set for Multipliers
This Band Only...hi hi
K3CTR: Gene has just passed the 1 year mark as an amateur radio
operator. He credits Ed & Ed ('IXD & 'EKT) as his Elmers. I
didn't catch all of his antenna's but he does have a rocket
launcher supporting a Lazy U for 160M and he's really happy he
followed 'IXD's advice and got a 746. Gene also upgraded to
Extra Class about a month ago. (There is a Cushcraft MA5B
tribander on top of the rocket launcher. He has/has had a 40m
windom, 6m dipole, and 2m vertical - K3IXD)
N3HBX: John operated the 160M Phone contest and worked NO DX...
conditions were really bad. He also operated 15M SB in the ARRL
DX contest and plans on operating the WPX contest.
N3VOP: Mike said that not much was happening around his station.
He's looking forward to the hamfest season getting started.
W3LPL: Frank said that it looks like the W3LPL M/M Crew won the
ARRL CW DX contest. WAY TO GO TEAM... Frank stated that his 15m
rotating tower worked like a charm. The 6 element 15M beams are
1, 2 & 3 wavelengths above ground. All fed with equal lengths of
coax at the tower and all switching done at the tower. It will
look different at the OPEN HOUSE from last year when we just
watched the bare tower turn. hi hi...
Frank stated that 10M was really hot on Sunday the 18th. He was
working VU2ZAP with the high beam when 'ZAP (running 100W,
hitting 20db over on the S-meter) asked him to stand-by.. 'ZAP
came back running 1W with an S8 signal...asked Frank to standby
again and after a few moments of silence Frank switched to the
bottom (quieter) antenna and heard 'ZAP asking "Frank, do you
hear me?, Frank do you hear me? Well of course Frank heard
him...he hears everything, but 'ZAP was running 1 mw.
N3FX: Tony put up an 80/160M vertical made out of irrigation
tubing ala ON4UN's book and with the help of a crane. Tony has
it working well on 80M but is having some problems with it on
160M.
WZ3AR: Nat worked the NAQP contest to the tune of 100K points.
He also put Chincoteague Island, VA (NA-083) on the air recently
for 265Q's. Tony N3FX, Nat's Dad said a funny thing happened
during that operation. The only resident ham on the island came
knocking on the tent to collect his confirmation QSL.
W8ZA: I had been asked about my recent surgery. The surgeon
removed my left thyroid on the 23rd of February and the growth
was found to be benign. They did not have to crack my chest to
do it, as was originally feared. I recouped enough by mid-week
to call my regular operators and have them come over and operate
the station for ARRL DX Phone. The antenna situation is pretty
well stabilized and this off season will be devoted to making
some antenna switching improvements and tracking down the noise
that is distant from the QTH.
The next NW Regional meeting is scheduled for the third Tuesday
of April, April 17, in Frederick, MD. The meeting begins at
7:30PM with members showing up for dinner about 6:00PM.
Thanks to W8ZA for chairing this meeting and writing up the
notes. de K3IXD.
OVER-THE-HILL LUNCHEON
by Bill Leavitt, W3AZ
The Over-the-hill Group met at the location, where Andy, W3XE
made arrangements in the past, at noon on Wednesday, March 21.
The location is the Holiday Inn at the intersection of the
Beltway and route 1 in Beltsville, MD. Those attending were
W3CB, K3ZO, K6IR, W3GN, K3WX, AA4XU, W3UJ, W3ABC, and W3AZ. It
is hoped to continue meeting here once every 3 month as in the
past. W3GN brought in some old magazines and pictures.
Conversations were directed toward pre World War amateur
activities, equipment, etc.
N3RR Beverage Rx Antennas
(From http://users.erols.com/n3rr. Bill's yard approximates a
triangle; the west street frontage is 575', northern side is 388'
and the third side is a zig-zag hypotenuse with 3 break points.
His web page has pictures and a site plan. editor)
In the summer of 2000, three of my EWE antenna feed lines became
part of the shredded output of the lawn tractor. I have used EWE
antennas since 1994. Their performance was "OK", but they never
lived up to my expectations and never allowed me to really run
stations on 80 meters in contests.
Obviously, my 80 meter rotatable dipole @ 149 feet was a star
performer, but when I called CQ and could not pick out the weak
EU stations calling me, I didn't want to be an "Alligator", so I
needed to look for alternatives.
In the fall of 2000, I was talking to PVRC president, Brian,
N3OC, who mentioned that when he was operating V26B they used
short Beverages and they seemed to work "OK". When he said
short, he meant on the order of 200 feet or so. Well, I had
installed the EWEs because I thought I didn't have the room for
Beverages. When Brian mentioned 200 feet, I decided to take
another look.
It was already too late for the "two biggies" CQWW CW and SSB, so
I wanted to see if I could install something for ARRL DX CW and
SSB in 2001.
I looked at the plot plan of my property. As you see, I was able
to shoe-horn in some Beverages. Here are the details.
One of the first things I did was read John Devoldare's, ON4UN,
book: "ON4UN's Low-Band DXing", published by ARRL, Third
Edition, 1999. Chapter 7 is the one to read if you want to know
about Beverages. There's lots to learn in John's book, so I will
not go into it here. I will give you the details of my
installation though.
After thoroughly studying ON4UN's Chapter 7, I determined that I
would be able to squeeze-in a 300 foot cone-of-silence (see page
7-9 in John's book) Beverage antenna and keep it in my back and
side yards without having to go into the front yard. This was
important since I had not yet told the XYL what I was going to do
and I didn't want her to worry that there would be antennas in
the front yard. So, I asked her to help me build a 300 foot
Beverage!
We had several weeks of nice WX in January, 2001, so, with my
XYL's help, one Saturday we constructed a 300 foot Beverage,
aimed at Europe (45 degree heading) using commercial bamboo poles
and some intermediate trees as supports. It wasn't pretty. The
antenna wire varied in height from 6 feet to 10 feet. The last
50 feet of wire at each end I sloped to ground where I installed
a 4 foot copper-clad ground rod. The bamboo supports were not as
strong as I had estimated and they bowed dramatically once the
300 foot wire was attached, even though I supported the wire
every 50 feet or so. I needed to find a better solution for
future support masts.
At the feed-point, I used a K1FZ KB-1 Beverage transformer box.
This box has a SO-239 connector at one end and two binding posts
at the other end. The "guts" is a 9:1 impedance-matching
transformer, just right for Beverages (and EWEs). I purchased
five of the K1FZ boxes in anticipation of installing several
Beverages!
Well! On-the-air results were fantastic! On the 75 meter DX
frequencies 3793 KHz and 3797 KHz, I was able to hear EU signals
like I've never before. On 160 meters, the noise levels were
reduced and the S/N levels were increased. IT WORKED and I was
very excited!
I looked at my property plot plan and decided to install an
East-West pair the next week. ON4UN's book says that these kinds
of antennas should be mounted on separate masts, separated
horizontally the same distance as they are above the ground. I
asked my friend Frank, W3LPL, and he confirmed it. I then walked
my property and concluded that I did not have enough room to
separate the two Beverages by 10 feet (their proposed vertical
height). Doing so would put one of them in the woods. So, I
proceeded to design a single-mast, dual Beverage system with the
antenna wires separated vertically by 1 foot. Again, I discussed
this with W3LPL. He was concerned that there would be cross-talk
between the antennas and thereby reduce the front/back (F/B)
ratio. He also made a critical suggestion - If I want to
implement a 1-foot vertical separation of the antennas, I should
use independent ground stakes for each antenna. That meant that
I needed to install four ground stakes, two for each Beverage (as
normal). Frank suggested separating them by 2 feet on the
ground.
I then asked Frank about the support masts he uses. Frank told
me he uses an 8 foot iron "T-Post", driven into the ground about
3 feet, topped with a five foot fiberglass T-post. The
fiberglass T-post is attached to the iron T-post with a stainless
steel hose clamp. The Beverage antenna wire is then tie-wrapped
to the fiberglass T-post at the 10 foot mark, or so. I recalled
that I was at Frank's house one day last fall when he was
installing these T-posts and I saw what he was using. Little did
I know then that I would soon need to use this knowledge. So, I
went to the Southern States hardware store and bought some
supplies. The 8 foot iron T-posts were not available, so I
settled for the 7 foot version.
Using ON4UN's book, I determined that the cone-of-silence length
I could squeeze-in East-West would be 275 feet. That seemed very
short for 160, but that's all I could fit in.
I used the 7 foot T-posts and drove them into the ground two
feet. Based on my first installed iron T-post, I estimated that
it would support the antenna wires even though it was only two
feet into the ground. Certainly, it would work better than my
first attempt using bamboo. I installed all five of the iron
T-posts (every 50 feet, except the middle two at 40 ft) I then
installed the 5 foot fiberglass T-post on top of them and had my
five 10 foot supports! Now it was time for the wire.
Again, I turned to Frank, W3LPL, who said he used #12 THHN
stranded wire for his Beverages. He also recommended that I
"angle" the ground stakes into the ground so that the tip of the
ground stake in the ground was about 6 inches closer to the
center of the antenna than the end of the ground stake that
protrudes out of the ground. That way, the antenna wire may be
attached to an insulator and the insulator attached to the ground
stake without worrying that the wire will slip off the ground
stake. I used the same antenna wire for both sides of the
insulator.
The installation of the East Beverage began. I started at one
end, attaching the wire/insulator to the ground stake and sloping
the wire up to the first post-set which was 50 feet from the
ground stake. At the 10 foot mark, I pulled the wire as tight as
I could and tie-wrapped what would be the top wire to the
fiberglass T-post and continued to the last T-post. Then I
pulled the wire as tight as I could and attached the
wire/insulator/wire to the ground stake at the other end sloping
the wire 50 feet from the last T-post to ground stake.
I left a pig-tail of the antenna wire at each end and at one end,
I installed a 470 Ohm 2 watt resistor between the antenna wire
and the ground stake using open screw-on connectors available at
electrical supply houses. At the other end, I inserted the K1FZ
box between the antenna wire and the ground stake. Then I
connected my RG-8X feed-line that I bought at the RF Connection.
I repeated the process for the West Beverage, this time mounting
the wire at the 9 foot mark, one foot below the East antenna
wire. Frank had asked me to report on my F/B test results, and I
was, of course, anxious to see myself how well it would work.
What a world of difference that antenna made. After several days
on both 80 and 160, listening to EA8, KH6, CT, T32 and others, I
was seeing 20 dB F/B even on 160! I could null-out T32RD using
the East Beverage, yet he was armchair copy on the West antenna
on 160! BOY, did that convince me!
Because the iron/fiberglass T-post design was superior to the
bamboo method I had previously used, I decided to install a new
NE Beverage using this T-post design that I learned from Frank.
But before I just replaced the 300 foot antenna, which worked
very well, I thought I'd ask some other low-band users what they
use and ask if they thought a 500 foot Beverage would work better
than a 300 foot Beverage. I had taken another look at my
plot-plan and determined that I just might be able to put up a
500 ft Beverage if my XYL would allow me to use the front yard.
More about this later.
I spoke to Jon, AA1K, about the technical details. He told me
that 500 ft would definitely be better than 300 ft, even though
500 ft was not a cone-of-silence length. Frank, WB3AVN, said the
same thing. I also asked Jon whether it was necessary to slope
the last 50 feet ends of Beverages to the ground. ON4UN's book
goes into much detail about the need for this. AA1K said that
none of his Beverages are sloped due to the population of deer at
his QTH. They would run into sloped wires 50 feet long! Jon
also said that he does not notice any F/B or F/S degradation due
to not sloping his Beverages.
Well, the population of deer at the N3RR QTH is also large, but I
wanted to test sloping/non-sloping Beverages anyway. So, I
decided to slope the E-W Beverage, but not the new 500 foot
Beverage.
As I installed the 500 footer, I did decide to slope the
feed-point end from 10 feet to 6 feet over the final 50 feet.
From the 6 foot level, I would take a rather sharp angle to the
ground stake/feed-point.
Well, the results are in: All three antennas perform excellently!
The F/B on the 500 foot EU Beverage is 20dB and the loud EU
signals are just about as loud as on my 149 ft high rotatable
dipole except that the S/N is increased. I do have a 20dB
pre-amp in the shack that I can use when necessary. The noise
reduction of the Beverages is fantastic, much better than the
EWEs I had used. During the 2001 ARRL DX CW contest, I called CQ
on 160 for the first time in a contest. I ran 20 EU stations
during that 1/2 hour. Conditions were great and my 500 ft
Beverage was great as well!
Likewise, the 275 ft Beverage worked very well, even on 160.
While I still have one EWE still in use (South), I will be
replacing it with a 200 foot Beverage this Fall. I'll also add a
SW wire at 9 feet to the 500 ft Beverage as well.
As far as how well or better the sloping-end 275 foot Beverages
performed than the non-sloped (or partially-sloped) 500 foot
Beverage - I think that sloping the ends doesn't help much. I
notice no degradation in F/B of the 500 foot Beverage when using
my South EWE as comparison. But, I may slope the ends of the 500
foot Beverage when I reinstall it this fall, deer and all, just
to see if there is any difference.
The big news is that short, 275 foot long Beverages do work and
they work better than EWEs. I plan to replace that South EWE
with a 200 foot Beverage this fall.
Oh, how did I get to use the front yard for the additional 200
feet? I told the XYL that I would remove the Beverages each
spring and re-install them in mid-October to allow us to mow the
lawn. That meant the front yard Beverage was "temporary" and it
was approved! After all, you can see it from the dining room
window. :-(
Editors note: I visited ON4UN in 1995 and noted that his
Beverages were also "temporary." He used his neighbors farm land
after the crops were removed. John mentioned that one fall was
late and he was not able to reinstall the beverages unti the day
before the CQWW-SSB. -K3DI
PLANNING STARTED FOR FIELD DAY.
Rol Anders, K3RA is already getting pepped up for the big field
day operation by PVRC-W3AO. It will take a bigger on-site team
as well as off site folks supporting a record breaking Field Day.
This year, the local CT network will be working to help pass home
stations among their some 26 band modes stations. This is most
important at VHF/UHF where the operators are most likely to be
begging for QSO's from local members and the masses of
non-members. The W3AO site will again be at KE3Q's dad's place
in Tolchester MD, with 12 to 15 or more 50 foot towers installed
right on the bay on a 35 foot cliff. W3AO will be glad to QSP
all FD messages.
S C O R E S by Bob Dannals, W2GG
* Changes/additions/deletions *
* to W2GG via email or packet *
* NEW EMAIL: [email protected] *
### = missing information
160M CW RESULTS (FINAL 3/6/01)
CALL QSO ST DX SCORE
SINGLE OP HIGH POWER
W4ZV 1171 58 52 456,940
W4MYA 1138 58 51 397,632
N4CW 842 56 30 183,782
K4ZW 710 50 34 174,468
N3OC 568 53 34 143,898
K3SV 604 ## ## 126,984
W3EKT 307 47 23 60,340
W4YE 325 50 16 55,704
N4MM 306 46 20 54,978
K2UOP 280 43 23 50,952
K4VV 340 42 14 47,096
N3UM 257 43 17 40,080
K2PLF 270 45 9 34,560
N3AM 276 43 8 32,538
K8OQL 204 42 6 22,752
N8II 157 34 17 21,930
K3MM 150 (50) 19,150
WM3T 192 41 4 19,035
W2YE 159 36 4 14,360
W4HJ 142 35 5 13,280
N4TL 61 25 1 3,406
SINGLE OP LOW POWER
K1HTV 704 54 24 135,876
K7SV 507 49 24 92,415
WJ9B 567 52 14 85,932
N2NFG 507 50 18 80,784
W2GG 331 39 13 41,548
K3SWZ ### ## ## 37,950
WK4Y 250 40 6 25,300
K4QPL 195 38 4 17,934
W4VC 184 (41) 16,564
W3CP 158 (40) 15,040
K2YWE 137 35 3 11,742
WX3B 107 (32) 7,712
N3UN 101 33 0 7,458
WB4DNL 39 (23) 1,932
SINGLE OP QRP
WK3I 545 (62) 75,454
MULTI OPERATOR
NY4A 1036 55 50 356,790
W3UR 598 53 38 177,000
K4MA 496 51 34 119,000
W2XL 746 57 31 87,224
W4NF 423 47 26 82,198
K3KO 450 51 20 81,863
N3AM 276 (51) 32,538
W3HVQ 167 37 22 30,267
WA4QDM 250 42 5 26,367
K3DI 185 49 5 24,246
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
46 LOGS CW TOTAL 3,644,999
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Multiop operators:
Single op plus packet unless
indicated below.
NY4A N4AF W2CS
W2XL K4HA (plus 1 nonPVRC)
ARRL DX CW FINAL (03/22/2001)
CALL BND QSO CTY TOTAL
SINGLE OP HIGH POWER
K3ZO 3556 419 4,469,892
N4ZR 2899 357 3,104,829
K2PLF 2085 396 2,475,792
W3IO 1267 328 1,244,760
N3UM 1016 293 893,064
W4YE 965 294 851,130
W3AZ 908 270 735,480
K2UOP 779 299 698,763
W4BQF 1027 205 629,760
W4ZV 10 1752 113 593,928
W2YE 633 237 450,063
W3GN 651 224 437,472
W4IF 358 161 172,914
N3JT 370 149 165,390
W4VC 341 144 147,312
K6ETM 297 162 144,342
N1KC 267 143 114,543
K3SV 80 328 67 65,727
W4ZYT 50 36 5,400
SINGLE OP LOW POWER
N4YDU 1589 355 1,692,285
N1WR 1570 324 1,525,068
WJ9B 1561 302 1,404,300
N4MM 732 305 669,780
W3CP 674 250 505,500
W3DAD 629 207 390,609
K1KO 449 169 225,615
AA4KD 386 193 223,494
N3UN 331 155 153,450
K4QPL 185 102 56,610
W4HM 80 178 56 29,904
WB4DNL 105 83 26,145
W4SD 103 ## 19,776
SINGLE OP QRP
WD3P 188 113 63,732
SINGLE OP ASSISTED
N3RR 2749 493 4,065,771
W4NF 2292 443 3,046,068
K3KO 1544 411 1,903,752
N4ZJ 1645 381 1,880,235
W3EKT 1081 419 1,355,046
W3IO 1267 328 1,244,760
W3HVQ 1028 371 1,144,164
N3AM 963 374 1,080,486
W3UJ 951 335 955,755
W3UL 638 260 497,640
K3SWZ 70 44 9,240
MULTI SINGLE
W4MR 3376 471 4,708,116
WR3L 901 101 275,427
WX3B 491 145 212,715
MULTI TWO
K4JA 6351 580 11,049,000
NY4A 5495 550 9,051,900
NR4M 4061 501 6,091,659
W8ZA 2778 474 3,948,894
K3DI 1673 387 1,937,709
MULTI MULTI
W3LPL 8693 672 17,504,928
W4MYA 6749 603 12,189,042
N4RV 1814 405 2,202,797
DXPEDITIONS
HR6/N4MO 1600 60 288,000
(10 m only)
R3/K3NA 378 100 113,400
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
57 LOGS CW TOTAL 111,143,333
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
OPERATORS:
K3DI K2YWE K3DI plus 1 non-PVRC
K4JA W4JVN K9GY K9JY WE9V 1nPVRC
N4RV N4RV N4VV
NR4M K7SV NR4M K4EU K1SE K4GMH
K4EC WA4JUK
NY4A K2AV N4AF W2CS
W3LPL W3LPL K1HTV W2GG ND3A K3KU
AI3M K3LP K3MM N3OC K3RA
K3RV KD4D K4ZW
W4MR K4MA AA4NC
W4MYA K4GAU K4WMS KC8FS N3SB W4HJ
W4MYA WA4PGM WA4QDM WA8WV
WX3B WK4Y WU4G
W8ZA K8OQL N8II W8ZA WD3A 1nPVRC
WR3L AA3SC KA3TUL
WX3B WX3B N3SB
CQ 160M SSB #3 (Mar.28.2001)
CALL QSO ST DX SCORE
SINGLE OP HIGH POWER
W4MYA 1043 57 24 200,070
N3HBX 654 51 8 85,078
K2UOP 594 51 11 81,964
K3KO 250 44 5 27,342
W4HJ 282 38 4 25,914
K2PLF 179 37 2 15,444
N3UM 152 32 6 13,414
N4CW 145 31 2 10,362
WA4QDM 100 28 3 7,099
W2BZR 96 24 2 5,590
4U1WB 52 16 1 1,819
SINGLE OP LOW POWER
N2NFG 430 45 7 48,776
WK4Y 340 32 3 25,025
N4MM 172 43 5 18,384
K4TMC 146 32 2 10,608
NA1DX 173 27 1 10,360
W2GG 118 29 4 8,778
W3EKT 112 27 3 7,950
K3DNE 160 26 1 7,344
AD3F 70 (23) 3,427
W3CP 61 (22) 3,014
SINGLE OP QRP
MULTI OPERATOR
K3IXD 301 40 6 30,774
K3DI 123 34 3 10,286
DXPEDITION
HA/W0YR 536 1 54 152,570
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
24 LOGS SSB TOTAL 811,392
47 LOGS CW TOTAL 3,674,159
71 LOGS MIX TOTAL 4,485,551
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Guest Operators:
4U1WB AJ3M op.
Multiop operators:
Single op plus packet unless
indicated below.
ARRL DX PH #4 (Mar.28.2001)
CALL BND QSO CTY TOTAL
SINGLE OP HIGH POWER
K4ZW 3612 410 4,442,760
K3ZO 3475 418 4,357,650
KV3R 1345 312 1,257,984
N3HXQ 1058 288 911,520
W4ZV 10 2265 130 883,350
N4MM 753 290 655,110
K2UOP 866 299 776,802
N4CW 764 229 524,868
KS4XG 15 1433 108 463,968
N3UM 581 246 428,778
W3AZ 599 208 373,776
W2YE 557 208 347,568
N3JT 499 160 239,520
W2BZR 421 159 200,340
N4ZR 369 170 187,680
N3UN 331 148 146,964
W4YE 276 126 104,328
W4ZYT 250 126 94,500
K3GV 216 111 71,928
N3HS 10 247 69 51,129
N4EL 15 239 69 49,473
W3JRY 155 96 44,640
K3IZ 109 78 25,506
K3SV 80 77 44 10,164
SINGLE OP LOW POWER
KC8FS 1451 291 1,266,723
W3MR 1250 291 1,090,000
W3UJ 1003 282 848,538
W3DQ 643 233 449,457
N4YDU 558 206 406,644
K6IR 324 149 144,828
K4QPL 243 129 94,041
AA4KD 202 127 76,962
K3DSP 10 308 77 71,148
WB4DNL 172 109 56,244
W3CP 10 215 64 41,280
K1SO 143 89 38,181
K3CTR 116 68 23,664
W4SD 10 100 ## 11,400
N3EYB 38 27 3,078
SINGLE OP QRP
SINGLE OP ASSISTED
N3RR 2605 491 3,837,165
N3AM 1274 365 1,395,030
N3HF 1113 368 1,228,752
W3EKT 1010 338 1,024,140
K3IXD 948 334 949,896
N3HBX 15 1324 127 504,063
NA1DX 537 273 439,803
W3HVQ 521 281 439,203
K3KO 505 281 425,715
W3UL 564 234 395,928
K3GEG 461 263 363,729
W3OU 417 210 262,710
N8CH 136 87 35,496
MULTI SINGLE
MULTI TWO
K4JA 6008 566 10,201,584
W3GNQ 2373 468 3,330,288
MULTI MULTI
W4MYA 4821 539 7,701,771
N4RV 1820 423 2,309,588
K3DI 1093 370 1,221,000
DXPEDITIONS
8J9JA 8639 328 8,500,776
HR6/N4MO 2950 59 380,550
(10 m, LP)
MM0LEO 300 72 64,800
Special Operation from FLA
K4HA@K4PB 26 24 1,872
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
60 LOGS PH TOTAL 66,284,481
57 LOGS CW TOTAL 111,143,333
117 COMBINED TOTAL 177,427,814
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LAST YEARS RESULTS (SSB & CW)
Club Logs Score
YCCC 253 394,997,526
FRC 164 322,686,531
PVRC 119 173,331,348
OPERATORS:
8P9JA K4MA AA4NC
K3DI W3OQ K3DI
K4JA K4JA K9JY WE9V W4JVN plus
one non-PVRC
N4RV N4RV K4VV
W3GNQ W3ZZ N3OC W3RFC WI2T
W3GNQ + one non-PVRC
W4MYA KF4QQY N4DEN N4EHJ NK4H
W4HJ W4MYA WA4QDM WK4Y
plus one non-PVRC
CQ WPX SSB (#2 03.27.2001)
CALL PWR BAND QSO MULTS SCORE
SINGLE OP - UNASSISTED
NY4A C 10 2152 883 4,447,671
N3HBX C 10 1187 629 1,832,906
W3UJ B TS 997 530 1,349,910
K2UOP C 903 499 1,136,223
4U1WB C TS 1095 494 995,410
N4MM C 798 496 984,064
N3UN B 709 417 756,855
W2GPS C TS 725 419 713,138
K3DSP B 644 415 653,210
KC8FS B TS 612 381 612,267
N4YDU B 507 336 426,384
N3FX C TS 490 329 411,908
K3GV C 436 292 299,884
W3UL C 381 270 235,170
N3HS C 300 243 199,746
* SINGLE OP - ASSISTED
KV3R C 1558 740 2,823,840
NA1DX B 752 498 989,526
W2GG B 814 485 979,700
K3KO C 450 443 559,066
K3IXD C 450 341 391,809
K1SE B 147 132 41,052
* MULTI-SINGLE
* MULTI-MULTI
* DXPEDITIONS
TI7/N4MO 10 2113 712 3,574,240
7J1AOE B 322 195 174,330
A = QRP
B = LOW POWER
C = HIGH POWER
TS = TRIBANDER +
SINGLE ELEM 160-40
BR = BAND RESTRICTED
R = ROOKIE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 LOGS SSB TOTAL 24,588,309
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
OPERATORS:
4U1WB AJ3M
7J1AOE K3DI
NY4A W4ZV
-------------------------------
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Tech Support: 301-840-5477
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Order line: 800-783-2666
email: [email protected]
Please visit us on the web:
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Our catalog includes:
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-------------------------------------------
REFERENCE PAGE - Updates please to K3DI - 03/25/01
PVRC OFFICERS:
Pres
N3OC Brian McGinness 301-652-6768 [email protected]
Vice Pres
K4VV Jack Hammett 703-281-1308 [email protected]
Secretary
W2GG Bob Dannals 410-472-2004 [email protected]
Treasurer
WR3L Dave Baugher 410-DX1-WR3L [email protected]
Trustees
K3MM KE3Q N3RR N4ZR W4MYA W4ZYT N4AF K4IQ
PVRC Charter Members:
W3GRF (SK), W4AAV (SK), W4KFC (SK), N0FFZ (SK), W4LUE (SK), W7YS,
VP2VI (W0DX), W3IKN, W4KFT.
PacketCluster Contest/DX System, MHz:
W3LPL Glenwood MD 145.590 441.250
KE3Q Bowie MD 145.570 445.375
WR3L Baltimore MD 145.610 440.950
N3RR Rockville MD 145.510 441.325
K3SKE Frederick MD 144.930 441.125
W3YOZ West River MD 144.910
N1WR Lusby MD 145.690
N4OHE Mt.Weather VA 145.710 446.025
NE3H Harrisburg PA 144.970 *
K3MQH S Mountain PA 145.630
N4SR Woodbridge VA 145.630 *
K4FJ Mt. Vernon VA 145.770 *
W4XP Bull Run Mt " 144.990
This system is sponsored by the Potomac Valley DX Spotting
Network except "*" are independently funded by each SYSOP.
PVRC on Internet.
PVRC web site by N4ZR....:
http://www.pvrc.org
PVRC/NC web site by WW4M
http://pvrcnc.org
PVRC reflector: (editor N4AF)
To post: [email protected]
To join* send email to:
[email protected]
Text: SUBSCRIBE PVRC
*Members only.
If your call is not within your URL,
then send a message to [email protected].
PVRC dues and ARRL renewals: The annual dues are by donation.
PVRC gets a cut from ARRL renewals sent via Dave Baugher, WR3L,
615 Rockway Beach Ave, Baltimore, MD 21221. Dues and renewal
checks should be made to PVRC. Thank you.
Newsletter Editor: Dick Wilder, K3DI, 913 Shore Acres Road,
Arnold, MD 21012-1724. Voice 410-757-6706, FAX 410-757-6720,
DXcluster, and [email protected]. The deadline is around the 20th of
the prior month.
Autocall column editor: Barry Thaysen, K3UG. 6619 Buffalo Rd, Mt
Airy, MD 21771
CENTRAL: The Central Meeting is always the second Monday (except
June, July, and August) at 7:30 pm. The central meeting
generally alternates between MD and VA locations. A pre-meeting
dinner is usually held between 5:00 and 6:30 pm. Check via 147-
repeater.
VA LOCATION: The Patrick Henry (Public) Library, Route 123,
Vienna, VA.
MD LOCATION: Church of the Nativity (Episcopal), Route 5,
Temple Hills, MD. Pre-meeting dinner at Topoleno's Restraunt
about 5:30 or 6:00.
NORTHWEST: Ed Steeble, K3IXD, 410-489-7616(H), [email protected],
Optional dinner about 6:30 and meeting at 7:30 on third Tuesday
of every month at Tully's Grill, 1080 W. Patrick St., Frederick,
MD. Same center as Shoppers Food Warehouse. Talk-in is 147.000
(-) MHz. Essentially includes WVA too.
NORTH CAROLINA: Chair: Guy Olinger, K2AV, [email protected];
Sec: Pete Soper, KS4XG, [email protected], h:919-362-4635,
w:919-460-2991. POC is K2AV and KS4XG. Howie Hoyt, N4AF,
[email protected] is PVRC reflector editor. PVRCNC.ORG by WW4M.
PVRC/NC meets at 6:00 pm the first Thurs of Sept through April at
Ryan's Family Steakhouse at Crossroads in Cary; June at the
Raleigh Hamfest.
TIDEWATER (VA) COLONY OF PVRC: Don Lynch W4ZYT 757-486-0728
[email protected]. Meetings the 3rd Tuesday of every month are
held jointly with the VA DXCC at The Golden Corral corner of
Battlefield Blvd South and Volvo Pkwy in Chesapeake, VA. Easy
access from I-64 at Rte 168 (Battlefield Blvd S) exit. Dinner at
1830 and meeting at 1925.
SOUTHWEST VA CHAPTER: Coordinator: John Mitchell, K4IQ, Catawba,
VA 540-384-7377, [email protected]. Monthly meetings alternate
between Roanoke area locations.
THE BWI REGIONAL/PVRC: Weekly breakfast Wed at 7:30 AM at
Basil's Deli Port on Elkrdige Landing Rd 1/4 mile South of
Winterson Road 410-850-4333. Director: Ike Lawton, W3IKE,
410-263-2830. Secretary: Howard Leake, W6AXX, 410-465-7008,
[email protected]
OVER-THE-HILL LUNCH BUNCH: Rotating hosts announces meeting
info. Ben Shaver, AA4XU, 703-534-4740, [email protected],
MainstreetUSA, Annandale; Host TBA, Holiday Inn, College Park;
and Bill Leavitt, W3AZ, 301-292-5797, Best Western, Oxon Hill
PENNSYLVANIA: Steve Cutshall, K3TZV, [email protected],
717-763-0462.
RAPPAHANNOCK: Steve Bookout, NR4M (ex-NJ4F) [email protected].
Also, Larry Schimelpfenig, K7SV, [email protected]
WOODBRIDGE: Jack O'Mara W4NF, [email protected] H:703-791-3302
W:703-415-0200 x3018 and Cliff Deel W4CE, [email protected]
703-491-0841
CENTRAL VA: Bob Morris, W4MYA 804-457-9011
[email protected]. CVCC/PVRC monthly meetings are held
the 2nd Tuesday at the First Mennonite Church on Staples Mill Rd
at 7:30 PM. Optional 6PM-ish dinner at the Crazy Greek Rest,
Staples Mill Rd. Talk-in is 145.430 MHz.
SOUTHERN MD: Chair: Barry Shapiro, WR3Z. H:301-862-2466
[email protected]. Meetings to be held at the home of
N1WR.
EASTERN-SHORE (DEL-MAR-VA): Dallas Carter, W3PP 302-875-0550
[email protected]
SHENANDOAH: Bill Hinkle KV3R [email protected] 304-567-3138
NORTHEAST: WR3L See treas info.
ANNAPOLIS CREW: K3DI. See editor info.
CARROLL COUNTY GROUP: Jim Nitzberg, WX3B. 410-374-9233
[email protected]
OTHER MEETINGS based on prior year(s):
May. Meeting at Dayton Hamvention
Jun. W3LPL open house & PVRC/FRC joint
meeting at noon on the Saturday before
Field Day, 6/16/01
?? When joint FRC/PVRC is at FRC, they
announce the date.
Jul. PVRC/NC cook out
Jul. Open house, W4MYA, Goochland,
Aug. NCDXA/PVRC Fowlfest at W3YOZ
Sep. PVRC meeting at the FARfest Bowie
Sep. Open house, WR3L, Baltimore
Dec. Christmas dinner, DC area.
5 MILLION (CLUB COMPETITION) AWARD
Month and number of the full week end.
Jan 3 ARRL VHF Sweepstakes
Jan Last CQWW 160m CW
Feb 3 ARRL DX CW
Feb Last CQWW 160m SSB
Mar 1 ARRL DX SSB
Mar Last CQWW WPX SSB
May Last CQWW WPX CW
Sep 2 ARRL VHF QSO Party
Oct Last CQWW DX SSB
Nov 1 ARRL Sweepstakes CW
Nov 3 ARRL Sweepstakes SSB
Nov Last CQWW DX CW
Dec 1 ARRL 160m CW
Dec 2 ARRL 10m Mixed
Standings at: http://www.qsl.net/n4zr
Roster updates at: http://www.pvrc.org/pvrcmm98.htm