PVRC NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 1996
From [email protected] Jan 31 17:35:13 1996
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 10:19:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Richard Wilder - K3DI
To: Steve K3SA Affens
Subject: FEBRUARY 1996 NEWSLETTER
PVRC NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 1996
OFFICERS
PRESIDENT KE3Q RICH BOYD (301) 464-8014
VICE PRES KF3P TYLER STEWART (301) 414-5444
SECRETARY WA3WJD BRIAN McGINNESS (301) 652-6768
TREASURER N3KTV JIM HORTON (301) 258-9731
HISTORIAN K3SA STEVE AFFENS (301) 774-0558
PVRC Charter Members:
W3GRF (SK), W3IKN, W4AAV (SK), W4KFC (SK), W4KFT, N0FFZ, W4LUE,
W7YS, VP2VI (W0DX).
PacketCluster Contest/DX System (MHz):
K3NA Frederick MD 145.630
W3LPL Glenwood MD 145.590 441.250
KE3Q Bowie MD 145.570 445.375
N3RR Rockville MD 145.510 441.325
N4OHE Mt.Weather VA 145.710 440.925
N4SR Woodbridge VA 145.530 *
WR3L Baltimore MD 145.610 **
K4FJ Mt. Vernon VA 145.770 *
* These nodes are separately operated and funded by the
Rappahannock DX Packetcluster Group. The others listed are
sponsored by the Potomac Valley DX Spotting Network.
** WR3L is down temporally while the rigs are being used as a
link between PVRC and FRC.
PVRC on Internet:
Visit the PVRC Home Page, courtesy of K3SA, at:
http://www.access.digex.net/~k3sa/pvrc.html
Dues are by donation; the mandatory $10 dues have been
discontinued. So please send your donation - hopefully at least
$10 - to Jim, N3KTV, 8527 Calypso Lane, Gaithersburg, MD 20879-
1522. Make checks payable to PVRC. Thank you.
Newsletter Editor:
Dick Wilder, K3DI, 913 Shore Acres Rd, Arnold, MD 21012-1724.
The communication ports are: (410) 757-6706, FAX/modem 757-6720,
[email protected], and the DXcluster. The deadline for the March
issue if February 26.
February 12th is the next central meeting. It will be at The
Church of the Nativity (Episcopal), Route 5, Temple Hills, MD at
7:30 PM. Arrive between 5:00 and 6:30 PM and enjoy an Italian
dinner buffet (about $10) at nearby Topolino's on Old Branch Ave
about 1/4 mile south of Allentown Rd. Typically 20 PVRC'ers will
be there and you can hear how to improve you chance on winning
your next contest. The program snowed out last month is planned
again which is to view K3SA's "To Win the World;" a TV piece on
the K2GL/K2AA M/M station. It was shown about 10 years ago by
WA8MAZ/WZ3Q/4 but most would like to see it again.
Directions to the meeting:
Take the Capital Beltway to Exit 7-A. Head south on Maryland
Route 5 (Branch Avenue) toward Waldorf. Immediately after
entering Branch Avenue you will come to a stoplight, which is
Manchester Drive. Turn right on Manchester Drive. In the middle
of the block on the left hand side, you will notice the Church of
the Nativity sign next to the church entrance. Go up the drive
to the top and park in the church's parking lot.
The PVRC Exchange by Ed Steeble, K3IXD
PVRC name badges can be ordered at anytime. To order a badge
provide your call sign, your name as it is to appear on the
badge, and $5 (or $6 if you want it mailed to you instead of
picking it up at a club meeting). Mail a check (payable to Brian
McGuinness) to WA3WJD, Brian McGuinness, 4618 DeRussey Pkwy,
Chevy Chase, MD 20815.
AA3HM, Craig, has distributed the QSL cards. If I remember
correctly, the total order was for 27,000 cards this time. He
plans to take orders again in fall, 1996. If you run out before
then just order enough to tide you over. The club makes a dollar
or two on each order. These profits fund the club.
The PVRC coffee mugs order is progressing on schedule. I have
reviewed the proofs for the call signs and the fonts. If all
goes well, the mugs should arrive in early February and for those
who prepaid shipping, mailed out shortly thereafter. I expect to
have them at the February central meeting and the NW regional
meeting too.
The club will have a few logo mugs for sale, without a call sign.
These are $15 each or $11 if picked up at a meeting. Contact
K3IXD if interested.
After receiving no comments or suggestion about T-shirts, golf
shirts, and/or hats, I won't be doing an order for a while.
PVRC OVER-THE-HILL GROUP:
The OTH group met at the Oxon Hill Ramada at noon on January
24th. Those in attendance were AA4XU, W3XE, W3GN, W3CPB, KC3AG,
K3ZO, W3EDZ, and W3AZ. Time was spend on telling old war stories
about Amateur Radio and AM Broadcast Communications.
DC Regional Report by Eric Rosenberg, WD3Q
Work is progressing slowly to identify interested or active
contesters who actually live in DC. The Amateur Service Census
(as reported by W5YI) as of 12/1/95 lists the
Extra/Advanced/General population at 408, but many of them are
just mail drops! We are starting in NW DC, and trying to
identify reciprocal licensees too (the German Embassy is the
given address for over 40 valid reciprocal licensees). With our
most well-known DC contester (WF3J) defecting to the Virginia
suburbs, our numbers are not great. The following stations were
heard during the CQWW and ARRL 10 meter contests: WF3Q, KA3WPT,
WA3BDS, W4KM, and WD3Q. None of us have much real estate for
antennas, nor apparently lots of time to operate. It looks as if
the DC representation will be via low antennas and low power!
One personal goal is to make DC a multiplier for more contests.
At the moment, we're unique only for the 10 meter contest and the
ARRL DX contest. Any help in that effort is appreciated! See
you on the bands!
NW Regional Minutes January 16, 1996
by Tyler Stewart, KF3P
The January NW Regional PVRC meeting was called to order by KF3P,
Tyler, at Legends Restaurant in the Hampton Inn at the
intersection of I-270 and Rt 85 in Frederick, MD at 8:00 PM. In
attendance were members: K3SKE, K3LYW, K3YGU, W3GHR, K3MQH,
WB2BZR, AA3HM, W8BOZ, W9LT, K3IXD, N5OKR, K3SME, WB3ECU, KF3P,
and guests: WC4Q, N3AHA, and N3KKM.
There was no December NW regional meeting, however there was a
special meeting known only as the "BeeZeR Xmas Dinner" held at
Sylvia's Restaurant in Rockville, MD. Noted was the special
effort made by a couple of club members to sell enough PVRC mugs
to make the minimum order!
During brief introductions, we met guests Richard David, WC4Q,
and Ace Jansen, N3AHA. Ace has guest op'ed at several fine
stations around the country but not since becoming a father in
January of 1994. He's looking for stations to operate in the
ARRL DX contests and will become a PVRC member at his next
meeting.
Bill All, N3KKM submitted is application for new membership at
this, his second meeting. Bill has been especially active both
as a VHF rover and HF mobile in many contests. After being
dismissed from the room, his application was unanimously
approved.
K3IXD has placed the order for the PVRC mugs and there will be a
few standard ones available for purchase when they arrive.
There was a brief rundown of scores/performances from the recent
10 meter, NAQP CW, and RTTY Roundup contests. Among the upcoming
contests, it was noted that the ARRL VHF SS contest has club
competition and that the Unlimited Multi crew at K1RZ as well as
K3MQH's Limited Multi, several rovers, including ND3F, ND3A,
N3KKM, and WA3WJD, in addition to many single op. efforts would
make for a very competitive score from PVRC...quite possibly the
winner! All are reminded to please send in your VHF logs marked
for Potomac Valley Radio Club.
KF3P mentioned that a couple of members have expressed interest
in a presentation on 2-radio single-op contesting. He will work
on putting together a program for a future regular meeting on
this subject.
As usual, K3LYW, moved to adjourn, it was seconded, and passed.
The BeeZeR Xmas Dinner by Tyler, KF3P
The "BeeZeR Christmas Dinner" at Sylvia's Restaurant, Rockville,
MD. A special meeting of PVRCers and friends - December 20, 1995
In attendance were members: KF3P, ND3A, WR3Z, W3GHR, K3IXD,
W3EKT, W3LPL, W3GN, N3UN, W3ZZ, W3GNQ, K3SKE, YY2G (AKA K3LYW),
W3AZD, WB3ANE, W3UJ, KE3Q, K3SME, N3RR, guests: K3GEG, W3RPQ, and
N3JFV, & many family members.
A record number of PVRC mugs were sold and a good time was had by
all!
NEWS BRIEFS
Bernie, WR3E, is collecting PVRC QSL cards, He needs a QSO and
cards from AA4KD, KE3KL, KH2T, KP2/K3SKE, KT4W, W4JVN, WA3TAI,
WA6GVC, and WD3Q to cards from all who have new PVRC cards. He
also would like to work anyone who may have some of the old PVRC
QSLS.
Marv, WG4Q/VK1CA may be the most distant PVRC member. He is with
the US Air Force in Canberra, Australia. Marv and his XYL
Carole, WH6GV/VK1CF are having fun flying all over Australia on
Royal Australian Air Force C-130s. Not exactly luxury, but free!
Marv can often be heard on CW at the bottom of the 40 and 30
meter bands. BTW, he likes the no dues idea so he sent in a nice
"donation." Marv is at: [email protected]
The league board of directors have voted to accept Scarborough
Reef (BS7) as a new DXCC country for QSOs made on, or after, 1
January 1995. The 1994 DXpedition was not "land based." The
DXCC desk will accept cards starting 1 April 1996.
I will be ZF2OP in the ARRL CW contest using QRP and wires.
W5ASP plans as operating from ZF1A as ZF2NE as a high-power
monoband 20 meters. If ZF is rare on other bands, I will be glad
to move for PVRC m/m and m/s stations. If interested, please
message me via packet before the 12th. BTW, I accept all QSL
request, even via the DXcluster and Internet. K3DI
1996 YOUNG HAM OF THE YEAR AWARD
The nominating period for 1996 "Young Ham of the Year Award" is
now open. Originally known as the "Westlink Report Young Ham of
the Year," this award program, now entering its second decade, is
presented annually to a United States licensed Radio Amateur
(Ham) who is 18 years of age or younger and who has provided
outstanding service to the nation, his community or the
betterment of the state of the art in communications through the
Amateur Radio hobby/service.
All nominations must be submitted before June 30th on an official
application. Application forms are available for a self
addressed stamped envelope mailed to the 1995 Young Ham of the
Year Award, Newsline, 28197 Robin Ave, Saugus, CA 91350. Forms
are also available from sites that carry Newsline material. The
reward will be presented at the Huntsville Hamfest.
Edited from a press release from: Scotty Neustadter,
N4PYD , Huntsville Hamfest Chairman
DJ8RR SK
From a message from DJ2YA to DXNEWS@ WW, we learned of the
passing of Dr. Karl Colling, DJ8RR, on 13 January at the age of
75. Karl's heart finally failed after his by-pass operation of a
few years ago. Karl, a retired veterinarian, was an avid Ham
radio operator, DX'er, and contester.
My XYL, Martha, N3FZB, and I had the pleasure visiting in his
home south of Bonn in May 1995 for breakfast the morning
following his 75th birthday party. Karl and his wife Ursel were
gracious hosts. As we were introduced and seated, Karl asked the
three other couples to please honor his American guests by
speaking English. I thanked him but we did not wish to impose
and suggested they continue speaking German. We were glad that
we were seated next to Uli, DJ2YA, who is an English instructor
and active contester (13 entries in my log).
After breakfast, Karl led Martha and me to his shack. He was
enthusiastic about Ham radio and seemed to be enthusiastic about
everything he did. He proudly showed us a picture of a son of a
close friend being decorated by Adolph Hitler. He spoke of the
grand things that Hitler did for Germany, though he did volunteer
that he thought Hitler was "a bit crazy" when it came to the
Jews. With a similar enthusiasm he spoke of his love for the
United States and of his many friends in the 45 states that he
has visited. He said that he always looked forward to having
American visitors in his home. It is sad to see one who was so
enthusiastic about life to pass from us. Dick Wilder, K3DI
Notes from the Editor
I look forward to working with the PVRC regional chairmen and
making the Newsletter available to publicize regional activities.
As noted on the cover page, there are several ways to send
articles. I am semi-retired so you will find me home during what
some folks call working hours. The word processor is WP 5.1 for
DOS.
The deadline for submittal of material will be 14 days before the
monthly central meeting which is normally held on the second
Monday of the Month. This schedule includes about 3 days of
slack to allow for glitches and still get it in the mail several
days before the meeting. After the final edit, ND3F, N3KTV, and
WA3WJD handle the complex tasks of advertising, upcoming
contests, reproduction, assembly, labels, and mailing. K3DI
_______________________________________________________________
SEC REGRESSION MODEL PREDICTED SMOOTHED SUNSPOT NUMBER
Based on Dec. 1995 Observed Data
[Only room for part of this 11-yr table.]
---------------------------------------------------------------
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
---------------------------------------------------------------
'96 11 10 9 6 6 6 7 7 8 9 10 11
(7) (8) (9) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Top line is predicted value, second line (in parenthesis) is
confidence limit. Prepared by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA,
Space Environment Center Jan 9, 1996.
FREE SOFTWARE TO NEW CONTESTERS: I will send a shareware copy of
CT 6.26 (with a current CTY file edited to the CT6 format) to new
contesters. To get this free copy, you must be a member of PVRC
and request it via a DXcluster message from your packet station.
CT 6.26 works fine on an old 8088 or 286! Get going a minimal
cost. Once you automate contesting, you will never go back to
the pencil. Please specify 360K, 1.2M, 720K, or 1.4M disk.
de K3DI
CT-USER: Frequently Asked Questions
Last revised: 8 January 1996
What is CT-USER?
[email protected] is an electronic mail reflector for
discussions relating to the CT contest logging software and DVP
(Digital Voice Processor) by Ken Wolff, K1EA. This is the place
to ask questions, report bugs and suggest new features. In
addition, updates to CT are often announced here, as are updates
to the country lists ("CTY" files). Ken himself even reads these
messages, and might just reply to you once in a while. This list
was started to off-load some of the CT-specific traffic from the
[email protected] reflector run by Trey Garlough, WN4KKN.
Each message you send to will be sent out to all the other subscribers.
Therefore, it's important to think about what you're going to
say, and how you're going to say it, before you send the message.
Also remember that many subscribers receive their E-mail through
commercial services such as CompuServe and MCImail. In essence,
many people are paying for each byte of every message sent to
CT-USER. So please follow the following simple rules:
* Sign EVERY message you send with your NAME, CALLSIGN, and
E-mail address! Many people do not see all the mail headers, so
they can not determine who sent the message.
* Make sure every byte of your message adds value to the
reflector! Don't quote an entire message, only to add "I agree"
to the end.
* If you want to reply to the original sender only, PLEASE
make sure to remove the mailing list address from your mail
header! Otherwise everyone on the list will see your private
comment.
How do I join (subscribe to) CT-USER?
Simply send a message to [email protected] with the
following text in the BODY of the mail message:
subscribe
A better way, however, is to include your name and callsign in
the message to ct-user-request, for example:
subscribe [email protected] (Jim Reisert AD1C)
This can also be helpful if you want your mailing address to be
different than your usual REPLY address. For example, if you log
into multiple workstations that are all in the same domain.
How do I leave (unsubscribe from) CT-USER?
Send a message to [email protected] with the
following text in the BODY of the mail message:
unsubscribe
If you subscribed with an address that was different than your
usual REPLY address, you will have to include that address in the
request, for example:
unsubscribe [email protected] (Jim Reisert AD1C)
Please do not send "SUBSCRIBE" or "UNSUBSCRIBE" requests to
CT-USER! They will be returned to you anyway.
Please note that there is no SET NOMAIL command for the list
manager. If you want to temporarily stop mail, you MUST
unsubscribe, and then re-subscribe when you return.
How do I read old messages sent to the reflector?
All messages sent to the reflector are archived. If you have a
World Wide Web browser, point to:
http://ve7tcp.ampr.org/Lists/INDEX/ct-user/
The mailing list archives can also be obtained through anonymous
FTP:
ftp://ve7tcp.ampr.org/mailing-lists/archives/ct-user/
Finally, you can send a message to
[email protected] with the following text in the
BODY of the mail message:
index
The mailing list archives are in the archives subdirectory and
have file names like ct-user.YYMM where YYMM is the year and
month of the archive. You can then send a message to
[email protected] to download them, for example by
putting:
get archives/ct-user.9512
in the BODY of the mail message. The example above would get all
the messages from December, 1995.
How do I obtain CT?
CT Version 9 was released at the 1994 Dayton Hamvention. It is
available from K1EA Software:
K1EA Software
A Division of Harvard Radio, Inc.
2 Mount Royal Avenue
Marlborough, MA 01752-1935
Orders: 508-779-5054 FAX: 508-460-4099
Support: 508-460-8873 BBS: 508-460-8877
The current version of CT is 9.27 as of November 20, 1995.
Updates to the CT software are available only via the telephone
BBS. There is presently no way to get updates via the Internet.
CT Version 8.53 was the last to support 8086/80286 PCs. You can
still order this version from K1EA Software. CT Version 9 runs
only on PCs using an 80386 or better.
A very old version of CT 6.26 is available by anonymous FTP from:
ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/msdos/hamradio/ct626.zip
Note that this version is several years old, has very little in
the way of documentation, and there is NO support from K1EA.
How can I receive updates for the country (CTY) files?
The country files for CT Version 8 (ARRL.CTY, CQWW.CTY and
IARU.CTY) and CT Version 9 (CTY.DAT) are updated regularly by Jim
Reisert, AD1C, usually starting a month before each major contest
(CQWW, ARRL DX, WPX, IARU, WAE). The updated files are announced
on the reflector and are posted on the CT BBS (508-460-8877) and
the DX BBS (502-898-8864). You can always obtain the latest files
by sending a message to [email protected]. Here is
a sample message:
GET cty.dat
GET arrl.cty
GET history.cty
These commands go in the BODY of the mail message. You can
include as many lines as you wish. Note that file names must be
in lower case.
The files are also available on the Internet via anonymous FTP
from:
ftp://ve7tcp.ampr.org/software/ct/cty.zip
John Zapisek, K2MM also has an FTP site where he keeps CT-related
files, including the CTY files:
ftp://maspar.maspar.com/pub/k2mm/ct-files/
Finally, users who download CT updates from the CT BBS will
automatically receive the latest CTY files posted there.
How do I receive updates for MASTER.DTA?
MASTER.DTA is a list of known-good callsigns that CT can look up
using Super Check Partial. This file is maintained by Scott
Jones, WR3G. Please send your .BIN files to his callbook address!
He uploads the latest master file to the CT BBS.
Ed Parsons, K1TR has created a similar database of callsigns
found in VHF contests.
The following master callsign databases are currently available
from anonymous ftp to
ftp://ve7tcp.ampr.org/software/ct.
masall.exe November 17, 1994
masusve.zip February 11, 1995
masnous.zip February 11, 1995
masvhf.zip April 4, 1995
There are also a couple of files (mas_tool.exe and mas_k2mm.exe)
for creating and managing your own MASTER.DTA files. You can
obtain from the file server, K2MM's FTP site and the CT BBS.
How do I obtain other CT-related files?
The mailing list server also contains a repository of CT-related
files. You can obtain a list of available files by sending
message to [email protected] with the following
text in the body of the message:
index
This E-mail file repository only includes the ASCII .CTY and .DAT
files, the release notes for version 8 and version 9, and some
text files associated with CT. It does NOT contain the actual CT
program itself, or any binary files. Binary files can only be
obtained by anonymous FTP to ftp://ve7tcp.ampr.org/software/ct/
How can I find out about more about CT, the DVP, CT
Secrets,
etc.?
There is now a WWW home page for CT that has this information and
more:
http://ve7tcp.ampr.org/Software/ct/
From Internet from:
Jim Reisert AD1C
CT is (c) K1EA Software,
a division of Harvard Radio.
Jim Reisert
http://ve7tcp.ampr.org/~reisert/