QCWA Peach State Chapter 49 April 2006 Newsletter MEETING NOTICE: SATURDAY April 15, 2006 High Noon Our next meeting will be at our usual location, Fire Mountain Restaurant, Norcross. The restaurant is just west of Peachtree Industrial (141) on Jimmy Carter Blvd (140). Meeting Minutes February 18, 2005 1300 hours - Mike (K4HBI) called the meeting to order. - Introductions. - Announcements - Morris Johnson (KB4IT) passed away at 4:10 AM Thursday morning, Jan. 12. - Frankie's (W4BJT) half brother passed away Feb 8 in TX. - Program - Sandy (W4RU) introduced - Mike Boatright (KO4WX) who gave a presentation on QRP/EMCOMM - Reports: - Mike - President - - Frankie on 145.41 rptr Meeting schedule change to 2/18, 4/15, 6/17, 8/26, 10/7, 12/9. - Jerry - Vice President, Net Manager - not present. - David - Secretary/Treasurer. - Directors: Frankie, Sandy, Fred. - Historian - Doug. - Program Manager - Sandy, W4RU and ARRL SE Div Vice Director. - ARRL - Susan as Section Manager. - Newsletter Editor/Journal Editor. - Meeting Minutes approved by vote as published in newsletter. - Old Business: Secretary/Treasurer - Transition from Bob to David - New Business: - Motion was made, seconded, and passed by the membership to get the domain www.qcwa49.org and forward it to Guy's website. - Motion was made, seconded, and passed by the membership to create a QCWA Chapter 49 Yahoo group. - Motion was made, seconded, and passed by the membership distribute a printed roster to the members. - Mike (K4HBI) solicited suggestions for who/where for the picnic meeting. - Mike (K4HBI) entertained a motion to close the meeting and reminded everyone that the April 15 meeting would be at the Fire Mountain Restaurant. Respectfully submitted, David Bruse W4DTR ------------------------------------------------ "Presidential Pontification" (or Da President Yaps!!!) The February QCWA meeting was definitely a good time with fun and fellowship, and an excellent program by Mike Boatright, KO4WX on QRP and EMCOMM. The meeting was held at, Fire Mountain restaurant on Jimmy Carter Blvd, but in our new meeting room near the front door. Our next meeting is April 15 at Fire Mountain Restaurant, 12 Noon to eat and meeting to begin at 1PM. We will be meeting in the bigger room at the back of the restaurant, as we figure on a large number of folks wanting to see the program arranged by Sandy, W4RU, Program Manager. Sandy wrote about the up coming program: "Bob Allphin and George Nicholson are back from Peter I. I asked Bob about the April 15 Chapter meeting and he said he is out of town that day but recommended George. George Nicholson, N4GRN, has accepted the invitation."..."George has been licensed only 4 years, I am surprised to learn, but tells me has certainly learned a lot about operating in such a remote location with hostile climes for a seemingly infinite length of time." QCWA Chapter 49 made a contribution to this DX expedition and I know a number of our members worked them, so lets all come and hear what it was like on the "island" and the adventures of getting there and back home. The QCWA Chapter 49 Picnic date has not been determined from the remaining scheduled meetings; June 17, August 26, October 7, December 9 (Christmas Party). Nor have there been any suggestions as to where and to who to descend upon. Please provide any of the Officers or Directors with input or suggestions. Last meeting, David, W4DTR, made a couple of suggestions that were discussed and approved. First suggestion was: "What do you think of the idea of starting a Yahoo group for QCWA Chapter 49 with an email reflector? I could set one up and it's free". The second suggestion was " I noticed that QCWA [National web page] has links to each club's website and the link to ours is directly to Guy's website. I suggest that this should be changed to http://www.qcwa49.org." Dave is always thinking of improvements to make life easier on us folks, Thanks David, our Secretary/Treasurer. Results of first suggestion: Thanks to Norm, WA4ZXV, and David, W4DTR, the Chapter 49 Yahoo group is a reality and operational. The Yahoo group has a lot of possibilities, any member who signs on can communicate with all the other signed in Chapter 49 members for info distribution, swap, sell, etc. The group has already been used to formulate Dayton plans for some members and here is your invite to join the QCWAChapter49 at Yahoo! Groups. To learn more about the QCWAChapter49 group, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QCWAChapter49. To start sending messages to members of this group, simply sign on and send email to QCWAChapter49@yahoogroups.com. Join this group! Results of second suggestion: Actually this resulted in two separate changes, Thanks to David, W4DTR, and John Burningham W2XAB (JohnBurningham@mail.clayton.edu) from the club created the domain name for our QCWA club (www.qcwa49.org) and pointed it at our current Chapter 49 webpage hosted by our own Guy, W4GBU, (http://w4gbu.home.mindspring.com/qcwa.htm) at no cost to us. Please thank John the next time you see him. What does this mean, instead of trying to remember Guy's long address all you have to remember is www.qcwa49.org to go to the site. Also the QCWA National Webmaster, Bob, N0UF, has changed National pointer to www.qcwa49.org (http://www.qcwa49.org) per David's direction. Special thank you to Frankie, W4BJT, and his MATPARC friends for repair of the 145.41- metro area repeater used by Chapter 49 members for our weekly Wednesday night net at 8 PM local. So please dust off the VHF gear and join us. Also remember to check in with the Saturday 9 AM Chapter 49 net on 3857.5 MHz. Jerry, W3CDE, has been doing a great job as Net Manager on both these nets. As you read in the last newsletter we had elections recently and we have a new Secretary / Treasurer, David, W4DTR. Dave was not aware of how much work would be involved, and I will let his own words describe the situation. "Again, I volunteered to do both positions and I will do them to the best of my ability for the length of my 2 year term. I just didn't realize the amount of work that this entailed, feel like I am in over my head, and felt the need to call for help before I drown. I am a math person and I feel I could handle the treasury position. However, I am not a writer and in looking over my "minutes" from our meeting I feel very discouraged about being secretary." Indeed that Chapter position has the most work involved, and again I will let Dave's words clarify. "I have finally had some time to sort through the active files (not the box with the historical files) and sorted them into 4 separate job functions: 1. Secretary, 2. Awards Manager, 3. Treasurer, 4. Membership Manager." So in light of this and the constraints of real world life, By-Law changes have been proposed to the Officers and Directors and awaiting response. If you would like to help, like volunteering to be Awards Manager, or Secretary, please let us know. Shared work is a lot lighter. Great seeing our QCWA members at the local hamfests, next is Calhoun on April 29th, Byron on May 13th, and something called Dayton around May 20. Please keep the members of the QCWA Chapter 49 family in your thoughts and prayers. See you all soon, VY 73 Mike Swiderski, K4HBI ------------------------------------------------------------ VP and NET NOTES Good day all ye old timers... Hope you had a great day and week. Things are going along SUPER GREAT on the 2 meter net and the 75M nets!!! Lots of participation and having lots of fun! At long last thanks to Frankie W4BJT, we are back in full swing on the 2M FM net. The Wednesday evening nets have been running almost an hour and covering all kinds of subjects.. We are hearing from old friends and some new voices. A few of us have been able to talk the repeater down and get the "Gold Star" for the evening. No more "instant timeouts" any more. The repeater sounds great and has a whopper of a signal. Things are in the works to get a new controller on the machine as soon as the folks can get it programmed. On the 75 M Saturday net, it is also running about an hour long. Please com join us, jump in "the water is fine"!!! Other than that, things are going along swell. Spring is in the process of arriving!!! YEAH... I am impatiently looking forward to having some slightly warmer weather, but not summer time yet. I am still in the process of redoing my HF antennas and signals should be a little better. It sure is great to have a wife who will help you put up antennas in trees!!!! Thanks Ann. Everybody have a great spring and Easter from the W3CDE household to all of yours. 73 Jerry W3CDE, VP & Net Manager ---------------------------------------------- QCWA PEACH STATE CHAPTER 49 Web address: www.qcwa49.org 2006-2007 CHAPTER OFFICERS President Mike Swiderski K4HBI 770-449-0369 k4hbi@arrl.net VP/ Net Mgr Jerry Lofstead W3CDE 770-979-5500 w3cde@arrl.net Sec/Treas David Bruse W4DTR 770-623-0149 w4dtr@arrl.net Exec Comm: Fred Runkle K4KAZ 770-945-6326 runkle@charter.net Frankie Womack W4BJT 404-767-5382 w4bjt@mindspring.com Sandy Donahue W4RU 404-315-1443 w4ru@arrl.org NetManager Jerry W3CDE using the K4VN Chapter 49 Club Call: Chapter 49 QCWA VHF Net Wednesday 2000 145.410- MHz (MATPARC RPTR) Chapter 49 QCWA HF Net Saturday 0900 3.8575 Mhz. April 2006 Newsletter Bob Lear K4SZ Newsletter Editor PO Box 1269 Dahlonega, GA 30533