QCWA Peach State Chapter 49 January 2004 Newsletter MEETING NOTICE: SATURDAY February 21, 2004 The name of our meeting place restaurant has changed but it is the same building and location! Our next meeting will be at Fire Mountain Restaurant, 7045 Jimmy Carter Blvd. 12 Noon to eat and meeting to begin at 1PM. Directions to Fire Mountain: From I-285 take Peachtree Industrial Blvd (141) North. Stay on Peachtree Industrial for about 3 and a half miles to the Jimmy Carter Blvd exit. Exit off Peachtree Industrial at Jimmy Carter and at the traffic light at the bottom of the exit ramp make a left on to Jimmy Carter . You will go under Peachtree Industrial and get in the right hand lane. Fire Mountain will be about 200 yards up on the right. They have a separate turn-in lane. If you miss the turn-in lane, go to the light and make a right, go till the road ends (drive way into a motel) and turn right, the restaurant will be on the right. Leaving, to get back on to Peachtree Industrial Blvd, it is easier to go out the back way and make a left. Make another left at the motel and this will take you to a traffic light on Jimmy Carter. A left at the light and head towards the right hand lane entrance ramp to Peachtree Industrial Blvd South. 2004 Meeting Schedule: Note new dates and number of meetings A motion was made and passed at the December meeting to increase the number of meetings we have each year. The comment was made that if one missed a meeting it effectively made it SIX months between meetings for them so we have rectified that situation. Here are the QCWA meeting dates for this year so that you can get them on your calendars. Programs will be announced in future Newsletters when Sandy has things scheduled. He has managed to get Croft Taylor, VE3CT, the QCWA National President to come and visit in April on his way home to Canada from the Florida winter hamfest season. 21-Feb Regular Meeting - Fire Mountain - Sandy Donahue W4RU on the ARRL licensing proposal. 03-Apr Regular Meeting - Fire Mountain - Croft Taylor VE3CT, QCWA President will speak. 19-Jun Regular Meeting - Fire Mountain 07-Aug Regular Meeting - Fire Mountain 02-Oct PICNIC Meeting - W3CDE's QTH in Snellville. Directions will be provided. 04-Dec ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY - FIRE MOUNTAIN We were mostly shooting for first Saturdays of the even months, but we also tried to avoid local hamfests and contests that were indicated by the respondents, officers and directors. If anyone would like to host one of these meetings at a different location, just let us know of what arrangements you could make. It is also permissible to schedule a meeting in another location at any time and date that you would like as long as you make arrangements and host the meeting. We will of course publicize any other meetings in the NL. December 6, 2003 Meeting Minutes Our annual Christmas meeting was held on Dec. 6, 2003. We had 8 members, 2 'Friends' and one spouse present. This was our annual gift exchange meeting and biennial election. Officers elected to serve for 2004-5 are: Mike Swiderski K4HBI, President Jerry Lofstead W3CDE, VP Bob Lear K4SZ, Sec/Treas Directors: Frankie Womack W4BJT, Fred Runkle K4KAZ and Sandy Donahue W4RU. The gifts were great as usual and a good time was had by all. The members voted to begin having meetings bi-monthly rather than quarterly and we will attempt to have varied locations to bring meetings closer for other metro area members. Respectfully submitted, Bob Lear K4SZ New Members: New members joining Chapter 49 during the past year are: William Schenkel WA4EGV of Athens Tony Stalnaker WA4LPJ of Thomaston George Clement KE4AK of Powder Springs David Thompson K4JRB of Norcross Bill Wilson KJ4EX of Winder John Elicker N4FAI of Lilburn. Welcome to them all and we hope to meet them in person at the meetings and also that they will join us on the nets. Silent Keys: With sadness we report these SK's for 2003. Inactive members Don Fisher KV4N of Decatur, Mike Branca W3IRZ of Conyers and Ben Adams K4EZ of Cinncinnati. Active member Warren Ford KB4MC of Lithonia and two long time members who held several officer positions with the chapter over the years, Phil Goodman W5YVT of Marietta and Marvin Ollendorf W4HAH of Newborn. Donations to the QCWA Memorial Scholarship Fund have been made by Chapter 49 in their memory. We will miss them all. Ben K4EZwas made a lifetime honorary member of Chapter 49 after he moved away. I did correspond with him after that when he received his 70 year and Century Club QCWA awards, before he became inactive. We had been unable to contact him for the past several years. Ben was also a life member of the Telephone Pioneers and we heard about his death from one of our members who is also in that organization. According to the records I have for QCWA National he and Don Fisher are the last two Chapter 49 members who held Department of Commerce call signs from the 20's. Ben was first licensed as 4EV in 1926 and Don was 2IS in 1925. A note about K4EZ that was in the ARRL letter follows: ARRL Headquarters has learned that former ARRL Southeastern Division Director Ben Adams, K4EZ (ex-W4APU and ex-W4EV), of Cincinnati, Ohio, died November 28, a few days shy of his 95th birthday. While living in Alabama, Adams served as Southeastern Division Director from 1935 until 1940. First licensed as 4EV in 1926, Adams attended Georgia Tech, where he was president of the school's Amateur Radio club. After graduation, he worked for AT&T in a variety of capacities. An ARRL Life Member, Adams in his younger years was a very active DXer, contester and traffic handler. He served three terms as president of the Birmingham Radio Club. Following service in World War II, Adams moved to Decatur, Georgia, and subsequently was named a member of the Southeastern DX Club's DX Hall of Fame. A DXCC Honor Roll member, he had belonged to the ARRL for almost 70 years. In 1995 Adams moved from Georgia into a long-term care facility in Cincinnati.--Some information from Dave Thompson, K4JRB, and Sandy Donahue, W4RU Marvin Ollendorf W4HAH held many offices over the years in Chapter 49, most recently on the Executive Committee in 1997 before he moved from downtown Atlanta to Newborn (East of Covington) out I20. Marvin was a regular even after that on the 2m net because he could get into one of the remote voting receivers when they were up. After those went away, he couldn't get into the 2m net anymore. Marvin also gave a talk at the March 97 meeting about his days at the Powder Springs FCC monitoring station during WWII. We did call to check up on him now and then and also got to see him at the Stone Mountain Hamfest a couple of years ago that he made it to. Marvin had received his 60 year QCWA certificate. We did mention Phil Goodman W5YVT (was also K4FXB) in an earlier issue and his connection with Heathkits and the Heathkit store. We later found out that he was instrumental in starting the Georgia Public Radio network in the mid 80's for which he was well known outside the amateur circle. Phil also had held many positions with Chapter 49 over the years most recently on the Board of directors in 1997 and serving as Secretary/Treasurer the term before that. Phil had just reached the 50 years licensed milestone. We really wish we had more info about some of our members so that we could say more than that they were active or inactive members, but in many cases that's all the info we have. I am planning to send out information forms for those members with no data on file here with the Secretary/Treasurer/NL Editor. Long time members information has either been lost or not passed down the line over the years. We also lost some archive records several years ago with the passing of a member that we didn't find out about until long after his becoming a SK and the archives he held were long gone by then even though we made inquiries with the family and tried to locate the records. So we will try to reconstruct some data on the membership here. Might even give me some NL fodder when I get the scoop on some of you that are hiding out around the area and not being seen or heard from on a regular basis!! Secretary/Treasurer Notes: I agreed to run for Secretary/Treasurer again as no one else stepped forward and it really had to be picked up. I have finally identified new members who have applied and paid and reconstructed the checking account with some help from my contact at our bank, there being no records for the past two years. There is currently $315.07 in the checking account after making the above mentioned memorial donations and depositing dues collected at the December meeting. Chapter 49 is currrently 2 years behind on collecting members dues as no notices had been sent out over this time period. When I complete the project of getting the remaining records together, I will send out the 'dues due' notices for all those members due to renew and those overdue. You will be considered continuous membership when you renew because there was no fault due to the members affected. I will also send out information forms to all those members for whom I have no data, i.e. those from before my time as Secretary/Treasurer, around 1998. Which reminds me, this is now the SEVENTH year that I've been writing this newsletter, so if you think it's getting a little stale, then remember that I've asked for input almost every issue!!!! I have also inherited the e-mail list for sending the NL too and have finally gotten that into my address book on the computer after much checking and entering. After I take care of the dues problems I will also attempt to produce a new printed roster, the last one being the one I did at the beginning of 2002. Be patient! I did send a chapter report to the National QCWA Journal last month. We will have to wait and see if it gets printed. I did get confirmation that it was received, but that never guaranteed publishing in the past. The yearly required report on the membership and activities was also submitted to National as required. 73, Bob K4SZ New address: Mary has finally gone to Tucson to join Bill. They are still looking for a home but have given us their new address and info. Best of luck to them in their new ventures in Arizona. Please use: cell 678 571 5199 and New e-mail W4NZJ@arrl.net Mary Whatley Ahls W4NZJ and Bill Ahls AB0KF PO BOX 23096 Tucson, AZ 85734-3096 QCWA PEACH STATE CHAPTER 49 Web address: www.mindspring.com/~w4gbu/qcwa.htm 2004-2005 CHAPTER OFFICERS President Mike Swiderski K4HBI 770-449-0369 k4hbi@arrl.net VP/ Asst Net Mgr Jerry Lofstead W3CDE 770-979-5500 w3cde@arrl.net Secretary/Treasurer Bob Lear K4SZ 706-864-6229 k4sz@arrl.net Executive Committee: 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 Wayne W9BKJ and Asst NM Jerry W3CDE using the K4VN Chapter 49 Club Call: Chapter 49 QCWA VHF Net Wednesday 2000 145.41- MHz. Chapter 49 QCWA HF Net Saturday 0900 3.8575 Mhz. QCWA CHAPTER 49 JANUARY 2004 NEWSLETTER de K4SZ