QCWA Peach State Chapter 49 January 2008 Newsletter MEETING NOTICE: SATURDAY February 16, 2008 High Noon Good day Ladies and Gents, As all of were out doing antenna work during the "Snow of 2008"... I hope no one fell off of a roof or out of a tree. We all know the best time to do antenna work is during a winter storm. Remember Jeves in QST... I sure miss that cartoon! I could usually put my self in his place in some of his antics. Many of us had saved up winter radio projects to do during the inside time of the year. I hope all projects are going well. Remember when rebuilding using "old parts" i.e. old electrolytics to reform them BEFORE putting them in the circuit an powering up. BANG!!!! Aluminum foil over everything in sight or if they are really old... i.e. liquid electrolytics, you could hear a noise and massive heat before they blew up and went through the wall ( happened to me). That was a lath and plaster wall!! As they say in New York "Such a loud bang"!! It just is not as much fun with the new low voltage high capacacity electrolytics and tantalum caps. Not near as much "stuff" to go around... At least with the new solid-state stuff, we can reach in and not leaveany hide behind with the rapid removal of the appendage... OUCH... YOWEE... !@#$%^!!!! For this months meeting program, I would like each of us to share some war stories on "memorable" happenings in your early radio days. One of mine will be: At 2 AM on a Saturday night, near blizzard conditions outside, over a foot of snow on the ground, temperature near zero there is pounding on the house rear door with someone shouting my name outside my bedroom window...... Jerry Lofstead W3CDE, President December Meeting: We met at Ryan’s for the annual Christmas eyeball QSO and gift exchange. In QCWA Chapter 49 style we kind of called the meeting to order about 12:00 noon. Dave, W4DTR, noted that we as of 12/09/2007 we have $538.22 in the bank. Many of us are up for annual dues renewal. Please recall that last year we voted to make the Chapter 49 membership year run concurrent with the National QCWA dues cycle. So depending on your National dues renewal date expect a renewal note from both Chapter 49 and National QCWA in the same month. With all the excitement of Christmas, we missed the biannual election of officers that will now happen at the February meeting. If you are interested in either the Vice President ‘s or Program Chair positions, please let Jerry W3CDE know. Jerry W3CDE will continue as President, Dave W4DTR will continue as Membership, Frankie W4BJT and Mike K4HBI as Director’s and yours truly as Secretary. In case I have had a senior moment and gotten confused on this you will have a chance to confirm all of this at our meeting. Gifts were exchanged and around 2:00PM the meeting was adjourned. All present had a good time. The schedule for next year (2008) has been circulated via email. Please note we settled on February 16, 2008 for the next meeting. We did include some local hamfests and the 2008 ARRL contests on the calendar. Some hamfests such as Rome, Prater’s Mill and Dallas are missing. We will add them s soon as we get confirmed dates. If you get a confirmed date, please forward it to K4VN@arrl.net for inclusion. A couple of notes on our nets are in order. The Saturday 75 meter net by all reports is doing well. The Wednesday two meter net is running just a tad short for checkins. John K7SYS has volunteered to serve as net control. Please remember to give a shout on 145.410 – at 2000L on Wednesday nights for a good roundtable discussion of whatever is on your mind. A couple of Wednesday’s ago Gus, W2LAP, told some great stories of his early days in ham radio. My personal favorite was the one wherein he recalls “borrowing” on occasion the 2A3’s out of his parent’s console radio to replace the 45’s in his transmitter so he could get just a bit more RF out into the ethers! Can’t you just hear his parents: “Now why doesn’t this radio work?” We would like to expand the newsletter with more stories from our members. There are lots of years of experience in amateur radio represented in the Chapter 49 QCWA membership and we would really like to share those stories around. If you have a story you are willing to share, please pass it along. If you would rather tell the story than write the story, John K7SYS, your erstwhile Chapter 49 secretary, is more than willing to listen and write it down over a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage. One hundred percent accuracy is not a requirement. In fact a little embellishment from time to time makes it all that much more fun and interesting! I took the liberty of increasing the font size as this edition would not fit on one page anyway. If this better meets the needs of more ageing eyes like mine I will continue to use 12-point instead of 10-point type. See you all at the February meeting es 73 John Kludt K7SYS, Secretary QCWA PEACH STATE CHAPTER 49 Web address: www.qcwa49.org 2006-2007 CHAPTER OFFICERS President Jerry Lofstead W3CDE 770-979-5500 w3cde@arrl.net Vice President Open Secretary John Kludt K7SYS 770.891.8091 johnnykludt@earthlink.net Treasurer David Bruse W4DTR 770-623-0149 w4dtr@arrl.net Director Frankie Womack W4BJT 404-767-5382 w4bjt@mindspring.com Mike Swiderski K4HBI 770-449-0369 k4hbi@arrl.net Net Manager Jerry W3CDE using the K4VN Chapter 49 Club Call :Chapter 49 QCWA VHF Net Wednesday 2000 145.410- MHz ( MATPARC repeater) Chapter 49 QCWA HF Net Saturday 0900 3.8575 Mhz. January 2008 Newsletter John Kludt K7SYS Newsletter Editor 11165 Highfield Chase Dr. Duluth, GA 30097 2008 QCWA Consolidated Calendar January 2008 19-20 January VHF Sweepstakes February 2008 16 QCWA Meeting ,www.qcwa49.org 16,17 ARRL International DX Contest (CW) 23 Dalton Hamfest www.w4drc.com March 2008 1,2 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone) 8,9 Charlotte Hamfest www.w4bfb.org 15 Kennehoochee Hamfest www.w4bti.org April 2008 19 QCWA Meeting 25,26 Southeastern VHF Conference Orlando FL www.svhfs.org 26 Calhoun Hamfest May 2008 3 Greenville/Spartanburg Hamfest www.brars.org 16-18 Dayton Hamvention – Fri, Sat, Sun www.hamvention.org June 2008 7 Atlanta Hamfest www.w4doc.org 14,15 ARRL June VHF QSO Party 21 QCWA Meeting 28,29 ARRL Field Day July 2008 12 Gainesville Hamfest www.lanierlandarc.org/ 12,13 IARU HF World Championships 24-27 CSVHFS Conference - Wichita KS www.csvhfs.org August 2008 2,3 ARRL UHF Contest 9 Ellijay Hamfest 16,17 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest 16,17 Huntsville Hamfest www.hamfest.org 23 QCWA Meeting 29-31 Shelby Hamfest www.shelbyhamfest.org September 2008 13,14 Sept VHF QSO Party October 2008 18 QCWA Meeting November 2008 1-3 ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW) 1,2 Stone Mtn Hamfest www.totr-radio.org 15-17 ARRL November Sweepstakes (Phone) December 5-7 ARRL 160 Meter Contest 6 QCWA Meeting - Christmas Party! 13,14 ARRL 10 Meter Contest