QCWA Peach State Chapter 49 August/September 2008 Newsletter MEETING NOTICE: SATURDAY October 25, 2008 High Noon, Ryan’s Family Steakhouse, Norcross, Georgia Good Day all, I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and ready for the fall season. They call it Fall because the leaves fall off the trees and it becomes "Antenna Weather". As the winter approaches rapidly here in the South, our thoughts turn to other things than getting a sun burn and vacations. Hopefully, it turns to RADIO operating and SUN SPOTS!! Yep, REAL sun spots. “ I done seed dem wid my own I’’s.” (On the web at least.) Those which we have received did some good and some bad things with propagation. Some bands opened up for DX and others you could not talk to your neighbor. Hopefully by this time next fall, we should see the beginnings of a great sun spot cycle. Remember 3 years up and 5 years on the decline. This leaves 2 years for bouncing along the top or the bottom of the cycle…. Prognosticators have said this will be the best since the 1950’s cycle. It was great then. I would work Australia before going to school on 75 meters with 25 watts of AM and a long wire made of #26 wire from a transformer. Em was the days! As Edith would say. I chirped along on 20 M CW with my Meisner EX Signal Shifter, and take out a few TV’s at the same time. Ah to be a teenager again… Well, maybe that would not be so good after all. On a brighter spot, this month at the meeting we will discover “Hollow State Radio” again after “Solid State Radio” last meeting. This should bring back some fond memories of getting burnt with RF, having shocking experience and disturbing the whole neighborhood… 8-) at Prime TV Time, when the DX was great! Hopefully you can make it and if you can not, You can be there in spirit of some old radio waves still floating around somewhere. Save your appetite and bring yourself to the same ole place at the same ole time, noon… C U There. 73, Jerry Lofstead W3CDE August Meeting: There are no formal business minutes as this was the annual summer picnic. We met at QTH of Mack McCormick, WB4MAK. The weather was nice, the discussion friendly and interesting and the food was great. The WB4MAK shack was pretty impressive with “lot’s of radios” all put together as advertised with a common microphone and key. Mack also has a pretty impressive almost “invisible” antenna farm. We did go over the finances of Chapter 49 and they look good. As we approach the end of the year, it is time to think about programs for next year. As your “program chairman by default” I am looking for presentations that would be interesting to our membership. If you would like to give a program or if you know of a program that you’d like to hear, please get the details to me (k7sys@arrl.net). Programs are needed for February, April, June, and October. August is the picnic and December is the Holiday Party and we have not traditionally had programs for those meetings. Upcoming programs: October 25, 2008 (Ryan’s) – “Old Rigs I Have Known” Tom Koch W4UOC December 6, 2008 (Ryan’s) – QCWA Christmas Party 73’s and BCNU 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 Doug Foos KT4XF bogeyman10@netzero.net Secretary John Kludt K7SYS 770.891.8091 k7sys@arrl.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 HF Net Saturday 0900 3.8575 Mhz. AUG/SEP 2008 Newsletter John Kludt K7SYS Newsletter Editor 11165 Highfield Chase Dr. Duluth, GA 30097