Notes from 10/14/2023 Rappahannock PVRC Meeting

Metting was called to order at 10:10.

Under new business, Steve NR4M discussed purchase of "Goat Farm" shirts.

No Old Business

Olympic awards were presented to KA4RRU, NR4M and K7SV.

Meeting was adjourned and we proceeded to go around the room discussing contesting and ham radio in general:

K2PI - Harv recently had a nearby lightning strike causing issues with several SDRs, his shack computer, an LNA and took the USB out on his IC705. He has been working with some locals to establish a meshtastic network. It's non-amateur at 915mhz ISM and has about 30 nodes.

W8KRZ - This is Rich's first meeting. He's interested in DXing, Contesting, and working on old boat anchors, especially R390 receivers. He's building an XCVR to get on 630 meters.

KN4DEB - Arnie is still a working stiff who does a lot of traveling. As such he's gotten into POTA and has put a number of the air this year. He's going to be driving with his son from WA state back home and plans to activate a number of parks as part of that trip. He told the story of being on a bear hunt in ME when one of the guys told him to go into a cave to chase the bear out. Not being familiar with ME humor, he did so. Fortunately he came out alive but the bear didn't!

K2KW - Walt hasn't been very active lately,but he got on for the 19Z CWT last week and plans to get on more from them again. He put up a 10M dipole and has worked some of the good stuff that's been on recently (TO8, T2, W8S, etc).

K4GM - George moved recently and is in the process of getting some new wires in the air. He's got a number of acres available, so he'll be able to get some better antennas up. He's restoring his Drake C-Line.   

K3ZM - Peter has replaced his aging SteppIR at the river site with an SP7GXP tribander with 3 els on 20 and 15 and 5 on 10. He's about to replace his 402CD with a JK rotatable 40M dipole. His river shack computer quit working and his XYL (family engineer) was working to restore that as he attended the meeting. A year ago he finally retired CT logging software in favor of WINTEST.

KE3Q - Rich talked about his wife Amy W3AMY enjoyed working the GOTA station at the W3AO FD operations.He talked about having a discussion with Fred K3ZO about doing a biography of Fred's life with ham radio and Fred was amenable to doing so, but unfortunately, they never got around to doing so. At 71 years of age, Rich is still working from home. He told a story about renting a crane to disassemble some tower. The crane got stuck so he had to rent a bulldozer to remove it. The dozer got stuck so he had to rent a second one. He spoke to his collection of towers and antennas over the years.

N2YO - Chip was visiting his mother in Romania during the NR4M Pigfest, so he missed it this year. During the summer he and his wife visited Westmorland Park where they enjoyed camping and fishing. He worked NAQP CW from home and the YO DX contest from NR4M. He's working with others to establish a 6 meter beacon to study meteor scatter in the eastern half of the US.

KA4RRU - Mike was working the RTTY test this morning. He discovered that his 80M dipole is once again broken. He had a good group at his place doing an M/2 effort in the NAQP RTTY contest.

K4QS - Chuck has been QRL in recent weeks as he has been having his log home rehabbed after a carpenter bee invasion. He's had a problem with a cable in his crank-up tower rubbing one of the vertical members. A solution is at hand. He's been working the recent dxpeds. He has a half sloper on 160 and has worked some of the dxpeds there.

K7SV - Larry did his usual effort in CQP. He had cataract surgery done on both eyes and no longer needs glasses for distant vision, to work the computer or to read.

NR4M - Steve recently purchased a Drake C-Line consol produced by "Mobile Radio". It contains dual digital VFOs, a panadapter, Winkey, Sound Card for RTTY and  other features. The recent Pigfest was a success as much as the weather worked against him. His next antenna project will be to erect a rotating 120ft tower to support new run station yagis for 15. He's looking at something similar for 10 once that's done. He's having a problem with the new 150ft rotating tower for 20 not rotating in one direction. Steve had 21 ops for the most recent WPX CW and depending on how log checking goes, may have set a new NA record for that contest M/M. Next contest for the Goat Farm appears to be CQWWCW.

Meeting was adjourned so attendees might enjoy pulled pork, brats and burgers.

73 de Lar K7SV