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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

 

CQ WW WPX CW Contest (2023)

I was busy keeping people fed and fixing things, so I operated very little.
Because of that, I can't really comment on propagation specifics.
But, I know that it sure would have been nice to have 10 meters be as open as 15 and 20.

K4ZW inducted to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame

CQ Magazine announced on May 20, 2023 the induction of three ham radio operators to the CQ Contest Hall of Fame. One of them is the PVRC member Ken Claerbout. Ken K4ZW is an accomplished contester both domestically and as DX, operating from over a dozen countries around the world. He is a driving force in the ongoing training and mentoring of students at ET3AA...

 

 

Details on Matching the 20 Meter Mult Yagi 6 Elements; 48’ Boom, December 2021

After the antenna model was completed for the 20 meter mult antennas and the first antenna was built, we matched it to 50Ω using a hairpin or beta match. The beta match can be a conventional shunt coil, or in our case a parallel shorted transmission line (or hairpin). The beta match requires the antenna have a series resistance of <50Ω, and a negative, or capacitive, reactance. This can often be achieved by adjusting the length of the driven element; then the shunt inductor transforms it to 50+j0Ω.

20 Meter Mult Stack

This is an attempt to explain the whole story of this antenna from start to finish, so that readers might have a better idea of how it all works together.  Building a high performance antenna system is not about any one thing, but many things, which all have to work correctly. Construction began on the NR4M multi-multi contest station, also known as ‘The Goat Farm’, in the year 2000, and covers an area of 68 acres (24.8 hectares).

ARRL 10-Meter Contest (2021)

Glad that is behind me.
Meteor pings were a bit disconcerting, but are part of the sport. It's amazing
the +/- 50 db, or more, in just an instant!
Was encouraged by the short EU opening on Saturday, only to see it almost non
existent on Sunday.

ARRL 160-Meter Contest (2021)

Got bored and quit early Friday night (local) after 3 1/2 hours.
Saturday night (local) QRN was terrible here, so quit early again.
My heart just wasn't in it this year.
Thanks for all the QSO's

CQ WW DX CW Contest (2021)

It was so nice to have everyone back together again for a Goat Farm M/M. Things were not 100% due to a few surprises, but most things worked very well. The blower in the 160 amp sounded like it had been working in a quarry crushing gravel during the Covid lull. Working on getting another blower installed by the weekend.

ARRL DX Contest, CW (2020)

Glad this one is behind us. Just too much last minute stuff to deal with. Just about dusk on Friday, we discovered that part of the pair of 160 meter phased antennas had come down. One of the top loading wires had broken and was hanging down against the vertical radiator. I wasn't involved with the attempted 'fix-in-the-dark', but I can attest that it wound up a mess. The 160 antenna was mostly un-usable Friday night. More like a remote dummy load than an antenna.

CQ WPX RTTY Contest (2020)

CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2020

Call: NR4M
Operator(s): NR4M
Station: NR4M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FM18 VA
Operating Time (hrs): 3:13

Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80:
40: 58
20: 133
15: 25
10:
------------
Total: 216 Prefixes = 167 Total Score = 110,721

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Thanks for the Q's.

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