| NAQCC News |
| May 4, 2013 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #179 | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
In this issue: 1. May Sprint 1a. April Sprint Results 2. April Challenge Results 2a. Current Challenge 2b. June Challenge 3. General Club News 4. Chapter News 5. NAQCC QRS Nets 6. CW Assistance Project 7. CW Cartoon of the Month 8. Recent Awards Issued 9. Member Spotlight 10. News Items and Articles by Our Members |
| 1. MAY SPRINT: - Last May we had one of only two sprints with under 100 logs submitted in the past three years. That was due to many members heading off to the Dayton Hamfest. So this year to avoid that, we are having our May sprint the week before Dayton as we hope to continue our long run of 100+ logs sprints to show the ham radio world CW is alive and well - and actually growing. That means our May sprint will be on a second Wednesday instead of a third Wednesday. To not drag out the explanation further, our May sprint is Wednesday, May 8 Local Time which means Thursday, May 9 from 0030 to 0230Z. Hope to hear you there (and work you). We're starting something different or actually just changing something this month. There will no longer be any GOLDEN LOGS. Instead there will be SILVER LOGS. It had just become too much work keeping track of every little tidbit that determined what was and wasn't a GOLDEN LOG. Plus it was hard to determine just when someone copied something wrong vs. when someone sent some wrong info. A SILVER LOG now is simply one that is submitted in exactly the required format - period. That is basically a log that has each of the eight items in each log entry in the correct format. Some examples that will disqualify a log from being SILVER are: Putting colons in the times, failing to indicate with a hyphen when a multiplier is not a new one, not including all eight items in each entry or having them in the wrong order, and so on. Don't worry; there will still be complete cross-checking of logs with any necessary scoring changes made as a result of the cross-checking. Incidentally, one member thought that other contests do not do cross-checking. I want to re-assure you that is not correct. There are many contests that do computerized cross-checking of logs just as we do. There are a couple differences though. They strictly penalize not-in-log QSOs by taking away not only the not-in-log QSO, but additional QSOs and/or points as well with no recourse for appeal as we have. And of course we don't penalize anyone beyond simply removing the not-in-log QSO and its multiplier if necessary. Also other contests send out complete reports on each and every possible error to everyone who submits a log. If you would like to see my report from the 2012 CQWW DX Contest as an example, click here. Note particularly that the judges decision is final, and the 3.5% reduction in score mainly because I had a not-in-log QSO. There will also be a couple other changes in our sprints coming up in the next month or two. However the bottom line as always is our sprints exist for our members to have fun with making big scores de-emphasized. As we always add, please read all the info in the Contests/Sprints section of the NAQCC web site so you will know everything you need to know about our sprints. Here's the link you need to get started.  1a. APRIL SPRINT RESULTS: - Our 102nd sprint in April featured some excellent conditions on both 20 and 40 meters although the number of logs submitted was down 16 logs from March. We've got a lot to talk about in this newsletter, so let's get to the statistics quickly.
Congratulations to all including winners and non-winners. Actually there are no non-winners. Everyone who participated AND SENT IN A LOG is a winner because you have helped add to our voice shouting the praises of CW and QRP which shows the ham radio world that there are still many folks using and enjoying CW on the ham bands. That's one of our main goals here at the NAQCC. Very special thanks to those who reported their results even though they made only a few QSO's. Your reports are equally important. We welcome these 9 hams who submitted a sprint log for the first time. We hope they will continue to participate and report their results: WK2T N0DA K8RJW N5ME KE0ER WB0CLL WD4EXI KK4LLD N4MJ GOLDEN LOGS. This is the final month for GOLDEN LOGS as described above. There is a prize awarded to the one who has the most GOLDEN LOGS each year. This year it will be to the one who has the highest total of GOLDEN and SILVER LOGS. In case of a tie, the one having the most total QSOs for the year will be the winner. GOLDEN LOGS were submitted by 66 of 128 participants this month. To see if you're one of them, check the results page. Here's a Top 5 (+ ties) list of most GOLDEN LOGs in 2013: 4 - tie among 9 members Thanks to all GOLDEN LOGgers for making my cross-checking job that much easier. And now that will be even easier for me with SILVER replacing GOLD. Remember anyone can now very easily submit a SILVER LOG with just a bit of effort and checking on their part before submitting. Here's a summary of the all-time number of GOLDEN LOGS: Year #GLs #Logs %GOLDEN 2010 402 1076 37.4 2011 544 1317 41.3 2012 706 1471 48.0 2013 287 577 49.7 Total 1939 4441 43.7So you see we're above average this year and the percentage has increased each year. That's rewarding to see as it means our members are getting better at log keeping and log submitting. Congratulations! Beginning next newsletter we'll be starting a total of SILVER LOGS. Full sprint info here. 2. APRIL CHALLENGE RESULTS: - The fishing challenge turned out to be somewhat of a difficult catch, as so far we only have reports in from eight members. However I'm sure that is because the newsletter is coming out so early this month because of the changed date of our sprint. We'll probably wind up with around the usual number of submissions. Actually we had hoped to see the challenge submissions progress upwards as time went by like our sprints have done. However that has not been the case. It seems to us that the challenges are a good alternative to those who don't like the contest/sprint atmosphere. Perhaps we were wrong. But we know there is a small core of members who really enjoy our challenges and we will be continuing with them for those members, and hopefully overall participation will still start to take off in the future. 2a. CURRENT CHALLENGE: - In May, we honor those brave patriotic folks who over the years and currently have kept our country safe, and a leading world power. It's another alphabet challenge featuring the names of the branches of the military and a few other military related terms. So go to it, and have fun. There are only 10 'words' with 64 letters so it is one of the easier alphabet challenges. Let's see if we can break our record for number of challenge participants this month. 2b. JUNE CHALLENGE: - June is the month for the ARRL Field Day, and we again will have our Field Day challenge this month. In addition our regular full month challenge this year will be a WARC bands challenge. As the rules page states, "Make 20 QSOs using any combination of 30, 17, 12, and the latest new band 60 meters using CW, QRP, and any antenna system. Be sure to know the complete rules for use of CW on 60 meters before you operate there as they are quite restrictive." It should be a piece of cake to master this challenge with the great conditions of late where 17 and 12 are open for DX (and regular) QSOs sometime just about every day. Plus 30 meters is always there. The 'new' 60 meters has been a fun band since it was opened to CW not all that long ago. This is my first year using the band and I have found it to be a challenging and interesting band. It seems to lie right between 80 and 40 as far as conditions go - just like its position in the spectrum is between those two bands. It does seem to have a lot of warm weather QRN just like 80, but a little easier to work DX than 80 when the DX is there to be had, which doesn't seem to be too often. Full challenge info here. 3. GENERAL CLUB NEWS:  - It's always nice to hear how much our prize winners appreciate their prizes, and we like to let you hear also since it is your monetary donations or prize donations that make giving these things away possible. So here's what Lou N8LA had to say, "Greetings Michael and John, The beautiful Tulip Wood fingerpieces NAQCC awarded to me arrived last week. Thank you very much for them! I will think of both of you and NAQCC with fondness each time I use them. To show my appreciation (and to purchase an "indulgence" allowing forgiveness for not participating in the sprint this month!), I will be sending a small offering to NAQCC. Vy 72/73, Lou N8LA." - And about how we (John KK1X) send out a new member certificate every time we find someone has changed their call in our (W7GAH) search of the FCC database or if a member tells us they have changed calls. From Mike W4MVM (ex-W9MVM), "Thanks John & Tom for remembering me. I am in "4" land where my QTH is, should have changed a time ago. NAQCC is the greatest!! QRP CW is the greatest. 73 de MIKE, W4MVM NAQCC #3812." - And just in case I didn't post this a couple months ago when it came, here's something from Dave W4DUK, "Mike, I received my 2012 Golden Log prize in the mail yesterday. "Thank You" to both you and the club for sending it. I've been considering improving/replacing the End-fed Zepp that has served me for the past five years, and "ARRL's Wire Antenna Classics" will surely provide some good food for thought. 73, Dave - W4DUK - NAQCC #0617." - We're all set up for our anniversary week celebration this October (6th through the 12th) with one big exception. We still need a lot more operators for our N#A calls. Of course it is still very early, but as we all get older, time moves along more quickly and October will be here before we know it. So you can never sign up too early, and can always back out if necessary due to other more important commitments that come up. With that said, we have the following signed up already and are awaiting for more volunteers.N1A - W1OH N2A - N3A - K3WWP WY3H KC2EGL WA3HIC N4A - KI4EBD N5A - N6A - K6MGO N7A - N8A - N8XMS N8IUP N9A - K9EYT N0A - KC0PMH W0EJCalls in red are those who volunteered to do that week's sprint with the N#A call. We'll continue to update our special N#A Operation page in the main section of the NAQCC web site with info about this year's event. There you can see instantly who has signed up as an operator. As you see, we have 12 ops signed up already, but that's just a start. We'd like to see at least 4 or 5 ops for each call. The more ops, the more air time for the calls as I'm sure no one op is going to operate the whole 168 hours we have use of the calls. Everyone who has been an op in the past has gotten nothing but enjoyment from the experience and we get many returning ops each year. I'm sure it would be a real thrill for someone who has never operated a special event call to be able to operate one of our calls, even for just a couple hours if that's all that time would permit. To sign up, just send an email to  with the subject "NAQCC Anniversary" stating your intention to be an operator.We'll again be using our special scheduler where you can post your operating times in real time. That proved very successful last year. So successful that we are also providing that service the rest of the year as well. See the main page of the NAQCC web site for details. - Just a quick reminder we're continuing with the hidden call sign idea originally suggested by Bill KB3XS even though it's been over a year (2/11/2012) now since anyone has claimed their prize. Only 10 out of 84 hidden calls have been found by their owner. Somewhere in this newsletter is a call sign of a member in a place that is definitely out of context and containing a mix of upper and lower case letters. If it is YOUR call sign and YOU find it, email BEFORE the publication date of the next newsletter (JUN 8) and win a gift certificate for 100 NAQCC QSL cards produced by the CheapQSLs.com company run by Hal K6RF (#0171) and donated by the NAQCC thanks to your generous monetary donations to the club. Cheap refers only to the price, not the quality of the cards. They are beautiful and a great way to show your pride in being a NAQCC member. See the main page of the web site to find out how to purchase your own cards.4. CHAPTER NEWS: Here is where our club chapters present news about their chapter activities. We currently have four chapters - European, Texas, Western Pennsylvania, and Florida. We're looking forward to expanding that roster further, but so far no one else seems interested in enjoying the fun of being in a chapter. Chapters are more or less independent local gatherings organized by NAQCC members in a geographical area and subject to a list of guidelines under the auspices of the NAQCC. They provide great opportunities to fellowship with other hams in an area who are interested in the same type of ham radio activities, namely QRP and CW. If you would be interested in starting a chapter in your area, let us know and we'll send a copy of the guidelines. Remember our latest perk for Chapter members: Those who are members of one of our chapters can publicize any portable operations done as a Chapter function similar to what the WPA Chapter and Florida Chapter members have been doing doing for their portable operations. Such publicity helps a lot in providing activity for the operations. If there isn't yet a chapter in your area, you will have to form one to take advantage of this. If you are already a chapter member, just send an announcement exactly as you want posted to and we will post it for you. Make the subject of the email "NAQCC portable operation" for quickest action. Be sure to mention the Chapter prominently somewhere in the announcement, and be sure to submit a write-up on your operation for posting in your Chapter News section of the newsletter. Such a write-up goes to  NOTE: No Chapter News was received from KD2MX for this issue, so here is what we have here from last issue and from the FL Chapter for this issue. NAQCC EUROPEAN CHAPTER:  Items in this section are from EU Chapter President Matt MW3YMY unless otherwise credited. Questions or comments should go to  The EU Chapter web site is at http://www.naqcc-eu.org/Sprints The dates of the remaining 2013 sprints are given in the table below. This information is also available on the website in a printer-friendly format, should you wish to keep it for your records:
The European sprints are fun, informal, monthly contests designed to be enjoyable to radio amateurs with all degrees of contesting experience. Please take part to support your local chapter and increase activity and awareness of QRP/CW on this side of the Atlantic. All are welcome to participate, not just members in Europe, and we now regularly obtain reports of trans-Atlantic QSOs in our sprints. NAQCC FLORIDA CHAPTER:  Items in this section are from the FL Chapter unless otherwise credited. Questions or comments should go to  On April 19th, 2013 the Florida Chapter of NAQCC held its latest "Operation in the Park" event at Spruce Creek Park, located at the Rose Bay/Spruce Creek Preserve in Port Orange, FL; four members and one guest were present. The April spring morning started out at 75 degrees and 80% humidity, and quickly climbed to 88 degrees - East Central Florida is notorious for going from winter to summer in a few hours! Steve WB4OMM #5913 and Don K3RLL #1905 opted for the high ceilinged and very comfortable park pavilion with its many "creature comforts". Art WB4MNK # 5274 decided to be a true adventurer and tough it out on the Boardwalk that goes to the fishing pier over the marsh - using a folding table and sitting on a wooden bench - with his only protection from our Florida sun being his hat! He must have had a premonition of the day - his work was the most successful!! After a fairly quick setup all three were on the air shortly after 9 AM. WB4MNK had 20 meters and got the volume honors, making 19 QSOs including one DX (a VE) -16 of his QSOs were NAQCC members - his personal best! Art used an Elecraft KX1 running 4 watts to a wire Inverted V @40' over the marsh, a P6 touch key & LDG tuner. K3RLL found little activity on 17 meters (one member) but took the DX honors with a Russian station! Don was using an Elecraft K1 running 5 watts with a similar antenna and a Scorpion key. WB4OMM found four members on 40 meters and worked 'em all with great signal reports from both ends. Steve used an Icom IC-706MKIIG at 5W with a Nye Viking paddle, a full size wire dipole for 40M at the top of a Buddipole mast with an LDG tuner. Steve also brought a Pixie II transceiver for 40M but it developed a severe case of "I ain't gonna workitis" - it will return to the bench for intense surgical attention and hopefully return in the future! While operating in the park, our "official guest" Darryl AB8GU visited with both setups, and helped WB4MNK take down his station at the end - Darryl also took our group photo for the, "Highly Sought After Special Commemorative and Collectable QSL Card" that we will send out for this operation. Neil KJ4CIA #6122 stopped by to say hello, lend support, and stayed for about two hours. We concluded operations around 12 noon so we could eat lunch and recap our park adventure. We all agreed it was a productive and fun outing! What a great time! The Florida Chapter sincerely appreciates the helpful email advisory by K3WWP, the participation of the 21 NAQCC members we worked, as well as the unknown others who we did not hear. If not for the assistance of our membership, our field event would not have been such a success. Thank you all and we look forward to working you from another "exotic" Central Florida Location in the very near future! 72/73, Steve WB4OMM #5913  Our "crew" from left to right: Don K3RLL #1905, Steve WB4OMM #5913, Art WB4MNK #5274 - Darryl AB8GU is taking the picture!  Don K3RLL searching for Qs on 17M  Steve WB4OMM working 40M  Art WB4MNK braving the Florida sun! A "real tough guy"!!   The Pixie II 40M transceiver that wouldn't work! IT WILL BE BACK! (About 450mW of power - built into an Altoids can and powered by a 9v Battery!) NAQCC TEXAS CHAPTER:  Items in this section are from TX Chapter Director Ron K5DUZ unless otherwise credited. Questions or comments should go to  The TX Chapter web site is at http://www.naqcctx.com/NAQCC WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTER:  Items  in this section are from John K3WWP unless otherwise credited. Questions or comments should go to All chapter news can be found ONLY here in this section of the newsletter.This has been a very busy month for the NAQCC Western Pennsylvania Chapter. John K3WWP and I (Mike KC2EGL) began our activities on Friday April 5th. We started working on our Two Tinned Tuna transmitter project. We finished up with the Tuna Tin's on Sunday the 7th. Our main reason for the get together was to operate as a tag team in the SP DX contest. We logged 95 QSO's and all but 2 provences of Poland. In between log enteries during the SP DX test we dabbled in the Missouri QSO party and logged the stray DX station calling CQ. On Sunday April 14th we worked another tag team effort in the Georgia QSO party and the Yuri Gagarian Anniversary contest. We worked a total of 67 QSO's between both events along with a few other DX entries during some of the quiet periods in the Ga and YG event's. After both events were over we did some preliminary testing with our Tuna Tin transmitters. We had a rather primative test set up yet everything seems to be in order. We decided to conduct better testing later in the month so we could use my SWR/Watt Meter.   Our next Chapter date was the following weekend April 20th and 21st. We attempted to work eight bdifferent events. We attempted to work the Holyland DX contest but we were unable to hear a single station from Israel. We had very good success with the MM, YUDX, MI and ON QSO Parties. We logged a handful of entries in the ND, SD, and NE QSO Parties. We logged 250 QSO's between all the events. The biggest chore during our operating was trying to keep our log's in order. Making sure we were entering the QSO in to the proper log. As you can imagine it was quite confusing at times. Hi-Hi!!! Saturday April 27th. John and I worked a tag team effort in the Florida QSO Party and the HB9 contest. In just over six hours of operating we logged 128 QSO's in 46 counties. John was one county away from having worked all counties in Florida. And would you believe it, the one county he needed was on the air as a rover. So John has now worked all of Forlida's counties. We cut our operating short for the night because we wanted to work on yet another project. We started to assemble a QRP straight key from the same company that provides the Tuna Tin. The soldering involved a resistor, a LED, a 9V battery terminal, and a couple of leads to connect the key to a radio. It even came with a pine base which needed to be sealed with a few coats of varnish.  Sunday April 28th. John, Tom WY3H, Tom's wife JoAnne and I went to the Two Rivers Hamfest. It was nice to get out an see some familiar faces and to see if we could find anything we could not do with out. I was looking for some crystal's to use with my Tuna Tin and some clip leads to connect the cables of the Tuna Tin to a battery, antenna, and a key. I found some aligator clips from a vendor who was very pushy. We originally found some clips that were a little bigger than what we needed. He said they were the smallest he had. Well we found the right sized clips as we walked around his set up. If it wasn't for the fact that clip leads are rather expensive at Radio Shack I would have passed up on the smaller clips. The vendor asked in a not so nice way "what is the difference between the ones I purchased and the larger clips?" I replied by telling him the larger ones were almost the size of the radio we are working on. He just shook his head. I have a feeling he was not a ham. He had no clue of what we were trying to explain to him. This concludes the April activities of the NAQCC WPA Chapter. 73 Mike KC2EGL 5. NAQCC QRS NETS:  News and net reports in this section are from QRS Net Manager Craig N4PLK unless otherwise credited. Questions or comments should go to  SCHEDULE: NAQCC Main QRS Net (NQN) Sunday evenings 8:00 PM Eastern Time, which is Monday 0000 UTC, on 7060 kHz. Main NCS - Craig N4PLK (in VA) NAQCC East Texas QRS Net (ETN) Monday evenings 7:00 PM Central Time, which is Tuesday 0000 UTC, on 7060 kHz. Main NCS - Allen KA5TJS (in TX) NAQCC Rocky Mtn Regional/Continental QRS net (RMR) Tuesday afternoons 3:00 PM Mountain Time, which is Tuesday 2100 UTC, on 14062.5 kHz. AND Thursday afternoons 3:00 PM Mountain Time, which is Thursday 2100 UTC, on 14062.5 kHz. Main NCS - Dale WC7S (in WY) NAQCC East Coast QRS Net (ECN) Thursday evenings at 8:00 PM Eastern Time, which is Friday 0000 UTC, on 7060 kHz. Main NCS - Robert KG4KGL (in SC) NAQCC Pacific NorthWest QRS Net (PNW) Thursday evenings 7:00 PM Pacific Time which is Friday 0200Z on 3574 kHz and 7121 Khz. NCS 80m- Stewart KE7LKW (in WA) NCS 40m- 'JB' KR5RR (in CA)ACTIVITY REPORT: No report received for this newsletter. 73, Craig N4PLK NAQCC # 5775 QRS Nets Manager n4plk@verizon.net 6. NAQCC CW ASSISTANCE PROJECT: Items in this section are from CW Assistance Project Coordinator Ron K5DUZ unless otherwise credited. If you are interested in helping out or need help with any CW and/or QRP matters contact: K5DUZ -  OR VE3FUJ -  Meanwhile, see the CW Assistance/QRS Nets section of the web site and the new content that is there. 7. CW CARTOON OF THE MONTH:  Let's take a comedy and/or nostalgia break now courtesy of Dick Sylvan W9CBT NAQCC #2062. Dick has been a long-time QRP/CW operator. One of his many talents is being a cartoon artist. Dick's cartoons appear monthly in the K9YA Telegraph, a free ham radio eZine, where he is staff cartoonist. The NAQCC is very honored to reprint Dick's cartoons originally published in the K9YA Telegraph. Dick has also authored a book entitled "Hi Hi - A Collection of Ham Radio Cartoons" available via his web site. Dick's cartoons made their debut in our NAQCC Newsletter Issue #058, November 17, 2007, and a new cartoon currently appears in every issue.  8. RECENT AWARD WINNERS: 1000 MPW Awards: 0207 KB1UOH - 03/07/13 0208 WU1V - 03/09/13 0209 WU1V - 03/16/13 0210 K3WWP - 03/18/13 0211 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0212 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0213 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0214 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0215 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0216 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0217 KC2EGL - 03/24/13 0218 N3CU - 04/08/13 0219 N3CU - 04/08/13 0220 N3CU - 04/08/13 0221 N3CU - 04/08/13 0222 N3CU - 04/08/13 0223 W1UV - 04/10/13 0224 W0EJ - 04/11/13 0225 W0EJ - 04/11/13 0226 W0EJ - 04/11/13 0227 N3CU - 04/11/13 0228 W1UV - 04/13/13 0229 W1UV - 04/10/13 0230 MW0RSS - 04/16/13 0231 MW0RSS - 04/16/13 0232 N3CU - 04/16/13 0233 WU1V - 04/18/13 0234 K3WWP - 04/19/13 0235 K3WWP - 04/19/13 0236 WU1V - 04/20/13 0237 N3CU - 04/23/13 0238 N3CU - 04/23/13 0239 N3CU - 04/23/13 0240 N3CU - 04/24/13 0241 K3WWP - 04/25/13 0242 N3CU - 04/27/13 0243 N3CU - 04/29/13 0244 N3CU - 04/29/13 QSO-a-Day Awards: One Month 2013: 30 Days 2013: 0001 KC0ZLR - 3/25/13 (2/20-3/21) 0002 KC2EGL - 4/18/13 (3/14-4/12) Endorsements: 0001 KC0ZLR 30 Days 2013 - Simple wire antennas for all QSOs - 3/25/13 30-30 Awards: One month 0026 W4TZM Mar 2013 - 3/25/13 0027 W4TZM Apr 2013 - 04/26/13 Alphabet Prefix USA Awards: Honor Roll World Update: K3WWP 589 - 4/19/13 DXCC Category A (QRP) Awards: 0011 - K1YAN 04/29/13 ********************* WAC Category A (QRP) Awards: 0025 WU1V - 4/10/13 Endorsements: 0025 WU1V - 20M - 4/10/13 0011 K1YAN - 17M - 4/22/13Nice to see some new calls in our awards listing. Congratulations to them, and to our 'regulars' who've earned some additional awards as well. For a complete listing of our award winners and more details, see Awards on the web site. 9. MEMBER SPOTLIGHT:  This section is managed by Paul N8XMS and any questions about it should go to  . Paul selects members at random and asks them if they would like to be featured in the Member Spotlight in the newsletter.Ben Pooley VE1AHX #1610  I passed the British Radio Amateurs Exam in 1951, but, due to our imminent departure for VE7-land (and for lack of the license fee!) my first callsign was not G3***, but VE7AFP in 1952. Like many others at the time, my first transmitter was a 6V6 crystal oscillator with a hand key in the cathode circuit. My main interests were, and still are, HF CW DX, and building gear. In 1959, wanderlust struck. I built a transmitter for HF CW to work on any power supply from 110 - 240 volts AC or DC. It had 4 50L6 tubes, selenium rectifiers, and plug-in coils, and would run about 15 watts input. An on-air Fiji contact had told me he could probably get me a job there, which he did, with the Fiji Posts and Telegraphs Department. The next year was quite busy on-air as VR2DG (yes, that was long before Fiji became 3D2) and those 50L6s got a good workout. Then a beautiful Maine schooner arrived in Suva, looking for crew who could also work the radio, so a short stint as VR2DG/MM - which must have irritated a lot of people; quite a 'rare' call but no DXCC credit! I left the boat in Brisbane and briefly signed VK4DE before moving to a job in South Australia as VK5BP for a couple of years. During this time Jeff, VK5NQ, and I took a two-week trip to Alice Springs as VK5BP/8, VK8s being a bit scarce then. My next callsign was G3PAH, where I stayed six years. At that time I became interested in Land Rovers, another incurable affliction - I now have a 1950 and my 'daily driver'1989 Land Rover '90'. For my first Land Rover, in the 1960s, I built a 160 and 80 metre mobile AM transceiver. I still have it, and recently fired it up. After replacing one capacitor it worked fine for a check in the local AM net. Not bad for 50 year-old gear. All that is ancient history now. I have been in Nova Scotia, as VE1AHX, for 45 years. I enjoy kit-building. I have Small Wonder Labs SW40 and DSW30. The main rig is an Elecraft K2, and I admit to having the KPA100 amplifier for when the going gets tough! The latest kit project was Fox Delta's Antenna Analyzer, a great little tool. I still have the Vibroplex Original Deluxe, bought in an auction in the VE7AFP days, but mostly use a Kent paddle now. My wife and I have been married nearly 35 years, since she arrived and totally and happily disrupted the life of this (then) 44 year old bachelor. I am retired from a printed circuit board assembly business in Lockeport, NS. Still enjoy some DX hunting, though with decreased tolerance for the abuse and other shenanigans, and still enjoy CW, though the error rate goes up as years seem to etch away at the link between brain and keying hand! 10. NEWS ITEMS AND ARTICLES BY OUR MEMBERS:  This section is a forum for you to tell other members what you've been up to on the ham bands or to submit an article dealing with some aspect of CW and QRP operation or equipment. Examples might include, but not limited to, antenna projects, QRP and/or SDR equipment, tuners, battery technology, keyers, logging, or other related topic of interest to the QRP community. Send your news items and articles to our news editor Paul KD2MX at . Deadline for submitting news items for the next newsletter is Jun 6. For your convenience any links in this section will open in a new browser window so you can come immediately back here to the newsletter just by closing that extra window. DISCLAIMER: Any views expressed in this section are those of the member submitting them, and may or may not be those of the NAQCC or its officers.NOTE: Paul had to go out of town and did not get the member news here in time for the deadline. If you sent in a member news item, he will have it in the next newsletter June 8. From John K3WWP #0002 FC 1 - It continues to be a great time for working DX. In addition to that described in the WPA Chapter news above, I recently added a couple of new overall countries (entities) to bring my total to 216 worked. T2YY in Tuvalu and A71CM in Qatar. In addition I've already received my QSL card from A71CM thanks to a quick efficient stateside QSL Manager - NI5DX. I've gotten 856 DX QSOs so far this year, not far behind 939 in 2011 and 1150 last year, and the year is only 4 months old! I still think after 50 years of being a ham (as of April 3 this year) that DX and contesting are my favorite activities and it is great when conditions are as good as they are at present. It's especially fun when the DX has a pileup, and you have to use your skills to break it, aided by a great rig like the KX3. It's even more fun to break a wide split pileup. I get excited just talking about it.As of May 3, I've worked some DX each day for the past 64 days now. I'm shooting first for 82 days to make it my second longest DX streak breaking 81 days in the early 2000s. Then I'll try to move on to 155 days for my longest streak, but that is a long way off, and may not be possible depending on conditions and time available. All DX QSOs are not the TU 599 type either. I had a very nice 13 minute ragchew with Taka JA1KIH in Chiba Japan. My longest QSO with a Japanese, I believe. And it was solid copy both ways all the way with a lot of info exchanged without any necessary repeats - his KW and my QRP - HI. Fun, fun, fun. Let's hope the great conditions continue for a long time. I'm telling you all this so you'll realize if you don't already, that it is possible to work a lot of DX with QRP and very simple wire antennas if you use CW. You don't need a KW and a big beam. Just minimal skill and decent band conditions. So go for it! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club email address - The publication of our next newsletter will be announced via email to all members for whom we have a valid email address unless you specifically have unsubscribed from the email. Past on-line newsletters beginning with issue #042 are now archived on the site. So if you missed seeing any past issues, you can check them out in the archives indexed by Don K3RLL. Unless otherwise credited, all items are written by K3WWP. If you came directly to this newsletter, we invite you now to browse the NAQCC Web Site. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||