| NAQCC News |
| June 8, 2013 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #180 | |
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In this issue: EXTRA 1. June Sprint 1a. May Sprint Results 2. May Challenge Results 2a. Current Challenge 2b. July 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 |
| EXTRA! - Ever since the club was started and grew far beyond original expectations, President Tom WY3H and Vice President John K3WWP realized that the day would come when the club would need new younger leadership if it was to continue. They recently decided that when the club reaches its tenth anniversary in October 2014, they were going to retire. A search for someone to take over terminated when Tom contacted Paul N8XMS, and after some discussion, he agreed to be that someone. Here now are statements from Tom, John, and Paul. FROM TOM WY3H - Hello fellow NAQCC members. It is with a twinge of sadness and yet with a sense of relief that I write this communication to you. Several months ago I had seriously considered resigning as NAQCC president, primarily due to several on-going health problems. In December, 2012 I had leg surgery at the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh and am facing another possible surgery in the near future. Among other things, I also have diabetes and a very high blood pressure problem. At this writing I am no longer permitted to drive due to health issues. Almost needless to say all this limits the time I have to devote to amateur radio, not to mention a host of other things, including my beloved wife, our family: six children, two step children, 11 grandchildren and two great grandchildren, and our 22-acre property. So far I also remain active as a member of the board of directors of the Mechling-Shakley Veterans Center and active in several veterans' organizations, and a religious organization for which I put in a lot of time. I had contacted Paul, N8XMS, to ask him if, when I resigned, he would assume the vice president position thus allowing John, K3WWP, to become (rightfully so) president. After a bit of discussion Paul reluctantly agreed. However, after discussing my decision with John, he came up with an alternative proposal. John also expressed his desire to retire as vice president. His proposal was for the both of us to remain in office until just after the NAQCC's 10th anniversary sprint in October, 2014. After that, John and I would both retire and Paul would assume the presidency. Why would we both retire as key officers from a club that the two us founded nearly nine years ago? Well, John and I are both approaching 70 years old. Let's face it. It may be a few months, a year, several years, whenever, but eventually us "old fogies" will be trying to work DX from a place no one has yet worked. A far, far away place that all of us hope to attain after our time on earth comes to an end. John and I are both concerned about the future of the NAQCC after we go into the silent key mode or just get too old and senile to know what we are doing. We should be concerned, after all, the NAQCC is "our baby." So the decisions are made and what now? We need members to step forward and volunteer to assume various positions. Primarily, we need a vice president. (We also need more members to help Craig run the slow speed nets; come up with monthly challenge ideas, plan and organize the NAQCC's anniversary sprint and special event every October, etc. etc.). If any member is interested in becoming vice president or taking any position, please e-mail me at: yoel@windstream.net. John and I will review the emails and share them with Paul. Let's not forget the fact that the NAQCC is, beyond doubt, the most unique amateur radio club in the world, and, the largest of its kind. No other club is devoted to QRP, CW operation and encouraging the use of straight keys or bugs and simple wire antennas. We are it, and please don't forget that the NAQCC membership list is nearing the 7,000 mark. The decision that John and I have made in no way expresses any dissatisfaction with the NAQCC. We intend to remain active, enthusiastic, and supportive members. We hope (still uncertain) to be at the Dayton Ham Fest in May 2014 representing the NAQCC. Moreover, this June, we will have an ARRL 2013 Field Day event on my property in Manor Township, Armstrong County Pa., using the N3AQC call. Almost needless to say the field day event will be 100-percent QRP, CW. Please listen for us. I wish to thank all of our members for their devotion and being a part of the NAQCC. BEST 73/72, Tom, WY3H. FROM JOHN K3WWP - While it has been a great source of enjoyment to do all the work I have done for the NAQCC, I am not getting any younger. It is more of a chore each month to keep up with all the work. Fortunately we have gained several very good helpers along the way to ease the workload. Still, I realize that everyone reaches the point when it is time to put aside work and retire. I had thought of retiring when I reached 70 in 2015. However, completely independent of my thoughts, Tom approached me one day and said he wanted to retire as President, and let me move up to President. I told him that I had also been considering retirement. After some discussion, we agreed on both of us retiring when the club reached 10 years of age in October 2014. So between now and then, we are going to work on transitioning the club affairs to Paul N8XMS. One of the conditions Paul set for taking over was that he didn't think he would have the time nor be capable of doing all the things that I do for the club. So we are going to look for additional helpers and/or have our current helpers take over a bit more of the work associated with the chores they do now. Just as a single example, since our awards manager John KK1X also maintains a membership database so he can send out the awards, he has agreed to take over sending out our welcome email to new members - something I had been doing. There will be other such instances like that as we try to spread out my workload as evenly as possible so it doesn't become too much of a burden for any one person. So we will be contacting each of our helpers in the coming weeks and months to see what else they can easily take over. Fortunately each one is very capable and a hard worker, so the transition should go smoothly. Even after I retire, I plan to continue to manage our monthly sprints as I do now. I also may be the main overall webmaster although hopefully other members will handle individual web pages as Hap, Corey, Andy, Jerry, and John are doing now with our sprint, challenge, awards, poll pages. One big task that Paul will be taking over immediately is newsletter editor. This will be the last newsletter that I will be putting together. It's hard to believe I've done 180 of them. The saying is true that time does fly. This will also be the last newsletter that will be in HTML format. Paul says he is not all that familiar with HTML, and would prefer to do the newsletters in PDF format. Hopefully that will work out well. If you currently don't have a .pdf reader, there are many good free ones available via the Internet. It has been (and will be for the next few months) a pleasure working with all of our members. Over 99% of all comments received over the soon to be 10 years have been very positive ones. I especially enjoy the ones that express the tremendous amount of joy they've gotten learning that QRP/CW/simple wire antennas do work, and work well from participating in our club activities. Thank you for all the comments. I tried to answer all personally, but at times they just became to many to do so. Let this be my thanks to you now, if I did miss a personal response. Since neither Tom nor I are leaving immediately, we'll obviously be saying more about the transition in the coming months' newsletters. So let me close my part now and present this bio of our new leader Paul N8XMS. Paul was one of our 'charter' members when we had our explosive growth in the first few months following the inception of the club and signed up over 700 members in that time. He has been a regular participant in our sprints, challenges, and awards when his duties working in the school system would permit. Let me just check now and give you some figures. Paul has participated in 63 of our 103 regular monthly sprints. He has participated in 67 of our challenges. That's 67 out of the last 70 - missing only two FD challenges and one other in that span since November 2007. As far as our awards go, he has the following: Friendship Club # 17 endorsed for 700 points 1000 MPW # 69 and 101 Participation Award for 2012 (W8), 2011 (W8), 2010 (East USA), 2009 (East USA), earning the maximum of 36 points in each of those years as well as the FREE FISTS membership for 2010 2XQRP # 12, endorsed for the maximum 1,000 points Alphabet Prefix USA # 7, Honor Roll (WORLD) for 224 prefixes, Honor Roll (USA) for 113 prefixes DXCC Category A # 10 Suffix Words SWA # 2, Honor Roll SWA 200 WAC # 22 WAS # 19 Whew, that's quite a resume, and speaks volumes about our new club manager. Now let's hear from him. FROM PAUL N8XMS -  I was first licensed during my sophomore year in high school in 1970. We lived in Sioux Falls, SD and my call was WN0BJC. My grandfather, W0MA, lived in Leavenworth, KS and was my long-distance "Elmer." Locally, my junior high shop teacher, Bob Shuck, and the other members of the Sioux Falls ARC helped me to learn Morse code and study for my ticket.My Novice station consisted of a huge old Hammarlund HQ-170 receiver that my grandfather gave me and an even older Heathkit AT-1 that Mr. Shuck loaned me. My antenna was a low, short, random-wire with a homebrew transmatch. I had two 40-meter crystals and of course a straight key. With this setup I was able to work throughout the Midwest, but almost never out of my own time zone, and I never worked any DX. I remember being amazed and a little jealous when a buddy of mine worked a California station for his first QSO with his new Heathkit HW-16. I was only on the air from Sioux Falls for a few months. My dad decided to go to graduate school so we moved to California, and a year later we moved to Michigan. Those moves took me off the air and my Novice license soon expired. College, career, and family all served to keep me away from the hobby for the next twenty-plus years. In 1993 I relearned the code, got my technician-plus ticket, and was given my current N8XMS callsign. Over the next few years I upgraded to General, Advanced, and Extra. In 2001 my wife and I went on a vacation to the Smoky Mountains and we stayed near TenTec headquarters in Sevierville, TN. We stopped in for a tour of the factory and I ended up purchasing a little T-Kit 1320 QRP transceiver kit. (I couldn't afford an Omni for my vacation souvenir!) I semi-successfully built the radio but had to send it back to the factory for alignment. Interestingly enough, my very first QRP QSO with that 1320 was with a ham in California! The 1320 started me down the path of my twin ham radio passions - kit building and QRP. Since then I have built several different QRP rigs. In 2003 I built an Elecraft K1 and shortly after that my QRO gear was mothballed and I became a QRPer exclusively. My current rig is an Elecraft K2 feeding my original 1993 Cushcraft R7 vertical. (The K2 does have the SSB option but that was mainly done just because I wanted to keep building stuff. I think that I've only had one SSB QSO and a few dozen PSK31 contacts.) I also have an Elecraft KX1 for portable operations. I use both a straight key and paddle on a regular basis and sometimes hook up a vintage bug as well. I am not much of a contester but I really do enjoy our NAQCC sprints. I also like working on our challenges each month. I work DX when I can, but would much rather have a nice CW chat than take 30-minutes to try to bust a pileup. I do most of my ragchewing on 40, 30, and 20 meters, and look for the DX on 17 through 10. I am a retired high school math teacher. In addition to ham radio I enjoy travelling, reading, pencil puzzles, and day-hiking. I also have modest collections of pocket knives and antique slide rules. My wife and I are active in church and Bible study activities. We have two grown children and one very special granddaughter. Don't ask me about her unless you have a lot of time to look at pictures and listen to me brag! 73, Paul - N8XMS NAQCC #675 1. JUNE SPRINT: - Our June sprint is coming up next Tuesday evening June 11th local USA time, which as everyone should know converts to Wednesday 0030 to 0230Z.After last month, we're back on schedule with our alternating 2nd Tuesday / 3rd Wednesday schedule in even / odd numbered months. As you know last month we changed weeks because of the Dayton Hamvention. We need to get back on track this month and shoot past the 100 logs mark again. A lot of hams like to operate portable, and June would be a great month to put in a portable operation in our sprint with the warm weather and very late sunsets here in the eastern USA. It's also a vacation month, and you might like to take an hour or two off from the hectic vacation pace and relax in our sprint. They are relaxing with their laid-back non-frantic activity which we emphasize and encourage. Our goal is for you to participate and not particularly vie for those big scores. Of course if you do prefer scores with your participating, that's perfectly OK, and we have certificates for you if that is what you are after. I think that gives you enough reasons to be there next Tuesday evening. I hope to work you. Oh, and we're adding something this month for those who do emphasize scoring. A certificate to the overall high-scorer who uses a bug, and one to the high scorer using anything other than a straight key or bug. We are doing that to help those who may be physically unable to use a straight key (or bug) for whatever reason. We will be incorporating that info into our rules soon. 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. MAY SPRINT RESULTS: - I guess we figured wrong about our May sprint. We thought changing the date by a week would allow those going to Dayton a chance to compete and thus keep our streak of 100+ logs sprints going. However we came up a bit short with only 97 logs from 151 participants. Hopefully it was only due to some folks being so used to our normal schedule that they didn't pay attention to the change. Conditions were good, so that shouldn't have been a factor. There were storms in parts of the country that could have prevented some members from operating. Anyway, enough speculation. Here are the statistics.
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 5 hams who submitted a sprint log for the first time. We hope they will continue to participate and report their results: NJ4V KF7WNS KA3IHS KE6K VE2ZA SILVER LOGS: This is the first month for SILVER LOGS. In case you don't know, a SILVER LOG is simply one that is submitted in the precise required format. There is a prize awarded to the one who has the most SILVER 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. SILVER LOGS were submitted by 80 of 97 participants this month. To see if you're one of them, check the results page. Here's a Top 5 (+ ties) list of most SILVER/GOLDEN LOGs in 2013: 5 - tie among 9 members Thanks to all SILVER LOGgers for making my cross-checking job that much easier. Remember anyone can 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 43.7And a summary of the all-time number of SILVER LOGS: Year #SLs #Logs %SILVER 2013 80 97 82.5As you see, it is much easier to get a SILVER LOG than it was to get a GOLDEN LOG, and a lot easier on my part to check. Full sprint info here. 2. MAY CHALLENGE RESULTS: - Still a couple days left for submitting your May results. So far we have 10 who mastered the challenge and one other who came up a couple words short. I did the challenge with 100% DX (non-W/VE) calls, as did W2JEK. At a quick glance, a couple others had just one or two W/VE calls and the rest DX calls. That's great and a tribute to how well QRP and CW work. 2a. CURRENT CHALLENGE: - The WARC bands challenge provides those who have said we should have more WARC band activity  an opportunity to have a challenge devoted to them as well as the rest of us. We hope everyone who has requested more WARC activity puts their log where their mouth is, so to speak, and reports their results this month.2b. JULY CHALLENGE: - July's challenge was suggested by Gary K1YAN. He challenged members to make the names of various Vibroplex keys/bugs in a traditional alphabet style type challenge. Thanks Gary. Full challenge info here. 3. GENERAL CLUB NEWS:  - Of course the big news is in the EXTRA section above, but there are also a couple other news items related to the change. We won't provide a list this month, but we have been successful in farming out some other chores to members in addition to those that already have been farmed out over the years. We will continue to ask for more helpers in the coming months. We've also made a couple of changes to the web site. Since no one ever reported any activity on Activity Days, we've dropped that feature from the club and the web site. We also see no signs of starting up the WAS Bear Hunt again, so that section was dropped from the site. Also it seemed to me that the QRS Nets page was kind of lost in the CW Assistance section so we gave it its own section. Since we have not had a winner in 15 months, we are also dropping the hidden call sign feature of the newsletter after this issue. More changes and adjustments will be forthcoming during the transition period. - We're still signing up operators for our big on-air ninth anniversary week in October (6th through the 12th). However we still need a lot more. It's not too early to sign up now, because it is not a solid committment at this time, and you can always back out should something else turn up to prevent you from helping out with the celebration.We are constantly signing up new members as those who enjoy QRP AND CW find out about the club. Perhaps for those new members we should describe our anniversary operations briefly. It's very simple. We sign up each year to use the special event call signs N1A, N2A......N9A, N0A for one week in October. During the week ANY member can use that call sign appropriate to the call area in which they reside for as much as they can in cooperation with other members in that same call area. You don't need to be a "hot-shot" CW operator to do so. ANYONE, regardless of CW ability is welcome to join in the celebration. Everyone who has done so in previous years has enjoyed the experience  immensely. There is no competition to see who makes the most QSOs or anything like that. It's just use the special call signs and have fun - kind of like our sprints which emphasize participation, not competition. As you'll now see from this table, we still need a lot more operators so we can really put a lot of CW on the air that week.N1A - W1OH N2A - N3A - K3WWP WY3H KC2EGL WA3HIC N4A - KI4EBD KU4GW 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 only 13 ops signed up so far. We'd like to see at least 4 or 5 ops for each call area. 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. If you check your schedule and find you would have time that week to help out, whether it be for just one hour or for many hours, consider signing up by just sending 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 on the NAQCC web site 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. - Since we haven't had a hidden call winner for the past 15 issues, we're making this the final issue with a hidden call. In fact we have THREE hidden calls in this final hidden call issue. Only 10 out of 85 hidden calls have been found by their owner, and that seems to make it something that is no longer needed and a lot of useless work. Somewhere in this newsletter are three call signs of members in three places that are definitely out of context and containing a mix of upper and lower case letters. If one is YOUR call sign and YOU find it, email BEFORE the publication date of the next newsletter (JUL 13) 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  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  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.Tom WY3H, his XYL JoAnne, and two sons Ethan W3IRS and Ariel KC3AHO, Mike KC2EGL, and John K3WWP set up a NAQCC table at the Butler, PA hamfest on June 2. A good time was had by all, as we signed up a few new members, and had a chance to meet quite a few of our current members. Here's a picture of Tom, Mike, and John at the table taken by member Bob W3BBO.  Mike came down to my (K3WWP) house after work on Saturday, and we got in the AL QSO Party for a while and chased some DX before heading off to bed so we could get up early to head to Butler. The highlight of the operating session was Mike working HQ3W in Honduras for his 100th CW DX country. Congrats on the new DXCC Mike. We did get up early Sunday morning, had some breakfast, then headed off to Butler. Because of some glitches with Mike's GPS system, we got an unexpected tour of some roads we hadn't been on before. But that's another story. We did arrive at the hamfest and found Tom and his family already there. We set up the table with the NAQCC info and some gear that Mike wanted to sell. Mike didn't have any takers though. Things slowed down overall and we decided to shut down about an hour before the end of the hamfest. Mike and I came back here, and the first thing we did was to advertise Mike's gear on QRZ.net and QTH.net. That turned out much more successful and Mike got responses to the ads before he left for home that evening. We also did a little ham related work - adjusting Mike's paddle which apparently was disturbed at the hamfest - and a couple other little things. We had dinner at Long John Silver's, then watched a Prisoner episode, after which Mike headed home early because there was a long detour between Kittanning and Brookville. The WPA Chapter is going to set up an operation for Field Day on Tom's property with a handful of WPA Chapter members. We'll have more about that after the fact in the next newsletter. Also Mike and I (and maybe Don K3RLL?) are planning our first parkpedition of the year on July 3rd. As usual, we'll put out the info on our email list just before that to notify members who wish to work us and get a 5 point Friendship Club QSO with our club call N3AQC. 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  Catching up on last month's check-ins, here is a two-month, combined list. Thanks for your participation as the bands improve. 73, Craig N4PLK NAQCC # 5775 QRS Nets Manager n4plk@verizon.net NAQCC Main QRS Net (NQN) - Sunday, 8:00 PM Eastern Time, 7.060 Mhz 4-7-13 N4PLK (NCS) -13- N4PLK N6TLU K1IEE W3UEC W4HH KU4GW K3NLT WA4VCT N9RLO KK4KOE K9KEA NI2F N8IUP 4-14-13 N4PLK (NCS) -7- N4PLK N6TLU W3UEC W4HH K1IEE K4LXY KU4GW 4-21-13 N4PLK (NCS) -13- N4PLK N4JD K4LXY K1IEE WM4X W4HH N6TLU W4PGM KK4KOE WA4VCT N9RLO KG0YR VA3PEN 4-28-13 N4PLK (NCS) -11- N4PLK N6TLU W4HH N9RLO KU4GW WA4VCT KG0YR W8TAF AB3RU N3JJT K9EYT 5-5-13 N4PLK (NCS) -9- N4PLK N6TLU W3UEC W4HH K3NLT WA4VCT K1IEE N9RLO W3HZZ 5-12-13 N4PLK (NCS) -10- N4PLK N6TLU K3NLT W3UEC W4HH AB3RU K4LXY KG0YR N8IUP KD8RUQ 5-26-13 N4PLK (NCS) -13- N4PLK W3UEC K1IEE AB3RU WA1GOV N2DVD WA4VCT KG0YR K9EYT KB2HUK AC0BQ KC8THY W2BEW NAQCC East Texas QRS Net (ETN) - Monday, 7:00 PM Central Time, 7.060 Mhz 4-8-13 KE5YGA (NCS) -3- KE5YGA W5IQS KG0YR 4-15-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -5- KA5TJS KE5YUM W0CC W5IQS 4-22-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -2- KA5TJS KE5YGA 4-29-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -5- KA5TJS KE5YUM KE5YGA NQ2D KG0YR 5-6-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -6- KA5TJS KE5YUM KE5YGA W5IQS KG0YR N7NET 5-13-15 KA5TJS (NTS) -7- KA5TJS KE5YUM N7NET W5IQS N9RLO KG0YR 5-20-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -3- KA5TJS KE5YGA W5IQS 5-27-13 KA5TJS (NCS) -4- KA5TJS KE5YGA W5IQS N5DRG NAQCC Pacific NorthWest QRS Net (PNW) - Thursday, 7:00 PM, Pacific Time, 3.574 MhZ and 7.121 Mhz 4-4-13 KE7LKW (NCS) -11- KE7LKW WA7WBY K6DMT KR5RR K7ZNP WB4SPB KA6AIL VE7FLY AD7BP KG0YR WB7EUX 4-11-13 KE7LKW (NCS-80m) -7- N6KIX K7ZNP WB4SPB AD7BP KD7HXN N7QR 4-11-13 KR5RR (NCS-40m) -5- KR5RR W7MWF K6DMT N6KIX VE7FLY KR5RR 4-18-13 KE7LKW (NCS-80m) -5- KE7LKW N6KIX WB4SPB AD7BP KR5RR 4-18-13 KR5RR (NCS-40m) -7- KR5RR WB7EUX W7MWF N6KIX VE7FLY WA7KME VE7DWG 4-25-13 KE7LKW (NCS-80m) -9- KE7LKW WB7EUX KR5RR WB4SPB K7ZNP AD7BP WA7KME VE7FLY W7MWF 5-2-13 KR5RR (NCS-80m) -8- KJ6YFD W7MWF K6DMT WB7EUX K7JGS VE7DWG VE7FLY KR5RR 5-2-13 KE7LKW (NCS-40m) -6- KE7LKW KR5RR WB4SPB K7ZNP AD7BP N6KIX 5-9-12 WB4SPB (NCS-80m) -3- WB4SPB K7ZNP AD7BP 5-9-13 N6KIX (NCS-40m) -3- N6KIX K6DMY KE7LKW 5-16-13 KE7LKW (NCS-80m) -6- KE7LKW W7MWF WB4SPB K7ZNP AD7BP WA0UWH 5-16-13 KR5RR (NCS-40m) -4- KR5RR W7MWF KJ6YFD K7GS 5-23-13 KE7LKW (NCS-80m) -5- KE7LKW N5DJY WB4SPB W7IZ KA6AIL 5-23-13 KR5RR (NCS-40m) -4- KR5RR W7MWF K6DMT KE7WPK NAQCC Rocky Mtn Regional/Continental QRS Net (RMR) - Tuesday, 3:00 PM Mountain Time, 14.0625 Mhz 4-9-13 WC7S (NCS) -7- WC7S K2HT K0DTJ WB7EUX KE6OIO AD7BP K6MGO 4-16-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S AD7BP W5HNS KE6OIO KA4RUR K0DTJ 4-23-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S K0DTJ AD7BP AF9W WA6ARA AA6EQ 5-7-13 WC7S (NCS) -5- WC7S KG0YR KE6OIO AD7BP KF7WNS 5-14-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S KG0YR K0DTJ KE6OIO W1PID AD7BP 5-21-13 WC7S (NCS) -4- WC7S KA4RUR AD7BP KK4BNC NAQCC Rocky Mtn Regional/Continental QRS Net (RMR) - Thursday, 3:00 PM Mountain Time, 14.0625 Mhz 4-18-13 WC7S (NCS) -3- WC7S AD7BP AA7CU 4-26-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S K0DTJ AD7BP AF9W WA6ARA AA6EQ 5-2-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S K0DTJ W5GW K9JWV 5-9-13 WC7S (NCS) -5- WC7S KE6OIO W5HNS KA4RUR AD7BP 5-16-13 WC7S (NCS) -10- WC7S NE5DL NS7E AA7CU K0DTJ W5HNS VE7KBN/P KA4RUR AD7BP KG0YR 5-30-13 WC7S (NCS) -6- WC7S K0DTJ AA7CU W3HZZ K6OIO AD9DX NAQCC East Coast QRS Net (ECN) - Thursday, 8:00 PM Eastern Time, 7.060 Mhz 4-11-13 KG4KGL (NCS) -2- KG4KGL K9VON 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 -  Since we haven't heard a word from Ron for a few months now, it looks like Brion will be taking over more and more of our CW Assistance Program. So I've asked him to introduce himself and also provide some CW guidance info for this section of our newsletter starting with this issue. Hi all! ------ I'm Brion VE3FUJ. Some time back back in the past I offered John my help. After a few veiled prods John thought that perhaps I could help. There were a few pages in the "CW Assistance" links rather devoid of info so he graciously allowed me the opportunity to fill in some missing pages. I'm new at this, so I'll start by telling you a few things about myself. Bear with me. I came to Canada in 1956, and settled in Ontario. I had caught the Radio-bug in the Old Country a few months before I left. And by the early 60's I had settled down enough to do something about it. I found the Hamilton Amateur Radio Club, ARC, ran courses for Beginners and Advanced Amateur Radio, in one of the local Secondary Schools, I enrolled in Beginners Class in Fall 63 and got my Basic license in Spring of 64 following the next two Winter I attended Advanced Classes to further my knowledge in Radio-theory and passed my Advanced in Spring 66. My "English" may lack in correctness as I never went to school in this Country, except the afore mentioned Night-classes, so I was never taught the basic grammar. Even after nearly 60 years of speaking "English" I still haven't got it right, according to a higher authority (my XYL, also from the old Country but went to school here). Be that as it may. Listening to the Bands I'm both elated and at the same time appalled at what I hear. Elated by the Morse Code activity taking place. Appalled at some Op's lack of Code generating Proficiency, fortunately they are in the Minority. It seems that the Majority of Op's in that Category prefers the "Bug". I don't know what it is, is it because they think that speed makes up for sloppy Code? Also I expect they have never listened to themselves, nor gotten an honest report on their Code Proficiency. Which is really a shame, with a bit of effort they may become good Op's. So to those Op's I say again! ---- Accuracy takes precedence over speed at all times ------ It is not how fast you say it but rather how well you say it. A message that has to be repeated one or more times Defeat the purpose of precise Communication, and CW is precise. ----- If you are of late experiencing rather "short Qso's" or don't seem to be able to get many contacts calling CQ on a seemingly well occupied Band, it may be a Red Flag telling you it may be time to record your Fist and take a listen (it really is an eye opener). So you may say, I've been pounding Brass for umpteen millennium and never had a complaint, and WHO does he think he is? Op's will be, generally, too polite to tell you, but rather try and avoid you, or should you answer their CQ, to keep it politely short. No matter how long you've been at it, take a listen to yourself at the first opportunity and at regular intervals, (and also remember that your side tone always sounds perfect, or though its far from the actual reality) lest you should try and descend into your bad habit once again. If for whatever reason you are unable to handle a manual code generating device, Bug, bare foot Cootie or a straight key, you can resort to Key-board generated Code. This day and age there is no excuse for poor code, and has been said many times before ------ habits are hard to break ------ Yes but remember that both good and bad habits are equally hard to break. So lets make an effort to clean it up and perhaps Enjoy it more? Brion VE3FUJ See the CW Assistance section of the web site and the new content from Brion 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: 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 0245 LZ3RN - 05/04/13 ground plane 0246 LZ3RN - 05/04/13 ground plane 0247 N3CU - 05/04/13 center-fed Zepp@50' 0248 K3WWP - 05/12/13 Vertical dipole on side of house 0249 K3WWP - 05/12/13 Vertical dipole on side of house 0250 VE2ZA - 05/19/13 Random wire 0251 VE2ZA - 05/19/13 Random wire 0252 N3CU - 05/19/13 center-fed Zepp@50' 0253 N3CU - 05/19/13 center-fed Zepp@50' 0254 KE6K - 05/23/13 Challenger DX Vertical 0255 AB3SI - 05/26/13 Long wire 0256 9A7DCK - 05/27/13 40/20 Inverted V 0257 VE3DTI - 06/02/13 43' vertical wire QSO-a-Day Awards: One Month 2013: 30 Days 2013: 0002 KC2EGL - 4/18/13 (3/14-4/12) 2XQRP Awards: 50 Points: 0018 AB9YC - 5/20/13 30-30 Awards: One month 0027 W4TZM Apr 2013 - 04/26/13 0028 W4TZM May 2013 - 05/29/13 Magnum: 0009 W4TZM Mar-Apr 2013 - 05/29/13 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 - 4/22/13A bit of a slowdown in awards during the month of May. Probably due to the nice weather enabling folks to spend more time outdoors away from their rigs. 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.Don Matthesen K0HP #5251  Hi, I'm Don, K0HP, and I live in Spearfish, SD, in the Black Hills. We're just a few miles from Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the old west town of Deadwood and Mt. Rushmore. As a seventh-grader I came across an ARRL Handbook in the Sundance, WY, library and that was the beginning of my ham hobby. I renewed and read the handbook so many times the binding fell apart and the librarian told me to just keep it. I was first licensed in 1958 as KN7EPP with help from Elmers W7CAK and W7RJR. Later, I held K7EPP, WB0JFN, and W0PHP. My station includes an FT-920, K-1, K-2, TS-570 and a few pieces of vintage tube gear. Antennas are dipoles for 80 and 40, 1/4 wave vertical on 80, inverted vee on 160m, triband yagi at 50', and a 160m fullwave loop used mainly for receiving. I enjoy morning contacts with friends on 80m SSB, plus CW operating and DXing, restoring vintage gear, antenna building, homebrewing and casual contesting. I have a collection of telegraph keys and a few of my favorites are an "Electro Bug", J-37 with leg clamp, and a HAL FYO paddle. I've especially enjoyed all the interesting people I've met and friendships made through the years via Amateur Radio. I have 5BWAS,160m WAS and 5BDXCC, all with 100 watts. I've started collecting QRP contacts with my Elecrafts. I just put a K-2 together this winter and I'm looking forward to a lot of CW portable operating this summer. Hope to meet you on the radio! 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 Jul 11. 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. From John K3WWP #0002 FC 1 - My big news is all above, and I'm not going to comment further on it here.Since the last newsletter where I mentioned new entities T2YY and A71CM, I worked the World's newest country Z81X - South Sudan. That was luck. I came across him apparently just starting up on 15M, and worked him easily simplex. Then just after that he went split, and the wild throng descended upon him. Best of all, it was legit as I'm in their on-line log. I often am suspicious when I work a very rare one so easily. That's 217 entities now. Also to further prove the high efficiency of QRP/CW, I've now worked some DX on each of the days since March 1 this year - 98 straight days as of typing this on June 6. I credit a lot of that to my KX3 and the associated panadapter which allow not only quickly scanning a band, but working someone when I do find them, be it simplex or split. Everyone who is serious about OPERATING QRP/CW should have a KX3. Of course a lot of folks are more intersted in building gear or making QSOs with very simple gear, and that's fine also. But serious QRP/CW operating requires the best equipment, and currently I believe that's the KX3.
From Paul N8XMS #675- We have all probably seen some unusual callsigns, especially for special events, but this one tops them all! On May 30th I worked HF55PKZDABROWA on 15-meters. Yes, that really is the callsign! You sure could harvest a lot of letters for one of our alphabet challenges from this call! The QRZ.com page says that it's a special callsign for the SP9PDG club in Poland. The information on the page is in Polish and when I asked Google to translate it it said, "This mark will be used in compound 55 anniversary delivery of the Palace of Culture and the Days of the Mining oak wood and Children's Day." I would have understood it almost as well if I had stuck to the original Polish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||