![]() | NAQCC News |
October 11, 2008 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #080 |
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In this issue: 1. October Sprint 2. September Challenge Results 3. Operating Tips 4. General Club News 4a. N3A Update 5. CW Cartoon of the Month 6. Member News |
1. SPRINT: Our sprint is this Tuesday evening, October 14th at 8:30-10:30 PM EDT (Wednesday 0030-0230Z). This month's special award: The one making the highest score in each of our 5 divisions and working the most different N3A/# calls qualifies for the drawing to select our winner. There will be N3A/# calls active from all 10 call areas. We wonder if anyone will be able to work all 10. Our autologger has speeded up reporting of results so much, please remember the deadline is now 2400Z on the Sunday following the sprint. The log must be RECEIVED by that time. We may make allowances for regular mail entries if they have been postmarked early enough but may have been delayed in the mail system. If you're entering one of our sprints for the first time, we welcome you and hope you will be a regular participant from now on. Remember our sprints are NOT the normal fast paced hectic events that come to mind when sprints are mentioned. Ours are designed for the newcomers to contesting with a relaxed slower pace style - ideal for learning the fun art of ham radio contesting. We often tell you how wonderful our sprints are, and perhaps you say something like, "Oh, it's their job to promo the sprints. They can't be that great." OK, let me show you what two of our members think about the sprints. Here's what Pete W4SEC has to say, "Tom and John, I have participated in many of the NAQCC sprints as both WD4LST, and my current call. and have had a blast every time. I just received a reply qsl from one of my contacts on the last sprint, and thought I would send a scanned image to you. The note on the back speaks for itself. See you on the air, and thanks for all of the fun. 72." Here's the image: ![]() Remember this is only a brief overview of the coming sprint. Be sure to always read and understand the full general sprint rules and any specific rules for the current month's sprint. Complete sprint results and rules always can be found here. ![]() 2. SEPTEMBER CHALLENGE RESULTS: Not to brag because I thought of it, but our September State-number challenge drew as many favorable comments as I have seen in any of our soapboxes in the past. We definitely will be repeating this one. You can count on it. We had 11 entries for the challenge. Of those, NU7T with 61 and K4PBY with 45 had the most state-number combos worked, but NU7T relinquished his certificate, so it will go to W2JEK in fourth place since K3WWP in 3rd also relinquished the certificate. We want as many different members as possible to receive some of our beautiful certificates. This was the last of our bug/paddle handles giveaway in conjunction with our challenges. We certainly thank Gregg WB8LZG for all the excitement we've had giving away his handles the past year plus. And Gregg is continuing to supply excitement with a new giveaway in conjunction with our awards program as we announced in a previous newsletter. Our handles winner has yet to be decided since this newsletter is being posted slightly before the challenge entry deadline and although unlikely we could get a last minute (second?) entry from someone. Full challenge info and final results including my tutorial/work sheet for our alphabet style challenges here. ![]() 3. OPERATING TIPS: A lot of members joined the club because they wanted to improve their CW skills and increase their speed. Ron K5DUZ and Karl N3IJR have some very good ideas along those lines and I'm looking forward to what they have to say when they get the Elmer project for the club going. Ron and Karl are starting now to handle any emails that come in with questions regarding learning CW, choosing QRP equipment, and just about anything the newcomer to CW and/or ham radio may ask. Because of that, this will be the last installment of Operating Tips here in the newsletter. If you have questions, email them to ![]() More tips can be found on the web site here. ![]() 4. GENERAL CLUB NEWS: - Of course we're in the middle of our anniversary month and our special N3A operation. It has been going well so far, although hampered a bit by the current poor propagation conditions on the higher bands. However 160, 80, and 40 are quite good most days. Perhaps if we allowed our N3A ops to run a KW and a beam, we could rack up a lot of QSO's, but that is not what the NAQCC is all about. We are a QRP club, and our club events are done with QRP. Since the N3A operation is one of our events, our N3A stations run QRP. "QRO N3A station" is an oxymoron. After all that is the only thing that distinguishes us from being just "another CW club". We are not that but a QRP club whose activities are solely done with CW or you could say we are a CW club whose activities are solely done with QRP, but we are definitely not just a clone of FISTS or other CW clubs as the phrase "another CW club" might indicate to those who don't know us better. That is why we have such a great working relationship with FISTS and have had so from day one of the club. The next couple items address that last sentence. Read on. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 4a. N3A UPDATE: - We'll be having all 10 N3A stations active in both the FISTS sprint and our NAQCC sprint. It took a bit of work to get that to happen as our members, including our N3A ops, all seem to be very busy folks with many different committments. Thanks to all our ops, but especially KD2MX W4ONC and K8KFJ for stepping in to fill up the missing slots for the two sprints since our regular N3A ops couldn't be available at the appropriate times. I've gotten reports from a few of our ops indicating things are going well so far. As of the 6th I count around 200 or so QSO's in the reports received. It is not necessary to send a report till the end of the month so that figure is just derived from a few op comments. The N3A page on the web site has a lot of additional information I'm not going to repeat here. I've also created a calendar of operations that makes it clear at a glance who will be on where and when. It's available via a link from the above page. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 6. MEMBER NEWS: Send your news items to our news editor Paul KD2MX at ![]() ![]() ![]() I made four 40-meter QSOs and worked NC, TN, AL, and NJ. It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun. The best word to describe the park is "quirky." It contains about 100 concrete statues of ears of corn that are each about 6.5 feet tall and that are lined up in a dozen or so rows! I guess that it is supposed to commemorate the importance of agriculture in the early days of the community. When my wife and daughter returned to pick me up they snapped a few pictures and I used one of them to make a special QSL card with my computer to send out to the guys that I worked. It got me thinking that there are probably a lot of communities around the country with quirky sites like this that would be fun to activate. Perhaps we could have a QSOTA special event = Quirky Sites On The Air! ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The publication of our next newsletter will be announced via email to all members for whom we have a valid email address unless they specifically have unsubscribed from the email. 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. |