| NAQCC News |
| Jun 5, 2010 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #119_120 | |
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In this issue: 1. June Challenge. 2. May Sprint Results 2a. June Sprint 3. General Club News 3a. Web Site Tour 4. Elmer Project 4a. CW Cartoon of the Month 5. Latest Award Winners 6. Member Spotlight 7. News Items and Articles by Our Members |
| 1. JUNE CHALLENGES: Yes that 'S' at the end of CHALLENGE is there for a purpose. As we do each June, we have two separate challenges. Initially we had only a Field Day challenge in June, and we are continuing that tradition this year because it has been so popular since its inception. However we like to have challenges that last the full month, so we added a second challenge each June as well. This year it's a 'Work the Members' challenge. Briefly in the FD challenge, you make as many QSO's as possible from as many states as possible. In the other challenge you work as many members as possible throughout the month. Hopefully that will help you earn our Friendship Club award. There are several other little nuances, so please, as always, read the complete rules before embarking on your quest to master the challenge(s). NOTE: MAY CHALLENGE RESULTS WILL BE IN THE NEXT ISSUE Full Challenge info here.  2. MAY SPRINT RESULTS: Another excellent sprint this month that slightly bettered our record setting April sprint. We had 105 log submissions this month, 1 more than in April. We believe that is one of the very few times any ham club had over 100 logs submitted in a 2-hour sprint two sprints in a row. We are just so proud of you, our wonderful members, for supporting the NAQCC so solidly in its efforts to promote and preserve CW on the ham bands. Thank you. Since this is a double-issue newsletter and we don't want to make it too overly long, we are going to move along now and get right to the stats although we could say a lot more about this record-setting sprint. STATS - current month, previous month, all time record, mo/yr (blue indicates a record set this month): Logs - 105 104 105 5/10 Autologger logs - 101 101 101 4-5/10 Stns in logs - 168 165 168 5/10 Hour 1 QSO's - 796 724 796 5/10 Hour 2 QSO's - 637 696 696 4/10 Total QSO's - 1433 1420 1433 5/10 20M QSO's - 316 244 316 5/10 40M QSO's - 1052 1003 1052 5/10 80M QSO's - 65 173 765 2/10WINNERS: 1st SWA East - N8BB 1st SWA Central - W5YDM 1st SWA Mountain - N0TA 1st SWA Pacific - KA6AIL 1st Gain - K7RE First-Timer Certificate - N4IY Knob/handle drawing: TBA LATER Congratulations to all including winners and non-winners. Actually everyone who participated and sent in a log is a winner because you have helped show the ham radio world that there are many folks still 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 important also. We had a total of 14 stations who didn't submit a log show up 5-30 times in the 105 logs we received and cross-checked. Hopefully they and many others will be back next month AND submit a log. Remember submitting a log doubles the strength of your statement that you support CW operation. We welcome these hams who submitted a sprint log for the first time. We hope they will continue to participate and report their results: W0MSM, N4IY, W4KRN, WA1GPO, KB1PBA, KC2JKU, WA3AAN(nm), W9NX, AC8AP, N1IMW, WM4X, K2GLS, K5JX, WB5UAA, K5JYD, N8IJG, KB0ETU, AB2ZI, K9MRA, AG2M, N4OLN, KJ4MRB, K1QED. GOLDEN LOGS. Everyone who submits a log with exactly the correct format as defined in the rules plus has every bit of info (numbers, states, etc.) correct in the log gets a listing in this GOLDEN LOGS section in the results. Many clubs penalize mistakes in logging, some to the point of disqualification if there are too many mistakes. We don't do anything like that other than fixing a score if a mistake changes it. Instead of penalizing errors, we will reward perfection. There also is going to eventually be some sort of prize in conjunction with the GOLDEN LOGS. We haven't decided the details yet. We hope that is an incentive to run a fine-tooth comb through your logs before submitting them. GOLDEN LOG's this month (36 of 105) were from: AB2ZI, K0HJC, K1IEE, K2ZC, K4JPN, K9MRA, KA2KGP, KB1PBA, KB8FE, KD2MX, KD5MMM, KK5NA, KQ1P, KU4A, N0AZN, N0TA, N1LU, N2COD, N4ESS, N4FI, N8IJG, N8XMS, N9KR, W1OH, W2JEK, W5YDM, W9CC, WA1LWS, WA2JSG, WA2OQJ, WA4AN, WA8SAN, WB5NMZ, WB5UAA, WB8ENE, WM4X. GOLDEN LOG's each month since we started keeping track in March 2010: K4JPN, KD5MMM, KU4A, N8XMS, W9CC, WB8ENE. Thanks to all GOLDEN LOGgers for making my cross-checking job that much easier. Finally a note on 'not-in-log' QSO's. As those of you know who have received a 'not-in-log' email from us, we give you the chance to check with the other station to see if the 'not-in-log' QSO should really be there. As far as we know, we are the only sprint/contest that does that. Some who get the email don't question the other station for whatever reason. That's OK, at least we gave you the chance. Of those who do question the other station, probaby about 1/4 or 1/3 of the QSO's are restored as well as being added to the other station's log. Many who log on paper admit they are as they put it, 'sloppy' in their logging and when they convert their paper log to a log they can submit, they sometimes miss adding a QSO. So the bottom line is you may be 'cheating' yourself out of a QSO if you don't take the time to check it out. 'Nuff said. Full sprint info here. 2a. JUNE SPRINT: Our regular monthly sprint is this Wednesday, June 9 0030-0230Z. If you're new to ham radio and unfamiliar with Z or UTC time, that's Tuesday evening at 8:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Will we continue our record-setting trend this month or will other summer activities steal from our pool of sprinters? Only time will tell. Once again I'll send out a reminder on our mail list the morning of the sprint as that seems to have been very effective in increasing activity in April and May. Remember our special First-Timer certificate that goes to the highest scoring participant who never before submitted a log for one of our sprints. May's winner was N4IY with 1,708 points. Also the prize of custom made bug/paddle handles or straight key knobs that goes to the one chosen in a random drawing among ALL participants who submit a log regardless of score. We are still awaiting word from our Prize Manager Mike KC2EGL about our April drawing winner KH6G. Until we get that word, we can't do our May drawing. So that will be announced later. This prize giveaway will continue for the next 6 months now. If you are entering one of our sprints for the first time, we welcome you and hope you will be a regular participant from now on. Last month we welcomed another large bunch of new participants - 23!! Remember this is only a brief overview of the coming sprint. We've revamped the wording of some of our general sprint rules to try to make them easier to understand. The rules stay the same, just the wording is different. Be sure to read and understand the full general sprint rules and any specific rules for this month's sprints here. 3. GENERAL CLUB NEWS:  - Let's talk about club chapters. We suggested a few issues ago that our club is now big enough to have local chapters. Such chapters would be run by an individual in the chapter who would be responsible for everything connected with the chapter. That would include, but not be limited to, regularly sending an HTML formatted report on club activities for publication in the newsletter. The chapter head would plan activities for the club, arrange local get-togethers, and the like. He/she would pretty much have free rein in running the chapter, just keeping in mind the chapter must be bonded closely to the NAQCC and not be simultaneously connected with any other club in any way. There are many additional things a chapter could do, pretty much only limited by the imagination of the chapter head.Such chapters could be organized by locality primarily, but there could also be world wide chapters, say devoted to key collecting, antenna design, and the like. It's all still pretty much up in the air since we really did not receive any concrete feedback on the idea yet. One other thing comes to mind. There could be, for example, a United Kingdom chapter that could have their own local NAQCC Sprint since our main NAQCC sprint really is only attractive to W/VE stations with a rare appearance by perhaps an XE, KP4, KH6, KL7, etc. station. Just to give you an idea of some geographical locations that have enough members to start a very meaningful chapter, here is a list of the top 5 countries outside W/VE, and the top 5 states and the number of members. England 99 Italy 38 Australia 25 Germany 21 Spain 21 CA 274 TX 266 PA 214 FL 192 OH 188Geographical chapters could also be something like Western Pennsylvania, Southern Florida, etc. Give it some thought, and if you're willing to take on the task of organizing a chapter, let us know and we'll give as much help as time permits. - Just a quick reminder we're continuing with the hidden call sign idea originally suggested by Bill KB3XS. 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. Actually since this is a double issue, we're hiding two calls. If it (either one) is YOUR call sign and YOU find it, email us BEFORE the publication date of the next newsletter (June 26) and win 100 NAQCC QSL cards donated by the NAQCC. - As we mentioned in an email to everyone subscribed to our NAQCC mail list, there are now handsome NAQCC hats available at reasonable prices to our members. The makers of these hats are Todd WM8C (#4515) and his wife Astrid N8YZI. See the Club Hats page of our web site for full details. We hope every member would want one of these hats to show your pride in being a NAQCC member. K3WWP, WY3H, and KC2EGL will be proudly wearing theirs at the Butler, PA hamfest coming up Sunday, June 6. - It looks like we've gotten all the submissions we are going to get in our NAQCC banner contest. In case you are not sure, we're talking about the little banners you see on many Internet web sites, not the huge banners you see in parades. So we'll throw it out to you to decide which banner you like the best and think would do the most to promote the club on various web sites.If you wish your vote to count, FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY. Anything deviating from the instructions will be discarded without even a glance. Pick the banner you like and note it's designation (AA, BB, CC, etc.). Prepare an email to  , and make the subject "NAQCC Banner" with capitalization exactly as shown and without the quotes. In the body of the email, put ONLY the banner designation, your call sign, and NAQCC number (for example):
BB K3WWP 0002We'll tabulate all the votes and if one banner doesn't stage a runaway in the votes, the club officers will pick one from the top two (or three) vote-getters. Now here are the banners and their designations in no particular order. AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH II KK - With the great success of our May mW challenge we've decided to modify our QSO-A-Day award to include mW QSO's. Basically the award can now be endorsed for making each daily QSO with mW power. Also the one-month and 30-days category awards can now be earned by making only one mW QSO per day. Up to six different one-month and 30-days awards can be earned in a year using either mW or 1-5 watts power. Check the complete revised rules, and ask questions if anything is not clear there.3a. WEB SITE TOUR: We're continuing our tour this newsletter with a look at the Member List section of the web site. Again the content of this section is obvious. It's a list of all our 4600+ club members ordered by number. The main page also includes at the end a list of all members who have changed calls since joining the club. Listed are the old and new call(s). Some 315+ members have gone the vanity call route since joining. Below that is a list of members who hold multiple calls. If a call is in blue in the main list, you can look there to see what other calls are held by that person. To check to see if a ham you worked is a club member or not, simply use your browser's 'Find' or 'Search' feature by typing the call into the search box. You can also search by name, town, etc. that way. This is why we don't use slash zeroes in call signs. Using them instead of regular zeroes defeats the search function. Should you want a small easy-to-use search program rather than using your browser, you can get the program written by Dick K2RFP via a link here. There is also an alphabetical-by-call text list available for download should that be easier for you to use when working on your Friendship Club Award (hint). Finally a list of members' web sites is in this section. Many of our members have extremely interesting and informative web sites you may want to explore. For more info visit the Member List section of the web site. 4. THE NAQCC ELMER PROJECT:   The Elmer project is co-ordinated by Karl N3IJR (L) and Ron K5DUZ. If you are interested in helping out or need help with any CW and/or QRP matters contact: K5DUZ -  N3IJR -  From NAQCC VP John K3WWP - Our three Elmer directors have all lately come down with other more important matters that is severely limiting their time spent running the Elmer program. Therefore we need your help to keep up this effort to help newcomers to CW learn the ropes. If you can volunteer for a couple hours or so  each week to answer questions and help in other ways, please let us know. We particularly need someone (or a few someones) to act as NCS of our weekly Sunday evening QRS net described below. Contact either Karl or Tom via their email addresses below if you can help out.The NAQCC QRS Net meets Sunday evening at 8:30 Eastern time which is Monday at 0130Z on 7118 kHz. Please check in and help out. Everyone is welcome from the rank beginner to the seasoned veteran CW op. On May 23, I (K3WWP) had to step in and take time out of my own busy schedule to act as NCS. That was the first time I can recall acting as an NCS since I regularly helped to run the CW County Hunters Net (founded by K3WWP and WA8EOH in May 1966) back in the late 1960's. I really enjoyed it, but have too much other club work and other business to do it on a regular basis. We had 8 check-ins from 7 different states from ME to FL and NJ to IL. That's a good total that could have been even more, but the slow speed nature of the net does eat up time quickly when you give everyone a chance to have their say which we did. There were a lot of 599 reports given out so I think we had some real good QRS code practice for the participants. I acted as NCS again on the 30th with contrasting results probably due to it being Memorial Day weekend plus conditions being not as good. Only one check-in. We need YOU to make our Elmer project work. If you need help with any ham radio matter or are willing to help others with your expertise, please contact our Elmer directors: K5DUZ - N3IJR - WY3H -  Also see Elmer Project on the web site. 4a. CW CARTOON OF THE MONTH:  Let's take a comedy and/or nostalgia break now courtesy of Dick Sylvan W9CBT. Dick has been a long-time QRP/CW operator. One of his many talents is being a cartoon artist, and he is supplying a cartoon each month for the newsletter. The NAQCC is very honored to be one of just two organizations to feature Dick's cartoons. In addition to our newsletter, Dick's cartoons appear monthly in The K9YA Telegraph, an on-line only Ham Radio E-zine where he is the staff cartoonist. Dick has also authored a book entitled "Hi Hi - A Collection of Ham Radio Cartoons" available via his web site. A new cartoon will be appearing in each of our even-numbered newsletters.  5. AWARD WINNERS THE PAST TWO MONTHS: CERTIFICATES: 1000 MPW: 0075 - KD0R 4/29 0076 - N1LU 5/17 0077 - KE5YUM 5/24 0078 - KE5YUM 5/24 KMPW 100: 0004 - NU7T 4/2 QSO-a-Day 2010: 30 Days: 0001 - K3WWP 4/22 WAC: 0014 - KD0R 4/29 ENDORSEMENTS and/or WEB SITE LISTINGS: KMPW 100 Honor Roll: NU7T - 205 6/2 FEATURED AWARD: As mentioned in a news item above, our QSO-a-Day Award has been modified to include mW QSO 'streaks'. You can have any of the awards certified for mW operation. You can earn more than one of the 1-month and 30-days awards per year, and you need only make one QSO per day to earn them if you use mW power. With better conditions now as sunspot cycle 24 gets underway at last, this award as well as all other awards, will become easier to earn and we expect a big rush of award applications now. Remember our awards are very reasonably priced at only $3.00 to cover cost of printing and mailing. What is left over from the $3.00 goes into the club treasury as the only source of club income in addition to donations from members. Without that, we'd have to cut back on club operations as we will NEVER charge dues to belong to the NAQCC. Full List of all award winners here. 6. 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.Takis Perrotis SV2FWV #3255  N8XMS Note: Takis asked me to help him fix up the English in his spotlight, but I thought that he did a fine job and made very few changes. His English is certainly much better than my Greek! Hallo everybody, My name is Takis, SV2FWV, NAQCC #3255, my age is 48. I am married with two children. I am communication officer of the Hellenic Navy. I am working cw from 1978 when I joined the navy. You see these years the cw was the standard mode to communicate with other stations hi hi. Since 1995 the cw mode was past for the Hellenic navy, so my cw activities were restricted within the limits of making some contacts with old cw friends from the merchant navy at their frequencies. One of these friends told me, "why Takis you aren't radio amateur?" He was right, why? So I participated at the appropriate examinations and took my radio amateur certificate. After that I started a very interesting hobby with a lot of activities. First I joined the SV DX GROUP and start participating on IOTA dxpeditions. Then I joined the SX1L contest team, as cw operator. At my home shack I use only home made antennas and I do a lot of QRP transmissions. I work only cw mode. I'm owner of a vintage iambic key from Vibroplex with s/n 4022 that is still in use, some straight keys that I keep them from 1978, and two new iambic keys that I use at the contests. I have awards and certificates of my contest activities from Europe and world wide contests. I am not a dxcc hunter but from my contest and dx activities I have more than 210 countries. Maybe some time I will ask for dxcc! My best QRP contacts are, VP5W when I broke the pileup, and with PY2YU. I also have some good contacts with New Zealand but they're not yet confirmed. My other hobby is sailing. I'm member of a sailing team with a lot of activities (learning young persons to sail, travelling to the Greek islands, taking place in regattas etc.). Finally, dear OM's please don't forget when you are dxpedition operators, that some QRP stations are calling you under a big KW powered pileup, listen of them. Thanks very much the NAQCC for the spotlight. Takis Perrotis, SV2FWV 
7. 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. Send your news items and articles to our news editor Paul KD2MX at  . Deadline for submitting news items for the next newsletter is June 26. 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 - Our May challenge led me to a couple additional challenges of my own. As most of you probably know I have a streak of making at least one QRP QSO each day that started back in August 1994. All QSO's are CW of course, using my simple wire antennas. There are over 50,000 QSO's all told in the streak, most all with a full 5 watts of power, but others as low as 70 mW or so. Well, I decided after starting the challenge to make all my May 2010 streak QSO's using the 930 mW that I get from feeding the 5 watts from my TS-480SAT through an RF attenuator. Currently I only have it set up for use on 160-30 meters.The challenges I set for myself were: 1. Make a mW QSO each day - no contests except the NAQCC sprint per our challenge rules. 2. Make a mW QSO each day including contests. 3. Make 50 or more mW QSO's per challenge rules. 4. Make 50 or more mw QSO's including contests. I accomplished 2, 3, and 4, and just missed on 1. I only got a contest QSO on the 29th, due mainly to lack of time. A full report on the month will be available on my personal web site in the QRP section at http://k3wwp.com/qrp_ss.html. From Terry KE5YUM #3102 - Thirty meters has been open at night lately and I enjoy travelling via radio waves to different parts of the world. Like many of you, I listen for long distance European CQs at around 0200Z. I will always be amazed at how far 5 watts will go with a homebrew inverted-V. On May 14, I worked US5XD in the Ukraine and on May 19, I worked UA3TCJ in Russia. These two confirmed contacts are by far the longest distances for me, and I have applied for two 1000MPW awards. |
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. 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. |
