![]() | NAQCC News |
Nov 12, 2011 | NAQCC Web Site | Issue #154 |
---|
In this issue: 1. November Sprint 2. October Challenge Results 3. General Club News 4. Chapter News 5. NAQCC QRS Nets 6. CW Assistance Project 7. CW Cartoon of the Month 8. Member Spotlight 9. News Items and Articles by Our Members |
1. NOVEMBER SPRINT: Because of our alternating 2nd Tuesday - 3rd Wednesday sprint schedule to accomodate those who have other activities every Tuesday or Wednesday, there is sometimes a greater separation between sprints than at other times. From October to November was such a large gap, and everyone should be chomping at the bit to get back to the action. Well, it's just a few days now. Our November sprint is this coming Wednesday evening the 16th at 8:30 PM EST, 7:30 PM CST, 6:30 PM MST, and 5:30 PM PST. Yes, we are now back on (S)tandard time now till March. That means the UTC or Z time for our sprints is now 0130-0330Z. If you run your life by local time, there is no change, but for those who may run their lives by UTC, note the change. If that was a bit confusing for anyone, just remember Wednesday evening the 16th local time which is Thursday the 17th at 0130-0330Z. I hope to see all of you there, or if we don't cross paths in the sprint itself, I sure hope to see your log when I process hopefully at least our usual 100 of them. With the earlier onset of darkness now, outdoor activities will dwindle and there's no excuse not to join in the fun of our sprints. Don't think they are fun? Well, don't believe me, just read the soapbox comments in the past few months' results pages. Most all who enter our sprints use the wonderful GenLog program which makes the sprints not only fun, but extremely easy to log your contacts either during or after the sprint and then submit the GenLog text log with our autologger. If you need the GenLog program, it's available at http://www.qsl.net/w3km/. It's totally freeware. With the popularity of our sprints it is becoming necessary to spread out our activity a bit more than the frequencies listed in the rules. That's perfectly OK, but don't stray overly far or you may not be found. Also avoid other scheduled activities when you do so - other contests/sprints, nets, code practice, etc. Remember to be sure to read and understand the full general sprint rules and any specific rules for this month's sprint here. ![]() 2. OCTOBER CHALLENGE RESULTS: Our mW challenges are always very popular, and this one was no exception. With the best propagation conditions since the NAQCC was founded back in 2004, it was easy to make QSOs all around the world with less than 1 watt and simple antennas. A large proportion of the QSOs you made were with DX stations on all continents. However only 9 of you reported your results for whatever reason. Those 9 are K1YAN W9UX AF4LB N8XMS K3WWP W2JEK VE3FUJ VE3HNE K1IEE. Congratulations to all of the 9 for mastering the challenge. Full Challenge results can always be found here. ![]() 3. GENERAL CLUB NEWS: ![]() ![]() Back then we had just recently signed up member # 3,000. Now we are coming close to doubling that number with around 5,750 members. That is a trememdous number of members for any club, but even more so when you consider that to be a member, you must have an interest in both CW AND QRP. There are bigger CW clubs, but a lot of their members have no interest in QRP at all, and only operate QRO power. Also there are bigger QRP clubs, but many of their members only operate digital or voice modes. We think the NAQCC is the biggest QRP/CW club in the world now. Our flagship activity continues to be our sprints. We think they are the most popular of any 2-hour sprints around. In April of 2010 we cracked the 100 logs barrier and have continued to have 100+ logs every month since but for one. We've had as many as 135 logs for one sprint. Even the extremely popular ARS Spartan Sprints have never achieved that level of popularity to my knowledge. Keep this in mind - for our sprints, full logs must be submitted and each log is carefully cross-checked for errors. That requires more effort than those sprints who merely ask for a QSO total with no supporting log to go with it. We don't penalize errors in the cross-check except to change a score if the error warrants that. For example if someone logs the state wrong and that reduces (or increases) the number of multipliers. Since we teach contesting with our sprints, and all big contests do require logs, we feel our method is the only way to go. Our challenges continue to increase in popularity, although nowhere near the level of our sprints. It took 3 years before we regularly cracked the 10 reports barrier. Now there seems to be a seasonal cycle to the number of reports. During the cold weather months we average near the mid-teens, while in the warm weather months it's perhaps an average of 8-10 or so. There is also a slight dip in our December challenges as that is a busy month for just about everyone. Our alphabet challenges seem to be among the most popular, and we have more of them than any other kind. Another very popular type are our mW challenges, especially now that propagation is the best since the club was founded in 2004. While there are our regular participants who take part in just about every challenge, there are also many new calls showing up in the results lately. It would be nice to 'kick it up a notch' (for you Emeril Lagasse fans) and see our average participation move into the 20s. One club activity that has really taken off under the leadership of Brian WB9TPA and now Dan AF4LB is our NAQCC QRS Nets. From one poorly attended net on Sunday evenings, we have now gone to 5 well-attended nets (with a 6th to start soon) covering a large portion of the country. We hope to continue to improve on that as the nets are excellent sources of actual on-the-air code practice at speeds comfortable to those who are just learning and getting comfortable with CW. There's nothing to running such a net. If you would like to consider starting one in your area, contact Dan AF4LB, and he'll give you all the info. Our awards program has also taken off during the past couple years. I would make a rough estimate that we have at least a dozen new awards, endorsements, or honor roll listings each month now. All capably handled by our Awards Manager Rick AA4W. Perhaps one reason is our dropping fees for the awards and sending out certificates by email instead. That leads to the next item though. With the dropping of fees, now our only source of income for the club is donations from members. They have dropped off lately while our expenses have increased with the moving of our web site to a larger server and getting our own domain name just about a year ago. We would like to purchase some more prizes to give away in conjunction with our club activities, but that may have to be put on hold. However we still do have a very fine prize program with the prizes being handled by our Prize Manager Mike KC2EGL. A few of our members have donated prizes to be given away and we appreciate that. You can check the prize page on the web site to see what we do have in the prize queue currently and see who our donors are. One thing that has never really gotten off the ground despite our members saying they would be interested in it is our activity days. That's where we encourage activity on certain lesser used bands on certain days of a month. We are still sitting on the runway awaiting take-off, but we have someone who is going to try to pilot this activity and increase participation. It's our former net manager Brian WB9TPA. See his member news item for more info. Another thing that has been started since our last history report is updating our membership database from the FCC database. Of the hundreds of changes in member info since the club started, only a very few members have notified us of their changes. So we (K3WWP) started checking the FCC database updates every 5 days for changes. The FCC updates are posted daily on the Internet. We download the appropriate files from those updates, and compare the info to our database through an Excel program written by K3WWP. As a result we think our club database may be among the most accurate of any club's. However we still only depend on you to notify us of any changes in your email address as there is no accurate Internet source of email addresses. Oh, we've also added some items that you may purchase to help show off your club membership at hamfests, to visitors to your shack, on your web site, etc. You can check the main page of the web site for the items. There are QSL cards, plaques, hats, and more there. All are available from the companies who produce them, and the NAQCC does not get any financial input from the sales. And that pretty much brings the history of the club up to date as of November 2011. Thank you for being an integral important part of the history. We hope you will continue to support the club by participating in our activities, volunteering to help out with some aspect of the club such as being a NCS for one of our nets, always mentioning and promoting the club in anyway you can thus recruiting new members so we can continue our growth, and making a small financial donation or donating a prize for our giveaways. ![]() Stat: 2011 2010 2009 Total QSOs: 883 840 830 States: All 48 45 Provinces: 6 3 6 DX Entities: 45 13 15 2XN#A QSOs: 34 49 58 Sprint QSOs: 302 254 128 QSOs by band (not tabulated in 2009) 160 0 3 80 22 127 40 334 573 30 106 42 20 278 74 17 5 9 15 33 7 12 11 4 10 40 1 State logged by most different ops: 2011 - GA by 16 of 34 ops 2010 - IN, PA by 15 of 30 ops 2009 - PA by 20 of 27 ops ![]() ![]() I received this email from Dave W3KM, author of GenLog about the hidden call feature: "Yes, I guess members do not read the Newsletter! I noticed the callsigns before I read about the hidden callsigns. Oct 8th: wB2b Oct 29th: k4mF I like how a pix is used, so searching on one`s call doesn`t work, Hi. Dave, W3KM" K4MF did find his own call, by the way. ![]() 4. CHAPTER NEWS: Here is where our club chapters present news about their chapter activities. We currently have four chapters - European, Minnesota, Texas, and Western Pennsylvania. We're looking forward to expanding that roster. Chapters are more or less self-governing local gatherings organized by members in a geographical area and subject to a list of guidelines under the auspices of the NAQCC. If you would be interested in starting a chapter in your area, let us know and we'll send a copy of the guidelines. 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://naqcc-eu.org/ NAQCC MINNESOTA CHAPTER: ![]() ![]() Items in this section are from Chapter President Rich WD0K (L) and/or Keith K0HJC (R) 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. Mike KC2EGL and John K3WWP will have their monthly WPA Chapter get-together later this month, perhaps around Thanksgiving. We'll work on NAQCC prize information, and 'fool around' with my (formerly his) K2 and KX-1 rigs. We'll also enjoy a dinner somewhere. I don't think we'll do any portable operation this time nor for the next few cold months. I do guarantee we won't have a bored moment during the visit as we always find things to do since we have so many common interests. ![]() 5. NAQCC QRS NETS: ![]() News and net reports in this section are from QRS Net Manager Dan AF4LB unless otherwise credited. Dan will handle all Net related material at this email address: ![]() We've just been informed by Dan that he will be going in for surgery sometime before the end of the year. That means we need a NCS for our Main Sunday evening net as well as for the ECN on Thursday evenings. If you can help out for a few weeks after Dan's surgery, email him at the address above as soon as possible and let him know. Thanks. Now our NAQCC QRS Nets schedule and activity report: NAQCC Main QRS Net (NQN)
Sunday evenings local time which is Monday 0100Z on 7041 kHz.Date(UTC) NCS Participants 10-31-11 AF4LB NO NET==EQUIPMENT FAILURE== 11-7-11 AF4LB NO CHECK-INS NAQCC East Texas QRS Net (ETN)
Monday evenings local time, which is Tuesday 0100Z on 7121 kHz.Date(UTC) NCS Participants 11-1-11 KA5TJS -7- KA5TJS W5IQS KE5YGA KE5YUM K2IWQ KG0YR KB0ETU 11-8-11 KA5TJS -4- KA5TJS KB0IQS KE5YGA NAQCC Rocky Mtn Regional/Continental QRS net (RMR)
Tuesday afternoons local time which is Tuesday 2100Z on
14062.5 kHz.Date(UTC) NCS ParticipantsThursday afternoons local time which is Thursday 2100Z on 14062.5 kHz. Date(UTC) NCS Participants 11-3-11 WC7S -3- WC7S K1IEE AE7CG 11-10-11 WC7S -3- WC7S AE7CG KF4IBU NAQCC East Coast QRS Net (ECN)
Thursday evenings local time which is Friday 0230Z on 7041 kHz.Date(UTC) NCS Participants 11-4-11 AF4LB NO NET==EQUIPMENT FAILURE== 11-11-11 AF4LB --NO CHECKINS-- NAQCC Pacific NorthWest QRS Net (PNW)
Thursday evenings local time which is Friday 0300Z on 3574 kHz.Date(UTC) NCS Participants 10-28-11 KE7LKW -2- KE7LKW K7ALGAll frequencies are +/- QRM. For more net info, see CW Assistance/QRS Nets on the web site. ![]() 6. NAQCC CW ASSISTANCE PROJECT: ![]() Items in this section are from CW Assistance Project Coordinator Ron K5DUZ (L) unless otherwise credited. If you are interested in helping out or need help with any CW and/or QRP matters contact: K5DUZ - ![]() Ron has become involved in another work project and will be unavailable to write info for this section for a while. If you would like to write something that you feel will be helpful to our members in learning CW or improving CW skills, please feel free to do so. No one has come forward with any info this week and I (K3WWP) do not have time to write something for this issue. We apologize for that and hope someone will come forward ![]() ![]() 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. A new cartoon has appeared in each of our even-numbered newsletters ever since their debut in Issue #058, November 17, 2007. ![]() ![]() 8. MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: ![]() This section is managed by Paul N8XMS and any questions about it should go to ![]() Bob Zolecki KR9Z #2330 ![]() I got my first license in 1964 while in the Army stationed at Treynor, Iowa on a Nike Hercules missile base protecting Offutt Air Force base. I was an electronics tech for the radar system. My call was WN9KPI then WA9KPI untill I got the vanity call KR9Z. I've held every class license on the way up except Conditional. After my active duty I returned to Caterpillar Tractor as a electrician which I soon left to work at a Particle Accelerator for a National Laboratory untill I retired 34 years later. In the mean time, I got married to my wife of 45 years Sharon. We have 2 sons, 2 wonderful daughter in laws and 5 super grandkids. I have one brother Don who is also a ham, AB0MO. My quest now is to earn WAS with a Rockmite @ 1/2W with a simple wire antenna and then EME using 2 meters. I have 38 states so far with the Mite. Since I'm in a no antenna subdivision I only have a low wire 40m dipole from my house to a Martin birdhouse. The neighbors think the wire is for the birds to sit on. HiHi. Favorite band is 40 meters. I'm not a contest person so most of my operation has been QRP with less than one watt or QRO at 50 watts with the Straight Key Century Club using a Kenwood TS850 and a straight key only. I'm 100% cw and a member of ARRL, NAQCC 2330, Flying Pigs 2041, SKCC 719T, 10-10 and MARAC. Building and operating with homebrew rigs is most enjoyable for me. Hope to meet everyone on the cw bands....73 Bob ![]() 9. 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 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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. |