The LARG Radio News

The main topic for our July Meeting will be a debriefing and discussion of LARG's 1999 ARRL Field Day Operations.

In case you haven't heard, LARG had its best Field Day score ever; the K4LRG callsign was copied by 2006 other Field Day participants! That's over 700 more QSO's than we have ever had before and should give us a final score of more than 7,000 points. This tally is preliminary because the Newsletter is going out before the logs are checked for dupes and bonus points, etc., are included. We will have the LARG official results at the July club meeting. Twenty-nine LARG members contributed to our success, the largest turnout that we have had since we started doing Field Day in 1993.

Our antenna setup crews completed their work in fine style on Friday afternoon/evening, putting up a mast with a 2-element tribander, a tower with 6-meter, 2-meter, and 440 MHz yagis, and three 135' Windoms. Saturday morning found us solving some of generator / power supply problems, but by the time that 1800Z rolled around, all three HF and the VHF station were on the air and ready to go. The preliminary tables included with this Newsletter will give you some idea of how our score is broken down by time, band, mode, and station. Remember, these figures are from the unchecked logs and still include dupes.

Our preparations for Field Day started at the June club meeting as we prepared Gary's, NC4S, farm for our activities. We put a huge tarp over the frame of his greenhouse, where one HF station was to be located. One end of the sheep barn was then made habitable for HF station #2, and the tool shed was reorganized to accommodate the third HF station. We also did a lot of measuring for the wire antennas and located sites for the generators. Also, Norm, AI2C, presented the awards that were earned during the VA QSO Party this year, including the 2^nd place certificate for high-scoring club.

It is with great sadness that we report that Charles Gobs, W3TNC, is now a SK. Although Charles was not an active member of LARG, he kept in touch with Loudoun County amateur radio happenings through other hams in the Hamilton area. Charles was active throughout his ~50-year ham career and was responsible for giving out the rare Afghanistan prefix to many DX-hungry hams when he operated as YA3TNC while working in that country. We will miss hearing his fine fist and our brief, cross-town QSO's on 40 meters.

Sunday night net: Don't forget to tune in to the LARG Sunday evening net at 8:00 p.m. local time on 147.480 simplex. A number of us have improved our 2-meter antennas and almost everyone can copy all of the other stations.