Amateur Radio From Loudoun County VA

January Club Meeting Report

Be sure and check out the letterhead on this newsletter and see the new 1998 LARG officers, who were elected last month. Also, at last month’s meeting we viewed an ICOM promotional video describing the new IC-756 transceiver. The video described some of the interesting features of this radio, and it is a very impressive rig, but most of us felt as if the video was much too long and dealt with some aspects of the rig which were not particularly interesting - live and learn...

February Club Meeting Notes

There will be lots going on at the February LARG meeting. The highlight will be what has become an annual event: our ARRL Roanoke Division Director, John Kanode, N4MM, will be our guest and will talk about the latest goings on in amateur radio, from WARC bands to the new DXCC 2000. Also, Dennis, KF4TJI, will show us some final color designs for our K4LRG club QSL card; he has also agreed to do the printing for us, thanks Dennis. We will begin some of the preliminary planning for this year’s Field Day Event at the meeting.

Club News

We hope that Otto, W4QDP, will be at the meeting to tell us if roosting vultures enhance HF propagation. John, W4AU, has gotten some good contest results recently; he was the highest scoring CW station in Virginia in the 1997 IARU HF World Championships and was the first place North American single operator CW station in the 1997 ARI Contest, the Italian DX contest. Rumors are that Tom, WB3AKD, has acquired some more surplus mobile radio shelters; could it be that there will be some other pickup trucks (WB9RXJ?) with big antennas running around Loudoun County?

Events

The Virginia QSO Party is fast approaching; it is the weekend of March 21, 22. The contest is broken into two time periods. The first runs from 1:00 p.m. EDT on 3/21 to midnight on 3/22; the seconds starts at 6:00 a.m. EST on 3/22 and goes to 9:00 p.m. 3/23. You can operate on phone, CW, or both modes and on both the HF and UHF/VHF bands; there is something for everyone in this contest, including a mobile category. Gary, NC4S, is organizing this event for the club. Complete rules are on the next page of this newsletter. John, W4AU, is planning to set up his shack as a multi/single or multi/multi station for this contest using the club’s K4LRG callsign. John is inviting anyone interested to sign up for operating, logging, or just watching things happen Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon. Please contact him ahead of time if you want to come by and be part of this “multi” operation, which will, of course, be combined with the rest of the club members’ scores in the contest. Recent no-code or novice club members can come and operate with full HF privileges, just like at Field Day. It will be a great way to get the flavor of operating in an HF contest without a lot of stress!

Virginia QSO Party

Rules: Work fixed stations once per band/mode. Out-of-State stations work Virginia stations only. No cross-mode or repeater QSO's. Work VA mobiles in each county that they operate. Mobiles or fixed stations on county lines count as one QSO and as many county multipliers as they offer. Stations in Virginia independent cities select one bordering county as county multiplier. Count fixed stations only once as multipliers. VA mobiles receive a bonus of 100 additional points for each Virginia county in which they log a valid QSO. Fixed and Mobile operation will be considered separately. You can operate CW only, Phone only, or mixed CW and Phone. Submit separate logs for Fixed and Mobile operation. Spotting nets, DX clusters, etc., may be used to locate other stations - no self spotting permitted. All operators must observe the limits of their operator's license. Multi-Operator stations should indicate all operators by call sign.

Follow standard ARRL contest guidelines. Paper Logs, Summary and Dupe sheets required; No disks please. Summary sheet should include name, mailing address, call sign, number of counties in which operated, license class, club name and a signed statement that all contest rules and regulations have been observed. QRP stations please include a signed statement that transmitter output power was 5 watts or less at all times. Dupe sheets by band and mode are required for 200 or more QSO's. For Club Competition (minimum of 3 valid club entries), be sure to indicate club name on summary sheet and log. Contestants using computer logging and reporting software are required to verify scoring and duping to ensure contest rules have been followed.

Operator Categories:

Single Operator - One person performs all operating and only one transmitter may be on the air at a time

Mobile - Single or Multiple individuals operating Mobile under a single call sign with only one transmitter on the air at a time.

Club - Minimum of three valid contest entries each indicating club affiliation.

Single Operator / Multi Transmitter and Multi Operator / Multi Transmitter stations will be in separate categories and may submit logs for certificate consideration.

Dates: March 21-23, 1998. Contest times are from 1800 UTC on March 21 through 0500 UTC on the 22nd, and from 1100 UTC March 22nd through 0200 UTC on March 23.

Submit logs by April 18, 1998 to the VA QSO Party, Call Box 599, Sterling, VA 20167. Include SASE or email address for summary of contest results.

Frequencies: 160 meters and up, except no WARC band QSO's permitted.

Suggested frequencies: CW--1805 KHz and 50 KHz up from band edge on others. PHONE --1845, 3860, 7260, 14260, 21360 and 28360 KHz. Novice/Tech Plus--10 KHz up from the edge of the CW band and 28360 KHz on PHONE. VHF -- 50.125, 147.48 and 223.50 MHz. UHF--446.00 MHz. All frequencies plus or minus QRM and nets. No Repeater or cross-mode QSO's.

Exchange: Exchange QSO number and QTH (County for VA stations; state, province or DX country for others). VA mobile stations log QSO's by county of operation. Identify all QSO's with band/mode, sequential QSO number sent/received and date/time of contact in UTC.

Scoring: Count 1 point per Phone, 2 points per CW, and 3 points per VA mobile QSO (Phone or CW). Virginia fixed stations multiply QSO points by the total number of VA counties, U. S. states, Canadian provinces and DX countries. No extra multiplier for U.S.: VE, KH6 or KL7 (count as states or provinces only). Mobiles add to the Virginia fixed station score 100 bonus points for each Virginia county in which a valid QSO was logged. Outside of VA, multiply QSO points by the number of VA counties worked (maximum of 95) to obtain final score.

Calendar of Events: