The Loudoun Amateur Radio Group, P.O. Box 1004, Purcellville, VA 20134

Contacts:

President	Ray Houff (K4AJA)	(540)338-7297
Vice-Pres.	Dennis Boehler (KF4TJI)	(703)777-9427
Secretary	Carol Boehler (KF4TJJ)	(703)777-9427
Treasurer	Tom Garasic (NA4MA)	(703)753-0568
Editor	John Unger (W4AU)	(540)338-4620
Training	Your Name and Call Here…

The next LARG Club meeting will be on March 18, 2000 in the Conference-Training Room at the Leesburg Police Station on Plaza Street at 8:30a.m. The facility is located on Plaza Street between East Market Street and Edwards Ferry Road. Talk-In is on 147.480 MHz. You can join other LARG members for breakfast (~7:30) before the meeting at the Bob Evans Restaurant located Leesburg Corner Shopping Center.

February Meeting News

The major activity at our last club meeting was a foxhunt. Our "fox" made the job a bit more difficult than usual by siting the transmitter where it could not be heard except from a few places in western Loudoun. After a couple of false starts, the hounds began to zero in on the fox, but our ex-president, Norm, AI2C, had to take a little swim before the transmitter was successfully recovered! It was great practice for an actual balloon instrument package recovery mission and showed that we are really improving our RDF techniques.

March LARG Meeting Plans

Dennis, KF4TJI, and Norm, AI2C, will give us a demonstration of using some WWW resources for ham radio, and John, W4AU, will talk about the 2000 Virginia QSO Party, which will begin just a few hours after the LARG meeting is over! He will also hand out some logging aids for those of you who plan to take part in the QSO Party.

If you can't make the meeting but would still like to get on the air and make a few QSO's for LARG's club entry, here’s a quick rundown of the basic rules; for the complete rules, see the SPARC website at: http://www.qsl.net/sterling/ Our club had the highest participation, 23 members, in the entire state last year, and our score put us in second place in the club category. This year we want to do even better and really think that with enough club members participating and with everyone improving his score from last year, we can win the plaque for First Place! Contest times are from 1800 UTC (this is 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon) on March 18 through 0200 UTC (this is 9:00 p.m. Sunday evening) on March 20.

The idea is to make QSO’s with other hams in Virginia counties, other states, or foreign countries during the QSO Party. Work fixed stations once per band/mode. Out-of-State stations work Virginia stations only. (Remember, this means that EVERYONE outside of Virginia wants to talk to YOU!) You can work Virginia mobile stations again on the same band/mode when they have moved to a new county.

You can operate on frequencies from 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. Look for LARG members on 147.480 simplex during the contest. All operators must observe the limits of their operator's license.

You exchange consecutive QSO number and QTH (County for VA stations; state, province or DX country for others) with the other station to make a successful QSO. VA mobile stations log QSO's by county of operation. (IMPORTANT)This means if you are mobile and moving from county to county, you start with QSO # 1 each time you enter a new county. If you make your own log sheets, they should include date, time, band, mode, the sequential QSO number that you send (starting with 1 for your first QSO), the QSO number that you received, and the county, state, or country for the other station. We will have some log sheets at the club meeting on the 18th, and examples were included with last month’s newsletter.

The club will take care of scoring and finalizing your log and getting all of our logs submitted together as a club entry, as well as individual entries. We will deliver them directly to SPARC. All you have to do is to get your log sheet(s) and a signed copy of an entry form (also available at the club meeting on the 18th) to either John, W4AU, or Norm, AI2C, after the QSO Party is over. Also, if you have any questions whatsoever, please contact John (540-338-4620) or Norm (540-338-2584) before the QSO Party.

Club News

We noticed a lot of LARG activity during the recent ARRL DX SSB contest. The band conditions were good, and some of our recent upgraded hams were working the DX on 10 meters like veterans!
 
 

Calendar of Events:
Every Sunday 8:00 p.m.	Club Radio Net -147.480 MHz simplex
Every Third Saturday 8:30 a.m.	Club Meeting –3/18/2000 – Leesburg Police Station
Weekday Mornings and Evenings	Commuter Net -147.480MHz Simplex