THE LOUDOUN AMATEUR RADIO GROUP

Regular Meetings held the Third Saturday of each month, 8:30 AM at the El Rancho Plus Family Restaurant, located at 101C S. Maple Avenue in Purcellville VA. Talk-in on 147.480 simplex.

OCTOBER MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

A lot of decisions were made at the LARG October meeting. The club decided to merge the November and December Meetings and have one meeting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, December 7, at the El Rancho Plus.

As you will notice, this issue of our Newsletter is expanded to include more information. The Club decided to include more information in the Newsletter and to have a Newsletter for both November and December even though we will have only one meeting for the last two months of 1996. Members also thought that it would be a good idea to have a point of contact on the Newsletter heading, as we’ve done on this issue.

It was also suggested that we compile the email addresses of those members that have them; you’ll see the ones that I know about on the LARG membership list that is included with this newsletter. Please check over your own personal information as it is shown on the membership listing. Many of the zip codes for our area have changed, so check yours carefully.

LARG has decided to try and exchange the present club callsign for a new (old) callsign. Suggestions from this past meeting included the callsigns of Silent Keys who were active in western Loudoun in past years: W4GLV, W4KCN, and K4TVJ. If you have some other suggestions, bring them to the November/December LARG meeting. If the callsigns have been “unowned” for more than two years, they are available to anyone who applies for them under the rules of the new Vanity Callsign Program, so we should act as fast as possible on this matter.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR OUR UPCOMING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MEETING:

The big event for our next meeting will be our own mini-hamfest! Everyone who wants to participate should bring 1 to 5 small items, valued less than approximately $5.00. We will also have nominations for the LARG officers for 1997 at this meeting. The nominee’s names will be published in the December Newsletter and we will vote for new officers at the January meeting.

CLUB NEWS

Be sure to pick up the November issue of CQ Magazine. In it is a fine article on the antique transmitter built by LARG’s own Charlie Preston, K4LJH. The article includes some great photos of Charlie’s rig, if you missed seeing it when he brought it to the club meeting a few months ago. This transmitter is more than just a pretty rig, however. Charlie has used it for Antique Wireless events in the past and I’m sure that it will see more action in the future.

Charlie, K4LJH; Ray, K4AJA; Dale, KD4LSL; Temp, W4HZV; Bernie, KA4RGN; Paul, N4PD; and John, W4AU (formerly W3GOI...) all had a great time helping with communications at the Third Annual Morvan Park Mountain Bike Races on October 27. The weather cooperated and the lack of leaves on the trees made our communications task much easier than last year when the event was held in August. The propagation on 2-meters was improved without all of that foliage.

Congratulations to Tom, KF4FXT, who now sports a new general class license and is reported to be burning up the HF bands and working all sorts of DX, GOOD WORK!! Also, there is at least one new callsign in the club. Our club president, John, is now ex-W3GOI. He turned in his call of 40 years for one from 4-land and is now W4AU. If any other club members got a new callsign recently, be sure and let us know.

Check the November issue of QST, page 104, and see how well LARG did in last June’s Field Day in the category 3A standings. We finished in about the top 10% of all the entries in this class and were in second place in Virginia and first place in the DC metro area. So not only did everyone who participated have a great time, but we piled up a good score, too. Congratulations to all of those who helped make this year’s Field Day so successful.

UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENT

Paul, N4PD, is again organizing communications for the Leesburg First Night New Years Eve celebrations. This event is a lot of fun and all of us who have participated in the past have had a good time. There is food and warm drinks for the “workers” and you will also get passes that will enable you to see all of the special activities set up around the old section of Leesburg. If you want to have some fun on New Years Eve, give Paul a call at 771-9284 and sign up.

Monthly Calendar of Events:

Every Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. - LARG 10M SSB net, 28.360 MHz

Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8:30 a.m. - RESCHEDULED Regular Club Meeting, Purcellville, VA

Daily 2M commuter net (approximately 7:30 - 8:30 a.m.) and local talk freq: 147.480 simplex

Don’t forget to bring something for the December 7 Meeting and Hamfest!!

Calendar of Events: