Amateur Radio From Loudoun County VA

The next LARG Club meeting will be on November 17, 2001, at 8:30 AM in the Conference-Training Room at the Leesburg Police Station on Plaza Street. 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 International House of Pancakes located in the Shopping Center with Walmart, just off of Rt. 15, north of Leesburg.

October Club Meeting Notes - Two important committees were formed at our October club meeting. Norm, AI2C, is heading up a committee to address the future of CW communications in US amateur radio. Norm would like to draft a letter to the ARRL putting forth our club's consensus on CW. Get in touch with Norm if you would like to contribute to this issue. Dave, KG4KZZ, is chairing a committee to look into setting up a club repeater. Dave is starting out slowly and looking at all aspects of this process so please contact him if you would like to become involved in this committee. Dave's email address is [email protected].

November Club Meeting Plans - In addition to our usual committee reports and lots of good fellowship, we will finalize the plans for our annual Thanksgiving / Christmas dinner. We will also appoint a nominating committee to put together a slate of officers for the club in 2002.

Fun Contest Weekend Coming Up - This weekend is the SSB part of the ARRL SweepStakes (SS)contest. This has to be one of the most popular domestic contests available (except for Field Day, of course). SSB SS starts at 2100Z (1600 EST) and lasts for 30 hours, until 0300Z (2200EST) Sunday evening. You can operate any 24 hours of the 30 hours. The exchange is: serial number, precedent (e.g., A= 150 or less watts; B= 150 or greater watts; Q=QRP), your callsign, check (the last tow digits of the year you were first licensed), and your ARRL section. For example, if I were operating with just my 100 watt transceiver, my exchange for my first QSO in SS would be: 1 A W4AU 56 VA The big challenge is to get a "clean sweep", which means that you have to work all 80 US and Canadian sections, including Alaska, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Another goal is to make at least 100 QSO's and qualify for a nice looking SS pin from the ARRL for $5.00. You can contact a station only once during the contest, regardless of band. This aspect of the contest makes it a lot of fun to get on Sunday afternoon and evening as "new blood". What we need is to have at least three LARG members make even just a few QSO's in SS so that we can send in a club entry. For further details, contact John, W4AU, or see the ARRL website for rules, etc.

LARG Field Day Success!! - LARG's move to the 5A category in the 2001 Field Day this year really paid off. As you will be reading in your December QST, we finished 4th overall and first in the state in this category and were only a handful of points behind the 3rd place club. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to our club's success in Field Day.

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