The LARG Radio News

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

	President	Gary Quinn (NC4S)	(540)882-3017
	Vice-President	Norm Styer (AI2C)	(540)338-2584
	Secretary	Nancy Dluehosh (KE4RTP)	(703)771-9284
	Treasurer	Dale Cabaniss (KD4LSL)	(540)338-3521
	Editor	John Unger (W4AU)	(540)338-4620
	Training	Paul Dluehosh (N4PD)	(703)771-9284

September Club Meeting Reports

Now that our second novice/technician class is well underway, our Training Chairman, Paul, N4PD, asked if the club were interested in trying to organize some formal code practice classes for newly licensed and soon-to-be licensed hams so that they can get on the HF bands. We also discussed looking at setting up a 2-meter repeater for the club's use. It was decided that we first have to determine what purposes a repeater would be used for and what the initial and operating costs would be. Further discussions will be held at the October club meeting. Because things seemed to be getting too quiet and organized at the meeting, John, W4AU, introduced the club to the first tri-monthly?? LARG Audio Contest. This single-band event had all the earmarks of real SSB contests including multipliers, dupes, and lots of QRM. The best part was that it lasted only four minutes. When all the QRM had died down, Paul, N4PD, was declared the winner with a score of 80, including 10 QSOs. The LARG contest committee is conducting some power-level measurements to make sure he was running within legal limits during the contest, though. Everyone seemed to enjoy the fun and got into the fray once they got the hang of things.

October Club Meeting Plans

We are still trying to acquire all the materials for the loop DF antenna construction project, so that will be postponed until November. Charlie, K4LJH, will bring in and demonstrate his spark transmitter, and Gary, NC4S, will be showing off his replica of a 1929 Hartley oscillator transmitter. Everyone else is urged to bring in a piece of old-time radio gear to show to the club.

Club News

The club and all its members send their deepest sympathies to Tom, WB3AKD, and Jacob, KF4VLQ, who lost their father and grandfather, respectively, last month. If you haven't checked in to the Sunday night LARG 2-meter net recently, be sure and get on the net soon. With upgraded antennas at some key stations, we have had almost 100% communications between everyone who has been checking in. Congratulations to Jim, KF4YLH, who recently upgraded to his Advanced class ticket; Jim has applied to get his old callsign, W0MAZ. While most of LARG's eager hamfest affectionatos stayed away from the Howard County Hamfest this because of the cool and rainy weather, Jacob, KF4VLQ, is very happy that he was there. Not only did he pass his novice code test to become a tech-plus amateur, but Jacob won the grand prize in the drawing and is now the proud owner of a dual-band HT! We have been remiss in reporting some fine recent contest results by LARG members; please help out and send this and other news to your editor! John, W4AU, got his first clean sweep in the CW portion of the ARRL Sweepstakes; he had 635 QSOs and over 100,000 points. Paul, N4PD, also had a nice score in the SSB part of Sweepstakes. Tom, WB3AKD, had a fine showing in the January VHF Sweepstakes; he was in the top 5 for rovers in the SE Region and was 1^st place in the Roanoke Division. In the 1997 ARRL 10-meter contest, Norm, AI2C, was 8^th overall in the SE Region and 1^st place low power in Virginia, while Tom, WB3AKD, was 10^th overall in Virginia; unfortunately, the ARRL seems to have lost the logs from W4AU and N4PD for this contest, or our club score would have been very good. AI2C also had a fine showing in the CQWW CW contest, where he was 2^nd place in the USA as a single-band, 10-meter entry; W4AU was 2^nd place as an all-band entry in 4-land; and Mike, W0YR/4 also had a good score from his Middleburg QTH. AI2C was also 2^nd place in the US in the SSB part of the CQWW, again as a 10-meter, single-band entry, and in the ARRL DX contest this year AI2C was 6^th in the US in the 10-meter single-band category. Now we know why Norm has such a good score in the LARG 10-meter trophy listings!

Want to upgrade to General? Recent grads from our novice/tech class and other club members interested in upgrading to the General Class license are asked to contact Paul, N4PD, our training coordinator, who is thinking of holding a class for general theory and code in the spring. Paul also reports that the current novice/tech classes are going well and Leesburg Public Safety building classroom is working out well. Thanks to Ren, N4CRS, for supplying an overhead project and to Paul for contributing a new bulb for the projector

Events

Paul, N4PD, is looking for volunteers to help with communications at this year's Leesburg First Night festivities; contact him at the phone number above. We have a number of really fun contests coming up in the next few months. These contests all have categories for small clubs to enter as well as individuals. Norm, AI2C, will be coordinating club entries for these contests, so contact him if you need rules or other information and if you are planning to enter any of them.

10/24-10/25 - CQWW SSB DX contest; 48 hours DX, this is the biggest DX contest of the year!

11/7-11/9 - ARRL Sweepstakes CW contest; get WAS in one weekend - maybe even on 10-meters!