Monthly Archives: December 2016

Brrrr…. eakfast at Virlie’s

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Another delightful report on the Virlie’s goings on by Herb, N4HA

Despite the coldest temperatures of the season thus far, six hearty hams sated their hunger for eggs, coffee, and radio this Saturday morning at Virlie’s in Pittsboro.

Nick, KA1HPM, a newly ordained VEC, had to leave early to administer tests for some lucky amateurs-to-be. But not before relating a story of his being mistaken for Santa Claus by a young child in a store.

John, KX4P, is inching up on his digital DXCC goal at 96 confirmed. His quest to separate a length of 1 1/2″ copper pipe from its union with a union continues. A friend has offered the services of their tractor, winch, and a sturdy tree. Failing this, Nick will press his weedburner into service.

Terry, KK4JGT, continues to organize the Chatham County CERT program, despite its likening to herding cats.

Bill, N8BR, shared his knowledge of ice cream and old age. (The best ice cream is Graeter’s, coincidentally made in Cincinnati, Bill’s hometown. Also, don’t expect to live past 127; beyond that, the body falls completely apart.)

Roy, WA2JLW, extolled the empirical virtues of the G5RV antenna ( it works pretty good).

Herb, N4HA, has hit another snag in the postponement of the erection of his 30 meter switched Vee antenna due to the recent acquisition of some antenna wire and a crimp-on pl-259.
Now the only thing left is to put the darn thing up and see if it works.

note: please overlook any misspellings, incorrect statements and/or hyperbole. It’s hard enough remembering how old I am.

Dec 5, 2016 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

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Joel, KM4NOU, filled in for Bruce as Net Control. Bruce was stuck at work listening to vendors trying to sell product to make their end of year quota 🙂

It was a busy night (making it challenging for the rookie NCS!), with 15 stations, plus Net Control, for a total of 16!

WA2ROC, Dick – Not much to report, happy to keep the tubes lit and listen in. Dick gets the “gold star” for early checkin at 7:50PM.

KA2DEW, Tadd – Not much to report, just wanted to be in on the conversations. Still working thru antenna repair (actually, not so much antennas as the support systems for antennas) after Hurricane Matthew. It’s a work in progress.

KW4JY, Calvin – It’s been a while since he was on the 10M net, thought he’d swing by and keep us company.

W4BOH, Wilson – Glad to hear everyone, not much news, Christmas prep is overwhelming radio. However, he did have a banner weekend on 160 CW, with for than 50 contacts. More 160 contacts than he’d ever made before, so he was pretty happy with this!

W3AHL, Steve – Long time since he’d been on the ‘net. Working on setting up computers for volunteer tax work. Also helping to install a radio for KI4KKY in a Jeep, and trying to finish other projects.

KU4GC, Dee – Keeping up with a few nets, worked a couple new country/band combos. Replaced a hard disk with an SSD in one of his computers, and is really happy with the results. Much faster!

KZ1X, Steve – Still planning restore of his receive antenna. Also 40M antenna still broken, and one of his three 80M antennas is not working. Lots of projects. Don’t take your antenna to Steve’s QTH unless you want it to stop working 😉

K0OUX, Vic – Coming to us from Chapel Hill, low noise this evening, but 10M seems to be a bit strange as to who he can hear and cannot.

KM4MBG, Ed – Happy to have the time to be on the 10M net tonight, and looks forward to hearing from everyone.

KJ4UZU, Clint – Good to hear all. Picked up Indonesia on 40M SSB Monday afternoon at 5:30PM, was quite surprised and pleased by this. Has had good luck on 40M lately. Picked up a couple new countries on 80M, and picked up Alaska on 80M.

KF4PAB, Lenore – Using new desk mic, hoping folks can hear well. Most reported that she was coming in well; for some reason Net Control was hearing a lot of noise from Lenore, probably due to geography and antenna orientation. She’s looking forward to the DFMA holiday party!

N1LN, Bruce – Glad to have escaped the vendor presentation in time to check in on the net! His voice was a bit horse due to attending a Duke ladies B-Ball game on Sunday. Had a great weekend for the AARL 160 CW contest. He and his team were in 6th place nationally! He has antenna envy of the first place station, which is located at an old AM radio station next to a salt marsh in New Jersey, with two 300 foot towers!

KR4UB, Dan – Almost missed the net, was watching TV! Working on outside projects before the weather gets colder. Repaired his auxiliary antenna, and fixed his headset. Also looking forward to DFMA!

KK4PH, Lowell – Setting up a new radio that will go in his truck, an FT891. Currently in his house on the desk right now, waiting on a fuse for the truck. It sounded good, tho. As to DX, he talked to South Africa on 40M SSB. Worked on a UHF repeater, and continued the never-ending work on fall leaves.

NA4VY, Dave – Only running 100W tonight, rather than 300W, hopes everyone can hear him (was coming in fine to NCS). Had a really bad RF problem, where he found that if he left the stereo, TV, and phone on at the same time, his 300W radio was leaking RF to all these devices, and his voice was coming out of all the other speakers in the house. He’s still working on this, but thinks some ferrite chokes have helped the problem! At least his XYL didn’t come running when he transmitted to the Net 🙂

Respectfully submitted by Backup NCS
Joel, KM4NOU

Nov 28, 2016 – Monday Night 10 Meter Net Notes

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Tonight we had 17 check-ins.

> Don’t forget to sign up for the upcoming OCRA Christmas Dinner Party at the Hillsborough Exchange Club.  If you have not already signed up send an email ASAP to w4ord@freelad.com or call or text him at 919-455-3330 or call his home phone number 919-304-0796. Cost will stay at $18.50 and it will be held on December 12, 2016 with doors opening at 6:00pm and dinner served at 7:00pm.

> The DFMA Christmas Dinner will be held on December 6 and for members only as the club picks up the tab for the dinners.

Check-ins:

  1. KZ1X – Steve: Was able to fix his remote stack match today.
  2. W9KHP – Ray: Also planned on using the frequency for a round table for new ham intros. Going to drop to 28.400.
  3. WA4PSC – Howie: Thanks to Bruce for the time, shack and hosting the CQWW-DX contest.  Did well – great crew – lots of fun in spite of the bands.
  4. KR4UB – Dan: The OCRA Board Meeting was canceled.  Dan fixed his G5RV today.  He uses it mostly for RX. Did some posting on the OCRA web site – Lad’s Christmas Dinner and also Bruce’s last minutes from the Monday 10 mtr net.
  5. NC4CX – Butch: It is quite cool at Butch’s QTH tonight. Butch did some listening to try to improve his code speed.  Only worked one Q to PJ2T in Curacao.
  6. KM4NOU – Joel: Need to provision Bruce with an account on the server to publish some of the contesting info, Monday night net notes and the weekly DX notes.  This is the first time Joel picked up a mic in about a week.  The family and Thanksgiving were the priorities and spent some time on the coast.  Has his boat setup for the Christmas Flotilla with a light display.  This is the 6th or 7th year to participate in the boat parade.
  7. KM4MBG – Jack: Spent Thanksgiving with his parents in Durham.  Not happy to go back to work today but quickly getting used to it.  Not much radio activity this past week.  Looking forward to the DFMA December meeting for updates on everyone’s resolution successes.
  8. KJ4UZU – Clint: Good to hear everyone this weekend to the locals and out of state check-ins. Got 3 new ones confirmed on 80 and now up to 77. Hope propagation will help get to the magic 100. Worked French Polynesia from the mobile at lunch today.  Also at 277 mixed mode confirmations.
  9. KU4GC – Dee: Survived another Thanksgiving thanks to Jack and Lenore’s food efforts. Working on getting up his 80 meter count and made two new ones over the weekend. Surinam (already confirmed) and Puerto Rico (not yet confirmed).  The contesting CW speeds are still just a bit fast. French Polynesia may really be the Austral Islands. Will have the New Years resolutions to deal with at the DFMA meeting. Dee has made a few of his goals.
  10. KF4PAB – Lenore: Did some cooking for Thanksgiving including a spiced pumpkin pie. Enjoyed having his parents come over for dinner.  Got to check-in to the DFMA Thursday night net with her new mobile rig.
  11. KM4RDH – Mike: From Utica, KY. In North Central KY.
  12. W4BOH – Wilson: Coming to you from the slightly chilly Land of Magic. Trying to keep things moving forward. Fruit Cakes are in the construction process upstairs. Worked 25 – 30 Qs and almost the same quantity of countries. Added some new band countries and already have 5 new confirmations. Had some requests for repeats and then found out he was running 6.5 watts. So, some of the Qs were QRP contests. One of the ZLs was quite strong. Was unable to get through the Tanzania pileup. Looking forward to the upcoming Christmas parties.
  13. K4SAW – Steve: Evansville, In – Good to hear the NC group tonight.  Got his 4 call when he lived in SC so knows where Chapel Hill is.
  14. NA4VY – Dave: Using his beam tonight but getting almost 4 s-units of noise.  Wondering if he has a bad yard light.  Finished his biography so the next issue of the DFMA newsletter will include Dave’s bio.  Been doing lots of antenna work – focus on his 6 mtr / 2 mtr antenna.  It is now moved to a new mast to make it easier to work on.
  15. KK4PH – Lowell: Not much radio activity over the past week. Have a Vertex commercial rig for 6 meters and is now adding all the UK frequencies so he can catch the opening should it occur.  Ordered an HF rig for the pickup – FT 891. Would like to get an auto-tune Tarheel screwdriver antenna.  Got a new solder station for the shop after the only one failed. Borrowed Wilson’s wood splitter so he and his adult children went to work splitting wood.  Still working on the leaves.
  16. KX4P – John: Using a KWM380 tonight.  Wanted to make a special effort to check-in tonight. Enjoy reading the minutes every week.  Had a wonderful Thanksgiving. His daughter hosted this year and also had some of the students over. One from China, one from Israel and one from French Guiana.  Have a folded counter poise (K2AV design) antenna – just tested it and it will be in use this weekend in the ARRL contest.
  17. N1LN – Bruce: Enjoyed the CQWW-CW contest this past weekend and looking forward to the ARRL-160 CW this coming weekend.