NEW 6A FD RECORD!

Hi all. Hope you enjoyed FD weekend as much as I did. Did a little research this morning, curious what the old 6A record might be. I found the current 6A FD record is held by W4AT (Orlando ARC), set in 1994: 4735 QSOs 15434 points So with our 6,600 or so QSOs and approx. 21,000 points* we have raised the bar roughly 25%!

If band conditions hadn't taken a significant turn for the worse the last 8 hours it would have been an even bigger margin. So it appears we may now have the 5A and 6A records. The W3AO group (PVRC contest clubers) hold the 4A record having beaten us in 1998 by a relatively small margin - maybe a new goal for us to consider e.g. get the 4A record back).

The teamwork during the CRA FD setup and teardown was fabulous. Everyone has a role in this event and did their jobs well.

73, John W2GD

Outstanding FUN!! Cherryville All The Way!!

20 Meter Beam

*More FD Info and Scoring Inside

CRA FD: 20/40 CW Tent and Diner

CRA ’00 FIELD DAY

As a veteran of many CRA II Field Day efforts, I really want to congratulate the club on a job well done. We keep getting better and better at this every year. As always, there were a few glitches, but overall, this was a super effort. Here a few of the things I thought were especially good.

a. We erected 310 feet of tower (7 towers), 8 monoband beams, a tribander, 7 rotors and various dipoles in 6 hours. If you've ever been involved in a tower raising before, you know that putting up one single tower requires many hours and days/weeks of planning. Granted that ours are only up for 1 day a year, but we get all this stuff up in the air and back down again in just a few hours. I dare any other club to match us.

b. Reference above... We take all that stuff down and pack it away again for next year in FOUR hours!!!!! We had a really good-sized crew for clean up this year and most everyone hung in until the end. You've heard it before, but, when we've been at it since Friday afternoon with little or no sleep, it's REALLY, REALLY nice to have lots of rested helpers to put all the toys away for the next time. A special thank you to the dedicated ones who came out/stayed through the cleanup process.

c. Big kudos to the Novice Tent crew. They beat their own best score from last year and added a bunch of CW Q's to sweeten the pot! Now if we can only pry Cheryl's fingers off the mic.!!! And all of that with a bum rotor.

d. The ever-diligent satellite crew had a super year too! I think they were heard on every satellite pass that was within range. That's a first for Cherryville. I worked with them for the last few hours and I can tell you that these guys worked everyone else that was on the birds this weekend. Some of them several times!?!?! When you look at the complexity of what they are trying to do in the field, it's amazing they make any contacts at all. It's just that daunting. When's the last time you worked a full duplex contact on 144/432 MHz with a path length of 78,000 miles?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SATELLITE STATION

e. We experienced a few technical difficulties too. These were viewed as a learning opportunity and we quickly overcame the problems. This is exactly what Field Day is all about; dealing with emergency conditions and making it all work. I dare say that we are as good at it as just about any other group, anywhere.

f. The food crew did their usual outstanding job. Many thanks from the rest of us!!! Neither the coffee nor the chili claimed any lives...At least none have been reported to me. (Although the chili nearly killed me)...good job Chas., or is that Carlos????

g. Many thanks to all the FRC ops that help us to get to the top of our class each year. These guys put in a HUGE effort and do a bang up job. How many of you have made a thousand or more HF contacts in the last year.... or ever??? More than one of our guests passed the thousand mark in less than 24 hours!!!!!!!

h. As we have now made the move to 6A, there are more operating positions to fill. We did a good job this year, but we need to do better. 20 SSB, 40 SSB and VHF were all unmanned for some period of time during the wee hours. We need more relief operators in the 02:00 to 07:00 EDT hours. You don't have to be a contest wizard during the off hours. Don't be afraid to try. And don't complain about the late hours, either. Every one of the big guns started contesting by working the off hours. It's called paying your dues. Hell, I had to work the day shift at Sandy Hook for the 160 test! I think we made a dozen or so Q's in 10+ hours.

i. If it isn't the best thing we do, it's probably the thing we do best. Cherryville has been at the top of our class (4A, 5A or 6A) almost every year and we are almost always in the top ten nationwide, if not the top five. Now that's impressive!

Many thanks to all who participated in whatever way they could. You are all winners. Field Day is a learning experience above and beyond all else. It's a time to show new people the ropes and teach them how to do what we've been doing for some years now. Come with a willing attitude and a strong back and we'll help you learn to put up towers or make lot's of contacts in the "contest".

Just remember that NO ONE starts at the top. I was so intimidated by the CRA II machine that I didn't even go to Field Day the first year I was a member. See how times change.

Hope to see all the regulars and a few more new faces at next year's effort. Mark your calendars NOW!!! It's always the fourth full weekend in June...

73 es good luck in the contest,

Duncan/KE2HG

ARRL FIELD DAY - Year 2000

Call: W2GD (+ KB2ERI)

Class: 6A

ARRL Section: NNJ

Location: Hunterdon County Library

Flemington, NJ

Club: Cherryville Repeater Association II

BAND CW SSB BAND TOT.

80 431 554 985

40 1077 947 2024

20 940 1215 2155

15 334 289 623

10 97 189 286

Novice 24 293 317

6 17 177 194

2 0 33 33

Satellite 0 43 43

Solar 0 7 7

Totals 3113 3547 6660

Claimed Score with bonus points:

20,946

A NEW 6A Record Claimed!

Station Description:

80 & 75 Pair IC765 and Separate Inverted Vs at 50 feet

40CW FT1000D/IC746 Cushcraft 402CD at 50 feet

40SSB FT765 and Dipole at 50 feet

20CW FT1000MP and 204BA at 50 feet

20SSB FT1000D and 204BA at 40 feet

15M IC765 and 4 ele Cushcraft at 50 feet

10M IC765 and 4 ele Cushcraft at 40 feet

Nov TS930S, Cushcraft A4 and 80/40 doublet at 40 feet

VHF Assorted Xcvrs, 6 ele Hygain 6M, 2M Boomer at 40+ feet

SAT The usual stuff

Supports: 8 separate Rohn 25G towers, 20-50 feet, 330' of tower used

Scoring Detail:

SSB QSO Pts 3547

CW QSOs *2 6226

Tot.QSO Points 9773

X 150W Pwr Factor = 19546

Claimed Bonus Points:

7.3.1 Emergency Power 600

7.3.2 Media Publicity 100

7.3.3 Public Location 100

7.3.4 Public Info Booth 100

7.3.5 Message Origination 100

7.3.7 Satellite 100

7.3.8 Natural Power 100

7.3.9 W1AW Message 100

7.3.10 Special mode APRS 100

Bonus point subtotal = 1400

The CRA II Generator!

First time for me as an operator, had a great time Kudo's to all Involved......

Randy N2MQZ

Field Day was a blast. I have to exercise my voice more for next year!

Brian N2RDL

When the bands get real slow,

Even John needs some rest

WJDXG FIELD DAY

Although their setup was minute compared to the Cherryville RA setup, The West Jersey DX Group put in a fine effort on Field Day from the Country Hills FD property on Milltown Road in North Branch. Using Doug Rue's call W2EN, their 3A NNJ score was a respectable 7900 points with over 2200 QSOs logged. Some of the notable CRA members who operated at W2EN were Pete NO2R, Paul W2LE and Marty W2CG.

One highlight of the WJDXG FD event was that the entire operation was from inside the Somerset County Emergency Management Command Post Van, 99M. It sure was a pleasure to operate from a fully air-conditioned mobile facility in the 90-degree heat. A couple of operators were overheard saying it was their first ever FD in true comfort. It maybe hard to get them to operate in any other manner in the future.

CRA PROGRAM SCHEDULE

JULY 14 "Space Communications, OSCAR13, and EME (moon bounce)"

Chris Fagas WB2VVV

AUG 11 "Transmitter Hunting" antennae construction and testing

Ed N3MSK, Brian N2RDL, Denis KA2YYB

SEPT 8 "The E.O.C., the Community, and Hams"

!!! IT'S BRING A BUDDY NIGHT !!!

OCT 13 "APRS, theory and practice"

Ronald Hepburn N2LCZ and associate

NOV 10 "What's Happening at the ARRL"

Frank Fallon N2FF, ARRL Hudson Division Director

DEC 8 CRAII Awards Banquet

JAN 12, 2001 About verticles... (in the works)

Denis KA2YYB

Hamfest Calendar


July 16	Sussex County ARC	Augusta, NJ
July 16	Mid Atlantic ARC	Kimberly, PA
August 13	Jersey Shores ARS	Bayville, NJ
Sept. 16	Delaware Lehigh ARC	Schnecksville, PA

Note: CRAII is not responsible for typographical errors or spousal intervention. George, N2VWL

PUBLIC SERVICE

4th of JULY PARADE, Lebanon NJ

Hope you were all there and everything went well. Press time was just prior to the event.

Buck's County Horse Park Horse Trials

Sunday, August 13th

Saturday/Sunday, November 4/5 (we may only do one day, not sure yet)

Need at least 12 people for each event (the more people the easier it is!)

Tentative schedule: Arrive on the grounds approx. 8:30, end of the day will be probably by 4:00 p.m.... lunch will be provided (I promise!)

Bring a chair, and clothing appropriate for the weather at the time! (Rain or shine)

Thanks!!

Susan KB2DDM

September 17th???? Skylands Triathlon,

Spruce Run State Park

SKYWARN

There has been a change in leadership within the Mount Holly SKYWARN Technical Committee. Rob Hill, WX3ROB has stepped down as committee chair and John Holmes, WX3W (former WX3TAZ) has taken over as chair.

As a result, the website will be reconfigured and the list servers, now owned and moderated by Joe Miketta of NWS have been revamped. If you are interested in joining the discussion list-server, which will continue to bring you updates on the Technical Committee meetings and issues, announcements pertaining to our VHF nets, the Official Mount Holly Quarterly SKYWARN Newsletter "The Weather Report", as well as varied discussion threads relating to SKYWARN and weather in general, feel free to go to:

http://www.egroups.com/group/MTHOLLYSKYWARN

For severe weather watches and warnings for our forecast coverage area only, please feel free to join this read only list:

http://www.egroups.com/group/MTHOLLYSVRWX

If you are interested in hurricane 2000, feel free to subscribe to:

http://www.egroups.com/group/hurricanetalk

If there are any questions, feel free to email deborah@warwick.net

Thanks... Deb McKay

WRTC-2000 COMPETITORS HEAD FOR SLOVENIA

The World Radiosport Team Championship 2000 countdown clock is ticking. More than 100 competitors from around the world are making final preparations for WRTC-2000, and many already are on their way to Slovenia to take part in the event. WRTC-2000--akin to the Olympics in the sports world--gets under way next week. The international Amateur Radio competition will be held in Bled, Slovenia. The on-the-air portion of the competition will be July 8-9, concurrent with the IARU HF World Championship event. WRTC-2000 events begin July 5 with a welcoming and organizational meeting and conclude July 11 with the awards ceremony.

"Few will return with a medal--all will return with memories of excitement, camaraderie and passion that will be with them forever," says National Contest Journal Editor Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, who's also a contestant in WRTC-2000. This third WRTC will test the mettle of world-class contest operators at relatively modest stations running 100 W on CW and SSB on 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. The WRTC-2000 Organizing Committee is providing all sites with equivalent antennas--three-element triband Yagis for 10, 15, and 20 meters, and a Windom antenna for 80 and 40 meters, both mounted approximately 12 meters (just under 40 feet) above ground.

The top-scoring team from the last WRTC in 1996--Jeff Steinman, N5TJ (ex-KR0Y) and Dan Street, K1TO--will defend its title in this year's WRTC as one of two special teams. WRTC-96 was held in the San Francisco Bay area. ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ, will be the Chief Referee at WRTC-2000. The WRTC-2000 Organizing Committee President is Tine Brajnik, S50A, of the sponsoring Slovenia Contest Club.

National Contest Journal will offer complete coverage of WRTC-2000. Starting July 3, the new NCJ Web site http://www.ncjweb.com will provide on-the-spot coverage. Daily reports and photos will be posted on the NCJ WRTC special coverage pages. For more information on WRTC-2000, visit http://wrtc2000.bit.si/ or contact the Organizing Committee at scc@bit.si.

WRTC CALLSIGNS

Following are the special call signs the WRTC competitors will be using next weekend in the WRTC/IARU contest. The WRTC contestants will find out their call only 5 minutes before the event and are not allowed to identify their real identities during the contest so work em ALL! If you do there is an award waiting for you, details at

http://lists.contesting.com/_3830/200006/msg00179.html

S5 callsigns during IARU HF contest and 3rd WRTC event at Bled July 5-11 2000. S511E S521H S531R S541F S561C S571W S581I S512T S522R S532N S542B S562P S572L S582A S513A S523W S533G S543C S563X S573O S583D S514U S524G S534J S544Z S564Q S574V S584M S516M S526O S536P S546Q S566Z S576K S586U S517W S527K S537L S547B S567F S577V S587N S518N S528D S538F S548X S568Y S578R S588S S519I S529A S539D S549L Several S5A-S5Z callsigns will be also used. QSL manager for them all is S59L.

WRTC AWARDS

(JUST 80 contacts for DX and 160 contacts for Europe).

Please send your logs to: wrtc-logs@s5.net

W2GD/K8NZ STATION DESCRIPTION

My NCC teammate Ron, K8NZ does a really nice job of describing our WRTC location and station below. And we're line of site with the YCCC team of K1ZM/N2NT about 5 km away.

Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend and plan to participate in this historic competition July 8/9. Lots of prizes for the deserving.

p.s. I will have email access in Bled, Slovenia. July 6 - 10.

73, John W2GD

As some of you may have seen our referee is Robert, S57AW and we will be operating from a location about 20km east of the capital near the small town of Litija. We have a hilltop location that has a home on it (I understand some teams will be operating out of tents) with many creature comforts.

Our station will consist of two FT-1000MP's along with Dunestar 600 bandpass filters for each radio. We have both become pretty familiar with S5 propagation by intensive study of the various logs made available to us and hope to put that knowledge to good multiplier use.

It is our understanding that we will be at our site sometime during the day of July 7 and be allowed to operate using our own calls /S5. Look for us and any others that may be tuning up for this great event. Hope to put many Warriors into our WRTC log on 5 bands and see some of you after returning on July 19.

VY 73, Ron, K8NZ

1000 MARBLES

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday

mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that

comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's

the unbounded joy of not having to be at work.

Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday

morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the

basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in

one hand and the morning paper in the other. What

began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into

one of those lessons that life seems to hand you

from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the

band on my ham radio in order to listen to a

Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came

across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous

signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he

sounded like he should be in the broadcasting

business. He was telling whoever he was talking

with something about "a thousand marbles".

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he

had to say. "Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're

busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but

it's a shame you have to be away from home and

your family so much. Hard to believe a young

fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours

a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your

daughter's dance recital."

He continued, "let me tell you something Tom,

something that has helped me keep a good

perspective on my own priorities."

And that's when he began to explain his theory of

a "thousand marbles." "You see, I sat down one day

and did a little arithmetic. The average person

lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live

more and some live less, but on average, folks live

about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up

with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the

average person has in their entire lifetime. Now

stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important

part."

"It took me until I was fifty-five years old to

think about all this in any detail", he went on,

"and by that time I had lived through over

twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking

that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had

about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single

marble they had. I ended up having to visit three

toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles. I took them

home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic

container right here in the shack next to my gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble

out and thrown it away."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I

focused more on the really important things in

life. There is nothing like watching your time

here on this earth run out to help get your

priorities straight. "

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I

sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for

breakfast. This morning, I took the very last

marble out of the container. I figure if I make it

until next Saturday then I have been given a

little extra time. And the one thing we can all

use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend

more time with your family, and I hope to meet you

again here on the band. 73 Old Man, this is K9NZQ,

clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when

this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a

lot to think about. I had planned to work on the

antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet

up with a few hams to work on the next club

newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my

wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you

and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time

since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.

Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out?

I need to buy some marbles."

Public Service Don'ts and Dos

ARRL Vice President Kay Craigie, WT3P, presented a portion of the "Public Service Wants You!" forum at the Dayton Hamvention-ARRL National Convention 2000 on May 20. "Public Service Don'ts and Dos" looks into what motivates Amateur Radio operators to volunteer for public service activities. Now, she's sharing her notes and Power Point presentation on the ARRL Public Service Web Page, http://www.arrl.org/field/pubservice.html.

Antenna Designer

Louis Varney, G5RV, SK

Louis Varney, G5RV, who invented the world-famous G5RV antenna, died June 28. He was 89.

The G5RV multiband wire antenna for HF is among the most popular of all antenna designs. Varney first described the G5RV in the November 1966 issue of the RSGB Bulletin. He employed a full-size and a double-size G5RV, both fed with open-wire feeders, at his own station.

Varney remained an active radio amateur until very recently and kept regular on-the-air schedules. He was an RSGB member for 74 years and served as life president of the Mid-Sussex Amateur Radio Society.

His wife Nelida is among his survivors.

FOR SALE

WB2DOH is selling his operating ham radio station

Date: 6/26/00 12:51:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time

From: B. PHILSTYN (WB2DOH )

ICOM 701 HF ALL BAND TRANSCEIVER, W/PS,

ICOM RM2 (REMOTE CONTROLER.)

ICOM-AT 500 (AUTOMATIC ANTENNA TURNER)

TRI-BAND ANTENNA ( 10-15-20) W/CDE ROTOR,

MORSE CODE TRANSVERTER,

MFJ SUPER KEYBOARD,

BENCHER CODE KEY,

ALL SOLID STATE EQUIPMENT.

2 METER TRANSCEIVER,

2 METER ANTENNA,

TWO HAND HELD TALKIES

W/EXTRA BATTERIES AND CHARGER..

Many extra's

Total price $1,000 (one thousand dollars) (this is a buy that will not come along again, it's over $5,000 worth of equipment.) I am now retired and will be moving into smaller quarters and no room for equipment.

All equipment is set up and operating.

I can be contacted at (732) 264-4957 Hazlet, NJ

<bphilstyn@aol.com

THANKS PHIL (WB2DOH)

CRA II CLUB INFORMATION

The