“The Barnstormer’s News”                                                                        Volume 5 No.2 February 9, 2000

 

4^th Annual Christmas Party Report

 

As expected, the 4^th Annual Barnstormer’s Christmas Party was fun for all that could make it. Those that were present: KB1H, KB1DFB, AA1CE, N1XS, K1GX, K1JCL, W3TB, and K1ZE. The flu bug kept NB1U and Matt home and the same also for Jake “Six-Pack”.  But hey, we did our darnest to eat all the food of which there was way too much. K1GX ate for 4 hours!!! Mary even ventured out to sample the buffet. I thank all that brought the goodies. What a surprise to see Sheky, K1ZE, walk in. The bottle of dark rum he brought was my downfall. I think the last thing I remember is my forehead having a “F1” imprint from the CT keyboard. It was the 160 Meter CW contest and someone shacked me off to bed about 3:30 AM!

 

I want to thank all of you for the nice framed CQ magazine cover and calendar pictures. We hung that up right away. If you did not sign the back please do next time you are here. Those in attendance who have help KB1H contribute millions of points for the YCCC effort were given new ARRL World Maps. Yes Mark and Frank, your’s are still here.

 

Well, another party is history and now for the second half of our contest season.

 

 

Club Callsign Applied for….

 

We have applied for a club call. This is the first stage to getting a callsign for the “Barnstormers” After issuance of the club call we will look at what vanity callsigns are available.

 

Work to be done before ARRL DX CW on Feb. 19-20:

 

1.      We still are trying to find a way to re-install the director element tip on the KLM 40 Meter beam. We are looking at a bucket truck and maybe the crane again.

 

2.      During the weekend of Feb. 12^th and 13^th we are going to lay new radials for the 160 meter shunt fed tower. We now believe the problem with changing  SWR is really a grounding problem. Plans are for a minimum of 12 quarterwave radials. Please try to be here to help run the wires. I suspect both days we will be working on something.

 

3.      We need to test the TL-922 amp. We installed the new 3-500Zs. Anybody want 2 that are approx. 24 hours old? I may try to get some credit from RF Parts.

 

Hopefully we can get this work done and also get the stations set up.

 

 

Plans for ARRL DX CW – Feb. 19^th & 20^th…….

 

We will once again be in the MultiOp/Two Transmitter class. Plans are to set up three stations though with the third being a spotter station. Rigs will be KB1H FT-1000MP & Alpha 77, K1EBY IC-775DSP & TL-922, and NB1U TS-850 & LK-500. NB1U’s station will be the spotter and standby station should one of the others fail.

 

Being only two transmitters we can manage our time a little better. We should be able to keep fresher Ops in the chairs. Please remember to “OPON” when sitting down. There will be reminders to do so.

 

Ops committed so far are KB1H, K1EBY, N1XS, AA1CE, KB1DFB(for one or two QSOs), NB1U, and W3TB. Ted has antenna damage and will spend some time here during both the CW and SSB weekends.

 

Frank has met his meeting requirement so the only regular that has not met the ARRL requirements is Max, N1LYA. Max usually helps out on SSB weekend. WE only need 2/3 YCCC Ops for the total score to count for the club score so 100% YCCC Ops is not a must here.

 

 

New Hardware….

 

Thanks to Chris, we will be installing an ethernet system to connect all the computers. This project will happen after the ARRL contests and probably before the CQWW WPX SSB. Chris has gotten a 16 channel hub with 5 ethernet boards to start us out.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of WPX…

 

We have requested the use of the YCCC club call AJ1I again for CQWW WPX SSB. We may have to wait in line and only get the use if noone asks for the call as we did have it last year.

 

 

The “Dallas”

 

With the recent mechanical failures of the 3 element KLM 40 Meter beam we have started to contruct the full size 3 element 40 Meter beam. Fondly called “The Dallas” after it’s creator, this monster has a 48 foot boom made out of 3” aluminum conduit. The boom alone weighs about 120 pounds!! The boom is assembled and we are gathering plates now for the various element to boom and boom to mast mountings. We hope to get this in the air sometime this summer. We plan on documenting the construction with the digital camera.

 

 

KB1H Web Site…

 

We plan on re-doing the KB1H Superstation Web site starting pretty quickly. Any suggestions? Let us know during the ARRL contests.

 

 

Well, enough for now. See you in the weeknd before the ARRL CW and of course during the contest.

 

73 , Dick(don’t give rum to the indians)