January 11th, 2008 - SOLD! To The Highest Bidder!!!
Notes Posted By Sheila Clarke on January 12th, 2008
Vienna Wireless Society
Friday, January 11, 2008
Members arrived supposedly with “deep pockets” for the club auction of Len KG6ZR’ s estate items and our first meeting of 2008 held at the Vienna Community Center. President Jim, W4JTP called the meeting to order at 7:33 pm.
ATTENDANCE: 45 + (Many didn’t sign in. Grrr….)
NEW VISITORS:
We welcomed two new visitors to our meeting: William Cassidy (Skip) KF4ZXX; and, Norma Murchison, daughter-in-law of Macalee AB5TY.
ANNOUNCEMENTS (We sure had a lot of them!):
1. Pete KG4OJT, our Treasurer, said that a deposit for $867 was given to the Northern VA Community College as a deposit for Winterfest 2009. $366 was paid for 6-month’s rent on our storage locker. And, $150 was paid for buying helium for our December 22, 2007 balloon launch.
He also said that the patches for the VWS-5 Balloon Launch are free to all members who tracked the balloon or participated. And, an article in the Washington Post about our launch should be coming out soon and to watch for it.
January 19-20 we will be having our NAQP Single Sideband event at Camp Highroad in Middleburg, VA. Setting up begins at 9:00 am with the actual contest starting at 1:00 pm and going until 1:00 am. If you want to spend the night, there are rooms. But it’s a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bedding) sleepover! They will also have a fire burning in the fireplace, so anyone who wants to bring some firewood is welcome to do so. Starlite Catering is providing lunch and dinner. The cost is $9 for lunch and $11 for dinner. Directions and more details can be found on our Website page.
2. Tom K4TCM, announced that this Saturday (January 12) there will be NAQP CW contesting at the Annandale Swim & Tennis Club setting up at 10:30 am. Contesting runs from 1:00 pm till 1:00 am (although people usually shut down around 10:00 pm). QSOs will be short and to the point, with two stations running (fast and slow).The location is: 7530 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA 22003 There is a refrigerator and possibly a microwave available. So, bringing some homemade soup was suggested to keep everyone warm and fed. But, there are fast food places near by. The purpose of this activity is to help keep CW alive. So, if you want to dust off your dits and dah cobwebs, please attend!
3. Jim W4FTP announced there are 43 days left until Winterfest. With that statement, Dennis WA4QMS, who is our Vice President and Winterfest Czar made the following announcements: We have 11 tables left to sell. (Applause breaks out!) He recommended that we get the news of Winterfest out via word-of-mouth and mention it on the air, to other clubs we belong to, etc. The Security people still need to contact the Fairfax County Explorers. And, we still need volunteers for set-up and takedown and for tailgating. Our Winterfest webpage has further information.
4. Sheila KI4WKY, our Secretary, asked the members for their opinions if they’d like to move our August 22nd banquet to another location, since we’ve been having it at Wu’s Garden for a few years. A vote of hands revealed many did. Members with suggestions were asked to email her with ideas and information.
5. Tom N4ZPT, who is our Balloon Boss said that there will be a meeting of our next VWS-6 Balloon Launch on Friday, January 18th at the Vienna Elementary School. And, that he contacted Matt to attend this as well as invited him and his school kids to attend our January 25th meeting, in which he will give a balloon presentation. The VWS-6 Balloon will contain it’s usual payload of electronic equipment (telemetry, temperature, wind, etc.) as well as a payload from the Algonquian Elementary School kids containing seeds. The launch for the VWS-6 is set for February 9, with February 16th a backup date, if weather isn’t nice.
6. Steve, N5SK reminded everyone about ARRL book orders for Winterfest.
7. Dan KO1D announced that the NVFMA (Northern Virginia FM Association) would be meeting on January 17 in Falls Church. And that ARES meetings are the 4th Tuesday of every month at the AEOC (Alternate Emergency Operations Center) in Fairfax County.
8. Gary KI4EKM presented a book that was part of Len Hook’s estate and suggested the club keep the book (rather than being part of the auction) and pass it around for members to read since it was so informative. The book is “Don C. Wallace W6AM Amateur Radio’s Pioneer” by Jan David Perkins N6AW, Published by The Vestal Press, Ltd. NY, NY 1991.
9. Terry N4ZH, announced that he has cleared out the back log of QSL cards (from Len) and there are 150 left. He sent almost 500 cards to the league, with 700-800 still needing to be done from QSL and Field Day.
10. Dennis WA4QMS brought a Yaesu FT950 radio to show the members stating that it was a good radio in between 450 and 2000 models as far as features and function. He also brought the manual for members to look at.
11. Mel KI4WKZ brought an old ARRL 1989 handbook that was won by Kerry WA4BQM in the 50-50 drawing.
REPEATER REPORT:
John AF4PD reported that the antenna feed line is in place. And, although some work has been done, there still needs to be more work. They’ve had a lot of problems with white noise. This will hopefully be fixed within the next 2 weeks.
PRESENTATION:
This week we did not have any presentation. Instead we had an auction of 68 items from our former club Secretary Len KG6ZR’ s estate. Mike AE4R led the auction, with the assistance of Pete KG4OJT using slides. The board determined if the bids were fair. The proceeds are to go to both Len’s sister and brother (80%) and the club (20%). Gary KI4EKM had the items in his garage and anyone who won was to contact him regarding arranging a time to pick the item up.
REFRESHMENTS:
We began our year with Macalee AB5TY providing us with a variety of calories and goodies for our meeting. Next week, Brian WV4V will be bringing us food so we won’t grow faint or weak and be alert. Then, Steve N5SK has generously volunteered to provide the club treats for the remainder of the year, beginning in February. What a guy!
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