November 2004 Newsletter - CVVHF
Everybody,
I
have sent the following letter to Steve (KA9OMC) at the Red Cedar River Assn.,
to be added to their newsletter. In
addition, I have added at the bottom of this a few other things dealing with the
club.
Steve,
I wanted to post you a note on the status and “meat” of our little
club here in the Chippewa Valley. We
have just become affiliated with the ARRL and have a club callsign.
The club is called “Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters” and the club call
is K9CVC. We do have a website at http://www.cvvhf.org
and through the site one can subscribe to our reflector.
There are no dues at this time to become part of the club.
All we really require is an interest in contesting and experimenting.
The club is not just VHF
oriented, as we are active from 160-meters up through 10 Ghz at this time, but
there is more “activity” in the VHF bands with the current members. We are mainly working with SSB and CW, not FM, although we do
run on FM simplex as well as some of the repeaters, but for the most part, you
can find us around 50.125 Mhz SSB/CW, 144.200 Mhz SSB/CW, and 147.545 FM
simplex.
We regularly put in a large
effort into the 3 major VHF contests sponsored by the ARRL throughout the year
(January, June, September), as well as various sprints and a few of us help out
W0AIH at his site for the HF contests. Charlie
(N0AKC) participates in the EME contest on 2-meters. We have others in the club that go out in “rover” mode
during various contests to “activate” various areas that might not be heard
otherwise, for contact multipliers. We
have encouraged people over the past years to become more active in radio and to
hopefully broaden the ham radio experience through Elmering and contesting.
We have been tossing the idea around to help build code speed up by doing
on air sessions, but nothing is set in stone yet.
If anyone in the area (175
mile radius from Eau Claire) is interested in contesting and or experimenting
(such as antenna building), we have a very informal club that has a growing
knowledge base to tap into. Those
wishing to should contact me via email or snail mail at the following addresses.
All I need is:
1)
Name
2)
Callsign (if any)
3)
Street Address
4)
If you are an ARRL member or not
5)
Email address (if any)
Send
to:
David Aho N9TTX
818 Revere Street
Eau Claire, WI 54703
Email:
n9ttx@yahoo.com
As I had mentioned, the club
is ARRL affiliated, the membership is free at this time, and all we require is
an interest in amateur radio orienting toward the contesting and experimenting
areas of the hobby. I will be
trying to do a small newsletter now and again to inform the members of the
activities and events going on within the CVVHF club.
I will try and keep the Red Cedar River group posted also through your
newsletter. Below is a quick blurb
of the club information.
1)
Orientation: Contesting, experimenting, DX work, Elmering, &
incorporating All bands.
2)
Dues: None...but the
treasurer would be there for collection/disbursement of finances in case of a
group order/donation, etc...
3)
Meetings: Annual meeting to
be held as an Antenna building party sometime in the spring.
Another meeting can be held in conjunction with the Aurora Conference.
Other meetings whenever we wish and can be pretty informal.
4)
Members: Open to all with the
goals/interests stated in the orientation of the club.
Full voting members to be Amateur licensed, but members can be of the
general public with an interest in communication and amateur radio (meaning
those that are studying for the ticket, and want to be Elmered).
Members are considered active if they are involved with/present at least
one contest/meeting/event within a 12 month period.
5)
President: Charlie (N0AKC)
Vice Prez: Robert (KB9PJL)
Secretary: David (N9TTX)
Treasurer: Al
(N9ISN)
6)
Club website http://www.cvvhf.org
Events
of interest:
Nov. 20-21, 2004
- ARRL
SSB Sweepstakes
Nov. 27-28, 2004
- CQ WW CW DX Contest
Dec. 4-5, 2004
- ARRL 160 Meter Contest
Dec. 4-5, 2004
-
ARRL EME Contest
Dec. 11-12, 2004
- ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Jan. 1st, 2005
- ARRL Straight Key Night
Jan. 8-9, 2005
-
ARRL RTTY Roundup
Jan. 8-9, 2005
-
North American QSO Party – CW
Jan. 15-16, 2005
- North American QSO Party -
SSB
Jan. 22-23, 2005
- ARRL January VHF
Sweepstakes
Jan. 29-30, 2005
- CQ WW CW 160-Meter Contest
Feb. 5-6, 2005
-
10-10 SSB Winter contest
Feb. 5-6, 2005
-
Minnesota QSO Party
Feb. 12-13, 2005
- CQ WPX RTTY Contest
Feb. 19-20, 2005
- ARRL CW DX Contest
Feb. 26-27, 2005
- CQ WW SSB 160-Meter
Contest
Mar. 5-6, 2005
-
ARRL SSB DX Contest
Mar. 26-27, 2005
- CQ WW SSB WPX Contest
Basically,
it is a fairly open ended easygoing club with definite goals in contesting,
experimenting (particularly with antennas), and bettering their operating skills
and teaching/helping others with theirs. We will be close tied with the NLRS I am guessing, as a
number of us are on that reflector. There
are members with the Minnesota Wireless Assn., and also on that reflector.
Thanks
for your time Steve, and if you could get the information into your newsletter
it would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
David Aho N9TTX - secretary
Thanks to everyone that have contributed to the club in any way, and also
thanks to those having the patience in waiting for the club to become
affiliated. A recap in brief of the
last few months is as follows:
June
VHF contest…All I can say is WOW!! Everyone
did a great job. I think if the
progression of increasing scores and new members submitting even one contact (I
would hope more than that) should make the next year in contesting an
interesting one with club competition scores.
Field Day…An excellent turnout. Thanks to Everyone that participated…we have ideas for next year (does a “Tim the Toolman” Ahrr Ahrr!
July
IARU Contest…I worked out of a campground and got a lot of attention and
amateur radio exposure…it was fun.
August
UHF Contest…Some had great results,
I on the other hand did not… I spent the majority of talk time on the 10-meter
summer contest during the same period.
September
VHF contest…With permission from W0AIH and W0UC, we were able to use the
facilities and antennas at “the Farm” and fired the club call “K9CVC”
into the air for the first time, and with the help of everyone, we did a bang up
job. Congrats and thanks.
October
& November…We got our affiliation, W9CDL and KC9FVS got one of the towers
and antenna stacks up in the air at their place, and the HF contest season
starts.
Current
Member Roster
David
Aho
N9TTX
ARRL
Darrell
Schreiner
K9AIH
ARRL
Justin
Glasener
K9MU
ARRL
Robert
Rohrssen
KB9PJL
ARRL
Charlie
Betz
N0AKC
ARRL
John
McDonald
KB9TLV
ARRL
Ray
Johnson W9RAY
ARRL
Randy
Westerberg
KB9POI
ARRL
Allan
Schlaugat
N9ISN
ARRL
Brad
Zuelke K9BZ
ARRL
Paul
Brooten KB9TYC
ARRL
Steve
Bluem KA9OMY
ARRL
Bill
Noble
KA9GNG
Jay
Grokowski N9CIQ
ARRL
Marvin
Opitz N9RVV
Wanda
Rohrssen
KB9QGL
ARRL
Michael
Fenske
KC9EXW
Christian
Lantz
W9CDL
ARRL
Mary
Slifer
KC9FVS
ARRL
Kayla
Kwitti
Scott
Littfin N0EDV
Albert
Pichler KC9GIQ
If there are any others that I
have not listed or that might be interested (such as Amber and Dave who helped
out at the farm for the Sept. contest), please tell them to email or snail mail
me (N9TTX) with the information I need (listed above with the contact info).
Also if I do not have your information correct, please let me know. I am
sending all these out this time via snail mail, so also if you have not done so
already (if you have computer access) please take the time to visit the website
and subscribe to the reflector and also send me a note with your email address
on it.
There is talk of a meeting of
the minds sometime after the 2nd weekend in December to discuss a few
things, and to plan for events and such. The
reflector is the most logical place to watch for date/place/time.
There is also talk of possibly working the January contest out of the
W0AIH/W0UC farm again if they are willing, and if so count me in as an op and a
multi-band rig for use…I would say get in touch with Justin and let him know
as he was the moving force behind the Sept effort.
Steve, KA9OMY, was proposing a
code practice “class” which would consist of teaching the Morse characters
and building code speed on air. Times
and such have not been hashed out yet, but It sounds (pun not intended) like an
excellent idea. I know I need to
work on my receiving proficiency. This
should be tabled at the proposed meeting in Dec. also.
Thanks again and please send
me some feedback as to how often (monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly) you would like
to see a newsletter. Again, use the
email or snail-mail addys I have listed above.
Dave….N9TTX