Attendees: K1HSY (Dean); W1XX (John); NA1CN (Chuck); NG1M (Mike); NG1G (Pat); K1DM (Mike); W1AN (John); K1JSM (John); KA1J (Gary); K1MD (Rich); AA1AC (Mark); K3IU (Ken); KS1J (Jim)
Treasurer’s Report (NG1M) – As of Date, $10,151.84 balance
We are all set with Insurance. Thanks Mike!
Contest Manager Report (K1ECU)
Charlie said that he had looked back three years to see club participation in some of the key contests. Basically considering membership, there hasn’t been a ton of logs submitted. However the ARRL DX CW 2019 did have seven logs and total score of 10Meg. Note that Rick KI1G was the largest contributor.
Some discussion followed on the old intra-club competition. Ken K3IU updated everyone on how tracking had become painful and John W1XX commented that this initiative, although initially effective, had run its course.
John W1XX did say he would provide Charlie with a list of those contests that generated the greatest CTRI participation. These mostly include RTTY (ARRL and CQ) and SSB tests.
Charlie encouraged all members to post contest scores to 3830. That site makes it easy to summarize by club. It also allows one to see how they did against the competition.
It was mentioned that the Russian Contest (March 16) and CQ WPX SSB (3/26) are coming up this month. The Russian contest is everyone work everyone with bonus for Russian oblasts and calls. The WPX SSB contest is always popular and John (W1AN) said that his station would be open for that one.
Charlie reminded all to check the website since upcoming contests are also posted there.
YOTA Committee (K1ECU, W1WBB and W1MBF) – No report since Bill couldn’t make the meeting.
Field Day
W1XX first asked if there was interest in 2019 participation. There was enthusiastic endorsement! Following this, John accepted the position of Field Day Chair. This was followed by some preliminary discussions mostly about antennas. Pat wondered if the club should get a second Hex Beam because of the superior performance he experienced with the first one last year. John W1XX said he wasn’t convinced about the performance edge. Further discussion raised the issue at to whether the rather substantial effort to raise the Mega Wire antenna was also worth it. Other specialized antennas for the low bands were discussed as possibilities considering the lack of high band propagation now. Because of these various alternatives, an ad-hoc Antenna Committee was organized consisting of KS1J, KA1J, and K3IU. Jim will reach out to the other members and target a report out by the next meeting. A decision on the antenna portfolio is needed fairly soon because if we were to get another hex beam ($700), the lead time from Folding Antennas is about 4 weeks, construction and testing another 4 weeks. W1XX said he would forward info on the Mega Wire antenna to KS1J. All pretty much agreed that the TH-3 was not a real alternative.
Also discussed was the possibility of trying different modes, especially Satellite, FT8(6 meters) and other digital modes.
John W1XX then covered the upcoming meetings and mentioned that a number of great presentations were on tap.
4/20 – Meet at North Kingstown Library. Bob WB1SON will talk about Satellite communication.
5/11 – Meet at North Kingstown Library. John K1JSM will talk about US Islands on Air activation. At this meeting we also will decide if a special 6/1 meeting be held to finalize Field Day preparation.
6/8 – Meet at North Kingstown Library. W1XX was especially enthused about the scheduled presentation by NM1Y (Jeff). Jeff is an experienced DXpeditioner (K1N, 3Y0Z) and will discuss his experiences. Because of the general interest in this, John has contact Bob W1YRC to see if other clubs might want to attend this presentation. Related to his visit, it was agreed that a $100 contribution to a DX foundation would be made as an expression of the club’s appreciation of NM1Y’s visit.
6/22- 6/23 FIELD DAY!
W1XX listed other possible forums (no dates yet): Portable Antenna (W1MBF); FT8 (K1SX); 6W (AA1C); Station Renovation (K1MD)
Chuck mentioned that on 6/23 at Norwich Free Academy there would be a presentation on robotics plus a VE session.
Chuck then delivered his presentation on Fox Hunting. He described how these events are organized and what challenges they present the participants. He described a number of different directional antennas and passed around a couple including a three element tape measure job. He mentioned how attenuation plays a role in zeroing in on the fox and how TDOA (time difference of arrival) antennas can also help.
It was a super presentation!
Next meeting 4/20!
