Recent PVRC Chapter Happenings
Here you can find items that the various Chapter Chairs have found noteworthy in their Chapters over the past month or two.
Laurel, Maryland Chapter notes (AA3S Doug – Chair) third Wednesday of the month 7:30pm
— Meeting April 16, 2025 (Zoom): check-ins from “Curacao PJ2T” via Connor W4IPC; Maine (Dave K1BZ); Virginia (Vic NF3C aka W4VIC); Pennsylvania (Mark KB3Z), and of course Maryland (W1TRT Tim; Zory KB3VQC).
Around-the-table news:
Dave has been making 6 meter aurora CW contacts recently and said the frozen ground in Maine that he reported last month (and made the rest of us glad to be living farther South!) has turned to mud in many places…
Zory reports that he will be a part of the special event stations associated with the National Electronics Museum (NEM, https://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org/about-us/) including W2W to commemorate the D-Day landings. Since I don’t see the event listed on the NEM website or on QRZ.com yet, please contact Zory for more info.
Mark and Connor indicated that they would be attending the Dayton event.
Connor told us about his extraordinary remote operation of PJ2T in Curacao during the CQWW WPX Contest, SSB Mar 29 which may result in a new record for SOAB HP if final log results don’t change much from the online scoreboard and 3830 reports! see https://3830scores.com/editionscores.php?arg=RvYizV7YJenU
Connor entered in the Youth category (25 years or younger).
He had to recover from a power outage in Curacao (fortunately someone was at the station and could start the generator) and also to recover from an internet outage at his Virginia remote station control QTH (he had a backup to a local data center that he had never had occasion to use, but it worked as intended the first time!).
As RF-quiet as Curacao can be, Connor noted that it is even quieter when all the nearby houses have no power! A tactic for the future?
He would have operated SO2R, but could not get his K3-Mini Remote box and system to cooperate this time. Just imagine the score if he had worked as SO2R!
He told us a lot about his experience, methods and answered the many questions we had; you’ll have to attend another ‘live interview’ with him to get details. The PJ2T station/antenna details can be found at http://www.pj2t.org/ccc/default.htm and http://www.pj2t.org/ccc/PJ2T_Antenna_Lists_131018a3.pdf
P.S. Several Laurel Chapter members now live in other states (e.g. Colorado Ray W8LYJ has checked into our Chapter meeting in the past) and many of them contribute points to PVRC in the no-circle 5M contests. I communicate with some of these far-flung members by email or private Zoom and I want to remind them (and all PVRC members and their guests of course) to attend as many PVRC Zoom meetings as they can find time for; it’s a great way to keep in touch over the long distances.
Laurel Chapter member 5M notables: Dave K1BZ has achieved 5 Million points already this season and for the first time ever so he has earned the attractive 5M plaque! Plaque winners are generally determined after the season ends and then plaques are fabricated and distributed. Zory KB3VQC is so close to earning the 15 Million point endorsement by the end of this season that after pending scores are assigned to operators at multi-op stations it appears he will have more than 15 Million points accumulated. There are a few more 5M contests before the season ends in June to try to make sure…just saying. Tom K3TC is very close to 50 Million (!) but too early to tell if that will happen by the end of this season. Daryl WT3K achieved the 20M endorsement sticker last season and has already qualified this season for the 25M endorsement!
If you want to attend a future meeting, monitor the Reflector or contact me (aa3s a t arrl dot net).
Laurel, Maryland Chapter (AA3S Doug – Chair)
— Meeting March 19, 2025 (Zoom): check-ins from Maine (Dave K1BZ), Virginia (Vic W4VIC/NF3C; N2QT Mark; Pennsylvania (Mark KB3Z), and of course Maryland (W1TRT Tim; Jim AB3CV; Zory KB3VQC).
—– It looks like Dave will achieve 5 Million points for the first time by the end of this season in the PVRC 5M Program and so will receive the 5M Plaque! And Mark KB3Z has recently exceeded 5 Million points for the first time and so will receive the 5M Plaque, too!
—– Zory is very close to the 30 Million total and may achieve that endorsement sticker (for his previously earned 5M plaque) by the end of this season, stay tuned!
—– We had a grand time hearing more about Jim‘s version of the 9-circle receive antenna (he published a QST-worthy article in our Newsletter some time ago).
—– We heard that the snow is gone from southeast Maine (Dave), but the ground is still frozen to a significant depth. He made the rest of us feel good about living farther South!
—– Zory told us some interesting (and harrowing) stories from his service during the Vietnam Era as a Navigator in military planes flying over the Pacific Ocean, at times without any good source of navigation references while the plane was flying “on fumes”. He’s here to tell us about it, so it all turned out good for him and the crew he was navigating for!
—– Somehow we got to talking about encyclopedias that our families had in the house when we were growing up: all of us had a set from one of three different publishers (mine was Funk & Wagnalls) and we all admitted to spending a lot of time reading its contents way beyond the topic we had originally had to look up.
Several Laurel Chapter members now live in other states (e.g. Colorado Ray W8LYJ has checked into our Chapter meeting in the past) and many of them contribute points to PVRC in the no-circle 5M contests. I communicate with some of these far-flung members by email or private Zoom and I want to remind them (and all PVRC members and their guests of course) to attend as many PVRC Zoom meetings as they can find time for; it’s a great way to keep in touch over the long distances.
P.S. Laurel Chapter member Daryl WT3K achieved the 20M endorsement sticker last season and looks like he may qualify for the 30M at the end of this season! He has been contesting at (or remoting into) a multi-op station and then “taking a break” to work that contest with his own call from his home stations! A truly Highly Motivated Operator! Go Daryl!
—- Doug, AA3S
| Southwest Virginia Chapter (SWVA) |
|---|
| Date: 4/9/2025 | Chapter Chair – NØYY Rick Heinrich | |
| Chapter Members Attending: NØYY – Rick N3KN – Kay W2RU – Bud AG2N – Bette | Visiting PVRC Members: KB3Z – Mark N3MN – John | New Member Candidates: None |
| Announcements |
| The new PVRC website is live! NØYY is scheduled for antennas to be installed April 23rd. Hope the weather cooperates! |
| Highlights |
| We did a walk-thru of the new PVRC website. Positive comments were received. |
| Other News |
| Around the Room |
| There were comments about the motivational aspects of the Contest Scoreboard. KB3Z commented that he has been a target for others chasing him during different events. KB3Z – Mark is migrating from N3FJP to DXLab – it’s still a work in progress. He has linked the LoTW info and is still working details. He’s got about 30 days with his new Flex 8400M and it is fully integrated into the station N3KN – Kay continues to participate in QSO parties and got involved with the Georgia State POTA event. N3MN – John reported that Buddy, W4YE has ordered a Mosely TA-33 to replace his ice and wind damaged quad. John also attended the RARSFest this past weekend. W2RU – Bud reported on the W4CB tower loss. Insurance response has been slow. Work to get chainsaw work done on the offending tree is pending. The 40-2CD and A3S are total losses. Work continues to get help to remove the tower. |
| Date: 3/12/2025 | Chapter Chair – NØYY Rick Heinrich | |
| Chapter Members Attending: NØYY – Rick N3KN – Kay W2RU – Bud | Visiting PVRC Members: N3MN – John KB3Z – Mark | New Member Candidates: None |
| Announcements |
| None |
| Highlights |
| KB3Z completed 8-Band DXCC with 2 confirmations on 12M putting him over 100 entities. |
| Other News |
| W2RU – Bud reported that W4CB lost a tower when strong winds brought down a large tree on a tower guy. Insurance review is ongoing. |
| Around the Room |
| There was a discussion about how technology has impacted operator skill sets – specifically, visual vs aural queues. The widespread use of spectrum and waterfall displays for decision making as opposed to the more traditional approach of listening and making operational decisions. More monitor real estate is becoming necessary! KB3Z continues to work on integrating HamRacer (a synthesized voice keyer and logging program) with N1MM+ NØYY is nearing the installation of antennas on his tower – stay tuned! NØYY and KB3Z are attending Dayton this year |
Northwest Chapter (Chapter Chair – Ted WA3AER)
The April 15 meeting featured a presentation by Tim, N3QE on TINA and recent improvements.
Tim (aka TINA) demonstrated the progression of using synthesized voicing for SSB contesting from 2018 to the present day. Audio snippets demonstrated the improvements over the years.
Nowadays, Tim synthesizes the SCP (super check partial) calls, prefixes, suffixes, the alphabet and numerals, and some phrases. He uses a StreamDeck to provide a variety of response
choices. He has gotten it to the point where he needs NO mic!
Meetings are in Frederick, Md at Chef Lin’s (see Chapter Calendar).