Well gang.. Here it is... nearly time for the next KLNET to convene, and
I have yet to file last weeks report.
This has been a big week for me... starting with NCS duties, followed by 3
major appliance repairs, and a bout with a bug... can't be the flu cuz I
got my flu shot this year. Other than just not feeling up to taking care
of the record keeping bureacracy I offer no excuse for being late with this
report. I do offer a most humble apology for making you all wait for it
though.
I invested a bit of time in advance of the net to be sure I was prepared
and able to handle most problems. I even kicked back and relaxed an hour
or so prior to the net to ensure I was not pushing myself too hard. I was
as prepared as I could ever expect to be and even against my own
declaration that I wouldn't appear prior to 2200 local, I pounced on the
key at precisely 2130.
The QRN was awesome... I knew the night was headed for a bust or at best a
major struggle was ahead and I wasn't let down.
In spite of what appeared to be the worst conditions of the season, I
managed two fairly long runs of QNI's, netting a total of 27 stations
spanning 14 states of which only 1 was relayed. 9 of the stations I
managed to catch were new to the net. I also copied K5ZTY at the end of
the net but was not able to complete a sufficient exchange to confirm it as
a QNI attempt. I was disappointed that I didn't catch our VE gang this
week either :-( It was 2330 at this point with the official net closing
time expired by half an hour. Few were remaining by this time, and I was
exhausted.
I was watching many signals peaking between crashes at S9 with the QRN
persisting the entire duration of the net. It wasn't until I closed the
net and left the shack that I discovered that we were in the middle of a
major storm front passing through. I didn't detect any lightning or
thunder, but we had a serious dousing of rain along with some pretty brisk
wind.
It was amazing that I was able to hear Chuck (K1CL) at 250 mw much less
copy anything coherent from him. He is the undisputed QRPp QNI for the
night with Dean (N2TNN) hot on his heels at 500 mw. Both of these gents
would have had excellent signal reports were it not for such a predominance
of QRN. Dean shared a wonderful story about how the evening was such an
ordeal for him that easily trumps my singular woe of QRN combat. I have no
earthly idea how much power he was running when I handed off to him for his
comments. Each close of his key would send a chirp from one end of my
passband filter to the other. He was strong, and it was clear he was
trying to comment... but I couldn't make sense out of anything he
attempted. I sent him a real nasty RST of 257 to let him know that his
tone was not real pure :-) He had caught on by this time, and asked me to
stand by... I was curious as to what he might be attempting, but wait I
did, and soon he was back with a strong clean 500 mw signal. He then
reported that his battery had died... Hmmmm... Not bad for a dead battery
:-).... It reminds me when I worked Dave WA4NID (about 30 miles away)
using a dead 1.5 volt alkaline cell as my power supply. At 0.9 volts
unloaded, it wasn't actually dead, but most battery appliances seem to
treat it that way:-)
We had two 89er check-in's, Dave (K2SJB) at 2 watts, and Randy (WJ4P) at a
cool and comfortable 1 watt. Great job guys... I hope the copy wasn't as
bad for you as it became for me :-) Randy was hearing "lots o gud sigs", so
maybe the 89er's gonna get a workout as NCS???
I actually heard my one QSP Mark (N2VPK) in Buffalo, NY but Ken (N1QQV)
jumped in with an assist so I was able to get all the particulars.
Sounds like a lot of the gang may have made tracks to Charlotte this
weekend. We'll likely hear comments about it on the net tonight. I sure
wish I could have been there, but I'm walking a fine line between my hobby
and marital bliss :-)
For the most part, the net went pretty smoothly, and thank goodness there
wasn't a lot of QRM. There was only on CQ on the net the entire evening
and I really think 2 hours is a bit long for us to expect to hold a
frequency anyway.
As I mentioned, I had two long QNI runs, and by the time I got to the
bottom of some of the lists the stations had either given up, or the
conditions changed dramatically. I will be doing some thinking about how to
better handle future nets so that folks don't get a feeling that they have
been forgotten. I ran the net half an hour over to make sure I called
everybody for comments, and if I didn't hear you, I attempted to call
again. It seems unreasonable to ask folks to hang around for half an hour
or more before getting back to them for comments though. If anybody has any
ideas on this, post them to the list and lets see if we can do something
that remains fun, but becomes a bit more equitable for the ones near the
bottom of the QNI list. I will try to bring this up at next weeks QRP-zzah
also.
A special welcome to our new members this week who managed to hold out for
a round of comments as well....
N4JS John in Vineland, NY
AE4JM Matt in Section, Al
WA5POK Mike in Spring, Tx
N2VPK Mark in Buffalo, NY
And a special thanks to another 5 of you who we didn't manage to get to you
in time to get your comments before the band changed. I got the names and
addresses from my QRZ disk. The first I suspect are new vanity calls....
K4GT ? ?
W3DW ? ?
KC4MHM Ed Crawfordville, Fl
W5XE Bill El Paso, Tx
N3GVS James Union City, Pa
I hope you all will be back again, and we can get to you all for comments.
I feel glad that we enjoyed such a turnout... particularly with the
conditions as rough as they were. I feel bad that it makes for such a long
duration before you get another chance on the key. Help us with your
comments on how we as NCS ops can do this better.
I've received an e-mail report from Paul AA4XX with news that Dan (N7CQR)
in Oregon was able to hear me calling the net. %$@&#$ that could have made
15 states... Wish I was listening harder Dan... I'll be listenin' fer ya
tonight... That's fer sure...
Finally; I can't let this report go by without passing on these colorful
words from our very own and one and only Boatanchor Bob (NA4G):
"I tried to get in a couple of times with the 1925 Hartley Oscillator and
1925 2-tuber regen. Alas, I would not get the QRG close enough to be heard,
and I did not want to swish the QRG. But, almost everyone was well heard
in Raleigh, on the ancient detector and one step.
72/73/ZUT DE NA4G/Bob UP"
Thanks for a grand attempt Bob... Do it again for us tonight... I'll QRG
the RX on this end and see if I can hear ye! I'd be rite proud to serve as
yer QSP and get yer QNI credited.
And to all the KL gang that tried but didn't get heard... Hang in there.
It is a grand event when we get so many check-in's from so many places.
We've even had QNI's from Alaska and Spain. We have some good ears in this
group, so hang in there and give it a go... We are bound to hear you one
of these nights.
CU all tonight Gang
72 and 73
Gary, N3GO, QNN for WQ4RP on 03/02/97 from Raleigh, NC
***************************************************************************
Now for the detailed report:
Stations preceeded with an asterisk are new check-in's and to them I extend
a most sincere welcome. I apologize for failing to catch all of you on the
rebound.
KnightLites Net
N3GO
Date: March 2, 1997
Freq: 3686.4 KHz
Time: 21:30 EST
Call RST Name QTH Pwr Comments
* N4JS 599 John Vineland, NJ 4W "All stations coming
in here... running
4W to Zepp"
WD9CTB 569 Jerry IN 3W Inverted Vee
N2TNN 257/359 Dean NJ 500mw "My battery was dead
now 500mw"
K3QIO 599 Jim De 5W Dipole
N1QQV 599 Ken Ct 5W Dipole (N2TNN was 569)
AA4XX 599 Paul NC 5W "Big turnout... Yall
hve fb week.."
K2SJB 599 Dave NY 2W "running a 89er at 2W
xtal ctrl.
* AE4JM 399 Matt Section, Al 5W "TS840 at 5W... off
center fed dipole.
K1CL 229 Chuck Ma 250mw "... a quarter watt"
AE4IC 599+20 Bob NC 4W "See u in Charlotte
next week"
* K4GT ? ?
* W3DW ? ?
* KC4MHM Ed Crawfordville, Fl
W3KC 599 Chas Md 4W "Read most OK... wid
Argonaut es Zepp"
K7SZ 489 Rich Pa 5W "... old Hallicrafters
SX-117 RX es HT44
TX running 5W out"
KI4PZ Rick NC
WJ4P 599 Randy SC 1W "lots o gud sigs...
using 89er agn...
Hpe to meet many at
Clt fest"
* WA5POK 379 Mike Spring, Tx 5W
WA4NID 599+10 Dave NC 5W dipole "If K3TKS hears
me pse knw that he
got bounced on email
klnet list hpe to
see some at fest nxt
wkend"
K3TKS 599 Danny Md 1W "Long time back hrd
K8EJU try QNI...
es I hrd dave say
sumthing abt email
bounce..."
1W QRP plus horiz
loop 45 ft nw.
WA8LCZ Byron Mi
* W5XE Bill El Paso, Tx
* N3GVS James Union City, Pa
N4LP Emory Fl
N2VP (I THINK THIS WAS MARK N2VPK)
* N2VPK QSP MARK BUFFALO, NY 4W G5RV (QSP Via N1QQV)
WB0CLD Ken Ct
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