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> Feb 2006 Newsletter
Newsletter - February 2006
By: Larry
Hammersly, WA9FFZ, Secretary
Awards
Banquet
The
HHHC banquet was held on February 4th at Spring Mill
and there were over 20 members and guests in attendance.
Ray Robison gave an interesting talk about some of the
older members he’d QSOed in the
past and showed their QSL cards.
He also showed a photo of Frank Carroll and his station.
Frank, as you remember from the past newsletter, was the
holder of call sign W9QYQ which the club obtained after Frank
became a silent key. Awards
given out were as follows: Ray Robison, K9ZRL, New Member of the
Year; Hal Mandery, W8AIR, and Tim
Miller, K9US, jointly for Member of the Year; Mike Wright, KF9NP
and
Keith Harris
, N9KH, jointly for Elmer; and Larry Hammersley, WA9FFZ, Vance Lockenour
Award.
February
club meeting
At
the radio meeting this month, Mike gave out certificates for the
above awards and also honored last year’s officers, hamfest
chairman, field day organizer and fox hunt champion.
March
club meeting: Mar. 7th.
Arrangements
have been made to have Dave Bartlett, N9BUB, to give a forum on
PSK 31 Digital Communications.
Fox
Hunt Results: Jan. & Feb.
Keith,
N9KH, subbed for an ailing Mike to be the fox in January.
Two hunters, Ray, KB9LGS, and Larry,
WA9FFZ, showed to track down the fox.
He was hidden at the shelter house above the red brick at
Otis Park. Larry
logged fewer miles than Ray and will be the fox for February.
The February hunt had four hunters show to track down
Larry, WA9FFZ, the fox.
He was hidden at Old Union Christian Church near
Fayetteville
. All hunters
finished within 3.2 miles of each other.
Tim Wray
, KB9SNL, inched out Mike, KF9NP, by 0.1 mile to claim the
victory. The other
hunters were Brandon/Diana, KB9SNP/KB9WRX, and Mike Boles,
KC9FHX.
Early
Hamfests at Spring Mill
Although
your secretary was directly involved in these Spring Mill Hamfests
he will write these accounts in third person.
In order to guarantee that the ham club could have the
shelter house in the
Spring
Mill
Pioneer
Village
for the Sunday hamfest, the club had
to set up on Friday afternoon and hold the shelter house through
the weekend. Members
threw up a couple of dipole antennas and set up the club’s HF
equipment on Friday afternoon.
This required members to stay all night on Friday and
Saturday nights. Larry,
WA9FFZ, remembers staying all night Friday with Frank Anderson,
K9GBF, several years running in those
mid 1960s. Visiting
amateurs from miles away would come in on Friday evenings and
fellowship with local club members.
Larry remembers conversing with an XYL about religious
views which was a friendly chat while her
OM
conversed with Frank about amateur radio.
October nights in the
Pioneer
Village
can get quite chilly. A
fire was built in the shelter house’s fireplace.
For some reason the wood made available was not very
substantial, consisting of bark rather than good solid logs for
the most part. Frank
and Larry would get on the air, CW mainly, and QSO into the
early morning hours, keeping the fire going and staying wrapped
up in blankets and coats during the night vigil.
Occasionally,
Europe
would come in on 80 meters but Frank or Larry didn’t have much
luck working them down in the low spot of Spring Mill.
Frank had no trouble sleeping on top of a picnic table in
his sleeping bag. Larry
had to retire to the back seat of his ’55 Chevy for sleep.
Saturday was filled with a lot of activity with visiting
hams setting up their vehicles in the nearby parking lot with
all their electronic goodies.
This phased into Sunday.
There was Bingo. The
drawing on Sunday always offered an expensive rig as the main
prize. Nobody left
until that happened. These
early hamfests offered a pleasant
setting and were well attended.
Larry reflects, with sadness, that so many of those club
members are gone now. They
all took part: Frank, Kenny, Bill, Vance to name a few.
They were a great bunch of guys, dedicated to amateur
radio and portraying friendliness to all those who attended.
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