February 2012 RARC Presidents Address

It is late January as I write this and the weekend that I am writing it over has been one spectacular HF weekend! Snow is on the ground, temperatures are above 15 F and the ionosphere is hot! What a great combination!! We have several world-class Dxpeditions going right now- in Africa with TN2T in the Congo at Camp Pointe Noire, a second one off the coast of Colombia HK0NA at Malpelo Island involving several Minnesota hams who are good friends of mine and a third one in the South Pacific VP6T at Pitcairn Island, the site of where the Mutiny on the British ship HHS Bounty occurred several hundred years ago under the leadership of Fletcher Christian. I have worked all three this weekend and I discovered a lot of hams are doing the same. Several Rochester ham operators seem to be working each DX Operation a lot and being what the TCDXA calls DX Hogs (a term describing someone working the DX operation on all bands and all modes)

The last Dxpedition has a special meaning to me. I am referring to VP6T set in the Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, better described as being in the middle of no where! I worked Fletcher's grandson Tom Christian VP6TC back in the 1970's when I was a new ham and a teenager. It was on an afternoon SSB QSO and he was telling me his name was Tom Christian when my dad walked into my bedroom where I had my ham station. My dad was enthralled as the ham on the other end of the "wireless" told me he lived in the Pitcairn Island and his name was Tom. My dad actually sat down and asked if he could talk with Tom, so I agreed. After the QSO was over, my dad told me the story of the "Mutiny on the Bounty" and of what Tom's grandfather had done. My father was enthralled that his son had actually met (via shortwave) a living descendent of Fletcher Christian, someone my dad had read and studied in history classes.

There is no doubt that ham radio is a small community of hobbyists and its ability to connect people from across the planet make the world seem a bit smaller. I have had to smile several times over the past week when I worked the guys at HK0NA as they stopped to say "Hi" to me or "Hi Dr Scott, how are you?". I was actually invited to join them on the Dxpedition but could not get be gone from work and family obligations for the three and a half weeks it would have taken. I have had a small behind the scenes role with this team but more of that for a later column. I have also been quite worried for their safety and health and welfare seeing some of the email traffic from them to me about conditions there. Let's just say it is not paradise and they are coping with 115 F temperatures without air conditioning and with equipment melting down intermittently.

HF radio allows us to work operators all over the world this past week. I did it as a teenager with a short 40 ft tower and a cheap tri-band Yagi that I bought from monies earned by mowing the neighbors' yards. Today, you can throw up a simple dipole (wire antenna that is 15 ft long) from a tree limb and work them like I did. You don't need a tall tower or a three element yagi, but they do help. By the way - I did all of my early DX hunting on 100 watts with radios that are marginal by today's standards. I used a Heathkit HW-101 early on and then added a Drake "B" line later on. I did not own an amplifier until the 1990's when I was in Rochester for residency and fellowship. My first amplifier was given to me by a RARC club member, the late Dr James Cain (W0AGL). So never doubt your abilities to work a lot of DX on low power. I did it and you can as well.

Our club meeting in February will focus on both of these aspects with ham radio. The shortened program will feature the story of three Mayo physicians who were or are RARC members who have combined work travel with radio operating. One story will feature the late W0AGL who traveled with President Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One and frequently made HF contacts back to his wife in Rochester. Do you think the Secret Service would allow that today? The other two are about contemporaries of ours and their operations overseas in Chile, China and other countries. I think you will find the stories entertaining yet informative. The program will last about 20 minutes and then we will break. Those who wish to remain will have the opportunity to build a 10 meter dipole under the guidance of our Vice President Pat Cahill, W0BM. This will allow any club member for a small price (~ $15-20) to have an antenna that will work the world in the upcoming DX contests.

There will be several weekends of contests in February and March that will allow any operator who desires the opportunity to work over 100 new countries on 10 meters. The contests kick off Feb 17 with the ARRL DX CW Contest, continue March 3-5 with the ARRL SSB contest and end near the end of March with the CQ WPX SSB contest. If you want to try out these contests but don't have a radio, please ask Pat as he has one or more loaners available for the weekends of activities.

Now back to finish my story about Pitcairn. Someone told me recently that they thought Tom Christian had died. I began inquiring about how to get a QSL card from his widow and discovered much to my relief that both Tom and his wife Betty are alive and well. Tom has reached the age where operating on the radio is not something he can do easily but they are delighted to QSL. I wrote their email address and got this reply from his wife: "Hi Scott, thank you for your email re a QSL card for your QSO with Tom. Yes, you can send a QSL card to us or to our QSL manager K6RPF.
Cheers,
Betty and Tom"

I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts for February. I look forward to seeing you at the Club meeting on February 14th and to building a dipole antenna with you. After all, one can never have enough HF antennas!

It is not too early to think about attending the Dayton Hamvention, May 18-20th. I hope to attend and I have heard that NY0V, K4IU, K0UH, K0RPD and W0STV are also going. It is the biggest ham radio show under one roof ever and well worth seeing. Talk with me if you are curious. The technology, forums and friends that you meet there make it a trip well worth the time and effort.

Field Day planning is going very well under the guidance of Grant Kesselring and the team of club members who are helping him. There is a Trello planning site and the RARC is aggressively working to do better in 2012 and win the "Minnesota Challenge". I received a telephone call last week from N0KK about the Challenge. He was a speaker at the Twin Cities FM Club and heard their plans about how they were going to "beat us out" of the Minnesota Cup. He was calling to see how his team at w0AA might get involved! We hope to have the Field day at Gamehaven and I have requested permission from them. I am waiting on official notification but it looks good at this juncture. If you are interested in being involved in Field Day, please let Grant know as he will gladly include you.

February 2012 RARC President's Address

Meeting reminder notes from previous months