THE FIRST CLASS C.W.

OPERATORS CLUB

NEWS SHEET 601

(http://members.aol.com/focuk)

Editor: G4BUE

November 1999

A man should keep his friendship in constant repair - Samuel Johnson (1755)
(3525, 7025, 10120-10125, 14025, 18080-18085, 21025, 24905-24910 and 28025kHz)

BANDS OF THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER ARE 160 & 20 METRES

If you received a blue paper with your October News Sheet, it means your subscription for 2000 is due by 31 December. Have you paid yet?
We cover two issues this month, both being indeed Topical for the membership to consider. Please let me have your views so that follow-up pieces can appear next month. You can send to me by e-mail to <g3sxw@ compuserve.com> or by post. Firstly. It is that time of year again when a tiny handful of over-zealous Windle-point chasers go around upsetting other members. It is a bit like the DX Policeman scene - just a few being a nuisance to the many. Here are the views of John, G3WGV, on the topic: A few days ago I was pursuing some reasonably tasty DX morsel on 18MHz. I wasnt being very successful, in part because the DX had a sizeable pile-up and was not working split. Still, I was there, in the pile-up and clearly calling the DX. I was rather surprised during this to be called by a member chasing a Windle point. Each time I called the DX, he called me, obliterating the DX, not just for me but also for others on the frequency, sending Windle! Windle!. This happened three of four times, after which I think the DX went QRT. Being of charitable disposition, I could accept that this was a genuine mistake by the member in question. If it was deliberate then I have to seriously ask whether the headlong pursuit of Windle points is being taken too far by some. Had the member waited until I had made the DX QSO and then sent: WGV up 1 or whatever, then I would have happily obliged. I make quite a number of thoroughly enjoyable FOC QSOs that way. As it was the member did not get his Windle point. Secondly, here is the input from Doug, VE7NH, about an FOC award for non-members:

2000 SUBSCRIPTIONS

TOPICAL ISSUES by G3SXW

Non-members to QSO at least 100/150 members over any period of time. This could lead to a certificate (or plaque) similar to our Augie. Good PR. Check out non-members for future sponsorship. At least once a year a contest to for non-members and members, may be only 24 hours. QSOs to count for the above award. FOC must be the only club which has no awards for non-members. About time to change it. Those of you who decided to miss Lords this year made a bad decision! I will leave G3WGV to tell you all about it below. I agree with Johns view and think the meal was one of the best I have ever had there (and my first was in 1975!). If you are involved with the organisation of any of our social events, can you please ensure that I have sufficient information for the Spring 2000 FOCUS (deadline about 20 February). I would like to repeat what I did in the end pages of FOCUS 38, and publish information about all of our social events in 2000 together. June and I have booked our flights for the Florida Dinner and will be staying with N4TO for most of the time. I hope to QSO some of you from Vics QTH, including the ARRL 10 Metre Contest which we will be entering as a multi-single, probably with Joe, WB4OSN. I think Lords was superb this year! The food was excellent, the company convivial and even the weather contrived to be in good mood. It was wonderful to see a return to higher numbers attending the dinner, with 105 members, spouses and visitors sitting down to nicely served, well presented lamb, washed down with very reasonable wine at just 10 per bottle. All very tasty indeed.

EDITORIAL by G4BUE

1999 LORDS by G3WGV

Whilst there has been much criticism of Lords as a venue in recent times, I have to say that this year they really pulled out the stops and a great time was had by all. Those members who didnt attend because they feel the quality of the food or service is poor at Lords missed a really excellent evening. What of the future? Its very unlikely we will move away from Lords for the 2000 dinner because we have to book it in the next few weeks to retain the facility. The Committee will not be ready with counter proposals before then. Naturally, we will strive to make next years dinner at least as good as was this years. However, members will be aware that alternatives are being sought in the longer term. In that regard I would like to thank the many members who have taken the trouble to tell the Committee of their views and ideas. As might be expected, there are many conflicting requirements and proposals but also several recurring themes which give the Committee something to base its search for a new venue upon. Members can be sure that the Committee will not change the format or venue of the Clubs principal social event without most careful consideration. The UK contingent attending the Dinner now comprises of Maud Slater, G3LIK, Kathleen and G3LTV G3MXJ, G3WGV June and G4BUE, and , , Terry and GM3POI. Out of State members known to be attending include AC5K, K5CA, K5DQ, N9RD and W9NN. Us folks in the Texas/Louisiana area are a long way from the fine dinners on the East Coast. For that reason we are planning a get-together in Galveston, Texas for any of the gang and families who might be interested. We have chosen Caseys Seafood Restaurant at 3828 Seawall Blvd and plan to meet at 11am sharp on 15 January. This is a very popular place and we need to start early. The atmosphere at Caseys is very casual, and the food is delicious. Galveston has a lot of nice places to stay over the weekend and rates should be reasonable in January; it is about 50 miles from Houston Hobby Airport. There are many things to do and see on this beautiful island. Please let K5NA, AC5K, or me know if you can attend. Our thanks to the generosity of the following members who gave something extra for Club funds with their 1999 subscription.
DL1PM DL4CF DL9TJ EI5BG F3AT F5VCT GDMN GIVZ GORH GCMM G2ALM G2FDF G2FFO G3AXI G3AZ G3AAE G3BPF G3DOJ G3GFG G3IAF G3IGW

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION by G3MXJ

Starred List
3. W4ML: G4HZV W4PM, W4QM, W4YE, , VK4XA (+K1AO, SM3BCS). 3. OK1CF: G4ZDB, OK1KT, N6NT, N6QR, W4QM (+KF2AT, OK1RR, OK1CZ). 2. G4PDQ: G3JJG, G3SWH, G3UOF, ZL1MH, 5B4AGC. Invitations have been sent to KF7E and WUA. No reply has yet been received from 9V1YC. An objection to N6TR is under consideration by the Committee.

Additional Nominations

6. G3ZGC: GORH, G3RVM. 5. GJWB: G3LPN, G3MCK, GADE, W4QM. 4. S57NW: DL4CF, DJ5ZN. 4. G4UZN: G4YNU. 3. LY3BA: K4BAI, G3HZL, G3LZK, N6NT. 3. OK1TN: OK1KT, OK1GT. 2. W4MQC: W4PM, K1AO, W1OT, N2UU.

New Member

FLORIDA DINNER UPDATE by G4BUE

1724 EA6ACC (Josep) - J. Torres, PO Box 208, San Antonio, E-07820 Ibiza, Spain; tel 3471 800 777; XYL - Antonia.

Amendment

GALVESTON GET-TOGETHER by K5DQ

G8PG (11): amend post-code - CH49 3ND. LA2UA (103): Silent Key. OZ4UN (1554): new address - Bagerstraede 12A, DK-3480 Fredensborg, Denmark. PR7PO (1294): amend address - Av Severino Brandao 463, Araticum, Lagao Seca, Paraiba 58117000, Brazil. K1MEM (1459): Silent Key. K4LT (1576): new address - 356 Owosso Ave, Fairlawn, OH 44333, USA. W4/VP2MT (1519) - change call. WIAK (1629): amend address - 55334 Owen Lake, Campground Road, Bigfork, MN 56628, USA.
G3LQI G3LNC G3LWI G3MRP G3NKS G3NOH G3OHP G3PDL G3RB G3RCU G3RTE G3SJJ GW3SYL G3VMK G3VMW G3WPF G3YXX G3ZEM G4CEO G4HZV G4IP G4KGG G4ODV G4OEC G4PKT G4SIE G4UPS G4YNU G4ZDB GM3YTS GW3AHN JA1NUT K1AR K1YT K3TW K4EFZ K4FU K4II K4XG K5AQ K6DC K6OU K6TS K8EJ K9BG K9DX K9QVB K9UIY K9WA KL7HF KL7PJ N2AA N2UU N4LS N4OO N4UB N4XR N5TJ N8BR N8GZ NR7O OH2BDA OH2KI ON4WD OZ1CAR PABW PAINA PJ2AM SMCOP SM3EVR SM5GLC SM5GMG SM6CPY VK2BJ W1FJ W2QM W3LPL W4HY W4IF W4DGJ W4XJ W4YE W6CYX W6ISQ W6IJ W6GTI W6RJ W6THN W6TZD W6RGG W8VSK W8ZD W9FD W9GW W9VNE

DONATIONS by Maud Slater

5B4 AGC

9J2BO A71CW DJOS DF2IC DJ5ZN DL1EE

G3IY G3IZD G3JKS G3JLB G3JZV G3KGB G3LTV

GBQV: Congratulations to Mary on being nominated as Fist of the year 1999 by the FISTS club and winning a callsign engraved ZPY key. GORH: Ken said myself and XYL enjoyed ourselves as always at Lords ... no complaints whatsoever, we had more than our fair share of food, and wine too. G2FFO: Dick says I am now QRV on 6m with a vertical and have been receiving much encouragement from Clive, GM3POI, but havent managed to work him yet! In fact, I made my first QSO on that band only yesterday (27 October) with John, GCMM, who is every bit of 25 miles away! However, Im going to persevere and look forward to getting my first Windle point on Six!. G3TXF: Nigel, will be 30 October/7 November as VP2V/G3TXF and 8/14 November as FG/ G3TXF from Les Saintes (NA-114), CW only. QSL both via home call. G3VMW: Steve and Bob, G3ZEM, will be joining George, 5B4AGC, for the CQ CW Contest (multi-single) from the Sovereign Base Area at Episkopi as ZC4EPI. George now has his own ZC4 call, ZC4GB. Steve has booked his flights for the XZA 11/30 January DXpedition from the previously inactivated Thaytay Kyun Island, one of the Mergui Archipelago group in southern Myanmar (Burma). More information in the next FOCUS. G3WGV: John says What a pleasure to work so many Club members during the RSGB 21/ 28MHz CW Contest recently. Of 351 QSOs, no less than 68 were with members, showing that, as ever FOC represents a high proportion of the CW activity on the bands. The contest saw the debut of my new HF beam, a Force 12 C-19XR which seems to have done the trick despite decidedly uninspiring conditions. Thanks to all overseas members who turned out for this contest and gave us Gs some welcome QSOs. G4UPS: Ted has worked two new DXCC on 6m this year to bring his total to 148 and had recent QSOs with 9J2BO, G3IFB and G3JLB. G4ZVJ: Andy made 850 CW QSOs in 24 hours on 18 September as XU7AAV from Phnom Penh and is planning to go back for about two weeks from 20 November to include the CQ CW Contest. More information on his web page at <http://www.g4zvj.demon.co.uk/xu.htm>. K1MEM: Jim sadly became a Silent Key on 12 October, aged 50, after a lengthy illness. Our condolences to Genevieve and Jims family. K1ZZ: Dave is not planning to be part of the PJ9B team for the CQ CW Contest (October News Sheet) - he had been wrongly named in one of the DX bulletins. K4EFZ: Donna and Chris were driving to New England at the beginning of October on a leaf viewing trip when W1RM came across Chris on 20m. Pete arranged a mini dinner at a res-

MEMBERS NEWS by G4BUE

taurant close to ARRL HQ and joining him to welcome them was W1WEF, K1RM and K1ZZ. Several non-FOCers were there as well. K6OU: Bruce reports the first six months of this year were a complete loss for Charlotte and myself. In the first week of December 1998 she fell and broke her left arm in two places plus completely shattering her elbow and for five months I had to take her to therapy three times a week. I am happy to report that she has recovered the use of her arm 95 percent. As for me, I had a short relapse of my medical problems. The result of both of our problems was about six months of almost no radio activity, but I am happy to say I am catching up as rapidly as I can. KF2AT: Percy has been working on his small antennas and says, I had a chance to work on the 40 metre twig last weekend. Its a challenge for sure to try and get 40m RF out of a steel frame building. I have it bent into a vee shape with four feet on each leg, and this is the only way I can get any kind of clearance between the floor and ceiling. I dont think I can shorten it below this size because its right on the threshold for having unacceptable losses. I have had several European contacts and it seems to be an improvement over the previous attempt. I have QSOd Percy several times in October on 40m with his twig from his QTH on the 12th floor of a 20 storey New York block of flats and can confirm the improvements he talks about. He is a wonderful example of what can be achieved from a very difficult QTH - G4BUE. LA2UA: Bob sadly became a Silent Key on 8 October following a lengthy illness. He was one of the senior overseas members of FOC (103) having joined soon after the Club was re-established after WW2. He will be remembered as one of FOCs most flamboyant characters, both on and off the air. He spent many years with East African Airways during which time he was well known on the bands as 5Z4LW. N4JT: Jeff has sold his boat and bought an aeroplane and hopes one day to work some members from N739XY as N4JT/AM. N6NT: Bruce was planning to return to Little Cayman on 29 October where he will be QRV as ZF2NT again until the beginning of May, with a new Acom 2000A amplifier shipped with help from LZ1AF. G3SWH is now Bruces ZF2NT QSL manager. N9RD: Jurgen bought Mikes (W9FKC) Bencher and worked Shin, JA1NUT, as the first station with it. From now on, I keep that paddle in my mobile and portable set ups. He will be in Florida between 20 November and Christmas and will be attending the Dinner. Referring to the use of 161, Jurgen says I dont always kiss my family members and relatives but I love them. Therefore I feel that it is proper to like and love your fellow club members (at least most) and during a short heated DX pile-

up, 161 is the only way to identify you as a FOC member. I dont think that there is anyone in the Club that remembers every member. I remember the active ones but still have to look at my tick sheet for calls and names of the less active members. OH2KI: Jorma will be one of the operators of a multi-national team for the CQ SSB Contest from Malyj Vysotskij Island as R1MVR or R1MVZ, and was planning to be QRV 26/31 October CW on the LF bands. OZ4UN: Paul moved to a new QTH at Fredensborg (35km north of Copenhagen) on 1 October, and says the house is located on a steep slope which I think will be fine for radio wave take-off. There are very tall, old trees which look very useful for LF antennas, and HF antennas will probably be verticals - at least for a start. VE3BHZ: Dave says I think you might like to put another reminder in the News Sheet about operating at 025 on top of DXpeditions. ZK2ZL was on the other day and one of our members was right on top of him running a contest-like pile up. Some of them were no doubt calling the ZK2. He was told about the ZK2 and his reply was Guess he likes my frequency hi and stayed right there. Hardly the ideal conduct for a FOC member even if he was there first, which of course I dont know. VK8AV: Alan made 606 QSOs in the VK/ZL Contest, mostly on 10m. He says I had great hopes of making a serious effort, but the following things happened: thunderstorms started on Friday evening and continued through the weekend causing QRN across the whole spectrum; an ear ache recurred making use of the headphones particularly uncomfortable and painful; my new computer generates a lot of QRM completely blotting out 80m and causing birdies on other bands and finally the auto band-switching on the

(callsign in brackets indicate G4FOC operator)

FOC CALENDAR

Until 31 Jan VQ9DX by AA5DX (600) Until 15 April NA-062 by K2ZR/4 (600) Until 14 May ZF2NT by N6NT (601) November - 160m & 20m (G3LIK) Until 7 VP2V/G3TXF (601) 3/12 9M6PWT by G3SWH (600) 8/14 FG/G3TXF (601) 13 Committee meeting 17/26 N3AFU by VK2AYD (599) 20/4 Dec XU7AAV by G4ZVJ (601) 23/30 8P9HT by K4BAI (600) 23/30 8P by N4TO (600) 23/1 Dec PJ9/N2AA (600) 249G by 9H1EL, G3SXW, K5VT, KC7V+ (600). 25 Deadline for FOCUS 41 27 December N/Sheet deadline CQ CW 8P by K4BAI, N4TO & K1TO (600) 9G5AA by G3SXW & others (600) PJ9B by N2AA & others (600) VU by N7BG & OH2KI (599) XU7AAV by G4ZVJ (601) ZC4EPI by 5B4AGC/G3VMW/G3ZEM (601) amplifier quit just before the contest! Otherwise, all is well here!. W8KJP: Del was QRV again 18/20 October as HL9DC while working in South Korea. WL7E: Congratulations to Joe on winning a dispute with a neighbour over his new 110 feet tower after the County Code Enforcement Officer (who happens to be a radio amateur!) had red tagged (stop notice) it. He has dipoles up and hopes to put the TH7 up this winter. ZP6CW: Doug will not now be at the Florida Dinner as he lost his mother, aged 80, on 7 October, and was planning to spend three weeks with her in Florida in December.

Score updates can be passed to any committee member. An asterisk against the call indicates the score has been updated this month. Table shows the scores received by 2000z 29 October.
9H1EL 373 EA8CN* 364 GM3POI 359 W4QM 353 W1HMD* 337 LZ1AF 320 K1AO 302 F5VEX* 301 G4ZDB 300 G3KTZ 291 YV1NX 290 N6NT* 287 G3LIK* 280 G2FFO* 275 DL6TQ 273 G4OEC 267 GW3KDB*260 G3SXW* 259 GW3KGV*259 G4BUE* 254 SV1AOW 253 K2VCO* 249 G3HZL* 245 G4PKD* N9RD G4HZV* DJ5ZN* G3JZV* W6OV* W2GW W8XM* VE1BN N4TO K4XU AC5K* K4BAI AA5DX G2FDF N3BB* W6CYX K4II G3IY* W3NZ OH2FOC G4BJM K5DQ* 243 236 234 225 223 220 215 212 206 205 201 200 198 195 195 195 194 192 190 189 186 185 185 G3NKS 180 GIVZ 179 W6TZD* 174 VK8AV* 172 PA5TT 170 YO4PX 168 PABW* 167 N4AF* 165 OZ4UN* 165 K4EF 159 SM5COP* 159 GORH 158 W8KJP 156 W9GW 156 G3WGV* 152 W4ZYT 152 G3LHJ* 151 LA1IE* 147 G3TXF 144 G4BUO 144 K1JD 144 W4DGJ 144 W5GEL* 144 JA7SSB 140 ZP6CW 140 GFJT 138 VE1BN 137 G4AFU* 132 N4JT* 132 G3IZD 131 SM6AOU* 131 WB2YQH 131 DK4LX 130 G3MCK 130 WIAK* 130 W1WEF 129 F3AT 128 GCHV* 128 ON4WD* 128 G3KKQ 127 VE3DZZ 123 N4TY 121 G8VG 120 4X1FC 117 KF2AT 117 W6IJ 115 W5ZR* 114 G3LTV 113 GW3SB* 111 K6TS 111 OK1KT 111 VK6RU 110 W4YE 110 G3HEJ 108 K1SS 108 KT5X* 108 OZ8RO 107 ZL1AH 105 G3RVM 103 G3JJG 100 ZS6AL 100 K9BG 98 W1NV 97 W1FZY 96 GM3HUN* 95 LA3FL 95 VK4XA 95 W2DX 95 K7UOT ZL2AGY OK1RR GBQV* G3NOH GM4SID G2HKU* KC7V W1HT PALOU W3ABC* G3PQC* G4SFO GM3JKS PAINA VA3LK* G3LZK K6DC OH2KI VK6VZ W4CK GDMN 94 94 86 84 84 84 83 82 82 81 81 80 80 80 80 79 78 78 78 78 78 77 K5AX K6OU* GW3SYL W4TAJ K2SX VK3XB W2MEL N1DG K2LE VE3BHZ* DJ9SB VE3AR G4VXE G4UPS* VK3KS LA8XM* ZL1MH WA4SNI G3IEW IXXR OH2EA W6THN 77 77 75 75 74 74 73 72 71 71 70 70 69 67 65 64 62 60 59 55 55 55 OZ4FF* W1HL* K2VUI HB9QO GW3HCL W9NN GIHM N4WJ W1FJ W9VNE W1RM DF2IC K6RA KL7PJ K2ZR K5CA* NNM ZS6QU K6WG KL7PJ ZL2AZ OZ1LQH 54 53 51 46 45 45 42 40 37 37 36 34 34 30 25 23 20 20 19 13 10 3

THE 1999 WINDLE AWARD