THE FIRST CLASS C.W.

OPERATORS CLUB

NEWS SHEET 629

(http://www.firstclasscw.org.uk)

Editor: G4BUE

March 2002

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 MARCH ARE 40 & 20 METRES

Welcome to the News Sheet from Florida again! Sorry to North American members for the wider margins on the February News Sheet which reduced the size of the text. This was due to a problem between the size of paper used to print the News Sheet on the European A4 size and the standard page size used in the USA, which is different. Hopefully this will be rectified on this News Sheet. The Marathon is now history and wasnt it nice to have some better conditions this year, especially on the HF bands? I have gathered a number of interesting Marathon stories from the Members Group Reflector which I will publish with the results in FOCUS. After doing the Marathon for the last 25 years from Europe, it was very interesting and different doing it from Florida this year. We will be back in the UK between 10 and 26 March and then in Florida again until the 21 May. Please note the earlier deadline, 23 March, for the April News Sheet which we will mail with the 2002 Call Book and FOCUS 50 before we leave the UK.

EDITORIAL by G4BUE

The 30th North American Weekend will be held 3/5 May 2002 in Washington, DC. The venue, as in recent years, will be the DoubleTree Hotel, Tysons Corner, Falls Church, Virginia. As past attendees know, this location is ideal, offering an abundance of upscale shopping as well as entertainment in theatre, art, and music. The hotel is only about 10 miles from the White House, the US Capitol, all the historic monuments, and the Smithsonian Institutions many renowned museums. The North American Weekend is always a great opportunity to see old friends, renew acquaintances, and chat into the late night hours in the hospitality room. Friday night offers multiple group activities from pizza to the arts, or just getting together with a small group for a quiet dinner.

30TH NORTH AMERICAN WEEKEND by W4CK

Upon check-in at the hotel, ask for the North American FOC Activities Sheet (prepared by Jim, N3JT) which will provide details about some of your options for weekend enjoyment. There is truly something for everyone! Thanks to Mike, W3MC, dedicated operators will be able to be QRV from W3FOC in the hotel. The weekend climaxes on Saturday evening with the wonderful buffet dinner - always a culinary delight! A very special thanks to Fred, K3ZO, and Frank, W3LPL, who have again graciously opened their homes for gatherings on Sunday yet more opportunities for food and conversation. Jim, N3JT, now in a lovely, refurbished (1961 vintage) house close to the hotel, is inviting members and guests to his house on Saturday to see the new QTH. Jim assures us that a trip to his QTH will provide enhanced appreciation for the antennas at W3LPL and K3ZO! The following URL may serve as a gateway for anyone wanting more information on the Washington, DC area via the Internet <http:// www.house.gov/house/tour_dc.html>. The DoubleTree Hotels North American FOC group rate, valid Friday and Saturday nights, is $89 per night (a terrific bargain at such a wonderful hotel). It is always best to arrange hotel reservations well in advance, so why not call the hotel at (800) 222-8733, toll free in the USA, or you may dial (703) 893-1340. The hotel FAX number is (703) 749-8528. The cost of the Saturday evening buffet dinner will be $65 per person. US members and invited guests are requested to submit payment to Pete, W1RM, in advance of the weekend. Non-US attendees may pay Pete upon arrival. Everyone planning to attend the dinner must notify either W1RM, N3JT, or W3MC at least two weeks prior to the event, as a dinner count must be provided to the hotel banquet staff. A special souvenir will be given to each attendee to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the North American Weekend. However, you must attend to find out what it is! For more information, please contact W1RM, N3JT, W3MC, or W4CK.

On your behalf I wish to thank Gerald, G3MCK, for his independent examination of the accounts, Ken, GW3KGV and Elliott, W2MUM for collecting subscriptions and to the following members for their generous donations: 5B4AGN G4YNU OZ5DX 9A2AA G8QZ OZ6XT 9A8W GM3JKS OZ7YL AA4Z GM3YTS PAABM DF2IC GW3AHN PAINA DF5JT JA1NUT * PAVDV DJ3KR JA7SSB S57NW DJ5ZN JE1JKL SMBDS DK4AN K1AR SMCCE DL1EE K1JD SM3BCS DL1PM K1YT SM3EVR DL4CF K2VUI SM5COP DL6TQ K3TW SM6BGA DL7AKC K4EFZ SM6CLU DL9TJ K4II SM6CPY F3AT K4XG SM6DHU F5VHC K6OU VE3DZZ GCHV K6TS VK2BJ GEBW K6ZSR VK6WT G3AXI K8EJ VK8HA G3AZ K8NW WUA G3BFP K9BG W1FJ G3DOJ K9QVB W3LPL G3HSP K9UIY W4DGJ G3IGW K9WA W4PM G3IY LA8XM W4XJ G3JJG N2UU W4YE G3JLB N3BB W5GEL G3JZV N4AR W6IJ * G3LNC N4OO W6RGG G3LTV N4TO W6THN G3LWI N4UB W6TZD G3MCK N5TJ W8VSK G3NKS N8GZ W8XM G3NOH NR7O W9GW G3RTE OH2FOC W9IV G3SYM OH2KI W9VNE G3UOF OK1CF YO4PX G3WPF OK1KT ZL1MH G3VMK OK1RP ZL2AGY G3VMW OK1RR ZL2AZ G4CEO ON4WD *in memory G4FNL OZ1LQH of K6DC

DONATIONS by GW3KDB

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION by G3MXJ

Starred List
3. N4XP (Tom): OK1GT, OK1KT, SM5COP, N1DG, SM3EVR, K4BAI, KC7V, EA8CN, G4CEO, G3SXW, G4PKT, GEBW. 3. G3ZRJ (Tony): G4VXE, G8VG, G4BUO, VP2MT, ZL1AH, K9WA. 3. KF3B (Alan): N3RS, DK8IT, G3IY, G3ZYV, ZL1AH, DL4CF, EA8CN, GM3POI, G4CEO, F5NZY. 2. GOPB (Tony): G4VXE, G3RVM, DL7AKC, G3SED, G0RH, G3RVM, G3LIK, VE3DZZ, W4QM, W5ZR, K2VCO, K9WA, G4PKD 2. G3PJT (Bob): 5B4AGC, G3WGV, ZL1AH, G3SXW, GM3YTS. 1. 4Z4KX (Mark): 4X4NJ, LZ1AF, G3UOF, N3JT, S5A DL4CF, OK1RR, OH2KI, G3XSN, 4X1FC. 1. G3MBN (Brian): ZP6CW, G3XNG, K6TS, G4OEC, VA3LK, ZL1MH, W4LZ, WCGR, G3MCK. 1. NSS (Tom): KT5X, K1JD, K2VCO, G3ZYV, W4QM, N3JT, G4CEO, G3XAQ, GM3JKS. 1. ZL2TX (Nigel): G3LCS, G3CWW, G3SXW, F3OA, ZL1MH, GM3YTS, KC7V.

Invitations will be sent to LY2PX, MCVR, G4PPG, EI6FR and W8LX.

Additional Nominations

6. K1LKP (Carmen): K2ZR, K1JD, W4PM, W1FZY. 6. K8LSB (Marc): K2ZR. 5. N5AW (Marv): ZP6CW, K5NA. 4. HS/G3NOM (Ray): F5VHC, G4UZN, G3IGW, G3SED, VK2BJ. 3. G4OHX (Sam): VP2MT, G3CWW, W1HMD, VK6WT. 3. G3HJF (Jim): GM3JKS, G3MCK. 2. LA2TD (Odd): LA1IE. 2. SM7EH (Goesta): SM7BVO. 2. K4OGG (Jay): K4BAI, W4AN, K4EWG. 2. WK2G (Merill): VE3DZZ, K5DQ. 2. LX1DA (Andre): OK1RR. 1. TL8DV (David): W5ZR. 1. N1TO (Ed): N4JT. 1. WA2SON (Roy): K2ZR. 1. W8FJ (John): N3RS. 1. SV1LV (Castor): SV1AOW.

New Member

1768 VK3XU (Drew) D. Diamond, 45 Gatters Road, Wonga Park 3115, Victoria, Australia; XYL - Elizabeth; tel - 03 9722 1620; e-mail <narmeian@netspace.net.au>.

Amendments

I am very pleased to invite you to the 19th annual West Coast FOC Dinner at the International DX Convention in Visalia, California, on Friday 26 April at 7pm. The Convention is well worth the trip, as is the opportunity to enjoy the good fellowship of your FOC friends, with wine, food, prizes, and an especially interesting programme. Our speaker will be Tom Rauch, W8JI, who will speak on Modern rigs and CW performance. Tom is a well-known Top Band DXer, and the designer of some of todays most popular amateur radio equipment.

THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL WEST COAST FOC DINNER by K2VCO

4X4NJ (1476): add XYL - Hanna. 5B4AGC (1249): amend tel - 76 2654103. SV1AOW (1704): amend tel - 010 6210809. W5ZR (1722): amend tel - 337 365 5263. The Holiday Inn Park Plaza hotel is located a short distance from the Visalia exit on Freeway 99. The room will be open at 5pm and dinner will be served at 7pm. The menu choices will be filet mignon, baked salmon, and eggplant gratini. The cost of this years dinner will remain at $35 per person. Please make reservations with me as soon as possible, but in any case I must receive all cheques no later than Friday 19 April. Please specify your menu choice when you send your dinner reservation.

Overseas members can pay me at the door, but please let me know you are coming before the deadline! You are invited to bring something to be given away as a prize. Please make your cheque payable to me, Vic Rosenthal, and send it with your menu choice to me at 2639 N. Adoline Ave, Fresno CA. You can e-mail me at <mailto:rakefet@rakefet.com>. Members are encouraged to bring guests to the banquet, but reservations should be made with me by the member inviting and not by the guest himself. The DX convention is sponsored this year by the Southern California DX Club. For registration or information contact, Don Bostrom, N6IC, telephone 818 784-2590, e-mail <n6ic@arrl.net> or write to him at 4447 Atoll Avenue, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423. The convention web site has a great deal of information, including local hotels, etc. See <http:// www.qsl.net/visalia2002/>. For hotel reservations at the Holiday Inn, call the hotel directly at 559 651 5000.

If you cannot get a cheap flight into FN then you might consider going via Zurich, Switzerland, rent a car and then drive over to Friedrichshafen which is on the other side of Lake Constance. The ferries from Romanshorn to FN run very frequently and dont have to be booked in advance. Alex, DL8LBK/2, will again organise daily programmes for accompanying ladies and more information on that will be published in FOCUS 50. Thanks to the hard work of Steph, F5NZY, at the end of December, there are more pictures available on the FOC Website, under the Lords Dinner sections. There are some pictures that I took at the Dinner itself, and some pictures that George, G3NOH, took at June and Chris, G4BUEs pre-Lords party and also at Mauds post-Lords party. We hope you will enjoy the pictures. We do have one or two other pictures from members, so please dont be offended if we havent used your picture yet, we will probably do so in future. However, please do keep sending any pictures in that you think might be suitable for the site. Also, if you have an amateurradio or personal Website that you would like linked to the FOC site, please let us have the links and we will add it into the links page. If you are around for a while - and conditions are poor, you might like to check into the chat room and see if anyone else is there. Perhaps you can use it to make a sked on a different band. It works quite nicely when a few people are using it. The FOC Website can be found at <http:// www.firstclasscw.org.uk>. 4X4NJ: Hanna and Riki will be attending the Greenwich Dinner. DJ6SI: Baldur is QRV as S7X with DK2WV (S7V). They are running 100 watts into verticals, a G5RV and a FD4 antenna. QSL via home calls - thanks Daily DX. EA6ACC: Josep made 3021 QSOs in his three days as 3DAFOC, including many FOC members. He also made 214 QSOs as ZS6/EA6ACC from Kruger Park during the Marathon and another 290 outside the Marathon and 59 QSOs as ZS1/EA6ACC. EA8QO: Ex-member Chris sadly became a Silent Key 18 February. He also held the call LA7Y and was a member (998) of FOC between June 1968 and December 1992 - thanks LA5HE. G3HSP: Alec writes, After due study I find myself in agreement with most of the comments of G3JVC and GJWB, in particular I feel most strongly that Windles should be disallowed in contests - if not allowed in the Marathon contest why allowed in others? Oh and please spare me from the trite statements on the DG such

FOC WEBSITE by G4VXE

Thanks to Lou, PALOU, for pointing out a mistake in the Claims section on the front page of the tick-sheet for the 2002 Bill Windle Centenary Award. The first sentence should have said to indicate just the band in the appropriate box for a member in a particular month. Incidentally, there is a good spreadsheet available that makes tracking much easier. This can be found on the Yahoo/foc_members group site. It is time again to draw your attention to the upcoming HAMRADIO Hamfest in Friedrichshafen (FN) between 28 and 30 June. We will have our traditional evening parties on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Hotel Rad, Lindauer Strasse 2, 88059 Tettnang, which is just a 10 kilometres drive from the exhibition. In contrast to last years arrangements we will have four menus to chose from every day and it will be a three course menu (soup, main dish and dessert) for EUR 16. You can book rooms with the Hotel Rad by telephone +49 7542 / 5400, fax 53636 or by email to <HotelRad.Tettnang@t-online.de>. Single rooms are available for EUR 58 and doubles for EUR 86. All the prices are per night and include tax and a breakfast buffet. Please make your reservations with the hotel directly. You must mention FOC with your booking as I have block booked a good number of rooms for us. Reservations must be made before 1 June. As Dennis, G3MXJ, told me, Ryanair is starting a direct service from Stanstead, Essex to Friedrichshafen for just 110 round trip. You should check that with your travel agency.

THE BILL WINDLE CENTENARY AWARD 2002 by G3MXJ

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (FN) 2002 by DL7AKC

MEMBERS NEWS by G4BUE

as things have changed over the last 20 years. I am 76 years old now and have seen that for myself. G3IY: Jim and Jane will be spending two weeks in Tenerife and then attending the Con-Din and the Harrogate Get-Together. G3KTZ: Ron will be flying to the USA at the end of April to attend the Washington DC Dinner and Dayton. G3PQC: Regarding the new Annual Dinner at Greenwich this year, Doug writes, The new venue sounds great but once again accommodation being a problem in that members stay in different hotels. I attended one of my many Royal Navy reunions in October which was held in a large hotel in Eastbourne and the agreed room rate was 36 a head per night, including bed and breakfast. Some people stayed for three nights at this price and the annual dinner was included in the price! For those only requiring the dinner and no accommodation the cost was 16 a head! A total of 150 persons booked in and there were no complaints! I believe more members would attend if we followed this course. G3RWL: Richard will be QRV 15/18 March as ZB2/G3RWL but this time he will be in a hotel which has a path to the USA (rather than being shielded by the Rock as happened last time!). Bands depend on the roof size etc of the hotel, certainly 40-6 metres, maybe 80 metres too if there is room for the full-size G5RV and the WARC bands. G3SWH: Phil and Jim, G3RTE, have had to abandon their DXpedition from Midway Island 30 March/6 April due to the airline that flies between Hawaii and Midway Island cancelling all flights. Also, the company that operates the hotel on the island is running down the operation. Phil says, You cannot begin to understand how disappointed we all are. G4UZN: Tony will be in Thailand for two weeks at the end of March and QRV as HS/G4UZN. K2LE: Congratulations to Andy on being appointed Treasurer of The Order of Boiled Owls (a DX/Contesting club in the New York City metropolitan area) - thanks Daily DX. K4FW: The following is an extract from the ARRL Letter in February: The Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) has honoured Al Kahn, K4FW, of Cassopolis, Michigan, on his 80th anniversary as an Amateur Radio licensee.

(callsign in brackets indicate G4FOC operator)

FOC CALENDAR

Until Apr V31JP by K8JP (622) Until Apr ZF2NT by N6NT (624) Until 1 May NA-062 by K2ZR/4 (626/7) March (G3NOH) VP6 (Ducie Isl) by K5VT + others (627) 9/10 9M6A by VK2BJ (629) 15 Deadline for Marathon entries to G3LIK 15/18 ZB2/G3RWL (629) 23 Deadline April News Sheet End HS/G4UZN (629) April Until 28 V31JP by K8JP (624) Until 29 ZF2NT by N6NT (624) 13/14 GB9MGY by G3YXX (627) 26 West Coast Dinner (629) 27 Committee meeting 28 Deadline May News Sheet Kahn, who turns 96 in July, was president of Electro-Voice and, after retirement, went on to co-found Ten-Tec. He is also a member of the ARRL, the First-Class CW Operators Club and the A-1 Operator Club. Submitted by Dan Caesar, NI9Y - thanks KL7HF and W1RM. KT5X: Fred was QRV in the USA CW Sprint on 10 February as W5YA and was running QRP . VK2BJ: Barry will be QRV as 9M6A during the British Commonwealth Contest 9/10 March and also as 9M6AAC for a few days outside the contest. W4IF: Gee was sad to miss the Marathon for the first time since becoming a member in 1973, but with surgery in September and again at the end of January he says he Just wasnt ready to do it. W9IV: Mac was in hospital after a fall at the beginning of February. Judy was in hospital at the same time undergoing x-rays and tests which showed she was suffering from an infection. Mac fractured his femur and had five hour surgery to repair his hip - thanks ZL1AH. W9NN: Congratulations to Bob on celebrating his 96th birthday on 18 February - thanks N4OO. ZL4NH: A note on the Old Timers page in the February edition of Break In (journal of the NZART) reports Pat McRodden, ZL4NH, being a Silent Key. Pat was a member of FOC between February 1976 and February 1979 (number 1292) - thanks ZL1AH.

Score updates can be passed to G4BUE or any Committee member. An asterisk against the call indicates the score has been updated this month. Table shows the scores received by 0300z 26 February 2002. Two scores are total points and number of different members worked.
W4QM* W5ZR* LZ1AF* SV1AOW* G3KTZ* G4BUE* W6TZD* W4ZYT* 371/270 293/226 255/186 209 198/176 192/165 162/142 146/92 G4BJM* G3JZV* VE3DZZ G3ZGC* G4HZV* G3NKS* G5LP* 143/125 128 122 117 114/102 109/102 102 K4EF KT4P G4PKD* K5DQ G8VG* K2VCO KZ5D* 100 97 96 93 83 82 78/75 K4XU G3JJG* G3MCK* W4CK ZS1EL* N4TY* F3AT* 77 74 71/70 70 68 67 65 G3NOH* G3KKQ N4AF G3IY* K5CA GW3SB* G3LHJ 65/63 63 56 54/42 51 48/48 47 LA5HE* EA6ACC W1HT* KC7V* K6WG OZ4FF OH2EA* 42 40 40 37 29 28 10

THE 2002 BILL WINDLE CENTENARY AWARD