G[mloulnal - Quarter Century Wireless Association

Chapter Reports
eyeball with a tot of QCWA members and other friends
after the long winter layoff from local hamfests. Joining
National and Chapter 49 at the hamfest were Bobby
Canup W4OHA of Marietta andNational member Gary
Liljegren W4GAL joined us in the chapter. We also
recently had Guy Shields W4GBU of Stone Mountain
and Lowry Rouse WI4Z of Lawrenceville join both National
and 49. Guy has started a web site for Chapter
49 at htlp :/ / www. mindsprin g. com/-w4 gbu/qcwa. htm.
Lowry is the ARRL GA SEC and joins the many GA
ARRL officials in Chapter 49. Welcome to our five new
members. Ron McDaniel showed up at the hamfest
with a new call. W4ALJ replaces KN4LU. Can't wait
to see what the master of "fractured phonetics" comes
up with now but I'll make a pre-emptive strike: 'Watch
for Antiquated Legalistic Jabberwocky'. And you all
thought I couldn't even spell "Thesaurus". The ball is
in'hizzonners' court now, I just hope I'm not!
Our program for this meeting was a great presentation
by Steve Diggs W4EPI. Steve is an AMSAT area
coordinator and chairman of the 2001 AMSAT Symposium
to be held this fall in Atlanta. Steve's talk was
a review of available satellites, satellite operating,
equipment requirements and antenna choices. He also
showed a 2m17)cm handheld crossed yagi with dualband
handheld transceiver that he uses for demonstrations
at hamfests and schools. The presentation
had most of us ready to go straight home and start
getting equipment ready to get into satellite operations
ourselves. Thanks for the great presentation,
Steve, and for being available at the last minute.
Bob Lear K4SZ - Secretary/Treasurer
Ghapter 51, Tex.La Golden Triangle
At the January meeting our club celebrated 10
years of continuous monthly meetings since its rejuvenation.
At the February meeting Bob W5TFY and
Judy KBSIMY, Bailey gave a digital slide presentation
about their travels through the Canals ofFrance
From left to right: Steve Gomez - KESO, Seve Gomez -
KDSNLX, and Al Long - NSAL.
24 QCWA fournal - Summer 2001
aboard the Pooh Bear. Check out our web site to see
some of their pictures and read about their travels.
(www. setx.com/qcwa5 1)
Our March meeting was held in connection with
the Orange Ham Fest. Steve Gomez,I{BlO, had a very
special guest, his son Seve who had passed the Technician
examination that morning. Also present was
Al Long NSAL, who had been the sponsor of the amateur
radio club at Steve's high school in the 1970s. Al
introduced Steve and numerous others to Ham radio.
Steve had the opportunity to meet his dad's Elmer.
During this quarter three of our members became
silent keys. Tom Housenfluck - W5IfYD, Leon Purkey
- W9OTZ and Phil Richards - K5INE will long be remembered
by the members of Chapter 51.
Dub George W5DIIB - Bulletin Editor
Ghapter 53, Suncoast
While many northern states suffered through a
Iong, cold winter, we have to comment that this was
also a tough winter here in the Sunshine State. Fortunately,
the unseasonably cold weather didn't negatively
affect attendance at our monthly gatherings,
probably due to the variety of programs arranged by
Chapter VP, Bob Siff - K4AMG.
During our December meeting, Bob - K4AMG donated
several pieces of classical./historical electronic
equipment for auction by the Chapter. Bob's donation
led to the idea for an auction at our January meeting.
John Karban - WSIGC served as auctioneer, with "generous"
vocal support by the audience, as donated items
of all types and vintage were bid on by the members.
The auction helped our treasury significantly. Chapter
53 was represented at both the Sarasota Hamfest
and the DeSoto ARC Hamfest in Arcadia, Florida during
January, with many QCWA members and interested
hams signing the visitor's roster. Suncoast Chapter
was very honored by the presence of QCWA President
Gary Harrison - KQBC and his wife Carolyn -
WBOOUM at our February meeting. Gary, Carolyn,
and all those in attendance enjoyed a history lesson as
Hans Napfel - WBZBZZ gave his informative presentation
on "Early Radio". Chapter 53 Past-President
Frank Schwab - WSOK was President of the Dayton
Left to right: Croft Taylor VE3CT - QCWA Vice President,
Art Kunst W3WM - QCWA Director, Gary Hanison K@BC -
SCWA President and Jack Sproat W4JS - Chapter 53
President.