WA8AHZ

Hope you'll join us for a discussion by Chris, W2PA, a noted Amateur Radio Historian. Meeting is Sat, May 15th, at 1130 on Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/968580533?pwd=QUJPWHh2ZWpOcW9TNVdyUjdFMWw2QT09 Our topic is: "Where Did the Bands Come From?" This is a historical look at the early days of radio during which several aspects of amateur radio were established that survive to the present day. This includes, the HF bands (particularly 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters), call sign formats, QSLs, operating practices, and equipment characteristics. Many of these things taken for granted today have become disconnected from their origins, and the reasons why they exist, forgotten. The definition of the HF band allocations is particularly interesting. It started with the 200 meter limitation of 1912, changed as hams demonstrated the utility of the shortwaves, and changed again in response to the radio boom of the 1920s and the first international treaties. Lots more information, articles, and photos are on Chris' website web site: www.w2pa.com

The US Department of Defense will host this year's Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test, Friday and Saturday, May 7 - 8, in recognition of Armed Forces Day on May 15. The event is open to all radio amateurs. For more than 50 years, military and amateur stations have taken part in this exercise, designed to include amateur radio and government radio operators alike. The AFD Cross-Band Test is a unique opportunity to test two-way communications between military and amateur radio stations, as authorized under FCC Part 97 rules. These tests provide opportunities and challenges for radio operators to demonstrate individual technical skills in a tightly controlled exercise in which military stations will transmit on selected military frequencies and will announce the specific amateur radio frequencies being monitored. The schedule of military/government stations taking part in the Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test and information on the AFD message is available on the MARS website. --Thanks to MARS

Congratulations to our 2021 ARRL VA Section Convention Raffle Drawing Winners: (To create more drama ... the list is hidden until you click in the white space ... drum roll pse)

Regular General Meeting, 23 Apr 2021 Join the Club’s Regular General Meeting starting at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Meeting. The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906871573?pwd=V3l1UkZmSGZObGI5YkhLbGFYRzRUZz09 Forum Topic – “Dean, KK4DAS provides an update on the Maker Team and their current project of building a simple SSB transceiver. The current project is a group build of his Furlough 40 QRP transceiver project. Inspired by Pete, N6QW SimpleSSB Transceiver, this is a 100% scratch-built 40 meter SSB QRP rig for phone and digital. Twenty VWS members are building the rig which uses readily available components and only 10 transistors and an Arduino driven SI-5351 clock module. The Maker Team meets regularly, via Zoom, to build a segment of their project, exchange ideas, and provide tips on building and making various amateur radio items. You can follow the group progress on the project build page here. Time: 7:00-7:30 pm Main Program -- “Portable Antennas” Leon, NT8B will provide an overview of his recent experience building antennas intended for use in portable HF operations such as Parks on the Air (POTA), Summits on the Air (SOTA) and the special event station he and Mike Magnotti, KD4MM, ran from Cobb Island last December. Although the focus of the presentation will be on easy to build/easy to set up homebrew antennas he’ll provide a high-level review of several commercially available alternatives. Time: 7:30-9:00 pm ARRL Virginia Section Convention, Apr 24th Join your fellow VWS members in the ARRL Virginia Section Convention for 2021, hosted by VWS. Information here The Convention is via Zoom or YouTube, starting at 9:00 am. Three simultaneous tracks are presented. Schedule and URL for logging into the Convention here is at: http://bit.ly/VaSecConvSchedule

Every April 18, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on this day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris. The IARU Administrative Council has chosen “Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone” as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day, Sunday, 18 April 2021. Faced with a pandemic that forced the adoption of extreme physical isolation to reduce the spread of the virus, the worldwide amateur radio community responded positively to overcome the resulting social isolation. In the days and weeks following the onset of the pandemic radio amateurs reached out spontaneously to one another via the airwaves at the local, national, and global levels. Local “wellness nets” provided friendly voices and regular status checks to those, especially the elderly, who are confined to their homes. “Stay safe” special event stations in dozens of countries reminded us all of the importance of limiting the spread of the virus. On-the-air activity was at an unprecedented level throughout the remainder of 2020, with record-breaking numbers of entries in the major contests.

The annual CU is planned as part of Hamvention, and will be again virtual and open to all, regardless if you’re a rabid contester or not. CU is scheduled for Thursday, May 20th the day before Hamvention starts. Registration for CU opens on April 21st. CU agenda, and more information at: https://www.contestuniversity.com/course-outline/

Our April meeting will NOT be our customary 3rd Saturday of the Month (Apr 17th), but rather we are asking you to consider joining the ARRL VA Section Convention, which is Saturday, 24 Apr starting at 9am. The schedule is at: VA_Sect_Convention_2021 Track Schedule and Zoom Links - Google Drive The convention will host 3 simultaneous tracks: 1) Ham radio boot camp, 2) tho topics, and 3) Auxiliary Communications. You can slip in and out of any session in any track as you wish. The URLs for the 3 tracks will be shortly posted, on the schedule above. See you for a meeting on May 15th. We'll have a guest lecturer talking about how the Amateur bands came about way back in the din of history.

Join the Club’s Regular General Meeting starting at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Meeting. The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906871573?pwd=V3l1UkZmSGZObGI5YkhLbGFYRzRUZz09 Forum Topic – “2 meter Contesting” Our own long-time VWS member, John KM4KMU, will discuss 2m FM contesting, and in particular use of HT’s to work the ARRL VHF contest. John was recently interviewed for the podcast Ham Talk, hosted by Andrea, K2EZ. You can catch his interview at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0rgaH_z3HI . In the recent January 2021, ARRL VHF Contest, John garnered 18,000 points (almost 20 times more than the #2 scorer). John credits his huge score to Hams in Northern Virginia, turning out on HT’s to work the contest. John will provide some insights into his experience working HT contesters, and how folks can be in the contest with just their HT. Time: 7:00-7:30 pm Main Program -- “Exploring QRZ.com” Fred, AA7BQ President and founder of QRZ.COM will conduct and interactive discussion of QRZ.COM focusing not only on amateur radio pages (yours included) but on the many other things that QRZ.COM has to offer the world-wide amateur radio community. Fred wants an interactive discussion so don’t be shy and be sure to ask questions. All of us have used QRZ.COM for QSL information, but how many have used it to study for amateur exams, gridmapper, swapmeet, find hams near us, technical forums, and much, much more. This will be an exciting opportunity to see what QRZ.COM has to offer, and what we have been missing. Time: 7:30-9:00 pm

If you're social media savvy, follow us on Facebook and our very own You Tube Channel! VWS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViennaWirelessSociety VWS YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ViennaWirelessSociety Not so savvy ... just watch our home page! https://viennawireless.net/wp/ for updates weekly Also, collaborate with like minded hams at https://hamcommunity.com/ and join their Ham Census.

VWS is supporting the Town of Vienna Easter Bunny parade, on March 27th starting at 10:00 am. The VWS effort consists of a VWS lead car broadcasting an APRS signal for tracking the route, and the APRS track will be posted on the Town’s website at: https://www.viennava.gov/residents/concerts-and-events/bunny-trail

Join the Club’s Regular General Meeting starting at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Meeting. The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906871573?pwd=V3l1UkZmSGZObGI5YkhLbGFYRzRUZz09 Forum Topic – “ARRL VA Section Convention for 2021” Don, KM4UDX, and his leadership team will discuss the upcoming ARRL Virginia Section Convention for 2021, hosted by VWS. The convention will happen “virtually” via Zoom, on Saturday April 24th from 9:00 am to 2:00 p.m. The team will review the three-track conference schedule, prizes, ongoing ICOM radio raffle, participating vendors, advertising plans, and opportunities for club members to assist in getting the word out on this groundbreaking event. Time: 7:00-7:30 pm Main Program -- “Virtual Tour of W1AW” Joe, NJ1Q and W1AW Station Manager will present a virtual tour of the W1AW station at ARRL HQ. Joe will discuss and show operating positions, equipment used for ARRL bulletins and code practice, history of the station, Hiram Percy Maxim’s spark gap transmitter, antennas, and other items of interest. Through Zoom you will actually tour the station just like hams do every day. Joe will answer questions as time permits. If you have always wanted to visit W1AW and have never had the opportunity, please take advantage of this great virtual tour. Time: 7:30-9:00 pm

Instead of our meeting on March 20th, we invite all Ch 91 members to work the QCWA and VA QSO Parties. Likewise in April, we're going to join the VWS as they host the ARRL VA Section Convention on Apr 24th.

Sponsored by the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club, the objective of the QSO Party is to promote Amateur Radio activity in the 95 Virginia Counties and 38 Virginia Independent Cities. When: Saturday, 20 March 2021, 1400 UTC - Sunday, 21 March, 0400 UTC and Sunday, 21 March, 1200 UTC - 2400 UTC. (For Virginia, this is Saturday 10 AM - 12 Midnight and Sunday 8 AM - 8 PM Virginia local time.) The Exchange: Exchange QSO number and QTH (Virginia County or Independent City for VA stations; State, Province or "DX" for others). Virginia Mobile and Expedition Stations log QSO's by Virginia Independent City or County of operation. Identify all QSO's with band/mode, sequential QSO number sent/received and date/time of contact in UTC. Please follow standard contest practices by making and responding to "CQ Virginia QSO Party" calls. More info and rules at: https://www.qsl.net/sterling/VA_QSO_Party/2021_VQP/2021_VQP_Rules.pdf

Join the Club’s Regular General Meeting starting at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Meeting. The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906871573?pwd=V3l1UkZmSGZObGI5YkhLbGFYRzRUZz09 Main Program -- “Volcanos Update” Mike, AE4R will present his third presentation on volcanoes to the Club. In this presentation, he’ll highlight extremely rare and colossal VEI-7 eruptions, of which only nine are known to have occurred in the last twelve thousand years. The most recent VEI-7 event was in 1815 and, like all the others, produced ash fall over thousands of miles, catastrophic pyroclastic flows over wide areas and prolonged volcanic winters that caused worldwide misery & famine. Time: 7:00-9:00 pm

Contest Objective: To encourage US & Canadian stations to expand knowledge of DX propagation on the HF and MF bands, improve operating skills, and improve station capability by creating a competition in which DX stations may only contact W/VE stations. US & Canadian amateurs: Work as many DX stations in as many DXCC entities as possible. DX stations: Work as many US & Canadian stations in as many of the 48 contiguous states and provinces as possible. Dates: Phone: First full weekend in March (March 6-7, 2021). Contest Period: Begins 0000 UTC Saturday and runs through 2359 UTC Sunday.

Join the Club’s Regular General Meeting on Friday, Feb 26th starting at 7:00 pm, via Zoom Meeting. The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83906871573?pwd=V3l1UkZmSGZObGI5YkhLbGFYRzRUZz09 Forum Topic – “On-line Testing” Chris N6FR, from California, will discuss the opportunities and challenges of online testing. In the age of COVID-19, Amateur Radio licensing has successfully gone online and remote. This is a brief review of his personal experience taking the Amateur Extra exam online in November 2020, with some links to useful resources and tips for getting ready for this unique testing environment. Time: 7:00-7:30 pm Main Presentation Topic -- “Energy Choices” Bob, WB4APR (Inventor of APRS) will return to VWS to discuss his recent ARRL Publication "Energy Choices for the Radio Amateur" which covers the gamut of solar and emergency power for the DIY experimenter and Ham Radio operator. He will show us how to integrate various elements (solar panels, standby emergency generators, and battery systems) to achieve a reliable and resilient electrical power system. He will reveal the unique secret why the cost of energy storage is, and will continue to plummet, and will note that solar panels cost less than 10% of what they did 10 years ago. Time: 7:30-9:00 pm

The Last Man Standing Amateur Radio Club is joining with a team of seasoned special-event operators around the United States to present a multi-band, multi-mode special event celebrating the prime-time network TV show for its positive and accurate portrayal of amateur radio. The event will start at 00:00 UTC on 24th March 2021 and end at 23:59 UTC on 30th March 2021, the last day of shooting for the show, which is concluding its long, successful run. During its nine TV seasons, the Last Man Standing ARC operated as KA6LMS from real radios on the set during production breaks, making thousands of contacts with the show’s amateur radio fans. DMR operation and DSTAR on REF012A will be courtesy of the Los Angeles based PAPA Repeater system. DSTAR on REF030B will be courtesy of Georgia DSTAR. The intent is to operate on as many bands and modes as possible, including SSB, CW, and several digital modes. Satellite and repeater operation is also encouraged. A number of Bonus Stations with special 1-by-1 call signs and KA6LMS /(Call Area) guest operators will be positioned around the country to increase access to the event. When the actual “on-set” radios are in operation, the Bonus Stations may act as relays to assist in contacting KA6LMS. Participating stations may download a QSL certificate. A special, “Clean Sweep” certificate will be available for those who qualify. KA6LMS and a number of affiliated stations will live stream their operations. At times, the AmateurLogic.TV team will pick up video feeds from active stations to provide commentary and context.