NASWA Notes, December 1996
Season’s greetings to all members! It’s hard to believe another calendar year has come and gone!!
A have a special request to make to long time NASWA members. I am looking for Frendx bulletins prior to August 1966 (the month/year we became all shortwave broadcast). I would like to expand the 25 Years Ago feature with excerpts from the “early days” of the club. Original bulletins would be fine if you are willing to part with them; copies would be okay too. Or, you could ship them to me and I will have copies made. Your original Frendx’s would be shipped back to you faster than you can say “Fred Kohlbrenner.” Please contact me at either the masthead address or my Internet address r.dangelo3@genie.com if you can help. Thank you!
The Association of North American Radio Clubs election for Executive Board positions is now complete. Elected to serve a two year term commencing January 1st is Jon Cohen, Bill Cole, John McColman (re-elected), and John Vodenik (re-elected). They join Skip Arey, Harold Cones, and Mark Meece who each have one year remaining on their current terms. At year-end, I will officially “retire” as a member of the Executive Board and as its Chairman thus ending 5+ years of executive involvment with the association. Member Dave Marshall also retires at year-end. The 1997 Executive Board selected a new Chairman for 1997 from among its ranks. Congratulations to our own Mark Meece who steps into the Chairman’s role after serving on the Executive Board for three years. Please join me in wishing Mark “all the best” as ANARC heads into the next century.
Don Jensen and the Country List Committee are spreading a little holiday cheer this year. A new radio country has been added to the list. Check out Don’s column this month for an update. A reminder that the Country List and Awards Program booklet can be purchased from Kris Field at the Company Store address on the back cover. Just $2.00 brings a wealth of valuable information for country counters and award chasers. No DX’er should be without it.
Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to support as many columns as possible in the coming year. This club can only exist and prosper with the active support of its membership. It is the club members, newcomer and veteran, that make the Journal tops in the field of shortwave broadcast coverage. I and the entire editorial team merely serve as a conduit for the information.
That’s it for this month. Enjoy this month’s JOURNAL; it’s another good one.
ANARC SWL Ham Net
Tune in Sunday mornings at 10 A. M. Eastern Time on 7240 LSB for the latest in shortwave, medium wave and longwave listening, DX tips, and up to the minute hobby news. Contributors share their DX tips via their own amateur radio stations or by telephoning a “gateway” station who then broadcasts the relayed tips. Contributions are also accepted via the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel #swl while the net is in progress. The net moves to 3940 LSB after the 40m session closes for an informal session. Net Controls Tom Sundstrom W2XQ, Hausie WB4JSP, Dave Kirby N1DK, ex-N8JQX, and Bob Curtis W1EXZ host an always lively gang of DX monitors. (Best heard in the eastern half of NAm) Net info also available at <http://www.trsc.com/swl_net.htm>.
Contribute!
Send your loggings and QSL information off to our Distributing Editor, Fred Kohlbrenner (2641 South Shields Street, Philadelphia, PA 19142). He will forward them to the appropriate editor. Remember, Fred has now expanded his business to include QSL report information and totals for the Scoreboard column. He can also be reached through the Internet at: fkohl@ix.netcom.com.
Musings
Charles J. Shaw <cshaw@epix.net>, 71 Orchard St., Glen Lyon, Pa. 18617-1243
Well, it appears that those wacky guys at the NASWA Lab have been at it again. Get a load of this one.
I was sitting in front of my R-8, nursing a glass of good bourbon, and just roaming the bands when I stumbled upon that elusive pirate Tidewater Tex on 6.955 MHz.
Apparently, reported Tex, one of the NASWA technicians was doing some end of the year lawn maintenance and was having a devil of a time yanking out clumps of unwanted grass that were encroaching onto his patio and sidewalk.
“Man, this stuff is as tough as wire,” he said, and suddenly got that far away, vacant look in his eyes that is so typical of an “engineer in high gear.”
Around sunset, his lovely wife, Inez, found him in this state and, having gone through this numerous times before, gently led him into the family station wagon and promptly delivered him to the NASWA Lab.
He emerged several weeks later, none the worse for wear, as happy as a clam.
At this point, the gods of propagation started playing tricks with the ionosphere, but the way that I understood Tex’s report, this technician along with his team leader – who was only identified by the initials J.B.- have come up with a species of grass that conducts electricity: living wire!
Are these boys good, or what?
Evidently, you can grow a patch of this pale yellow, vine-like ground covering, cut it to any length that you need, hook it up, and, when it dries, it becomes as rigid as wire and conducts electricity.
Need more? Go out back and cut some! Imagine that!
I can honestly say that I’m as proud now of being a NASWA member as I’ve ever been, and I look forward to purchasing some Living Wire seeds from the Company Store as soon as they become available.
Go, NASWA, go!
Richard A. D’Angelo, 2216 Burkey Drive, Wyomissing, PA 19610
The first DXpedition to Gifford Pinchot State Park in central Pennsylvania is now history. Kris Field, Fred Kohlbrenner, Bob Montgomery, Dave Valko, and I spent a few wet days at our favorite DX location only to experience mediocre atmospheric conditions during the second weekend of November. We also managed to see the four seasons roll by in four days thanks to some interesting variations in the weather.
Bob was the first to arrive; around 1:30 PM on Wednesday. He carried in a 300 pound communications receiver into the cabin before anyone could show up to laugh at him. Fred arrived next followed by yours truly in a business suit. After dark, Dave arrived and he did his usual long wire magic in total darkness. Kris arrived on Thursday.
The weather was unusually mild for early November in central PA. As a result, we had to contend with almost summer like high noise conditions. Early results were less than terrific with Latins almost non-existent. However, there is always “something” to listen to. Somalian stations were audible as well as La Voix du Zaire and Antarctica. However, domestic Indonesians were rare during our stay.
Friday saw a change in weather as heavy rain, thunder, and a cold front moved through the state. The River Johnson (named after famed DX’plorer Ponce de Hans Johnson many years ago) came to life as the rain piled up. Bob and Kris braved the weather to make a grocery store run only to miss the appearance of LRA36, Antarctica. The usual Friday evening pasta dinner closed out events for the day.
On Saturday we had pretty good listening conditions all day. The evening brought out the North American pirate station; I logged at least 6 different station that afternoon and evening.
Sunday morning saw ice (for some unknown reason interesting weather patterns always seem to surround our visits to GP!) form on our antenna wires and an early departure as listening conditions didn’t encourage any lingering for that last DX catch. I couldn’t complain because I had a decent log of Radio Concordia in Peru. After four days of listening, complaining, conversing and unhealthful eating, it was time to pack up and go home. GP #17 is now in the history books.
Welcome to the following new NASWA members
- Mark A. Calderazzo, Orlando, FL
- Remi DuBois, Suffolk, VA
- Gordon L. Duff, Chapel Hill, NC
- Robert Eddy, Newport, OH
- Ronald H. Gauthier, Sulphur, LA
- Tim Harrison, Temecula, CA
- Edgar A. Harthman, Bradenton, FL
- Wilmer Heckler, Hatfield, PA
- Kirk Jepsen, Salem, OR
- George Maroti, Mt. Kisko, NY
- Alan Michon, Cleveland, OH
- Jan Molenkamp, Austin, TX
- John D. Moran, Fort Wayne, IN
- Jose A. Cabrera Rivera, Arecibo, PR
- Burton L. Rudman, Sarasota, FL
- Patrick Schild, Novato, CA
- James T. Smith, Lenox, MI
- Patrick Sukhu, Jamaica, NY
- Kevin Teen, Metairie, LA
- Robert E. Watts, Ayer, MA
- E.F. Chung Pan Wan, Rose Hill, MAURITIUS
Calendar Of Events
| Dec 20 | Meeting. | Philadelphia Area NASWA Chapter. Kulpsville Holiday Inn, Kulpsville, PA at 7:30 PM. For more information contact Dan Cashin at 215-446-7831. |
| Dec 20 | Meeting. | Boston Area NASWA Chapter. The Lexington Club, Rts. 4 & 225, Lexington, MA at 7:30 PM. The location is 1/4 mile west of Rt. 128, Exit 31. For more information contact Paul Graveline at 508-470-1971 or Internet: 74007.3434@compuserve.com |
| Dec 21 | Meeting. | The Miami Valley DX Club (all band orientation) meets at 1:00 PM. For more information plus this months meeting location contact Dave Hammer at 614-471-9973 or write to MVDXC, Box 292132, Columbus, OH 43229-8132. |
| Jan 11 | Meeting. | The Tidewater SWL’s meet at 6:30 PM. For more information plus meeting location contact Joe Buch at 804-721-2782 or Internet: joseph.buch@dol.net. |
| Mar’97 | Contest. | 1997 North American DX Championships. Further information will be published in the Journal or you can send a self-addressed stamped envelop to 1997 NADXC, c/o Dr. Harold Cones, 2 Whits Court, Newport News, VA 23606. |
| Mar’97 | Convention. | The 10th Annual Winter SWL Festival will be held at the Kulpsville Holiday Inn (Exit 31 on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike) on 13-15 March 1997. Organized by the infamous “gang of three” (Messrs. Brown, Cones, and Field) this all wave gathering attracts over 200 hobbyists each year. Further details and information will appear later this year. |
| Jun’97 | Convention. | The 31st Annual European DX Council (“EDXC”) Conference will be held on 20-22 June 1997 at the Hotel Lazne in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. It will be organized by the Czechoslovakian DX Club. More details to come. |
FRENDX: Twenty Five Years Ago.
A photo page featured Edward Pyatt and Lawrence Magne. Plans were made to have the January and February Frendx issues published in Norfolk by Ed Shaw to give Bill Eddings a breather. Nominations were being received for the Board of Directors and the Man of the Year award. Charlie Loudenboomer writes about meeting Santa Claus. In the ANARC Report, Ed Shaw notes the change of address for the Newark News Radio Club because of the possibility that the Newark Daily News could close down. In his Shortwave Center column, Bill Matthews writes about Austria Calling.