National Festival of the States

Hello to all fellow HAMs and enthusiasts!  I am the trustee of the American Youth Amateurs (despite the name, we are still local- but we can fix that *grin*).

Some members of this club will be visiting Washington DC with the school orchestra- including David Tsao, KG6LQA; Brandon Rhea; Wesley Chen, WA6CKO; and yours truly, W6DXN.  The members of the orchestra will be representing California at the National Festival of the States between the 16 and the 19 of April.

We are glad to say that we will be operating and showing many youths what HAM radio is all about.  A special event call, W4M, has been assigned to this trip.  We will be operating HF SSB, with the possibility of some digital modes as well as VHF/UHF in the Internet Radio Linking Project (please, people, no flame wars).

On behalf of the HAMs going along, I hope you will get on the air and help us demonstrate this to many students who may be future ops as well.  To find us, look near the bottom of the general voice section for HF bands.  Start looking for us on 10, 15, 20, and 40 meters.  If there is too much QRM, too little solar activity, or any other reason, we will go to WARC and low bands.  For those of you in the DC area, we may be monitoring 2 meter and 440 calling frequencies.  For IRLP, find us on reflector 9350.

We will might be giving out color QSL cards, however if we do not get enough, first contacts will have priority over the color cards, and the rest will have text.  Sorry, but we don’t have many funds!!!  Any Donations for QSL cars are greatly appreciated.

73 and good luck,
Greg, W6DXN
American Youth Amateurs, KG6PPF
AYA homepage
ayamateurs@netscape.net


QUICK OVERVIEW
• Call sign: W4M
• Dates: 16-19 APR 2003
• Favorable time of day: 0030 UTC
• HF frequencies: on or above 28.300, 21.300, 14.225, and 7.225
WARC on or above 24.930 and 18.110
• VHF FM simplex: 145.520, 446.000
• IRLP reflector: 9350
• Digital Modes: We’ll see you somewhere around the bands  

 

Hello to all:

I will be arriving in Washington, D.C. on Monday, and I will set up a simple station to determine our operating and band conditions. We will actually be QRV from the 14th to the 19th.

Please post us on DX spotting clusters! We are trying to make as many contacts as we can using our very limited time and simple equipment.

UPDATE:We have found a sponsor that is willing to print cards free of charge--Elli Print, www.qsl.cz (THANK YOU VERY MUCH). Because we lack a laptop computer, we will not be able to operate any digital modes . All logging must be done on paper .

I will post any additional updates when necessary.


73 es gud DX de Wesley, WA6CKO
See you in the pile-ups!

 

Well, I would love to work you guys, but I'm right in a shadow zone, so-to-speak. I'm out of simplex VHF range, and too close for 10/15/20 (50 miles south of DC). I'll try NVIS on 40 with my low dipole, but what are the possibilities of a few local 80m contacts?
Fred
KG4PZZ

 

Fred don't be to worrird about a low dipole on 40,I have worked most of the 50 states on 40 at only 25' off the ground.I'll be looking for you folks on all 4 bands.Good luck and have fun.Dave, AE8U

 

Hey All-
I would be delighted to work y'all! See you on 10 meters (if the band dosn't suck TOO bad)...

73/72,
Leland N3LJB
Official Relay Station, EPA
10-X 73688
EPA-QRP 109
NJ-QRP 425
n3ljb@comcast.net

PS- Maybe we can set up a sked...please let me know via email

 

Sorry for all of the "graamer" and "spelin" errors in my last post! hehe

But anyway,
Thanks to all interested parties for trying to get in Q. However it seems we will be operating significantly after dark, so we may be operating more on the low bands. So much to do and so little time... I think we will just play it by ear from here on out and e-mail us with questions at ayamateurs@netscape.com

73,
Greg
W6DXN
Trustee, KG6PPF

 

The bands are really starting to deteriorate these days. 10 and 20 meters (my favorites) are starting to worsen, and there is less and less activity, along with more and more noise...

In spite of the dismal conditions, we'll try to make the best of these bands if we have time in the early and late afternoons. Hopefully, there will be some short openings.


73 es gud DX (wherever available) de Wesley, WA6CKO
(We will have a spectacular photo QSL that will be available after the mini-"DXpedition!")

 

IMPORTANT QSL INFORMATION:
Please QSL DIRECT ONLY to our club call, KG6PPF.

 

I will be leaving tomorrow morning, and we hope to be on the air by 9:30. Our antenna situation is worse than grim, but we will see how it works.

 

I tried looking for you on all frequencies Friday night a few times throughout the night. I couldn't hear you at all in Philly. Bummer, I was rather looking forward to working your group. Next time, perhaps.

Mike kb3gjt