The Magnolia DXer
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Front
Page
President's
Corner
Callsign
Changes
Member Notes
Most
Wanted
DX
Notes
ZF2YG
DXpedition
Dauphin Is.
Article
Parting Words
MDXA Home
News from our Members
Tom reports that his son James is now a freshman at Auburn University majoring in Aviation. He put up a new tower this year and a new Force 12 has arrived and will be installed in the near future.
Vic achieved a major milestone in his DX life this year. He made DXCC Honor Roll both mixed and phone. Vic attributes his recent retirement to putting him "over the hump". Vic also became a grandfather this past December. Taylor Marie was born on Dec. 11, 1998. At the time of this writing, she just turned 10 months old, and is almost walking. Vic also qualified for IOTA and WPX awards, and his DXCC totals are now at 340. He has also recently become a pre-sorter at the W5 QSL Bureau. Plans are currently underway to attend the Dayton Hamvention in 2000. All and all, a pretty eventful year for Vic.
Stan's daughter, Vanessa, son-in-law Tim, granddaughter Kerensa, and grandson number 2, Matt moved to MS this past year. They are currently living in Diamondhead. Tim is the assistant plant manager for Meiser, a major supplier of gas to Dupont. Grandson Matt plays offensive guard and defensive tackle on the Hancock Middle School team. He started at least one game which is very good for a seventh grader. His number 1 grandson is attending college at Akron U. studying Civil Engineering. Stan himself has been a regular at most antenna parties this past year and has helped out at the K5MDX club station during some contests.
1999 has been a very eventful year for the Slakva family. They have just recently completed a long planed relocation from the Ukraine to Toronto, Canada. Igor's XYL Kira and son Alex are now settled in school and the entire family is working on their English. Igor is in the process of interviewing for a job. He enhanced his qualifications this year by completing the Certified Novell Engineer program and is now studying for his Microsoft Certified System Engineer certification. On the ham radio front, Igor achieved DXCC Honor Roll this year and was awarded the Maple Leaf Top Scroll Trophy for number 4 in the world. He continued his normal strong finishes in contests with a second place finish in the world in the Bermuda contest.
Nice to hear from one of our "Displaced Mississippians". Larry reports that he received his IOTA 700 Award for confirmation of 700 separate IOTA island/groups. He also hopes to one day return to the great state of Mississippi.
Terry reports in from California that he was recently a part of a contest operation from the foot of a volcano. He also "worked" his first mainland China email contact with a friend on business there.
The last year of the 20th Century started off with a bang at
the Lowery household. Kimberly Dean Lowery entered the world on January 2,
1999, increasing the worked and delivered children total to
the agreed upon limit of three! That's one honor roll which has been
achieved. The other two children, Dustin 4, and Brittany 3,
have both started an early love for ham radio. They can be found in
daddy's shack with the boom mike on, yelling "Q Fox Fox...
Q Freddy Freddy." Haven't quite understood the "K 2" at
the beginning of dad's strange language.
Other ham related totals also saw a nice increase. Entities
confirmed went from 209 to 286 with another 16 new ones worked
bringing the total to 302! Simply waiting on those prized QSLs
to arrive. Need to concentrate on 40/80 meters now to obtain
the 5BDXCC with endorsements for 12/17 meters already covered
and ready for submission.
Celebrated 20 years as a ham in June! And for the first time
attended the Dayton Hamvention. Did plenty of looking around
but very little buying. Guess I'm waiting on those Y2K specials
that are sure to come. A special thanks to K5YG and WQ5L for
making the trip one to remember.
Had a wonderful time at Field Day and got a few of my new
monobanders put together for free! It was great watching all the
hardware being put together and shining in the RAIN. Yes rain,
don't remember seeing the sun at all during any of the "on air" time!
I made a few personal contesting achievements in the QRP category:
1998 ARRL 10M Contest (SSB) finished 1st in Mississippi and 3rd in the
Nation; and in the 1998 ARRL November Sweepstakes (SSB) finished
1st in both Mississippi and the Delta Division/Southeast Region
and 10th in the Nation with a clean sweep! Looking forward to the
1999 season if I can find a QUIET place to operate!
Joined the ranks of the famous W5 QSL Bureau card sorters. I allowed
K5YG to talk me into helping sort and tally cards for the letter
"O." I now have a much greater appreciation for all the sorters
in the world and the entire BURRO process! Long live every ham's goal
of "QSLing 100%." Unlike at Christmas time... it's not just
the thought that counts!
I did end the year on a sad note with the passing of my father
on September 22, 1999. However, his love of sports and the spirit
of competition have long been a driving force behind my love of ham
radio and breaking the pileups. It's great that I can share a
part of him with every new one worked!
All in all the year was busy, fast, and productive. And with
that same anticipation I approach the year 2000 with absolutely
no fear of the future... because all of my antennas ARE Y2K
COMPLIANT as verified by the manufacture! Best 73 and see you
in the pileups... K 2 Freddy Freddy!
Charlie continued to be a great addition to the club in 1999 since
joining our ranks just last year. He was a regular at most
antenna parties this year and has been a TREMENDOUS help to
Floyd with presorting bureau cards and helping with the
monthly mailings. On the personal side, Charlie reports that
he and his XYL of over 32 years, Gail are both native New
Orleanians. The moved to Hattiesburg over 22 years ago so the
watermarks on their legs and webbed toes have all but disappeared.
They are proud parents of two children, Jennifer and Chuck.
As far as ham radio goes, Charlie has made good progress
on the DXCC front, he now has 153 in the hand. He is mostly a
phone operator, but has been heard on CW with a very nice fist.
Charlie also is involved with emergency communications for the
Hattiesburg area. His station consists of a TenTec Omni Six
Plus, matching power supply and tuner and SB-200 linear. His
primary antenna has been a nonresonnant dipole used with the
tuner, a 10M dipole and a Comet 2m/440 vertical for VHF. He
recently procured a tribander from Floyd, N5FG, so upgrades
are on the way. He has added a Dell "super" computer to
supplement the old Tandy 386 used for packet cluster.
This has been a very busy year with numerous business trips,
DXpedition to the Cayman Islands, trip to Dayton, MDXA Field Day,
and W5 Bureau O-Sorter duties. I did manage to pick up a few all-time
new countries and finish out 5-Band DXCC. My DXCC County total is over
300 confirmed, but not enough for honor roll. In between all of this,
Susan and I managed to to take our boat out to the islands for a record
number of 10 times this summer!
Glenn, K2FF, Ray, WQ5L and I drove to Dayton. We had a great time in
in Dayton and Ray brought back a nice clean FT1000D. Glenn and I were also
big spenders as we purchased a couple packages of tie-wraps and some wonderful wide braided
ground strap with lugs on both ends. Forget the wheels - next year we go there via air!
I forgot to mention that I decided to put the IC706 in my Jimmy truck for the trip to
Dayton, of course, that decision was made the week before we were to leave!
The QRN was on the high side, so just prior to the trip I had much of the ignition system replaced,
resulting in even higher ignition noise - no joy!
Well, now that we are getting ready for the great IOTA adventure to Dauphin Island
at the end of October, I got the great idea to put the IC706 back in the truck.
I pulled out the brand new GMC Delco ignition wires that measured about 1k ohms/ft and replaced
them with Wal-Marts best that measured about 6k ohms/ft - wa-la, the ignition noise is down to the level
prior to changing everything before the Dayton trip! I had my first
K5YG/M 17M CW contact on October 12th - what fun. Hope I don't get hooked!
This will be a year to remember! The best in 45 years of Ham Radio!!!
Our resident antenna expert, Pat, recently became published in volume six of the ARRL Antenna Companion. Pat's article details his combined HF Log Periodic and VHF Qyagi antenna. This publication is a valuable source of antenna design and implementation information.
Notes from the Sealy, TX branch of the MDXA. Mike sure enjoys the 24 hour a day telnet link to the K5JZ packet cluster node. Helps him to keep up with all of us in MS. He was present at what has now turned out to be the final N.O. International DX Convention after 8 interesting years. Notices that the DX Reflectors more closely resemble CB channels rather than useful exchanges between amateur radio operators.
Another busy year at my household. Field Day, Dauphin Is. and contests all made for an interesting year. I received my DXCC CW certificate and now have 158 confirmed on CW. I continue to put toghether the pieces for a tower and beam. I am almost there and hope to have a 50' tower and TH5 up before summer. Enjoyed my first ever N.O. International DX Convention. It was fun meeting some of the people I had only heard or read about. We continued to grow the W5 Bureau web page. Now ALL sorters have their email addresses listed on the page and 19 keep up to date databases so users can check their status on-line. I hope to make it 100% by the end of 2000. I look forward to 2000. Can't wait to see what other adventures we cook up for the club. One thing this year has shown me is that the members of this club will work together to accomplish a goal. It is an honor to be associated with the BEST group of DXers and people in the world.
