Minutes for the Tennessee Contest Group meeting held Jan 4, 1997

Roll call:
----------
K0EJ     Mark      Hendersonville
K1KY     Tom       Smyrna
K4AMC    Jim       Madison
K4RO     Kirk      Pegram
KC4QFR   Mike      Gallatin
KD4AWF   Larry     Nashville 
KF4MBW   Scott     Nashville
KQ4HC    Jeff      Ringgold, GA
N4CM     Clarence  Ocoee   
N4UTM    Bob       Whitehouse
N4ZZ     Don       Nashville
NN4T     Steve     Murfreesboro
W4PA     Scott     Knoxville
WA4OKE   Earl      Nashville
WO4O     Ric       Ridgetop
W9WI     Doug      Pleasant View

Thanks to everyone for showing up.  Especially those of you who drove
a long way for the meeting.  It was great to have such a good crowd!

Topics Discussed
----------------

** ARRL Club Affiliation  **
The Group decided to go ahead and become an offical ARRL affiliated
club, in order that we may participate in ARRL sponsored events.
K0EJ will be handling the paperwork, which is in route from ARRL.
There was some discussion of the requirements for affiliation; these
will be shared with the Group after we've had a chance to look at
the paperwork.

** Meeting Schedule **
We discussed how often to meet, and where.  Quarterly meetings were
suggested, then W9WI offered "Why not every month?"  This would provide 
more opportunities for more contesters to both get together and to meet 
the ARRL attendance requirements.  The Group decided to go for monthly
meetings and see how that goes.   (The next meeting will be Feb 1.)

** Meeting Time **
In order to accomodate those who drive far, and those who stay up all
night Friday scouring Top Band, the meeting times will now be 9:30 AM.

** North American QSO Parties **
Here are the TCG teams for the CW and SSB NAQP contests:

CW  Team # 1     CW Team # 2      CW Team # 3    
N4ZZ             K4AMC            KD4AWF       (Good luck on your upgrades
K0EJ             NN4T             KF4MBW        this weekend guys!)
W9WI             W4PA
WO4O             K1KY          
K4RO             KC4QFR       

SSB Team # 1       SSB Team # 2   SSB Team # 3
K0EJ               W4PA           K4AMC
WO4O               N4CM           KF4MBW
KQ4HC              KC4QFR         K4RO
N4ZZ               NN4T
W9WI               N4CM

You can find the rules for these contests in the National Contest 
Journal, or at any number of World Wide Web sites.  ( ARRL , NCJ , 
KA9FOX.qth.com  etc.)  Remember, it is possible to be very competitive
in this contest from TN.  N4ZZ was #1 (in the whole contest) on both
CW *and* SSB last year!

REMINDER:  Meet on 28.025 this Saturday before 1800z (the start of NAQP!)

** TCG Email List **
K4RO will set up a simple TCG email alias.  This will not be anything
fancy.  It will simply be a mail alias which automatically forwards
anything sent to it to all TCG'ers with an email address.  The
tcg-list address will be announced here when it is set up.

** TCG QSL Cards **
TCG QSL cards were discussed.  K4RO brought one design example.  There
was definite interest in the idea of a standard TCG card, but the Group
wanted to ponder it a bit more before anyone was ready to pick up the
ball and run with it.  Kirk will present a version of his card which
should work well with computer labels.  Challenge:  Who out there can
come up with the best logo design?

** Misc. **
Thanks for bringing your rate sheets.  There's a wealth of information
in there, and someday I'll figure out how to glean all of it. :-)
Also popular were photos of shacks, antennas etc.  Hopefully we got
WA4OKE's keyer working OK... Earl?

** Winners **
Pileups of kudos and thanks to K0EJ.  Mark took it upon himself to 
nurture and facilitate TCG for the last couple of years, and with some
help (especially from Wo4o and others) has managed to get some great
contesting action stirred up in TN.  Mark felt like it was time to take
a (well deserved) break from the facilitation duties.  Being the leader
he is, he 'volunteered' me to take his place. :-)  Thanks for all of your
efforts Mark, and I'm sure we all hope you will find the break fruitful.
Of course he's still a keystone, handling the ARRL paperwork and making
big scores in the contests!

** Next Meeting **
Date:  Sat Feb 1 1997
Time:  9:30 AM
Place: Old Country Buffet restaurant
Agenda: TBA

73 and see you in the contests.

-Kirk  K4RO


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