Minutes for the Tennessee Contest Group meeting held March 8, 1997

** Roll Call **

K1KY     Tom       Smyrna
N4CM     Clarence  Ocoee
KQ4HC    Jeff      Ringgold, GA
N4ZZ     Don       Nashville
WO4O     Ric       Ridgetop
W9WI     Doug      Pleasant View
WD4K     Tommy     Hendersonville
K4RO     Kirk      Pegram
W4SQE    Randy     Nashville
WB4QDA   John      Pegram

** Club Callsign **

The Group decided to go ahead and apply for a club callsign for
the TCG.  The application was mailed to the FCC on March 15.

** CQ Contest Video **

The Group watched the CQ-Contest "Introduction to Contesting" video.
The concensus was that the video was well produced.  The video would
be a good item to take to general interest radio clubs who wanted
a program on contesting.  Ric Wo4o has done this with one club in
Nashville already.  The video followed by a short Q&A session would
probably make a good introduction to contesting club meeting program.
If you do plan to show this video to a club, perhaps you'll want to
post the dates here.  Other TCG'ers may wish show up to help with
the Q&A session after the video presentation.

** Other Videos **

The CQ-Contest video was pretty well received.  Perhaps there are
some other videos out there that we might want to see?  K4RO offered
to buy the WRTC 96 video, and we remembered that K4UU had access to
some videos perhaps.  Gary, can you post a list of what you have
available?

** Icom's new IC-756 **

Clarence N4CM was gracious to bring out his new IC-756 for the Group
to check out.  It is a fine radio with some very interesting features.
Most intriguing was the band scope, which allowed the user to "see"
signals over a good segment of the band at once.  The band scope
sure looked like it could be a useful contesting tool.  Many thanks
to Clarence for bringing the rig for us to see.

** USA QSL Bureau **

Some of us had been receiving packages of QSL's from a service
called the USA QSL Bureau.  Ric Wo4o said he has had good luck
with it, and recommends it.  The USA QSL Bureau might save a few
bucks for us domestic contest hounds.

** Field Day **

The Group decided that the best way for TCG to handle FD is for
individual members to offer their support at the FD operation
of their choice.  There are several well established FD operations
near most TCG'ers.  Some of the groups in middle TN planning FD
operations include: Stones River ARC, Nashville ARC, Wilson County
ARC, Murray County ARC, etc.  I'm sure there are others in the
Nashville area.  Feel free to post your FD plans to the TCG reflector,
and if you are looking for operators, this would be a good place to
ask as well.

** Logo Design **

It looks like we may have the basics of a logo design for TCG.

+------------------------------------+
|                                    |
|        /      /       /            |
|       /      /       /             |
|      ++++++++++++++++              |     Or, maybe with the "C & G"
|     /      /|X|    /               |     superimposed on the tower.
|    /      / |X|   /                |
|             |X|   888888  888888   |     (Hard to get too fancy using
|             |X|   8       8        |     just ASCII characters, but
|             |X|   8       8   88   |     it can be used in email...)
|             |X|   888888  888888   |
|                                    |
|     Tennessee Contest Group        |
|                                    |
+------------------------------------+

** Next Meeting **

Date:  Sat April 5 1997
Time:  9:30 AM
Place: Old Country Buffet restaurant
Agenda: TBA

Thanks for coming out to visit, folks.  73 and see you in the contests.

-Kirk K4RO


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