June 2013 Summer Bash a SUCCESS!

Wooo, Hoooo!  The WVDXA Summer Bash was an OUTSTANDING success!  The attendance sheet has 33 people signed in but I'm certain not everyone "made the list."  I had hoped to get everyone together for a "Group Shot" for this Blog post but trying to get that many people to do the same thing at the same time is like herding cats - right, Charlie?  So, I did the best I could and took a half dozen shots during the "meeting" and cobbled them together into one image here.  Click on it to see a larger version.  I can tell you that I did not get a shot of Charlie, N8RR, who was sitting next to Tim, K8RRT, on the hearth and I may have missed others.

Group Shot of the June 2013 WVDXA Meeting

The meeting location was the QTH (and home) of Bart, WT8V, and Sue Haynes in Elkview, WV.  It seemed like everyone who wanted to was able to find the location and we had plenty of food.  Alan, W8OP, Rick, WV8RC, Papa November, WA8VPN, and Jim, K4JWA, volunteered to flip burgers and turn hot dogs.  They kept a steady stream of those coming inside and the XYL's, YL's, and others managed to lay out a sumptuous spread.  We had chips, drinks, homemade hot dog chili (sauce), homemade cole slaw (yum!), baked beans, pasta salad, macaroni salad, Jarlsberg cheese, chicken wings with 4 or 5 dipping sauces, pea salad, sauerkraut slaw, and all the fixin's for hamburgers and hot dogs.  I won't even attempt to mention the desserts because there were literally too many to mention.  An untold number of cookies, brownies, chocolate and raspberry goodness, a quadruple-threat pie, and some Little Debbie cakes which were hastily purchased to replace a homemade cake that never managed to make the trip.  

Dave, W8IW, circulated a sheet for donations to the Jackson's Mill Program and several folks signed up and paid their dollar.  Lots of "couch change" had been acquired by at least 11 members and donated to the WVDXA Treasury.  A total of $245 was collected!  On the motion of Phil, W8UV, the WVDXA decided to make a nice donation to Clublog.  The collected funds have been transferred to Dave, WA8WV, and he is taking care of the Clublog donation for the group. 

Jim, K4JWA, brought his ultrasonic detector with dish antenna that he built.  He had handouts of the article for anyone who was interested.  It was amazing that you could hear someone rubbing their fingers together across the room with this device.  Jim has used it to track down AC line arcing for Garry, W8OI, and himself.

We had some great discussions on QSL'ing, record keeping, station improvements by some club members, a "Show and Tell" on the Pig Knob that Jimmy, W8JA, is now using, and many other items.  The comments posted on the club email reflector after the meeting showed that many people were quite pleased with what they heard/learned at the meeting.  Some even showed up TWO hours early so as to not miss a thing - I will not mention names but N8NN and K8MN know who I'm talking about!

We even gained one new member.  Rick, WV8RC, brought along Fred, WV8FV, who joined the club.  Welcome aboard, Fred!

There were some minor sprinkles but it did not dampen the gathering a bit.  Spirits were high throughout the gathering and more DX items were discussed than you could shake a stick at.  All-in-all I can't think of a single negative except for the fact that we eventually had to leave!