1. At tonight's meeting, we had Frank, Dave Smith, Bill and myself. Lots of discussion about antennas, contests, recruiting, computers and finances, among other things. No radio activity this evening; there just seemed to be too much else to work on.

2. We are getting our RF grounding tomorrow! After several appeals to the Casali Group (the renovation people) they have agreed to give us back new earth grounding tomorrow. We have three 8 foot copper rods to be sunk and the grounding cable and all connectors are ready. Grounding will go through our floor, through the coach's office and out the front wall. It will be good to have all the equipment properly grounded again. Incidentally, when the AC in the building is switched over to the newly installed system, I am told the electrical grounding will be much improved as well. The electrical grounding in this building has always been highly suspect.

3. I filed a petition this week with the university outlining the costs involved to replace the HF antenna system we had to remove. To make a long story short, I asked for +2k dollars to cover the whole job. They approved $1k. Basically, the line is that they have no problem covering labor costs but can't rationalize replacing our old hardware. I accepted their deal, with some reservations. They will cut us a check for $1,000 shortly. We'll live with it.

4. Frank filed our petition with the UC requesting $1,500 for the new antenna project. We made the deadline for second semester activity grant requests, so KYFC. They may not come through with the entire request but the precedent is so strong that I would be very surprised if we didn't receive a good-sized sum. These funds are earmarked for antenna and tower hardware. KYFC again.

5. Dave Allred spoke with Steve, W1GSL, and found out that the Flea monies are about to be distributed to the various organizations. Steve says to standby for the check -- it will be in the mail shortly. I sure hope so. Once that check has been deposited we can talk about how to better coordinate our participation in the Flea for the '99-'00 season.

6. We are getting a Centrex university phone line into the shack. Now there's some good news! Despite my poor attempt at trying to explain to the construction people why we really need a university line, they have penciled us in the blueprints for a connection. We'll use this as our data line in the shack. Did someone say high speed?

7. The telephone workmen also installed an extension outlet for our 876-4131 line in the clubroom yesterday. It's not live yet but should be soon.

8. This past week I arranged our things in the clubroom. It's lookin' good! All equipment and parts boxes have been redone, things are up on the wall, the TV & VCR are hooked up and working great, the old Magnavox stereo even cranks out the tunes reasonably well. This evening I repaired and painted-up our 12' ladder. Looks like new! In the room we have the storage shelves, a workbench, a training table, a demonstration area, a little museum of antique gear, and the lounge area with the TV/stereo. This is one comfortable room now! And we're way ahead of progress being made elsewhere in the building. Now what we really need here is electricity. I'm told the wall outlets will be wired soon.

9. This past Thursday and Friday I took some time to work the School Club Roundup. What a response I received! Everyone wanted to work Harvard! We do have this magical impact, especially on kids. I actually spent just over an hour total on the air and worked 25 station, 10 of which were school clubs and 3 others were regular club stations (including W1AW). This qualifies W1AF for an award! I submitted the log and a letter/summary sheet to the sponsor. SCR is a real winner. I'm glad I took the time to give out the contacts. Now, here come the QSL requests. . .

10. Speaking of QSLs, I signed-off on the B/W draft of the 90th anniversary QSL. I should have the color proofs soon and then will sign-off on them if all is OK. I expect we'll have our new cards in a couple of weeks. This is an *excellent* QSL. Congrats to Dave & Bill for their design work.

11. Matt, KC1XX, will order our new tower sections and related hardware this coming week. He orders in bulk from Rohn, so our stuff will be on his invoice.

12. We have our new access to the roof! The old roof door will no longer be used and the construction people have installed a roof hatch and stair in the hall outside the clubroom, next to the old women's bathroom. This is very convenient -- walk right out of the clubroom and up the ladder to the roof. The hatch is latched not locked.

13. The new tower will be bolted to the actual building rather than to the elevator shaft building on the roof. Since there is no elevator shaft housing on the roof, it would be difficult to do otherwise.

14. Good luck in the ARRLDXCW this weekend, Maury. He will be at G4BUO M/M and they'll be looking for a big EU score. Bill, Dave & I discussed our work this coming weekend from W1AF. Basically, Bill is the morning and early afternoon man, Dave is the late afternoon and evening man, and I am the evening and early morning man. If we do all the time we hope to, we can cover as much as 40 hours in the contest. We may not make that, but we are shooting for either 1,000 contacts or 1 million points. We'll be HP unless there are problems with the neighbors (which I don't anticipate). Bill & Dave will be primarily in S&P mode while I will try and run as much as possible. It will be nice to get W1AF "out there" once again.

15. Received a set of slides from Larry Mulvehill today from the photo shoot at the club. They are really excellent! I will have some of the best ones enlarged to hang upstairs. Larry gave me permission to publish his photos on my web site. I have a W1AF 90th story planned for the site and will use these photos for the story.

16. We have a super quad stereo system on the way for the clubroom. A *new* Marantz SR-66 receiver, 4 matching PSB Alpha Mite speakers and a center channel speaker for the TV. Thanks to K3USC for locating this gear for next to nothing from a retail liquidation. Get ready for some Real Audio!

Next meeting, Tuesday 2/23, same time, same place.

73, Mike
K3UOC