Mount Vernon activates its annual special event station in commemoration of George Washington's Birthday. This station uses the club call sign K4US during the President's Day weekend from the Mount Vernon Estate on the bank of the Potomac River about 12 miles south of Washington, DC.

The 2001 Special Event Station will be operated from the Mount Vernon Estate on February 17th and 18th.

The station K4US will operate in the General Class SSB portions on 7.240 LSB, 14.240 USB and 28.408 USB (plus or minus). Morse code stations were operated on 10.110, and 18.080 (plus or minus).

A certificate will be sent to any worked station submitting a SASE (preferably a 9x12" envelope) to

Mount Vernon ARC
Special Event
P.O. Box 7234
Alexandria, Va 22307

Come join the fun!!

A map of the location is available. Click Here

A Report on the Event by Steve, K3IZ

It was a dark and stormy week. That was the way the weather started out his week of GW celebration. It was as a dreary, dank and drenching time. An excellent combination for a mudbowl around the greenhouses at Mt. Vernon. When Saturday sprouted, it wasn't do bad. Yes, there was some mud but not so much to put a damper on things. We hiked up our pants, put on our muddy boots, and tromped off get the show on the road.

The first thing to do is to get up the antennas. Now were did they put that tree? I think they lost it. There's part of it! Yeah, the bottom part. 'Round these parts mister, we'uns calls that a stump. Uh-OH won't make for a very tall antenna. After finding another tree and the other one we have used in the past, that one didn't get sick, we got the dipole up for 40 meters. With help of Bob, N4LBR and George, N1BV, who were both sailors, we proceeded to tangle up three lines of rope and a tree. They flew airplanes; whadda ya want?

Tom, N4BV got the CW going on 30 and 17meters. Thankfully it was not on both bands and everything in between at the same time. No pink slips this outing. George, N1BV got 10 meters on the air and proceeded to work the world. SP9, DL3, and LZ1 were among the prefixes coming in. Not to mention John, K2VPR, now theres a QSO fo you.

Dave, N4YPR was the stalwart for 40 meters. Though he gave the hot seat to Paul, AA8O so he could heat up 7MHz. The Qs were flying fast and furious. Even though we didn't make the national hamzines with announcements. They were still waiting for us.

I brought out my PSK31 set up. With my FT990, laptop, and BuxComm interface we had contacts all over the US of A. Unfortunately the little tiny mouse in the middle of the keyboard broke. Oh well, so much for that mode. I shut down the computer and went to SSB. 20 meters did the MVARC quite proud there as well. I worked some DX but mostly throughout the nation. Overall, an excellent job was done by all.

Right at noontime we all this commotion and here comes Greg, KE4TKS, saying he just happened to have commandeered some hot pizzas for the MVARC. What a treat and right on time. Greg took over the controls of 40 phone and tore up the band.

I went home that evening knowing that I would need the computer for the GW Birthday Parade Celebration using it for that packet. I started thinking how to get around the broken mouse. I might as well see what I can do. I take the computer apart; I find that the keyboard is one part; I think maybe it can be taken apart. I take out the little, and I mean little, board that make up the mouse. Its in three pieces. Can this be glued? Super glue won't even do this with the pressures from the way this mouseworks. What to do, What to do?

I put the computer back together. Of course, a window came up when it was turned on that said "YOU CAN PLUG IN A PS2 MOUSE AND REBOOT THE COMPUTER". I thought I guess I'll have to get this fixed somewhere. (wake up, dumb guy).

I got up in the morning and thought I could just plug in another mouse. (The computer was telling you that before you took it apart). I plug in another mouse. It works great. We are back on the air on PSK31 and Packet. The Sunday effort at Mt. Vernon went great.