Spokane DX Association

SPOKANE DX ASSOCIATION
Minutes of Sept. 01 2005 Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 7 PM by President Randy Foltz K7TQ at the Spokane County Library at Argonne and Upriver Drive. There were 12 members present.

COMMENTS
*WA0WWW-New-Jay came from Waseca, Mn., worked for E. F. Johnson for 2years, then came to Itron. He’s been mostly “Contesting”. His tower was down last year, but he hopes to have it back up soon. He visited our Field Day last June.

*NE7F-A-Jim’s “Hi-Tower” isn’t up presently ( as was erroneously reported last month), since it was used at our Field Day, but should be up soon. Not much on the radio last month, but Dan N5AR has been teaching him to play golf.

*K7EKM-A-Kirk is trying to dig a hole 36” deep for a tower, but says he may settle for 32” due to many boulders.. He’s also studying to upgrade from Advanced to Extra Class at the hamfest in late Sept.

K7OX-F-Gary said he hasn’t been on the radio much last month, but has been working on antennas, and towers. He says he’s converting a phased vertical to a four square ant. Gary said the DX convention he attended in Portland last month was great; a Canadian Ham won a Pro 3. Next year the convention will be held in Vancouver, B C..

*WA1PMA-F- Wayne (like a lot of the rest of us in the summer months) hasn’t been on the radio much last month. He’s been traveling in his motor home seeing the sights, but he did get to experience replacing the transmission on the way back,(Ouch!), which put a big dent in his radio budget.

*K7AWB-F-Steve mentioned that “Bear” Carson AC7HI is in the VA Hospital (Rm 411) with a very serious leg infection, and has been there for about 3 weeks, and that it might be nice if folks would send him a QSL card with good wishes. Steve said he got his “WAS” on 17 meters. He said HF has been bad; 6 meters has been bad . He said we had several CME’s from the sun about 10 days ago,(Aug 20)the KA was up to “9” and he hoped there would be Aurora to support 6 meters, but it didn’t happen, although folks on the East coast were working Europe and S.A. Steve is hoping to get his Force 12- 5BA antenna on top of his 80 foot tower soon with a 6m ant. on top of that. He had a small problem; his new dog ran into and bent one of the elements( the same pup that ate his Co-Ax a couple of months ago; hi-hi). Oh Well!

*KC7QGV-A-Mary Beth wasn’t on the radio, but she’s studying hard for her “General Class Lic., and traveling back and forth to Omak to help her mother. ( Mary Beth and husband Dave AC7MV planned and provided, and cooked the food for Field Day, and helped make it a great event, for which Randy reminded we still owe them.

*N5AR-F-Dan has been working some 6 meters lately but has been preoccupied with “critters” sprouting up and eating into his Co-Ax between his towers and the house. Lots of suggestions were offered about how to get rid of his gopher “critters”. Dan’s been playing golf with Jim lately, enjoying the fine weather. Dan mentioned that the ARRL now has a Spam Filter and Anti-Virus Protection on their web-site for those who have an ARRL e-mail address. Dan asked his friend Mike Merkel (Steppir Antennas) if he might be able to Demo. his great Steppir Antenna System at the Sept. Hamfest, but they had a scheduling conflict.

*KD7OCT-A-Loren hasn’t been on the radio much in August except for 75m. He mentioned that according to the recent committee meeting the Sept. 24th Hamfest is coming together very well, under the very able chairmanship again this year of Betsy Ashelman N7WRQ. Thank you so much Betsy from all of your Ham Compatriots!!! Betsy said that they still needed volunteers to help out at the Hamfest.

Loren mentioned that he got an e-mail to the Club from our good friend Elvin JA3CZY who said his 80m antenna was presently down. Elvin also said that their daughter just presented them with a beautiful new granddaughter, and he sent a picture and she is a cutie. Loren replied to Elvin’s e-mail.

*K7TQ-F-Randy reported his tower and antenna are fully operational. He replaced the rotor and got the Force 12 – C4SXL (2 ele. on 40m (plus 10,15 and 20m)) tuned for CW on 40m with some interesting maneuvering on the tower while it lurched one way while the antenna started the other way (Randy said it had something to do with Newton’s Laws(some of that higher physics stuff)). Randy said that Monday night 20m was open and he worked a few, namely some VK’s, UA’s and UN’s with 5 watts, (obviously the antenna works great!).

*AC7MV-A-Dave said there was nothing new with him, that Mary Beth had said it all.

*WA7LT-F-Lamar said that the DX Meet in Portland was excellent and that he got the lowdown on the folks on the coast-a lot of them old DX’er friends. He also mentioned that our good friend and club member Dick Snell W7BHP is working out of Ephrata handling a power substation project and won’t be able to make meetings very often for a while. Lamar said that Donna is still missing a 9×13 pan, a covered plastic bowl and a fruit ladle, and a pancake turner from field Day;(Parts of one of Lamar’s secret antenna projects, no doubt!).(It was rumored that either Dan’s critter’s or Steve’s Dog got‘em!). Lamar suggested and those present agreed that that the ARRL DX Gavels and Plaques for outstanding Contesting should be displayed on our club table at the Hamfest. Lamar mentioned he had a source for several 60 ft used telephone poles cheap. He also mentioned that he set up that Pete-W7OW with a computor for DXing. Lamar is also getting his own antennas and equipment ready for the fall Contest season. He mentioned that he’s selling his FT 930 rig.

TREASURER’S REPORT-Dan N5AR

Bank Account Sept. 01, 2005 $ 329.15
Website Rent (annual) ($ 186.94)
Gas for Field Day (to Loren) ($ 24.00)
Member Dues $ 28.50
Cash on Hand $ 60.15
Total $ 207.06

OLD BUSINESS
How to sell parts for Bud’s Estate W7BUD-no resolution yet.

NEW BUSINESS
Steve K7AWB is heading the nominating committee for next year’s ClubOfficers.
Randy announced the Club Christmas party will be Dec 01, (First Thursday Dec)
Randy suggested that maybe we could get Ward N0AX to visit and talk about theKure Island Dxpedition.

PROGRAM
Pres.Randy K7TQ gave us a thorough debriefing on our June Field Day Operation. His presentation was complete with numerous charts and graphs which broke down The operation in detail which showed clearly what happened and what didn’t and what probably “should have and should not have happened”, for the purpose of having a better Field Day and a Top Score next year. We had 1200+ QSO’s ( we were outdone by an Ore. Clus who had 1500+ QSO’s.) As Randy said; all things considered, we did pretty well and everyone had a good time, which was also an important objective(!) and we all learned a few things for next year.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Salmon Run Sept. 17-18 ( I’m sure Steve K7AWB has this one “Bagged Up” )
Hamfest ( at University –Hi ) Sept. 24
Kure Island Expedition ( starting around Sept 24 to about Oct. 08.
IEVHF convention – last weekend of Sept.
Contest Schedule: go to www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestcal.html
Visit the Spokane DX Association website www.sdxa.org for info and links!
Next Meeting- Oct. 06, 7 PM, North Spokane County Library, E. 44 Hawthorne
The Oct. Program will be an excellent Video on “Lightning Protection” from the Potomac Valley Radio Club, presented by Lamar WA7LT.

73 and Happy DXing
Loren KD7OCT, Secretary – [email protected]
Spokane DX Association