Spokane DX Association

The results of the Salmon Run (Washington QSO Party), held on September 19-20, 2015, are available at this SALMON RUN RESULTS LINK. The contest is sponsored by our sister DX club – the Western Washington DX Club (WWDXC) of the Seattle area. Awards are given for the highest score in each of the 39 Washington counties. The SDXA gives a plaque to the high score in this category:

Single Operator
Operating from the EWA Section of the ARRL (20 of the 39 counties)
Low Power
Mixed Mode (2 or more of the 3 modes).

We have had quite a few different SDXA member winners including both Gary K7OX (3 times) and Lamar WA7LT (one time), two of the founders of the SDXA. Also, Wilse WX7P (SK) once. But the most-time winner is W7WMO Gene Bye in Ephrata who won it from Grant County five times.

And Guess what? He has won it again this year! Six times out of 13 contests! His score this year was 52,976 points from 245 QSOs and 73 multipliers.

Congratulations again to Gene Buy W7WMO of Ephrata.

In the club competition, SDXA took 7th with a total of 172,078 points. In the Washington CW mobile category, Randy K7TQ/m and his sidekick Jay WA0WWW took first with 498 QSOs. Non-SDXA AB7MP took first from Spokane County with the highest score. Don’t we have any Spokane County members in the SDXA? Chuck KI7DG had the high score from Okanogan County with 68,992 points.

(Lance, from Frenchtown, MT, was one of our SDXA-sponsored speakers at our 2013 PNW DX Convention in Spokane Valley talking about his 6-meter Clipperton DXpedition – TX5K).

.
What is the Fred Fish award?

Fred Fish W5FF(SK) was the first ham to work all 488 maidenhead 6-meter grids in the continental USA. The new Fred Fish Award was given to him posthumously in 2008 as their newest ARRL award. There are only six amateurs that have gotten the award. Lance should be #7. Working all 488 grids is tough; some grids are ham-less, at least on 6 meters. Some are swamps; some are accessed only by boat.

Here is the FRED FISH LINK to the ARRL site. Incidentally, SDXA member Mark W7MEM has 480 confirmed, only 8 remaining. Steve K7AWB has 412 of the 488.

Lance recently announced his working the final 488th grid (FN67 in Maine):

“What a great birthday present I had tonight! At 0204Z September 28, 2015 – just as
the eclipsed full moon rose over the mountain here – I completed with KB3SII on 6m
EME for my grid number 488 for the FFMA award 😉 KB3SII and K1WHS are currently on EME on 50.190 from FN67aa, and also making other contacts on EME. 6m Degradation is -0.9 and Kp is 1.7. 6m EME cndx are UNBELIEVABLE!”

Lance initiates many 6-meter DXpeditions using EME for his contacts. Here is a DXPEDITION LINK to his latest in Micronesia in August, 2015. This article has beautiful pictures and a great description of his trip including the flames out of the bottom of his amplifier. Lance maintains the MagicEME@googlegroups.com reflector too.

In early December 1983, operating from Montana as WA1JXN, Lance was the first radio amateur to communicate with the Space Shuttle. Astronaut Dr. Owen Garriot, W5LFL. He was contacted using Lance’s 2m EME array of 12 yagis as STS-9 passed down along the West Coast of the USA. Lance has ARRL DXCC #11 for 2-meters as well as a 6-meter DXCC.

His great technical website is at this W7GJ LINK.

The three piles in the background are from last time the bureau sent a package; the ones in the foreground came today. All will be answered on a rainy day. That is Bo the Dog in the background.

This is the location for short articles written by members on topics of interest to other members. Have you looked at the titles lately? Click on the tab and enjoy. Could you contribute an article to SDXA?

This email came during this weekend’s contest to George:

Good morning,

I just repaired a AEA RTTY decoder I bought last month at the flea market and sure enough, first signal I get is.. W6AEA !!! It seems to work! Picture attached. You are 59 in CM97.

73 and Have a Nice Day
Bernard KI6TSF

The 2011 was chaired by Gary K7OX and Randy K7TQ; the 2014 was chaired by Randy.

PRESENTATIONS:

2011
Sean Kutzko, KX9X, Playing the Game: DXing and Contesting at the ARRL
Paul Peters, VE7BZ, Crimp Coax Connectors: A Simple Approach to Consistency
Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, San Andres 2008-2009 5J0M/5J0BV
Dick Frey, K4XU, Fun in the 7th Area QSO Party
Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, Cycle 24 Developments (or not)
Wilse Morgan, WX7P, Building a 40 m 4 square
Ward Silver, N0AX, I Can see UA0 From Here and So You Think You Have Enough Towers: W1AW/KL7 & W0AIH
Mike Mraz, N6MZ, Desecheo Island, K5D
Geoff Howard, PJ2DX, PJ2T Super Station

2013
Randy Crews, W7TJ, Preparing for the Propagation Winter
Lance Collister, W7GJ, 6 m Clipperton Island from TX5K
Geoff Howard, W0CG/PJ2DX, Inching Toward a Million Qs at PJ2T
Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, The DXer’s Favorite Wallpaper
Elvin Miura, JA3CZY, The State of Amateur Radio in Japan
Dave Patton, NN1N, The Ham and His Callsign
Bob Locher, W9NKI, Digging out the Rare DX
Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, Rebuilding RAST and Operating from Thailand
Ward Silver, N0AX, CQ DX From Arecibo

2017 Convention Chair Randy K7TQ is looking for volunteers for the next SDXA-sponsored convention in August, 2017. It is not too early to sign up as a volunteer. Contact Randy at his email address: rbfoltz at gmail.com

Yesterday, Wednesday, October 15 was Dan’s 90th birthday. One of the founding fathers of the Spokane DX Association in 2002, Dan is on the ARRL Number One Honor Roll and basically, with his ham station and multi-mega-humungus crank-up towers and their antennas, can work anything that is on the HF air. Here are some pictures of the gentleman.

Dan at the base of his large crank-up tower

The tower!

Dan (N5AR) – No. 1 Honor Roll

it is a 2 page document at this LINK

Its called a Conference, rather than a Hamfest or Convention, but it is ham radio and it is only 4+ hours away in Issaquah, WA. The Conference location rotates, like our PNW DX conventions, between cities such as Bend, Moses Lake, Portland, and Seattle.

SDXA member Mark K7HPT received this award from the PNWVHFS in 2011.

Bob N7AU and Bob K7TM (both SDXA members) at a recent PNWVHFS conference.

One way to get your antenna above the rig at a recent PNWVHFS conference

SDXA TOOK 5TH OF THE 6 CLUBS.

Steve VE7CT Orca DXCC Club Vice President accepting the trophy. The traveling trophy is presented at the annual rotating PNW DX convention. SDXA sponsors this convention once every four years and 2017 is next.

PNW CLUB SCORES (2-page pdf) are posted at this

FINAL RESULTS LINK.

HOW DID THE SDXA MEMBERS DO IN THE CHALLENGE?

Here is the tally of our members’ 2014-2015 results: SDXA SCORES LINK

Our Club is an important institution and a valuable addition to our amateur radio hobby of DXing and Contesting. To keep the club vibrant and members interested plus being able to attract new members, it is important to have our monthly meetings and activities be a magnet for participation.

To accomplish this, we should have a good discussion on what direction we should take to spice up our meetings, club activities and presentations. Please put your thinking caps on and send your comments to me or share them with a club officer.

We all enjoy our hobby and the company of our fellow members; let’s work towards improving our monthly meetings and in turn our enjoyment and success in radio.

73,
Chris WX7B
wx7b@arrl.net

Two of our SDXA members put many Washington counties on the map for the Salmon Run contest. Here is their story from Randy K7TQ.

K7TQ/WA0WWW SALMON RUN LINK

ARTICLE LINK