Spokane DX Association

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Here are photos of the winners.

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Saturday night banquet speaker from Yaesu: K7BV Dennis Motschenbacher.

Sunday morning breakfast speaker and International Pirate N0AX Ward Silver (left) with ICOM representative N9JA Ray Novak (right).

The raffle ticket area.

Former SDXA Vice-President, Convention MC, & transceiver winner WX7B Chris Prichard (see next pix) with Trish.

Convention Chair K7TQ Randy Foltz (left) presenting Yaesu FT DX 3000 transceiver raffle prize to Chris (right and with the smile).

Convention Chair K7TQ Randy Foltz opening the convention.

A new winner of the PNW Challenge Cup, the competition between the leading PNW DX contest clubs. This year it was the newest of the clubs, the Orca DX and Contest Club from British Columbia. A writeup on the contest results is promised soon. SDXA Secretary and convention Reservations Manager WA0WWW Jay Holcomb (right) presents the trophy to Orca President and 2014 PNW DX convention Chair VE7VR Dave Johnson (left).

It was held at the home of Al Hiatt, W7AL near Sandpoint, ID on Saturday, August 24.

Part of the picnic group on the back deck of W7AL’s QTH

Al W7AL, Wayne WA1PMA, and Jay WA0WWW

Gary AD7XG listening to advice on how many towers to put on his new property

A new DX club has been formed near Lewiston, ID and will compete in the PNW DX Challenge Cup competition starting this next season. Because they are a new club, the decision was to add their score to that of the SDXA in the comptition. Members of the IDXA attended our recent DX convention and contributed an antenna as a prize. As they say on their website: The Idaho DX Association is a fully incorporated, non-profit, ARRL affiliated amateur radio organization formed in 2012. With a passionate interest in DX contesting, the IDXA club mission is to create unity among Idaho contesters, promote the spirit of amateur radio through respectful contesting, and to contribute to the overall goodwill worldwide.
Their site is at:
https://idxa.org/

Dan’s big 6-element 20-meter beam had its boom bent in the 60 MPH windstorm recently.

Dave AC7MV and Mary Beth AE7GT operated the ham station in the Queen Mary ship on Thursday, September 12th between 1 and 4 PM local time.

Mary Beth (AE7GT) & Dave (AC7MV)

More information on the Queen Mary can be found at this QUEEN MARY LINK.

Don K4ZA has a 2+ hour, 2-disk DVD set out that discusses what makes a proficient contester? What makes a good operator? For most of us, it takes years. Practice, participation and persistence are key factors. Contesters are a truly elite bunch who possess unique operating skills—things which we’re not born with and that are not covered or learned by reading any radio’s manual, or Handbook, or on the neighborhood repeater, or down at the local radio club. Using over 24 hours of raw material, K4ZA has edited and collected the experience, wisdom, and opinions of 50 of today’s contesters in one place. VP Randy K7TQ selected the best of the lot to make a one-hour program for the SDXA. More on this DVD set at this LINK.

THE SETUP

THE OPERATION – CQ CQ FIELD DAY

LIFE IN THE OUTDOORS

highlights of Field day from Chair Gary AD7XG:

Field Day operations went off without a hitch plus the weather was great. Tower and tri-band went up without a problem. The Titan vertical by Gap was its usual struggle to assemble, although it gave is fine performance on 20 meters. Guess all those tuning stubs and wires must do something after all.

Wayne was the archer with the bow and arrow, and is good at taking dead aim on the lofty branches that will hold up the 40 and 80 meter dipole.

The operations tent went together only with the help of everyone’s memory. The ground stakes and tie-down ropes went into place with memories of past field days and wind sending the tent airborne.

Our six meter station racked up one contact, made by Wayne WA1PMA, good work Wayne. Conditions weren’t in our favor, but calling CQ Field Day into the abyss had to bring more contacts. Better luck next year.

Ten persons inhabited the field day camp site with numerous visitors helping with operations. Next Field Day will have a registration book for accurate head count of visitors. Five dogs kept watch over the food tables and ready to defend us from any wild animal attacks, we think. BBQ ribs, baked ham and salads were all on the menu along with sweet desserts and plenty of hot and cold beverages. Where else can you camp for free and eat so well.

Camaraderie around the blazing camp fire brought everyone closer, old friends and new acquaintances. S’mores was enjoyed by some with a few 807’s enjoyed by others relaxing after the day’s operations.

We ran class 2A with the six meter station being free to class “A” entries. Final score will be announced by Jay WA0WWW.

Thanks to everyone who attended FD 2013, and making this fun event happen.

73’s
Gary AD7XG

A year and a week after he was in the 2012 ARRL June VHF contest, he received his plaque on June 14th, 2013 for high score in the NW Division for Unlimited Multioperator with his own record of 101,010 points from 532 QSOs. He was 16th nationally out of 140 in that category. He also won this plaque in 2009. The plaques were sponsored by Randy W7HR

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Also shown is his Number 1 Honor Roll Plaque signifying that he has worked and confirmed all 340 DX entities; he recently joined other SDXA Number 1 Honor Roll holders Jay WS7I & Dan N5AR.

George proudly poses for a picture of his newest award, to go along side his Honor Roll and other plaques and certificates.
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George W6AEA, in the Spokane Valley, announced this week that he had received word from the ARRL that he had achieved his long-time goal of getting the five band DXCC award. George – we expect photos of you holding that plaque when it arrives. Congratulations.

Here is a photo of George (left side) and President Wayne WA1PMA (right side) holding their ARRL Challenge Award plaques from 2011. George is running a 45% match on LOTW submittals, has 1399 contacts on the Challenge Award, and his DXCC Mixed totals are 337/334.

There is a good article by Chuck KI7DG below in the RECENT NEWS section. The Club Log URL is located at: CLUB LOG LINK