Spokane DX Association

Congratulations to Jim Monroe N7ESU for receiving his 25-year ARRL certificate and pin.

One of the highest DXCC awards anyone can achieve is DXCC Honor Roll #1

To qualify for the #1 Honor Roll one has to have all current entities confirmed (currently 340)

The SDXA is proud to have Gary Swartout K7GS who has achieved this prestigious honor.

This weekend Mel N7GCO hosted a multi-one team for the ARRL RTTY RU. We all had a great time and exceeded our contest goals, which is always fun.

The team consisted of Randy K7TQ, Jay WS7I (one of the co-creators of the contest) who have been my mentors on RTTY contesting and Mel N7GCO. In a little over 24 hours they made 1,233 radio contacts (a little over 50 an hour) and had a score of 136,863. They gave Mel’s ham station a real workout.

The Spokane DX Association November 3^rd elected a new club president, Randy Foltz K7TQ. Randy has served as president previously and as chair or co-chair for four PNW DX Conventions. He is also a frequent contributor to the Spokane DX YouTube channel.

The other three SDXA Officers were returned to office on a unanimous vote:

• Mel Ming N7GCO as Vice President and program planner.
• John Gager K7KB as treasurer.
• Jay Holcomb WA0WW as secretary.

The club is fortunate to have a large group of additional leaders and activity teams as well:

• Club Log – Pat Murphy (N7UVH)
• Contesting – Jay Holcomb (WA0WWW)
• DXing Emphasis –Bob Hallock (K7TM), Mike Buettner (K7STO), & Mel Ming (N7GCO)
• DX Awards – (100 Country Club & Challenge Award) — Mike Buettner (K7STO)
• DX Net – Pat Murphy (N7UVH)
• Field Day – Jim Monroe (N7ESU), Bob Hallock (K7TM), & Pat Murphy (N7UVH)
• Finance Investment Team – John Gager (K7KB), Gary Swartout (K7GS), Del Morissette (WA7AQH)
• Health and Welfare of Members – Gary Swartout (K7GS)
• Historian – Steve Sala (K7AWB)
• Hybrid Meetings – Brandon Childs (W7BKS)
• K7SDX Trustee – Mike Buettner (K7STO)
• Membership – John Gager (K7KB)
• Million Point Club – Randy Foltz (K7TQ)
• New HF Mentoring – Del Morissette (WA7AQH)
• Pre-Zoom meeting hosts –– Pat Murphy (N7UVH), Del
• Morissette (WA7AQH), & Jeff Banke (NZ2S)
• QSL Card Checker — Gary Bytnar (AD7XG)
• Spokane Hamfest – Jay Halcomb (WA0WWW)
• Spokane DX YouTube Channel – Mel Ming (N7GCO)
• Technical – Gary Swartout (K7GS), Jeff Banke (NZ2S) & Bob Zavrel (W7SX)
• Webmasters – John Gager (K7KB), Mel Ming (N7GCO), & Del Morissette (WA7AQH)

The Spokane Hamfest resumed after a two-year break for Covid in 2022. There was a great crowd. SDXA members were very active in registration, setup, workshops and selling.

Here is a photo of the crowd by Joe Somday KF7PBM

Murf (N7UVH) and I (N7GCO) were busy selling the last of Janet’s equipment. (Photo by Joe Somday KF7PBM)

Peter K0NG received his DXCC Certificate for confirmed contacts with 100  countries. He is here with Mel N7GCO who was his mentor (Elmer).

Bob N7AU and Tom KC7UG installed Bob’s new crank-up tower September 2, 2022. This is the monster crank-up he bought and brought back from the south.

Thanks to Tom KC7UG and his helper they came over with a boom truck today and in about 2 hours we the tower out of the trailer and mounted.

This is a massive tower.

August 5-7, 2022 the SDXA hosted the Pacific NW DX Convention. It was the first in-person convention in three years due to Covid. It was help at the Davenport Centennial Hotel on the Spokane River. The speakers were outstanding and everyone enjoyed being together again.

(Photos by Meg Foltz)

Ed Hare W1RFI speaking on “Radio Frequency Interference and the Radio Amateur” 

Our own Peter KJ7IEA won the grand prize of the complete Icom 705 package

August 29 & 30 a team from the SDXA took down Janet’s towers and antennas.

Work team included: Bob N7AU, Brandon W7BKS, Gary AD7XG, Jay N7ZUF, Jim N7ESU, Mel N7GCO, Mike K7STO, Murf N7UVH, Peter KJ7IEA and Woody N7HCJ.

(Photos from Bob, Murf, Jim and Brandon)

The group gathered today to put up Del’s WA7AQH High Tower antenna.

Del WA7AQH, Peter K0NG and Ted NA7TP making adjistments

Jeff NZ2S, Gary AD7XG, Del WA7AQH, Dale WU7X, Peter K0NG and Ted NA7TP adjusting the top stinger

Antenna Up

Fine tuning the vertical adjustment

We were sorry to hear that SDXA member Janet Lowery WX7P became a silent key on Thursday, May 26th. Janet was in the process of developing a contest station in Benton City, WA.  A service celebrating her life will be held in California, where most of her family lives. We extend our sympathy to her partner Sarah KQ7C for the loss of Janet.

Last fall the wind destroyed Bob’s N7AU Trylon tower. Thankfully it missed his 5th wheel RV.

This week they took it down and are getting ready to replace it with an 89′ heavy duty crank up.

In this photo Bob is cutting the bend portion off and the boom truck is lifting it away.

Mark McMillian W7MEM has received his  40 year ARRL Certificate. Congratulations to Mark on this milestone.

Bob N7AU & Tom KC7UG Towers have new towers. The towers are US Towers HDX 589. 92 feet cranked up but 24′ 6″ cranked down and then they have the layover wench also to lay them in the horizontal position. They have an electric motor to crank up and down. These are very heavy duty towers.

Bob went down to Alabama to pick them up. In the photo you can see them on the trailer Bob picked up in Oklahoma.

Notice the wall thinkness.

Hopefully, Bob will be able to get his tower that blew over this winter taken down and his SteppIR antenna and 6-meter antennas repaired/replaced and all put back up this Spring/Summer. He is also working on his 80- meter antenna for his tall tower.

Congratulations to Stephen Sala K7AWB for 60 years as an ARRL member.