Spokane DX Association

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center>AMSTERDAM ISLAND
a new one for you??

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ISLAND DETAILS LINK

PRESS RELEASE – April 3, 2013
TO: The DX Community
FROM: Ralph Fedor – K0IR

I am pleased to announce a major DXpedition scheduled to occur during
January and February of 2014.

An international team of 14 experienced DXpedition operators, led by
K0IR, will depart from Fremantle, Australia in early January of 2014.
Their destination will be Amsterdam Island (FT5Z).

Amsterdam Island is under the administration of Terres Australes et
Antarctiques Francaises (TAAF). There are strict rules and
environmental regulations in place on Amsterdam Island and access is
limited. Representatives of this DXpedition team met with TAAF
officials on Reunion Island in November and in Paris in early March.
The team’s plan and credentials were reviewed at those meetings, and
resulted in TAAF’s final, written authorization to land on Amsterdam
Island and conduct this DXpedition. The team has been granted an 18 day
access to the island to occur between the dates of January 15 and
February 20 of 2014.

The team will sail from Fremantle, Australia aboard the MV Braveheart.
The voyage to Amsterdam Island will take them through the “roaring 40s”
of the Indian Ocean and last about 8 days, depending on the wind and
weather. TAAF has reviewed the Braveheart’s specifications,
environmental precautions, and emergency response plan and has
designated anchorage conditions for the vessel. Landing at Amsterdam
must be timed according to sea conditions as there is no natural harbor
to shield the landing area from the open sea. This may necessitate
waiting off shore until the sea conditions are suitable. But, our 18
day window does not start until we step onto the island.

Once ashore, the team will move to two station positions assigned by
TAAF. The two locations are about 2 kilometers apart. Each location
will allow a full complement of antennas. The separation will allow
simultaneous CW/RTTY and SSB transmission on the open bands. The group
plans on eight stations; four at each location. Elecraft K3’s, a full
complement of antennas, and 500 watt and 1.5 KW amplifiers will be the
backbone of the station configurations.

The operators are well known in the DXing and contesting world and
include: 9V1YC, EY8MM, FM5CD, HK1R, K4UEE, K9CT, LA6VM, N4GRN, N6HC,
VE3EJ, VE7CT, W6IZT, WB9Z, and yours truly K0IR.

Our website is in the final stages of preparation. When it is complete,
you may access it at: www.amsterdamdx.org/ The website will be
password protected until it is ready.

As with past DXpeditions to “Top Ten” countries, this is a costly
venture. The expenses total just over $400,000 (U.S.). Each operator
must contribute a minimum of $10,000 of his own money, pay his own way
to Fremantle, Australia, be away from home and family for six weeks,
spend 16 to 18 days at sea, and be prepared for the financial and
physical risks inherent in a major DXpedition of this magnitude.

The group needs your financial support to successfully complete this
major project and is asking all DX’ers to contribute what they can to
make this happen. We know that clubs and major sponsors will help us;
INDEXA has already made an extremely generous contribution to the
project and the NCDXF has honored with a very large grant. But we also
need the help of individual DX’ers, not only from North America, but
also from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and Oceania. Let’s make
this happen! Then, let’s enjoy the chase of a new country, a new band
country, or working a rare one!

73 – Ralph Fedor – K0IR

Next contest (10th of 10) starts on July 13. It’s the IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIP contest.

Here are the 10 contests in date order and links to the rules. Additional information on how the competition works and past results are at the link on this page on the right side under PNW Challenge Cup.

SDXA, at the annual Winter Awards Banquet, gives out a nice certificate for any member who enters all ten contests. Your score does not have to be huge to enter these contests and list your results. And the member who gets the highest total score from the contests they enter gets a special certificate!

Send your CQ contest results to the following THREE locations:

WA0WWW Jay – WA0WWW@hotmail.com – tracks individual SDXA member results for the Challenge Cup competition

W3AS Doug – doug.brede@gmail.com – submits list of SDXA eligible members to CQ Publications

CQ Publications – rtty@cqww.com – sponsors the contest; see contest rules for submission guidelines

CONTEST LISTING IN DATE ORDER

1. September 29-30, 2012: CQ WW DX RTTY LINK completed

2. October 27-28, 2012: CQ WW DX SSB LINK and more at this LINK completed

3. November 24-25, 2012: CQ WW DX CW LINK completed

4. January 5-6, 2013: ARRL RTTY RU LINK completed

5. February 9-10, 2013: CQ WPX RTTY LINKcompleted

6. February 16-17, 2013: : ARRL DX CW LINKcompleted

7. March 2-3, 2013: ARRL DX SSB LINK completed

8. March 30-31, 2013:CQ WPX SSB LINK completed

9. May 25-26, 2013: CQ WPX CW LINKcompleted

10. July 13-14, 2013: IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIP LINK

THE CONTESTANTS:

The traveling trophy competition is between these five NW DX clubs:

– BC DX Club http://www.bcdxc.org/
– Orca DXCC Club (new) http://www.orcadxcc.org/
– Spokane DX Association https://sdxa.org/
– Western Washington DX Club http://www.wwdxc.org/
– Willamette Valley DX Club http://wvdxc.org/dotnetnuke/

Club Log is a web-based application that analyses log files from radio amateurs all over the world. Using the logs, Club Log offers you a wide range of reports for your own benefit, and identifies large scale trends from the sum of all activity in the database. According to Michael G7VJR, Club Log author, if you participate in Club Log by uploading your log you will receive:

◾Personal DXCC reports and league tables
◾Detailed analysis of your log, using researched DXCC information
◾Zone charts for your log, again based on detailed research
◾A personal timeline of your activity (DXCCs per year, band and mode info)
◾Your own log search tool, eg. to link from your web page or QRZ profile
◾A filtered DX Cluster which only tells you about DX you still ‘need’
◾A say in the Club Log most wanted report: your log is part of the trend data
◾Access to propagation and activity predictions, using everyone’s logs
◾QSL suggestions to help you send out just the cards you need
◾Satisfaction from taking part in and improving a free DXing resource.

If you use the OQRS system of using PayPal to pay the fee to DXpeditions for their QSL cards, without sending yours (they surely don’t need 100,000 cards anyway), then you are familiar with Club Log as many of the DXpeditions use it to store their logs for matching to your entries. If you are a member of Club Log and have your log uploaded, you do not have to enter the data for each contact to a DXpedition to prove you made the contacts, but merely use Club Log to match the contacts.

SDXA member Chuck William KI7DG has volunteered to be our SDXA Club Log Manager. To join the SDXA for Club Log, Chuck say to do the following after joining Club Log with your call and a password:

1. log your self into Club Log
2. click on “Settings” at the top
3. click on “Clubs” near the top in red
4. scroll down the club list to our club and click on it
5. on bottom of list, click on “Join Club(s)”
6. so I know to approve you, send me an email wa6ctb@yahoo.com
7. Club Log also sends me an email which I approve and
8. you are added to our SDXA portion of Club Log
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We have a new winner for the SDXA-sponsored Salmon Run plaque this year. Rick Werner K7UK of Walla Walla won our plaque with his high score from the EWA ARRL Section using the mixed mode, low power, and being a single operator. Rick’s score was 77,595 points, but only 2,270 higher than Gene W7WMO who has won the plaque four times already. Rick also had high score for his county of Walla Walla too. Rick just sent me a picture of him and his station and I’m glad to see it’s a WSU shirt and not that other place from the wet side. Rick said that his modest station, that was used during the Salmon Run, was a Kenwood TS-570D running barefoot 100w into a 80m Compact Carolina Windom or 40m Full Wave Delta Loop.

This is the plaque Rick received. Congratulations, Rick!
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Here are the winners of the SDXA-sponsored plaque since the beginning:

2003-2004-2007-2010 W7WMO Gene Bye from Ephrata
2005-2006-2009 K7OX Gary Elliott from Spokane County (SDXA member)
2008 WX7P Wilse Morgan from Rice (SDXA member)
2011 W7YKM Rick Olsen (N6NR) from Tieton
2012 K7UK Rick Werner from Walla Walla
2013 WILL YOU BE LISTED HERE??

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Chris KL9A

Chris has moved to Bozeman. He was an Assistant Manager at the West Francis Rosauers in Spokane until recently. We hope that your stay in MT is productive and gives you the time to continue your great contesting skills.

Where have all the auroras gone, long time passing?
Where have all the auroras gone, long time ago?

This was the view from the Spokane Valley near University City shopping area. It was the most spectacular aurora event I have ever seen and it covered the whole sky. Even with all the city lights in the neighborhood, this was a big one. Since my photo is not dated, I correlate it to one of the big events (solar flares) which happened after May, 1995 since that is when I bought the FM broadcast antenna which is on the tower, but before 2001 when I put up a different antenna on that tower.

The annual Winter Awards banquet was held at the Airway Heights Longhorn BBQ on Thursday, December 6. After a Social Hour, the banquet dinner, and awards, a short video of Pitcairn Island was shown. 38 people attended and a good time was had by all.

MORE BANQUET AWARDS

President’s service award:
Marybeth AE7GT & David AC7MV– planning and bringing refreshments to SDXA Meetings

SDXA marathon-unlimited-no work: Al W7AL-302 score

SDXA marathon-unlimited-work: John K7KB-290 score

SDXA marathon-formula-work: Jay WA0WWW-67 score

There are more banquet pictures in the Photos section.
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Lamar WA7LT wins both CW & SSB contests in SO-High Power category.

Gary K7OX wins both CW & SSB contests in SO-Assisted category.

PNW trophy: high score:
George W6AEA 9,285,004 points

PNW trophy: active in all 10 contests:
Jay WA0WWW (40 of 40)
George W6AEA
Merle K7EIQ

Did anyone remember that the first SDXA meeting was on April 11, 2002? That makes this year (2012) the tenth anniversary of the organization.

More information from WA7LT

During the recent reorganization of the Pacific NW VHF Society, the following officers were appointed:

Mark W7MEM as Idaho Director
Mark K7HPT as EWA Director.

Steve K7AWB, Wilse WX7P, and Carl KE7KPO are also members.

More information.

An Allied Radio Knight Kit T-50 Transmitter (50 watts from an 807, cw only and crystal controlled).
A Grid Modulator I built from the Handbook and it worked! Plug it into the key jack and use the microphone.
Heath Kit Q-multiplier for helping the National SW-54 Receiver (which today is really primitive!).
Home brew Power Supply for the Grid Modulator.
J-38 key.
Antenna was a long wire going out a hole in the wall below the window sill.
Notice the cup of coffee on the right side; I haven’t quit since.
Picture taken in December, 1957. That’s the month I got my Conditional License for phone and got to drop the N out of my license (KN7AWB > K7AWB.

If you have a picture from your younger days, email it to me as a jpg attachment and I’ll put it in the queue. Tell me the date, location, equipment, etc. Send to: k7awb@msn.com
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Mirabeau in the Spokane Valley

The 2013 Convention website is up although not much has been posted yet. The site will be filled in as more information becomes available. And the “look and feel” of the site will change in the coming months. A permanent link to the convention website is on the right side of this page below the NEXT MEETING information.