Spokane DX Association

We are excited to announce that Gary Bytnar (AD7XG) has received appoint as an Official CQ Awards checker. This means you can get your CQ WAZ QSL cards checked locally.

Congratulations Gary! Thanks for serving the SDXA in this needed area.

The March/April 2020 issue of the National Contest Journal (NCJ)  included a wonderful article on PJ2T and our own Geoff Howard (W0GC/PJ2DX)

by Robert Ramirez (CE3CT). Thanks to the generosity of the NCJ and Editor Scott Wright, we received permission to post the article on the SDXA website. You will enjoy reading about it and the “Ultimate Contesters Man Cave”. You can read the article here: NCJ March 2020

We encourage all our members to subscribe to the NCJ.

In the March QST magazine, our own Bob (W7SX) has the feature article “Building Your Own Open-Wire Line” on pages 30-33. It is also featured on the magazine cover.

In the article, Bob shares the step-by-step construction of his incredibly efficient feed line. His rugged open-wire line holds up in difficult weather and works great even under high SWR conditions. This is the feed line he is using on his new antenna farm.

Congratulations to David (WA7TNT) for achieving DXCC.

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We all have enjoyed and recognized the features of Club Log as a valuable resource.

For several years the SDXA Club Log Administrator has been Chuck Williams (KI7DG). Chuck has done a fantastic job of helping SDXA members become active on Club Log and provided monthly reports on our progress for club meetings. Chuck is also the author of a great article on the SDXA Website at this
ClubLog 101 LINK that I would encourage everyone to read.

Chuck (KI7DG) at his station

Chuck has felt now was time to pass the barton on the leadership of ClubLog. He will continue to serve as a second administrator, riding along as assistant to the new administrator.

Murf (N7UVH)

President Gary (AD7XG) has appointed Patrick Murphy “Murf” N7UVH as the new SDXA Club Log Administrator. Murf is a very active DXer and will do a great job leading the use of Club Log for the SDXA.

Jeff Banke (NZ2S) got his tower and antenna up. The tower is Rohn 25 with a Hexbeam antenna.

UPDATE: In the November meeting the club voted to procure a new business quality projector for future presentations and conventions. I’m happy to report that we now have our new projector shown above. This is a commercial quality Panasonic PT-VZ580 projector with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and a brightness of 5000 lumens. It also has two HDMI ports, 2 Computer RGB ports, Ethernet input, plus a few other audio inputs. Mel did a great job of finding a good buy that was under our budget we had allocated. To top it off, a anonymous donor added a waterproof Pelican 1610 case to keep it safe in transit. I don’t think we could have done better for our members and we hope you will enjoy the benefits of this new addtion for our club.

At this time, the specific link for the Projector donations are now closed. We managed to raise almost half of the total cost of the projector which really helped our treasury 🙂 So I want to extend a big THANK YOU to all of those who donated to make our club great and progressive.

List Of Donators:

Del Morissette WA7AQH
John Gager K7KB
Mel Ming N7GCO
Gary Swartout K7GS
Pat Murphy N7UVH
Bob Hallock K7TM
Bob Rosie W7GSV
Mike Buettner K7STO
Chris Pritchard WX7B
Gary Bytnar AD7XG
Jay Holcomb WA0WWW
Chuck Williams KI7DG
Bob Zavrel W7SX

Thanks so much for your donations!

Mike Buettner (K7STO), with the assistance of Bob Lee (N7AU) and Woody Jacobson (N7HCJ) lowered Mikes 60 ft tower down. Performed yearly antenna and tower maintenance (checked every thing over) then added my first 160m antenna (inverted L) to the tower. Mike has a wonderful setup for raising and lowering his tower.

Jeff Banke (NZ2S) along with Greg Preuses (N6WCN) helped Gordon Olsson (AA6TQ) remove a dipole off Gordon’s roof and tighten some bolts on his yagi.

David Wilhelm (WA7TNT) is working on putting up his tower. David is completely rebuilding a Mosely TA-33 and hopes to install it at the top of 3-4 sections of Rohn 25. The hole is dug, rebar, tilt base plate bolts, and gin pole are in place. Base and first sections are in.

Bob Zavrel (W7SX) has been busy putting up wire antennas on his antenna farm. All are center fed wires with lengths of 50, 90, 110 and 220 feet and tree supported.

Mel Ming (N7GCO) just put up a Butternut HF2V vertical to give him another option on 40 and 80 meters. Put out 40 radials. Also added radials to his 160 meter inverted L antenna.

Jeff Banke (NZ2S) and Dave Lehman (WA7F) put up Dave’s 60ft tower. Jeff did the crane work and Dave the climbing.

Bob Hallock (K7TM) put up an 160 meter inverted L for Jim Monroe (N7ESU). They went up in the tree about 70-80 ft and then horizontal close to 100 ft.

Del Morissette (WA7AQH) received his SteppIR Urban Beam he won at the DX Convention. Hopes to get it up for winter.

I am sure there are others I have missed.

It has been hard to navigate though all the past Meeting Minutes for 13 plus years. They have been reorganized so first pick your year and then your month. Usually twice per year there were no minutes for the Summer Picnic month and the Awards banquet month. The minutes for years 2003 and 2004 are missing, but under investigation. Also, some of the characters (‘, $, #, etc.) in the text of some older minutes somehow mis-translated throughout the years so they will be fixed as time permits.

The first ever minutes for our first official meeting are for April, 2002. Here is a quick APRIL 2002 LINK to those to see how we started. Also, an article on how the organization started was written by one of our founders Lamar Ray WA7LT and it is in the Articles section; here is a quick LINK to it.

I’m happy to announce that Emmett McCormick (NA7EM) with the Idaho DX Association (IDXA) has stepped up to the plate to be our chairman for the 2021 Pacific Northwest DX Convention! It is really nice to have members from IDXA take the lead on this and I’m looking forward to a great convention!
I wanted to know a little more about Emmett and the IDXA so I sent him a few questions to know a bit more about our chairman and the club:
How long have you been DX’ing and what is your main interest?
I’ve been DXing for 27 years. I love CW and the older digital modes.
Do you do any contesting, and if so, do you have a favorite?
I contest anytime I can. I’m not a big name contester using full power and large antenna arrays, I just enjoy the thrill of making contacts. I’ve always run barefoot or QRP.
I’m a SOTA participant and active goat packer….I’m on the board for the North American Pack Goat Association to actively fight legislators threatening goat access to public lands……so WG0AT is not the only one out there playing radio with goats.
What kind of equipment and antennas do you have at the QTH?
I run a Yaesu FTDX-3000 barefoot into a 6-BTV currently. I’m in the process re-erecting a 70’ Rohn 45 tower with a TH7DX beam. More antennas are planned for the future but I just recently moved to my new QTH on some acreage.
When was the IDXA first formed, and who started it?
The Idaho DX Association is a fully incorporated, non-profit, ARRL Affiliated, amateur radio organization formed in 2011 by Emmett McCormick, NA7EM. 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.
How many members does the club currently have?
We currently have 40 members, although with any club, only a handful are actively submitting scores.
Do you have monthly meetings? If so, when and where?
We meet quarterly, usually in Lewiston, but also run a teleconference during the meeting to include all of our members statewide. The meetings are announced on the website and via our groups.io page.
I had the chance to chat with Emmett a bit during the convention in Everett a couple of weeks ago and I believe our convention is in good hands! But like I mentioned at the start of this article, Emmett and the IDXA has “stepped up to the plate”, meaning this is a team effort for it to be a success. Emmett and Randy Foltz (K7TQ) will be attending our September meeting to talk to us about the 2021 convention and the initial planning.
Article by John Gager – K7KB

The 2019 Pacific NW DX Convention was hosted by the Western Washington DX Club in Everett, WA. The attendance was the highest ever. A number of members of the SDXA participated.

Dr Joe Taylor (K1JT) whose work in Astrophysics led to a Nobel Prize for his study of gravitational radiation of binary pulsars. He was a professor at Princeton and is the creator of the incredible popular WSJT-X and FT8/FT4.

Dr Tamitha Skov (WX6SWW) is a research scientist at the Aerospace Corporation in Southern California. Her specialty is Geophysics and Space Plasma Physics.

Gary (AD7XG) and Del (WA7AQH)
Del won one of the Grand Prizes, a SteppIR Urban Beam.
(Photo by Bob Hallock)

John (K7KB)
(Photo by Bob Hallock)

The July/August 2019 issue of National Contest Journal (NCJ) has an excellent article by our own Geoff Howard (W0CG/PJ2DX) titled “A Pictorial Guide to Corrosion-Proofing for Seaside Antenna Systems.”
Geoff is certainly an expert on this (and many other things) and we are so glad to have his as part of the SDXA. Enjoy the article thanks to the ARRL and NCJ. You will pick up ideas for your own station, even though you are not near salt water. The article reminds us of how labor intensive this process is, but necessary if you want your towers and antennas to last.
Congratulations Geoff on an excellent article with great pictures as illustrations.

LINK to NCJ Article

Here is the LINK to the most complete listing for the NW by Lynn N7CFO

Mel N7GCO gave an introduction to the newest digital mode by Joe Taylor and friends called FT4.

In Show and Tell,

Several hams showed off their projectile air “guns” to launch a weight with a fishing line over tall trees to eventually be able pull up a dipole, inverted V, or other wire antenna. A fly fishing rod was even shown for those who know how to manipulate the skill. Among the presenters were:

1. John (K7KB) “Serial rotor control box” – but the internet connection at the library was not behaving.
2. Mike (K7STO) “NON-Tennis Ball Antenna Launcher”
3. Harold (AD7QJ) “Tennis Ball Antenna Launcher”
4. Bob (K7TM) “Antenna Launcher #3”
5. David (WA7TNT) “ICOM AH-4 Modification” – He showed his modifications to the ICOM AH4 remote tuner so one can disconnect the control cable and coax from the unit without going inside it, which is a feat due to the number of small screws and a very thin formed gasket.