Spokane DX Association

CONGRATULATIONS!

Gordon AA6TQ and his WAS

The WAS certificate up close

The QTH of Gordon AA6TQ and his Cushcraft yagi

SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
NEW CHAIRPERSON SELECTED

The September Hamfest at University High School in Spokane Valley is on again, after some searching for a new Chairperson. Long time Chairperson Betsy Ashleman N7WRQ reported today (Jan 12) that Dave Carleton K7DSR, from Spokane Valley, and President of the IEVHF Radio Amateurs, has bravely stepped forward to take over these responsibilities. She is providing him with a rough draft of the initial planning procedures, along with a listing of all the committee members. As the new Chairperson, he can use as much support and volunteers as possible. You?

Lamar Ray WA7LT, Betsy N7WRQ, and Wilse Morgan WX7P (sk) shown in 2008 at award ceremony honoring Betsy.

Gary at the January, 2017 SDXA meeting

The 2017 plaque

Back in September, 2017, during the Salmon Run contest, Gary scored the most points in the category for which the SDXA gives a plaque.

Congratulations to Gary. It’s been a long time since a SDXA member won our plaque. Gary also had the high score for Spokane County. Incidentally, Gary is on the ARRL DXCC Number 1 Honor Roll!

Gary’s statistics:

384 QSOs
58 multipliers
60,182 points

The plaque is given to the highest score satisfying these parameters:

• Single Operator operation
• using Low Power
• Operating in the ARRL EWA Section
• Mixed mode (two or more modes [phone, CW, & digital], at least 5% of score in the smallest one)

SDXA took 3rd in the club scores with a total of 198,262 points only bested by the Radio Club of Redmond and the South Hill Contest Club.

The entire Salmon Run scores for all entrants are at this 2017 WWDXC Salmon Run Winners LINK

Here is a LINK to all the past winners and their scores

Mark in his shack

the prized certificate for 100 unique DX entities worked

The little pistol station, using a very basic SteppIR DB18 trombone antenna at 30 feet; Gary AD7XG on the tower

– Lance & Karen (XYL) at 2017 banquet –

LANCE COLLISTER W7GJ FROM FRENCHTOWN, MT
gave an excellent presentation of his EME DXeditions
that activated ten islands in the South Pacific
entltled “THE W7GJ 6M DXING JOURNEY”

Lance has been on many DXpeditions around the world to give EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) enthusiasts a chance to work more countries on that exotic mode. Some were with the wife and one ( Clipperton Island) was with a multi-person major HF DXpedition.

E51SIX from Cook Islands (2009)
3D2LR from Fiji (2010)
5WOGJ from Samoa (2011)
EM6 from Niue (2012)
TX5K from Clipperton Island (2013)
KH8/W7GJ from American Samoa (2014)
VM6 from Micronesia (2015)
T8GJ from Palau (2016)
VK9CGJ from Cocos/Keeling (2017)
VK9XGJ from Christmas Island (2017)

The talk was well rounded for both the dedicated hams and their accompanying spouses or friends. Lance was one of the presenters at the second SDXA-sponsored PNW DX Convention in 2013 in Spokane Valley.

The big 6-meter EME quad array

Lance W7GJ is known around the world. He was the first ham to contact the Space Shuttle. It was in December 1983, operating from Montana as WA1JXN. Astronaut Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, was contacted using a 2m EME array of 12 yagis as shuttle STS-9 passed down along the West Coast of the USA. He obtained the ARRL FFMA Award #7 on October 13, 2015.

Lance’s DXCC totals are 191 on 2 meters and 204 on 6 meters.

For more information on Lance and EME, go to his personal webpage LINK.

Here is a ANTENNA LINK to the most complete listing of 6 meters antennas, supplied by VE7BQH

AWARDS AT THE BANQUET


STEPHEN SALA K7AWB, SDXA WEBMASTER
DXER OF THE YEAR

LIFETIME HONORARY MEMBERSHIP:

DAN HEARN N5AR

LAMAR RAY WA7LT

GARY ELLIOTT K7OX

What is this all about? Here is the BEGINNINGS LINK to the start of SDXA, written by Lamar WA7LT. It is self-explanatory. None of us would be reading this website if it had not been for these three gentlemen moving to Spokane to be close to their respective daughters about the same time.

2017 SDXA-sponsored PNW DX Convention Chairman Randy Foltz K7TQ gave out plaque awards to his staff supporting the good results of the convention. These awards went to:

Secretary Jay WA0WWW and his award

Jay Holcomb WA0WWW
Chuck Williams KI7DG
Mel Ming N7GCO
Gary Bytnar AD7XG

The 2017 SDXA-sponsored plaque for the winner of our special category in the Salmon Run contest was SDXA member Gary Swartout K7GS. Thanks Gary for bringing the plaque home.

The category was:

Single Operator
Operating in the ARRL EWA Section
Using low power
Doing a Mixed Mode of two or more of the three allowed modes with a fixed percentage from the rules

How well do you know the antennas at your fellow SDXA member’s QTHs?

1.
MARK W7MEM

2.
SDXA FIELD DAY IN RATHDRUM
3.
SDXA FIELD DAY IN RATHDRUM. K7AWB ON LADDER CONNECTING HIS 7-ELEMENT M2 6M7JHV 6-METER YAGI
4.
BOB W7AU IN EPHRATA. IT’S THE START OF A REAL 3-ELEMENT 80 METER YAGI INSTALLATION

5.
PRESIDENT CHRIS WX7B
6.
GEORGE W6AEA IN SPOKANE VALLEY BEFORE HE MOVED
7.
SECRETARY JAY WA0WWW, THE GAP MAN
8.
STEVE K7AWB, BROADCAST FM ANTENNA TRYING TO GET 91.7 MHZ FM IN PULLMAN DURING 80’S – BEST AURORA OF HIS LIFETIME
9.
DAN N5AR, TALLEST HAM TOWER IN SPOKANE COUNTY

This is a list of companies or individuals that have helped SDXA hams in their antenna work. They are listed because of satisfactory performance according to our members.

1. Jeremiah Puhek KD7DMP

JP Telecomm
tower climbing, running coax/heliax,
installing antennas, connectors, solid state and tube repairs, selling refurbished equipment, etc.
phone 509 998-2865
[email protected]
https://jptelecomm.com/
has rate sheet for hams

If you have other recommendations,
let the Webmasters know

Reflectors are a great source of information on selected topics. It’s sort of like the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” TV show where a stumped contestant can “ask the audience” for the answers. What they get back is a bar graph from people who are knowledgable about the subject and answers from those who don’t know anything about the subject. It’s up to the contestant to figure out if the bar graph gives them the right answer.

Same from Refectors. You ask a question on a topic, say tower installation, and you will get several answers back that may disagree among themselves. But often, there is more than only one correct answer in antenna construction, but several methods of installation providing that they safe. Here are some of my favorites:

TOWERTALK – about antennas and tower, etc. Join TowerTalk at this LINK.

WSJTgroup – about the Joe taylor Weak Signal digital modes. Join the Yahoo group at the YAHOO GROUP LINK.

N1MMloggerplus – a free contesting logging program. Most serious logging programs have their own reflectors such as DX4WIN, N3FJP, etc. Join the Yahoo group at YAHOO GROUP LINK.

FFMA – about the ARRL’s Fred Fish Memorial Award for working all 488 6-meter Maidenhead grids in the 48 contiguous United States. Join the Yahoo group at YAHOO GROUP LINK.

CQ-contest-request – about various contesting discussions. Join CQ-contest group at this LINK.

The website CONTESTING.COM gives you a larger list of reflectors under the headings of CONTEST LISTS and OTHER LISTS at the lower left side.

The program was a video on the 2016 DXpedition to Heard Island – VK0EK. Unfortunately, it was short on ham stuff and more on the penquins and terrain. When will a video of just DXpedition radio operation be made to show us, who work the DXpeditions, on what they hear or don’t hear from us?

Randy Foltz K7TQ gave an excellent summary, showing failed parts on what happens when an antenna rotor goes South.

The DX Support fund was recharged with Bob Lee N7AU giving the Treasurer’s report.

Bob N7AU spoke on his upcoming 3-element 80-meter Yagi project. Tower is finished, just waiting for the remainder of the antenna parts from JK Antennas.

Club now has an excellent referral regarding a skilled tree climber to help install your low band antennas. (forthcoming article soon)

Starting in December the DX net on 145.25 MHz will move to the 4th Thursday of each Month.

It is was also annual election time. See the next article.

November 16 check-ins:

W7TJ RANDY
K7AWB STEVE
WA0WWW JAY
W3AS DOUG
N7AU BOB

The December SDXA Net will be on the FOURTH Thursday (December 28), not on the usual third Thursday to see if we have an increase in check-ins.

Starting in January, we are going to document who checks in month by month. Maybe give a “Certificate of Congratulations” at the end of the year to those who checked in the most.

List furnished by Net Control – Bob Lee, N7AU

6-element 20-meter Yagi, topped by a 7-element 6-meter Yagi, at K7AWB during windstorm at beginning of November, 2017

According to the August 2017 issue of CQ Magazine (page 18), Bob N7AU got the highest SSB non-assisted SSB score in Zone 3 with 51,813 points from 394 QSOs with 51 W/VE multipliers and 6 countries. He also had the top score in that category from Washington State.

Gary K7OX had the highest Washington state score in the CW assisted category with 105,577 points from 517 QSOs, 54 W/VE multipliers, and 17 countries

ATTENDED BY SEVERAL SDXA MEMBERS


photo by Barry Hansen K7BWH

The annual Pacific Northwest VHF Society’s conference was held in Moses Lake on October 14, 2017. It rotates between cities such as Moses Lake, Seaside OR, Seattle area, and Bend OR. In 2006, it was in Bellingham WA which has a neat radio museum founded in 1998. Here is a LINK to the museum’s site.

Conference attendees eating lunch

Bob W7SX from SDXA lecturing on his Chapter 10 from his ARRL-published book entitled Antenna Physics: An Introduction

Some of the SDXA crowd in attendance. Left to right, Bob W7GSV, Mark W7MEM, Bob N7AU (standing), N7JPG (non-member), and Bob K7TM. Also in attendance, but not shown, was Carl KE7KPO.

Randy W7TJ gave a presentation on the future of the organization. SDXA has about 44 members, but very few attend meetings or volunteer to help the organization grow. He suggested some changes to the Constitution which would make it mandatory for all members (there are exceptions) to help in one or more ways. A panel of volunteers was organized to meet later to suggest changes to the constitution.

If adopted, Active paid members will be REQUIRED to participate in one or several of these categories YEARLY along with attending at least 6 meetings per year and current with respect to dues (categories may be added):

1. Serve as an officer
2. Serve on a club event committee
3. Put on or contribute to putting on a club presentation
4. Host the Club DX Net
5. Host or participate in a Club member antenna party
6. Assist or serve as the Club Webmaster
7. Go on a DXpedition or operate from a unique remote QTH
8. Participate in a Club Event (Field Day etc.) [The Annual Picnic does not count unless hosted]
9. Host a Contest at your QTH
10. Contribute a contest score to the Club’s Efforts
11. Serve as a DX Chairman or Contest Chairman
12. Serve as an Awards Chairman (DX Card Checking)

Thanks Randy for the positive suggestions.