Spokane DX Association

President

Vice-President

Secretary

Treasurer

Countdown Clocks at WishAFriend.com

SDXA – 07 august 2008

the meeting was called to order by President K7OX, Gary, at 19:00 local time.

secretary’s report by WA0WWW, jay:
minutes for june are on the club’s web page: https://sdxa.org/?p=316
N7ER moved and WU7X 2nd’d to approve as posted. motion passed.

treasurer’s report by K7EKM, Kirk:
total: $147.74 (not including Brackemyer Fund)

old business:
= Field Day went great. N5AR’s place worked great and Dan was a gracious host. both stations ran very near the 24hours. there are pictures and a write up on the club’s web page.

= summer picnic at K7AWB and W7PEG’s also went well and all who attended had a great time. Peg and Steve had it all laid out for us very nicely. there are pictures on the club’s web page.

= SDXA to host the 2009 NW DX Convention, 54th year, @ the Mirabeau Park, fri to sun, 7-9 august 2009.
the Portland convention went well and was a good learning experience. our flyer in the registration pack was a hit and there was lots of excitement around the convention that Spokane is in the rotation now to host the convention. the VE6s were ecstatic. there will be a meeting of the committees chairs, and others that want to help with our convention, at K7OX, Gary’s, on saturday morning the 23rd.
as reported before the YL national convention is also at the Mirabeau next June. we should see how they do there; http://www.k3cdq.net/Ham%20Page/ham_friends.htm .

= the Post Falls hamfest had a good crowd, KARS did a nice job.

= the annual Spokane Hamfest this year will be on 27september at the usual place, University High School. Betsy, N7WRQ, has the entire hamfest well in control. the latest flyer and registration form with many of the details are on several local web pages, one is: http://www.kbara.org . WA0WWW, jay, has been to the meetings and K7TQ, Randy, will be our point person as we will be doing the registration like last year. the hamfest committee has identified some non-2 meter handheld nicer prizes, e.g. Alinco switching power supply & Weller Solder Station. see AC7MV, Dave, or KC7QGV, Marybeth for raffle tickets ahead of time.

= the section manager from Wyoming is moving to the area, Chris Pritchard. he was WY7UPR and now WX7B. once he is settled, we will see if he has interest in joining the club.

new business:
= W7FCB, Rudy, informed us that W7KDV, Bruce Ebert, of Oaksdale is now an SK. he is in contact with the family and they would like some help in selling his equipment. he will be putting a list together.

= we have a new member to the club, K7EIQ, Merle Trenary of Elk. he stopped by N5AR’s during field day and has interests in DXing and contesting among other areas. welcome Merle.

program:
= looks like N5AR, Dan’s, presentation on balun’s was a hit. the email responses on our google reflector say so. thanks Dan.

= next month’s program will be 04 SEPTEMBER, 2008 at the North Spokane Library on Scarborough Reef DXpedition BS7H, in the rocks.

respectfully submitted by wa0www, jay holcomb, secretary.
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guests at the meeting – 0
call name

regular members present: – 18
call name present
K7EIQ Merle Trenary x
AC7MV David Snyder x
K7AWB Steve Sala web x
K7EKM Kirk Mohror Treas x
K7HRT Patrick O’Dea x
K7OX Gary Elliott Pres. x
K7TQ Randy Foltz VP x
KC7QGV Marybeth Snyder x
KE7KPO Carl Maki x
KW7J Harvey Brown x
N5AR Dan Hearn x
N7ER Earl Ringle x
W3AS Doug Brede x
W7FCB Rudy Schroeder x
W7ZNN Don Crisp x
WA0WWW Jay Holcomb Sec. x
WA1PMA Wayne Millican x
WU7X Dale Avery x

Object: For amateurs around the world to contact other amateurs in as many zones and countries as possible. All bands, 1.8 through 28 MHz, except for WARC bands.
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Dates: November, 2007

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2008

George W6AEA
112,424 points
259 QSOs
Single Operator, High Power, all band category.

Wayne WA1PMA
90,804 points
201 QSOs
Single Operator, High Power, all band category.

Gary K7OX
4,082 points
67 QSOs
Single Operator, High Power, single band (160 meters) category
won a certificate.

Gary K7GS
46,990 points
181 QSOs
Single Operator, Low Power all band category.

Jay WA0WWW
30,015 points
150 QSOs
Single Operator, Low Power all band category.

team of Randy K7TQ and Lamar WA7LT
operating under the call WA7LT
515, 242 points
773 QSOs
Multi-Operator, Single Transmitter category.

The SDXA took 28th place out of 52 in the USA in the club competition where the scores of both the cw and phone contests were combined. We had 2,087,073 points. All clubs compete equally; there are no club divisions as in the ARRL.
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Dates: November 25-26, 2006

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2007

Lamar WA7LT made 267,992 points from 767 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, 20-meter Single Band category.

George W6AEA made 165,640 points from 315 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category.

Gary K7GS made 151,716 points from 306 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power, All Band category.

Randy K7TQ made 18,900 points from 112 QSOs in the Single Operator, QRP Power, All Band category.

The SDXA was not listed in the CQ Magazine results due to an omission of theirs. A retraction was in the December, 2007 issue on page 99. Our total points were 1,126,262 in the USA club competition where the scores of both the cw and phone contests were combined. All clubs compete equally; there are no club divisions as in the ARRL. That score put us 40th out of 63.
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Dates: November 26-27, 2005

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2006

Lamar WA7LT took 8th place in Zone 3 with 774,630 points from 993 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category.

George W6AEA made 111,758 points from 254 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power, All Band category.

Steve K7AWB made 17.028 points from 89 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power, All Band category.

Gary K7OX made 247,260 points from 667 QSOs in the High Power Assisted, 14 MHZ single band category and won a certificate.

The SDXA took 25th place out of 49 in the USA in the club competition where the scores of both the cw and phone contests were combined. We had 2,847,214 points. All clubs compete equally; there are no club divisions as in the ARRL.
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Dates: November 27-28, 2004

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2005

Several of our members entered this contest with Lamar WA7LT and Gary K7OX winning certificates in their categories.

Lamar WA7LT entered the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category and accumulated 1,243,032 points from 1334 QSOs. This gave him 4th in CQ Zone 3 and 2nd in the 7th call area.

Gary K7OX entered as a single band entrant on 160 meters, Single Operator, High Power. He made 2784 points from 87 QSOs. Gary took 4th in the USA on 160 meters and 1st in the 7th call area for that band.

Wayne WA1PMA/7 achieved 181,222 points from 298 QSOs in the Single Operator Assisted, High Power, All-Band category.

Also entering was Kirk K7EKM with 13,962 points from 87 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power, All-Band category.

Steve K7AWB entered just to ensure that the club had the minimum of three entrants to be considered in the club competition. He made 4 points with one contact in the Single Operator, Low Power, All Band category.

The SDXA took 24th place out of 48 in the USA in the club competition where the scores of both the cw and phone contests were combined. We had 4,263,065 points. All clubs compete equally; there are no club divisions as in the ARRL.
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Dates: November 29-30, 2003

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2004.

Lamar WA7LT took 6th in CQ Zone 3 with a score of 1,308,080 points from 1277 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category. He was 4th in the 7th call area for his category.

George W6AEA/7 made 139,800 points from 338 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category.

Gary K7OX took 2nd in the 7th call area for his score of 223,310 points from 713 QSOs in the SIngle Operator, High Power, 21 MHz Single Band category and won a certificate.

Steve K7AWB made 3,367 points from 131 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power, All Band category.

The SDXA took 30th place out of 47 in the USA in the club competition where the scores of both the cw and phone contests were combined. We had 3,110,237 points. All clubs compete equally; there are no club divisions as in the ARRL
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Dates: November 23-24, 2002

Results in: CQ Magazine, September, 2003

Lamar WA7LT scored 1,402,961 points from 1390 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, All Band category.

Gary K7OX scored 320,908 points from 816 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, Single Band category on 20 meters.

BALUNS by Dan N5AR

There is considerable confusion about the various types of baluns. There are 4 types in wide use.

1. Coax wound around a ferrite toroidal core.

2. Ferrite beads slipped over a short piece of 50 ohm coax.

3. Coax wound into a single layer solenoid on a plastic tube.

4. Coax wound into a scramble wound bundle.

5. A rule of thumb that has been used is that the impedance of the balun, at the operating frequency, should be 10x the coax impedance, 500 ohms. Recent work by K9YC and others indicates that we need 5000 ohms or so to guarantee that the balun will not be damaged by overload conditions which occur in ham applications.

6. These happen due to antenna unbalance conditions or variations in antenna impedance across the bands. The problem is particularly bad with ferrite core baluns. It is exacerbated when the ferrite cores are small and encapsulated in epoxy so heat cannot escape.

7. Commercially available baluns use type 73 or similar ferrite which is best suited to mid HF and VHF application. Fortunately a new ferrite, type 31, has become available, which is much better for use in our HF bands. It does not appear that any of the suppliers of baluns or balun kits are using type 31

8. K9YC has designed and measured, with high quality equipment, a number of baluns which can achieve 5000-10000 ohm impedance using type 31 ferrite. A report is available which describes how to build them at:

HTTP://AUDIOSYSTEMSGROUP.COM/NCDXACoaxChokesPPT.pdf

9. It is very possible that many of us have damaged baluns. This might show up as a change in SWR, F/B, or loss of the deep nulls off the ends of your antenna.

10. Have you ever applied power to the wrong antenna by mistake? If so there is a good chance you have a fried balun.

Fortunately for us, WA2SRQ took the time to make careful measurements of the last 3 types over the hf bands. He has posted the results several places on the internet including the K1TTT web page. He measured only one ferrite balun, the ferrite bead job which is very popular .The solenoid type baluns he measured look good for single band use if you could put them on precisely the right frequency. They would be affected greatly by capacity to any nearby metal. Possibly one could grid dip them in place to check or provide a small tuning capacitor capable of handling the voltage across them.

I might mention that there is a ton of good information on the K1TTT web page on other ham technical topics. Here are the measurements:

http://www.k1ttt.net/technote/airbalun.html

below is an addendum added 7/9/2013 by Dan

Addendum to Baluns
There are 3 basic types of Baluns

1. Solenoid inductor consisting of rolling a section of the coax feed line around a PVC form. There are pro’s and con’s to using these.

Pro. They are easy to install and require no connectors or protection from the elements. They are very cost effective. They are almost indestructible when the antenna impedance is not 50 ohms.

Con. They are most effective at a single frequency which is dependent on the resonance of the inductor and is vulnerable to coax line length, and its grounding as well as nearby objects such as cars, buildings etc. They are totally unsuited to multiband antennas like tri-band Yagis.

2. Small teflon coax passing through the center hole of a number of ferrite beads. These are usually small beads and the unit is frequently enclosed in a piece of plastic pipe around an inch or so in diameter filled with epoxy. These are widely used, particularly with tri band beams.

Pro. The impedance can be quite high and not particularly frequency sensitive. They are small and easy to mount to the feed point of the antenna.

Con. The single turn of wire through the center hole means many beads are needed. They do not get the N squared impedance increase available with multi turn coax through the core. The small size and encapsulation means they cannot easily cool and therefore are frequently overheated in high power use or high duty cycle applications like RTTY. Since most antennas cannot maintain a 50 ohm impedance over a complete band (and some nowhere in the band) they can be easily damaged due to cable spillover power at the antenna. A momentary shot of power for the wrong band could fry it.

3. One or more ferrite cores with multiple coax turns thru the center openings.

Pro. Using the proper type of ferrite, usually type 31, it is possible to build Baluns which have impedances as high as 20,000 ohms or more over a number of bands.
These can be designed to accommodate full size RG8 type coax. The cost of commercial Baluns in weatherproof boxes with legal limit power capabilities is well under a hundred dollars. Companies like Balun Designs and Array Solutions offer these. It is not difficult to build your own and save money if you prefer.
These utilize the principle of operating a low frequency ferrite in the upper part of its frequency range where the resistive component of its impedance dominates. This assures that the inductive part of its impedance does not make it frequency sensitive. Thus the spillover RF sees a very high resistance.
If small size teflon coax is used, like RG142, (rated 9 kw) a number of turns can be fitted into the center of one or two of the 2.4 OD cores to make legal limit Baluns.

Cons. If one wishes to use RG8 size coax, the number of turns thru the core is limited and you may need as many as 5 to 7 cores. The allowable bend radius for that coax results in a rather large choke.

This addendum was created to concentrate the latest information on Baluns in an easily understood format. The earlier article has additional information and links which are still useful

73,

Dan, N5AR
August 11, 2008

Object: W/VE amateurs work as many amateur stations in as many DXCC countries of the world as possible on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands. Foreign amateurs (also including KH6, KL7, CY9, and CY0) work as many W/VE stations in as many of the 48 contiguous states and provinces as possible. Phone mode only.
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Dates: March 7-8, 2009

George W6AEA
2nd place EWA Section in category
2nd place NW Division in category
7th out of 83 overall in NW Division
Single Operator, High Power category
166,428 points
407 QSOs

Jay WA0WWW
1st place EWA Section in category
2nd place in NW Division in category
27th out of 83 overall in NW Division
Single Operator, Low Power category
45,000 points
200 QSOs

Steve K7AWB
2nd place EWA Section in category
2nd place NW Division in category
38th out of 83 overall in NW Division
Single Operator, Low Power category
24,552 points
142 QSOs

In the Local category of the club competition, the SDXA was 13th out of 17 with 255,285 points from the combination of both the SSB and CW parts of the contest.
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Dates: March 1-2, 2008

There were four SDXA members who entered.

The Multisingle station at Wilse WX7P made 182,352 points from 464 QSOs in the High Power category to take 1st in the category in the Northwestern Division and the EWA Section.

George W6AEA made 37,532 points from 202 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, Single Band (20 meters) to take 2nd in the category in the EWA Section.

Steve K7AWB made 7,524 points from 76 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

Jay WA0WWW made 4,704 points from 56 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

The SDXA took 9th out of 20 in the club Local Category, combining the cw and phone scores, with 378,117 points.

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Dates: March 3-4 , 2007

There were four SDXA members who entered.

The Multisingle station at Wilse WX7P made 138,351 points from 431 QSOs in the High Power category to take 1st in the category in the Northwestern Division and the EWA Section.

George W6AEA made 95,586 points from 358 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, Single Band (20 meters) to take 2nd in the category in the EWA Sectionand 3rd overall in points.

Bob AC7GP made 18,081 points from 123 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power, Single Band (20 meters) category.

Jay WA0WWW made 3,780 points from 45 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

The SDXA took 11th out of 26 in the club Local Category, combining the cw and phone scores, with 423,321 points.
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Dates: March 4-5, 2006

There were six SDXA members who entered.

The top honor was George W6AEA who took 3rd place overall out of 11 in the EWA Section. George was a Single Operator, Low Power, 20-meters only entrant who scored 109,077 points from 353 QSOs. He was 17th out of 60th overall in the NW Division.

Lamar WA7LT took 4th out of 11 overall in the EWA Section with his Single Operator, High Power, 15-meters only entry of 67,938 points from 338 QSOs. He was 2nd in his category in EWA.

Gary K7OX was 7th out of 11 overall in the EWA Section with 23,595 points from 121 QSOs. He was Single Operator, High Power, All Band.

Wayne WA1PMA made 9,855 points from 73 QSOs and took 1st place in the Single Assisted, High Power category in the EWA Section.

Bob AC7GP made 6,630 points from 65 QSOs and took 2nd in the Single Operator, Lower Power category in the EWA Section.

Steve K7AWB made 2,112 points from 32 QSOs in the Single Oerator, Low Power, 40-meters only category.

Combining CW and Phone scores, the SDXA made 592,893 points in the Medium Club category to take 33rd out of 39.
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Dates: March 5-6, 2005

The team at Lamar’s WA7LT contest station took 1st place in the Multioperator, Single transmitter category in the Northwestern Division and the 7th call area (see plaque below). Accumulating a total of 907,929 points from 1019 QSOs and 297 multipliers, the team of Lamar WA7LT, Steve K7AWB, Randy K7TQ, Kirk K7EKM, and Jay WS7I worked the 48 hour contest with very little sleep but plenty of food. Overall, the station took 4th in the entire Northwestern Division out of 69. They also took 1st place in the Eastern Washington Section. They were 4th highest overall in the 7th call area out of 100 in all categories. Congratulations to the team!

A picture of the team was featured in the September, 2005 QST Magazine on page 105. It is shown below. From left to right, Lamar WA7LT, Randy K7TQ, Kirk K7EKM, and Steve K7AWB. Jay WS7I is not shown.

See article on SXDA WINS 2005 ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST GAVEL.
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Dates: March 6-7, 2004

Lamar WA7LT was 1st in the EWA Section in the Single Operator, High Power category with 1,171,500 points from 1420 QSOs. He was also 5th in the Northwestern Division out of 65 and 5th out of 115 in the 7th call area.

George W6AEA was 3rd in the EWA Section in the Single Operator, High Power category with 199,350 points from 443 QSOs. This made him 16th out of 65 in the Northwestern Division and 23rd out of 115 in the 7th call area.

Kirk K7EKM was 6th in the EWA Section with 26,904 points from 118 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power category.

Steve K7AWB was 8th in the EWA section with 1326 points from 26 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

In the Medium Club competition, our total combined cw and phone score was 2,455,509 points. This placed us 25th out of 40 in that category
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Dates: March 1-2, 2003

There was a good club turnout for this contest.

Lamar WA7LT won 1st in the EWA Section in the Single Operator, High Power category with 1,056,021 points from 1271 contacts. This was also 4th in the Northwestern Division overall and 5th in the 7th call area.

Gary K7OX took 3rd in the EWA Section with his 61,152 points from 196 QSOs in the Single Operator Assisted, High Power category.

Jim KD7OY (now NE7F) took 4th in the EWA Section with his 56,580 points from 205 QSOs in the Single Operator, High Power category.

Steve K7AWB took 5th in the EWA Section with his 53,064 points from 201 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

Dick W7BHP took 9th in the EWA Section with his 17,424 points from 88 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

Corky NQ7V took 10th in the EWA Section with 4350 points from 50 QSOs in the Single Operator, Low Power category.

In the club competition, combining the cw and phone scores, the club took 2nd in the Local category with 2,120,655 points, bested by the Hoosier DX and Contest Club.
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