At the October meeting, Wayne WA1PMA showed various features on the VE7CC cluster. Here is a link to an article Wayne wrote previously on getting on to the cluster: ARTICLE ON VE7CC CLUSTER LINK. Here is the link to the actual VE7CC website: VE7CC WEBSITE LINK.
(top photo): REPLACING NOISE GENERATING POWER POLE DUE TO MOSS AT THE QTH OF STEVE K7AWB
(middle photo): WAYNE WA1PMA CLIMBING FOR TREASURE ON THE SOUTH HILL
(bottom photo): WAYNE WA1PMA ADMIRING HIS FOUND TREASURE FOR FUTURE PROJECTS
The Spokane DX Association
P.O. Box 28882
Spokane, WA
Oct. 15, 2010
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all of the following:
The Hamfest Committee who organized and conducted the hamfest on Sept. 25, 2010, Northwest Tri-State ARO, Inland Empire VHF Radio Amateurs, The Spokane DX Association, Kamiak Butte Amateur Repeater Assn., The Lilac City ARC, University High School ARC, The Palouse Hills Amateur Radio
Club, Panoramaland Amateur Radio Club, and all contributing members of our Amateur” Radio “community” who made it possible for me to win the Kenwood TS480 transceiver that day!
As a “ham” of 34 years who has attended many hamfests, I had pretty-much resigned myself to the reality that I would never win anything like this new radio, so when attending these meetings, I would roam around, visit with friends I hadn’t seen for a year or more, and possibly pick up a “boat anchor” or other equipment to bring home to play with, and leave early with the thought that if I did win something, I would be notified.
Imagine my surprise and shock when the phone rang about 8:30PM that night, and a voice said, “This is David Baird, and I’m calling to tell you that you have won the “grand prize.” I guess you know that I was “on cloud nine” after that phone call! Three days later, I drove to Spokane to pick up the radio, and received another benefit. I got to meet David and his YL who I had seen at the hamfest, but didn’t know him. We had a nice visit and
then he handed me the radio saying, “I guess this is what you came for!” HI HI
I have to confess that the new “rig” has not been on the air yet, but soon will be! Earlier I had decided to add to my antenna tower to get it up to 40 feet. It is back up now and hopefully the antennas will be pulled up and hooked up next week.
So, once again, I would like to say “Thanks to all of you!”
Jerry Harnois
WB7NUE
Oakesdale, WA
The new 2010-2011 season between the four major DX clubs in the Pacific NW has started with the first of the ten contests (CQ WW DX RTTY) already completed.
The 2009-2010 race for the Challenge Trophy ended with the SDXA taking fourth out of the four clubs. Not bad for our 2nd year.
FINAL SCORES:
Williamette Vally DX Club …..71,658,000 points
British Columbia DX Club ….. 58,191,000 points
Western Washington DX Club ….. 35,233,000 points
Spokane DX Association ….. 12,925,000 points
(scores rounded off to nearest 1000 points)
See PNW Challenge Trophy at right side for the latest rules as passed at the August, 2009 SDXA DX Convention by the four club presidents (and reaffirmed without change at the BC convention this year) and the INDIVIDUAL final scores from our members. Our high scorer for the year was George W6AEA.
Jim Smith VE7FO of the British Columbia DX Club has provided a look back at the Cup since its inception, with the various rule changes. At the end of his presentation, he supplies a graph showing the great increase in participation last year. Here is the link to his work: VE7FO LINK
Entrants: any SDXA member who is paid up for the year.
Frequencies: Any authorized amateur frequency may be used for your license class.
Modes: Three modes will be recognized — CW, SSB, and Digital.
Categories: All awards are for single operator only.
Classes: “Formula” and “Unlimited.”
Formula: An entrant may choose one of two options in this class: (1) All contacts must be made with a maximum output power of 10 watts, regardless of band or mode; or (2) the operator may run a maximum of 100 watts output to a simple antenna, such as a vertical or dipole. See full CQ rules for specifics on simple antennas, but yagis and quads are not allowed.
An operator in Formula Class must select QRP (10 watts or less) or 100 watts and limited antennas at the beginning of the year’s DX Marathon and may not switch between entry modes during the year. All contacts must be made without assistance of any sort, including, but not limited to, lists, passes, or use of higher power or prohibited antennas to initially secure the contact. Use of spotting nets such as a DX Cluster® is allowed.
Unlimited: Any antenna may be used, along with any power level for which the operator is licensed. Use of spotting nets such as DX Cluster® is allowed.
Scoring: Each country worked is worth one point. Each CQ zone worked is worth one point. The total score is the sum of zones and countries worked, on any mode and any authorized band. There are no multipliers of any kind. Each country and zone count only once. A single QSO may count for both a country and a zone. If in the course of the year you work 238 countries and 37 zones, your score is 275.
This marathon is on the honor system as the full rules talk to. With our winter banquet on Thursday 02Dec, we won’t have enough time to know the winner at the banquet, though pass along your score to Dale WU7X quickly, after 30Nov, and Dale can let us know pre-lim results at the banquet.
Any questions – see Dale WU7X or Jay WA0WWW.
GEORGE W6AEA ACHIEVES DXCC HONOR ROLL WITH 329 ENTITIES RECENTLY
The program was by Wayne WA1PMA on the VE7CC cluster.
Some members brought their laptops to the meeting, having VE7CC, DX4WIN, or Writelog already running. Wayne went over the method of filtering spots, sending spots,and using “talk” , “chat”, and Mail functions of the Cluster. He also showed how VE7CC can be used to feed those filtered spots to DX4WIN, and Writelog, or any other program that has a telnet interface built in. Further questions on VE7CC can be asked via email to Wayne. His email address is on QRZ.com.
