Spokane DX Association

The SDXA would like to encourage you to renew your ARRL membership through the club. If you do, $2 of the normal fee is retained by the SDXA. If you are joining the ARRL for the first time or your membership expired 2 years ago, the SDXA will retain $15 of the normal fee. It doesn’t cost you more. It is a benefit the ARRL offers affiliated clubs.

For us to take advantage of this benefit your application for ARRL membership or renewal must be made through the SDXA using these forms.

Planning on joining or renewing ARRL membership? Please fill out the appropriate form and get it to me with the normal fee. Send it and the normal fee to me at my home address (qrz.com) or the club’s PO Box (or catch me or any officer at the meetings). Make out your check to SDXA.

This is a great opportunity for the SDXA and we urge you to take advantage of it.

Thank you and 73.
Gary K7GS, Treasurer

The SDXA sponsors three contest plaques:

(RESERVED FOR PHOTO)

1. ARRL RTTY Roundup (January) — for highest score in W/VE Single Operator, High Power category. Award is called the Rush Drake W7RM Memorial plaque.

2. WA state Salmon Run (September) — for highest score in Single Operator, Low Power, Mixed category operating from within the EWA ARRL Section.

2012 High Power, Digital plaque

3. 7QP – 7th Call Area QSO Party (May) —for highest score in digital only category.

Here are our leaders for 2011 and 2012. Congrats to all those who were railro….err, elected for the next year! 🙂

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PRESIDENT…………. WA1PMA …….. WAYNE MILLICAN

Wayne is always playing with computers!
[email protected]

VICE-PRESIDENT……WX7B …….. CHRIS PRICHARD

Chris operating at his station
[email protected]

SECRETARY………. WA0WWW …. JAY HOLCOMB

Jay at his station
[email protected]

TREASURER………. K7GS ………. GARY SWARTOUT

The station at K7GS
[email protected]

sdxa_minutes_2012_07web

For many years L.B.Cebik, W4RNL (SK) maintained a web page showing the results of his antenna modeling and experiments with antennas. He was a professor at a southeastern university who spent many thousands of hours investigating almost every conceivable type, primarily by the use of the various modeling programs. He was probably the most knowledgeable person in the USA on the different modeling programs and found many of the little quirks in them which could cause errors.

When he retired he continued the research, wrote a number of books, and developed a relationship with Antennex as technical editor. His books are used by the ARRL for their course in antenna modeling.

When LB died in April, 2008 the owner of Antennex became the owner of all of Cebiks work. We found we could no longer access Cebiks web page. This caused quite an uproar in the ham community so the Antennex owner reneged and now will give a password to anyone who wishes one and we once again can access LB’s work. You can arrange this by going to http://www.cebik.com/helpme.htm . There is no cost and it is good for 1 year.

added 02/18/2013: “This is no longer the case. Now you must pay Antennex $49.95 for a copy of Cebiks work.

One of the things he did was to model the effect of coax outside shield radiation on the vertical and horizontal patterns of yagis for different coax lengths and grounding conditions. This is a topic that I am particularly interested in.

Whatever your interest may be, Yagis, Quads, Moxons, Curtain Arrays, Inverted L’s, even balanced and unbalanced tuners , he has information on all.
Try it out!

73, Dan, N5AR

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Each contest sponsor has their own way and method for your sending in your results so it will be counted and published.

There are certain ham radio contests that count for the SDXA in club competitions especially the PNW Challenge Cup. As a SDXA member, your score helps our organization compete against other clubs. Every point counts!! The two primary contest sponsors are the ARRL and CQ Magazine. Each has separate eligibility requirements for counting the scores of club members.

To give the SDXA credit for your entry, make sure that the club listed on your Cabrillo file (or equivalent) is exactly:

Spokane DX Association

A multi-op contest at WA7LT’s QTH

ARRL:

The ARRL has a new section on their website for contests called the Contests Landing Page. There is a lot of information on this page including the contest rules. Be aware that there is a 7 day deadline for sending in your log for ARRL credit. After a ARRL contest, you use the page under the tab called LOG SUBMISSION to send your log to them. You have seven days only to submit your log to them to have it count.

For the four ARRL contests we enter in the Pacific Northwest Challenge Cup competition between us and the other NW clubs, do the following:

— Use the Contest Landing Page Link (above) to send your score to the ARRL for credit.

— Send your scores via the SDXA Google Group so that our SDXA Secretary can tally the points. Your log is not necessary for this action. If you were multi-operator, list the operators too.

In case you make some points in the contest, but elect NOT to send your score to the contest sponsor, we can still use your points total towards our PNW Challenge Cup competition for the ten mentioned contests. If you are entering other ARRL contests, post your scores on the SDXA Google Group to inform (brag to?) the other members.

In the last few years, the ARRL had refined how clubs participate. Here is the link that explains who in a club can use their score to help the club and who cannot. Not all members in a club can participate for the club depending on their distance from the club’s “center.” Our center is the middle of grid DN17gp. If you qualify on distance, make sure you are on the club’s eligibility list maintained by our Secretary.

Our circle of eligibility is a 175-mile (282-kilometer) circle from our designated center (DN17gp) for the medium category (10 or more entries), Our SDXA Secretary is responsible for submitting the accurate eligibility list to the ARRL.

GARY K7GS – a long time ago

CQ:

Six of the CQ contests count in the PNW challenge Cup so notify our SDXA Secretary of your scores and categories. If you were multi-operator, list the operators too.

In case you make some points in the contest, but elect NOT to send your score to the contest sponsor, we can still use your points total towards our PNW Challenge Cup competition for the ten mentioned contests. If you are entering other CQ contests, post your scores on the SDXA Google Group to inform (brag to?) the other members.

For USA Clubs, participation is limited to club members residing within a 250 mile radius circle from the center of club area (middle of grid DN17gp). Single-operator entries may only contribute to one club. Multi-operator scores may be allocated to multiple clubs as a percentage of the number of club members participating in the operation. The log entry must spell out the full club name (and club allocations if multi-op). A minimum of four logs must be received for a club to be listed in the results. Checklog entries are not counted for the club score

Web upload is the preferred method of log submission. The exact URL to upload your log is in the individual rules of each contest. You do read the rules before the contest, don’t you?

All CQ entries must be sent WITHIN FIVE (5) DAYS after the end of the contest. Resubmitting an entry after the deadline will result in it being considered as a late log.

CQ does not require an eligibility list of qualified members from the SDXA. The club affiliation must appear on each contestant’s entry, and if there is any question there will be follow-up from the contest director.

All the CQ contest rules are available at this link:

The results of the 7-land QSO Party (7QP) in May are available. Here are the nine SDXA locals that entered:

WA1PMA Wayne– 1,440 points in Single Operator, High Power, Mixed
K7AWB Steve – 9,213 points in Single Operator, High Power, Digital
WA0WWW Jay – 25,400 points in Single Operator, Low Power, Mixed
K7GS Gary – 47,064 points in Single Operator, Low Power, CW
K7EIQ Merle – 240 points in Single Operator, Low Power, Digital
W6AEA George – 100,425 points in Multi-Single, High Power
AC7MV Dave – 2,288 points in Multi-Single, Low Power
AC7GP Bob – 26,000 points in County Expedition, Single Operator
K7TQ Randy – 7,896 points in Mobile QRP CW

Randy wins a certificate for his category and Steve wins the Single Operator, High Power, Digital (RTTY) plaque sponsored by the SDXA.

More information is at 7QP LINK.