Archive for October, 2015

THE ARTICLES TAB AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

This is the location for short articles written by members on topics of interest to other members. Have you looked at the titles lately? Click on the tab and enjoy. Could you contribute an article to SDXA?

GEORGE W6AEA IN JARTS RTTY CONTEST GETS A SUPRISE EMAIL

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

This email came during this weekend’s contest to George:

Good morning,

I just repaired a AEA RTTY decoder I bought last month at the flea market and sure enough, first signal I get is.. W6AEA !!! It seems to work! Picture attached. You are 59 in CM97.

73 and Have a Nice Day
Bernard KI6TSF

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ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SDXA IN HIS EARLIER DAYS

Thursday, October 29th, 2015

Dan N5AR in 1948

Dan N5AR in 1948

Dan N5AR in a previous life as W5LHP

Dan N5AR in a previous life as W5LHP

REMEMBER THE GREAT PRESENTATIONS AT OUR SDXA-SPONSORED PNW DX CONVENTIONS

Friday, October 23rd, 2015

The 2011 was chaired by Gary K7OX and Randy K7TQ; the 2014 was chaired by Randy.

PRESENTATIONS:

2011
Sean Kutzko, KX9X, Playing the Game: DXing and Contesting at the ARRL
Paul Peters, VE7BZ, Crimp Coax Connectors: A Simple Approach to Consistency
Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, San Andres 2008-2009 5J0M/5J0BV
Dick Frey, K4XU, Fun in the 7th Area QSO Party
Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, Cycle 24 Developments (or not)
Wilse Morgan, WX7P, Building a 40 m 4 square
Ward Silver, N0AX, I Can see UA0 From Here and So You Think You Have Enough Towers: W1AW/KL7 & W0AIH
Mike Mraz, N6MZ, Desecheo Island, K5D
Geoff Howard, PJ2DX, PJ2T Super Station

2013
Randy Crews, W7TJ, Preparing for the Propagation Winter
Lance Collister, W7GJ, 6 m Clipperton Island from TX5K
Geoff Howard, W0CG/PJ2DX, Inching Toward a Million Qs at PJ2T
Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF, The DXer’s Favorite Wallpaper
Elvin Miura, JA3CZY, The State of Amateur Radio in Japan
Dave Patton, NN1N, The Ham and His Callsign
Bob Locher, W9NKI, Digging out the Rare DX
Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, Rebuilding RAST and Operating from Thailand
Ward Silver, N0AX, CQ DX From Arecibo

2017 Convention Chair Randy K7TQ is looking for volunteers for the next SDXA-sponsored convention in August, 2017. It is not too early to sign up as a volunteer. Contact Randy at his email address: rbfoltz at gmail.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN HEARN N5AR – 90 STRONG

Sunday, October 18th, 2015

Yesterday, Wednesday, October 15 was Dan’s 90th birthday. One of the founding fathers of the Spokane DX Association in 2002, Dan is on the ARRL Number One Honor Roll and basically, with his ham station and multi-mega-humungus crank-up towers and their antennas, can work anything that is on the HF air. Here are some pictures of the gentleman.
Dan N5AR at base of tower
Dan at the base of his large crank-up tower
N5AR 20-METER, 5-ELEMENT YAGI
The tower!

Dan (N5AR) - No. 1 Honor Roll

Dan (N5AR) – No. 1 Honor Roll

NEW SDXA TRI-FOLD BROCHURE AVAILABLE

Friday, October 16th, 2015

it is a 2 page document at this LINK

ANOTHER PNWVHFS CONFERENCE IN THE BOOKS

Monday, October 12th, 2015

Its called a Conference, rather than a Hamfest or Convention, but it is ham radio and it is only 4+ hours away in Issaquah, WA. The Conference location rotates, like our PNW DX conventions, between cities such as Bend, Moses Lake, Portland, and Seattle.

IT IS THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST VHF SOCIETY (PNWVHFS) CONFERENCE HELD ON OCTOBER 10, 2015 IN ISSAQUAH.

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SDXA member Mark K7HPT received this award from the PNWVHFS in 2011.

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Bob N7AU and Bob K7TM (both SDXA members) at a recent PNWVHFS conference.

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One way to get your antenna above the rig at a recent PNWVHFS conference

ORCA DX CLUB IN CANADA WINS 2014-2015 PNW CHALLENGE CUP COMPETITION

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

SDXA TOOK 5TH OF THE 6 CLUBS.

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Steve VE7CT Orca DXCC Club Vice President accepting the trophy. The traveling trophy is presented at the annual rotating PNW DX convention. SDXA sponsors this convention once every four years and 2017 is next.

PNW CLUB SCORES (2-page pdf) are posted at this

FINAL RESULTS LINK.

HOW DID THE SDXA MEMBERS DO IN THE CHALLENGE?

Here is the tally of our members’ 2014-2015 results: SDXA SCORES LINK

TEMP LANCE

LANCE W7GJ ACHIEVES ARRL FRED FISH AWARD REQUIREMENTS
(Lance, from Frenchtown, MT, was one of our SDXA-sponsored speakers at our 2013 PNW DX Convention in Spokane Valley talking about his 6-meter Clipperton (TX5K) DXpedition)
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What is the Fred Fish award?

It is to honor Fred Fish W5FF(SK) who was the first ham to work all 488 maidenhead 6-meter grids in the continental USA. The award was give to him posthumously in 2008. There are only five amateurs that have qualified for the award so far.

Here is the LINK to the ARRL site on the award. Incidentally, SDXA member Mark W7MEM has 480 confirmed, only 8 remaining. Steve K7AWB has 412 of the 488.

Lance announced his working the 488th grid:

“What a great birthday present I had tonight! At 0204Z September 28, 2015 – just as
the eclipsed full moon rose over the mountain here – I completed with KB3SII on 6m
EME for my grid number 488 for the FFMA award 😉 KB3SII and K1WHS are currently on EME on 50.190 from FN67aa, and also making other contacts on EME. 6m Degradation is -0.9 and Kp is 1.7. 6m EME cndx are UNBELIEVABLE!”

Lance goes on many 6-meter DXpeditions using EME for his contacts. Here is a LINK to his latest in Micronesia in August, 2015. This article has beautiful pictures and a great description of his trip including the flames out of the bottom of his amplifier. Lance maintains the [email protected] reflector too.

In early December 1983, operating from Montana as WA1JXN, Lance was the first radio amateur to communicate with the Space Shuttle. Astronaut Dr. Owen Garriot, W5LFL. He was contacted using Lance’s 2m EME array of 12 yagis as STS-9 passed down along the West Coast of the USA. He has ARRL DXCC #11 for 2-meters as well as a 6-meter DXCC.

His technical website is at this W7GJ LINK.

FROM OUR PRESIDENT

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

Our Club is an important institution and a valuable addition to our amateur radio hobby of DXing and Contesting. To keep the club vibrant and members interested plus being able to attract new members, it is important to have our monthly meetings and activities be a magnet for participation.

To accomplish this, we should have a good discussion on what direction we should take to spice up our meetings, club activities and presentations. Please put your thinking caps on and send your comments to me or share them with a club officer.

We all enjoy our hobby and the company of our fellow members; let’s work towards improving our monthly meetings and in turn our enjoyment and success in radio.

73,
Chris WX7B
[email protected]

October 2015 Minutes

2015 October Minutes

K7TQ & WA0WWW ROVER IN 2015 SALMON RUN

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

2015 salmon run rover2

Two of our SDXA members put many Washington counties on the map for the Salmon Run contest. Here is their story from Randy K7TQ.

K7TQ/WA0WWW SALMON RUN LINK

ARTICLE ON LOGGING SOFTWARE BY CHUCK KI7DG

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

ARTICLE LINK

WELCOME NEW MEMBER GORDON OLSSON AA6TQ

Thursday, October 1st, 2015

AA6TQ GORDON PIX