Spokane DX Association

DICK SNELL W7BHP

The call WX7P was held previously by one of our former members Wilse Morgan of Rice, WA for several years. Wilse was a great contributor to our organization and to contesting at his Rice station. He was inducted into the CQ Hall of Fame a few years ago and was the first VE in ALaska. He was also featured on two CQ Magazine covers. Congratulations to Janet for carrying on a great tradition in her call.

Here is a couple of pictures by Mel N7GCO.

The ARRL Forum program. That is our EWA Section Manager in the red shirt.

Some of the candidates for the position of ARRL Director of the Northwestern Division replacing Jim Pace K7CEX. That is Vice Director Bonnie Atlas AB7ZQ on the left and Mike Ritz W7VO, President of the Willamatte Valley DX CLub.

To pay your membership dues via PayPal, we have a PayPal button shown below called ADD TO CART. Above it is a drop down menu giving you a choice of paying for a Full Membership for one year ($20) or one concurrent Family Member membership for $10. If doing both, do the FULL MEMBERSHIP first; then the FAMILY MEMBER last.

FULL MEMBER ACTION:

1. Click on the FULL MEMBER $20 USD shown in the drop down box to make it blue-colored.
2. click on the blue colored choice you made.
3. Put your name and call letters in the second box.
4. Click on the the orange-colored ADD TO CART button. It will then take you to the Shopping Cart where you should see SDXA MEMBERSHIP DUES and a quantity of one at $20. If you have two or more Full Memberships to purchase (not normal), merely change the quantity shown to the number you are paying for by using the minus (-) or plus (+) symbols surrounding the quantity.
5. If you are done with your selection, just click the orange-colored PayPal Check Out button on the right (if you are paying from your PayPal account) or select the Check Out – Pay Without A PayPal Account using your credit card. When the process is done, you should receive an email as a receipt.

FAMILY MEMBER ACTION:

1. If you are paying for a Family Member in addition to your yourself as a Full member, while in the Shopping Cart, choose CONTINUE SHOPPING at the top right which will take you to the original SDXA Member PayPal Option page again.
2. Use the drop down box to select Family Member $10 .
3. Put the name and call letters of the Family Member in the second box.
4. Click on the the orange-colored ADD TO CART button. It will then take you to the Shopping Cart again where you should see SDXA MEMBERSHIP DUES and both themain fee and the family member fee. That wuld be a total of $30.
5. If the page looks alright for the quantities and total cost (and you are done with your selections), just click the orange-colored PayPal Check Out button on the right (if you are paying from your PayPal account) or select the Check Out Pay Without A PayPal Account using your credit card. When the process is done, you should receive an email as a receipt.

Just be aware that if you are a new member, you MUST turn in the SDXA Membership Application Form at this LINK. WITHOUT THIS FORM, YOU CANNOT BECOME A MEMBER. Also, please note that this form is meant to be downloaded, filled out, and then either mailed or emailed back to us. At this time, you cannot fill out the form and submit it online. That may come at a later date.

THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE LEADING DX/CONTESTING PNW CLUBS HAS STARTED. THE PRIZE IS THIS TROPHY FOR THE CLUB’S HIGHEST SCORE IN THE 2018-2019 TEN-CONTEST EVENT. LAST SEASON, IT WENT TO THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY DX CLUB IN PORTLAND.

Andy KE7AUB holds the newly won Traveling Trophy. Actually since the WVDXC also won it in the 2016-2017 season, it did not do much traveling. (Picture by Mike W7VO, WVDXC President)

The ten-contesting event is between the leading Northwest DX and contesting clubs:

Spokane DX Association (SDXA)
Western Washington DX Club (WWDXC) – Seattle
Willamette Valley DX Club (WVDXC) – Portland
Orca DX and Contesting Club – Vancouver, BC, Canada
Idaho DX Association (IDXA) – Lewiston, ID.
British Columbia DX Club – Vancouver, BC, Canada

Each season, the accumulated contest points made by members are tallied to see which club makes the most points from its members over the ten contests. The contest season starts in September and ends in July.

The ten contests are (in order):

• CQ ww dx rtty – Sept 29-30 (finished)
• CQ ww dx ssb – Oct 27-28
• CQ ww dx cw – Nov 24-25
• ARRL rtty roundup – Jan 5-6
• CQ wpx rtty in Feb
• ARRL DX CW – Feb 16-17
• ARRL DX SSB – March 2-3
• CQ WPX SSB in March
• CQ WPX CW in May
• IARU – July 13-14

the rules for some of the above contests are not available on their respective websites yet.

The winner (again) for the SDXA-sponsored plaque is Gary Swartout K7GS. Gary, are you trying to surpass W7WMO with his seven plaques? Last year, Gary won with 60,182 points from 384 QSOs and 58 multipliers. This year he had 97,527 points from 434 QSOs and 83 multipliers. Congratulations again.

Here is a picture of Gary holding his 2017 winners plaque.

The criteria for winning is:
operate in the EWA Section of the ARRL (there are 71 separate Sections in the system). The EWA section is colored blue on this map:

run low power
be a single operator
enter the Mixed Mode where you work at least two of the three possible modes

The mobile crew of Jay WA0WWW (SDXA Secretary) and Randy K7TQ (former SDXA VP and twice DX Convention Chairperson) operated K7TQ/M and got 82,505 points from 497 QSOs and 82 multipliers – points contributed to the Idaho DX Association (IDXA). That made them the winner in that Mobile CW category and beat the effort from the Salmon Run Chairman Mike N7WA who made 53,907 points from 354 QSOs and 51 multipliers.

Others who participated were President Gary AD7XG from Lincoln County who made 11,672 points from 102 QSOs and 46 multipliers in the Single Operator, All band, Low Power, Mixed mode.

SDXA member Michael K7STO teamed up with non-member Woody N7HCJ to operate a Multi-operator, single transmitter station under Woody’s call from Garfield County. They got 13,916 points from 129 QSOs and 52 multipliers in the Expeditionary category.

Mel N7GCO in Spokane County made 17,010 points from 127 QSOs and 65 multipliers in the Single Operator, ALL band, high power, phone section.

Scott N7SJM in Okanogan County made 28,880 points from 215 QSOs and 66 Multipliers in the Single Operator, ALL band, high power, phone section.

Single Operator County winners who are SDXA members:

Gary K7GS – Spokane County
Gary AD7XG – Lincoln County
N7SJM Scott – Okanogan County

In the club competition, SDXA took 4th place with a total of 169,005 points.

Here is a WWDXC LINK to the official Salmon run site.

Here is the list of all winners since we started the plaque in 2003, a year after the club formed.

2003 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (84,416 points)
2004 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (131,080 points)
2005 GARY ELLIOTT K7OX, SPOKANE (SDXA MEMBER) (170,154 points)
2006 GARY ELLIOTT K7OX, SPOKANE (SDXA MEMBER) (172,800 points)
2007 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (104,140 points)
2008 WILSE MORGAN WX7P, RICE (SDXA MEMBER) (124,992 points)
2009 GARY ELLIOTT K7OX, SPOKANE (SDXA MEMBER) (261,236 points)
2010 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (172,264 points)
2011 RICK OLSEN N6NR, TIETON (245,096 points)
2012 RICK WERNER K7UK, WALLA WALLA (77,595 points)
2013 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (132,653 points)
2014 LAMAR RAY WA7LT, SPOKANE (SDXA MEMBER) (160,630 points)
2015 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (52,976 points)
2016 GENE BYE W7WMO, EPHRATA (97,430 points)
2017 GARY SWARTOUT K7GS, SPOKANE (60,182 points)
2018 GARY SWARTOUT K7GS, SPOKANE (97,527 points)

sdxa_minutes_2018_10web[27324]

Getting ready for the contest season, with the CQWW DX RTTY in September, Randy Foltz (K7TQ) spoke on setting up for RTTY contesting.

• using multiple encoders (MMTTY, 2Tone, and GRITTY)
• setting up VE7CC for RTTY Contacts
• optimizing macros for each contest
• best arrangement on your computer screen for RTTY

Randy K7TQ delivering the program

There was also a tour of Mike Buettner’s station (K7STO). Station tours are a regular event at meetings.

New members will no longer get a free SDXA badge. SDXA badges and hats can be obtained at this LINK.

The annual SDXA Awards banquet will be held at the Airway Heights Longhorn BBQ on December 6 (Thursday). Details later. Reserve that date for the best dinner in town.

Jim giving a lecture at one of the PNW DX conventions when he was ARRL NW Vice Director, a long time ago