Spokane DX Association

SDXA FIELD DAY 2008

Kirk K7EKM operating at the SDXA Field Day site at the home of Dan N5AR near Deer Park, WA

Dan, N5AR, graciously hosted the Spokane DX Association Field Day this year. This was our first attempt at 2D, two transmitters operating from a permanent installation using commercial mains for power. Club members and two guests made 1,065 QSOs on CW, SSB, and RTTY. We worked 75 sections missing only Maine, Northern New York, Virgin Islands, Maritime Province, and Newfoundland. Including bonus points, we had a score of 4,050 points. More important than just points, all those who attended had a great time. Dan has said he is willing to host it again next year.

Dan had two rooms available for our use. One was his usual shack while the other was Virginia’s project room. Both rooms had Icom 761s with networked computers running WriteLog. We used one room for CW and one for SSB and RTTY. When the noise from the SSB room became too great, we just closed the door. Dan’s DX collecting antennas played great throughout the Field Day operation. Club operators who kept the two transmitters on the air around the clock were Gary, K7OX, Wayne, WA1PMA, Jay, WA0WWW, George, W6AEA, and Kirk, K7EKM. Our operation drew a Montana guest Chris, KD7DBL, who after some mentoring on how to use the radios and how to work contest-type RTTY contacts made several RTTY and SSB contacts late Saturday night under the watchful eye of club call trustee K7OX. As in the five previous years, CW QSOs outnumbered SSB ones with RTTY garnering almost 100 QSOs. This year the SSB gang closed the gap on the CW operators. Maybe next year, fellas.

George W6AEA making Field Day points.

The bonus points this year were for Media Publicity (an article in the Spokane Review), for copying the W1AW Field Day Message, for sending a formal National Traffic System (NTS) message to our Section Communication Manager (SCM), for a site visit by a served agency (the Fire Department), for an educational activity (taught RTTY operating and logging with WriteLog and with MMTTY), and for submitting our results via the web. 2D stations are not eligible for all the bonus points, so we did well.

All who attended had an enjoyable time. We’ll be operating Field Day again next year, so mark your calendar now for the last full weekend in June.

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SALMON RUN CONTEST ON SEPTEMBER 20/21
from our EWA Section Manager Mark Tharp KB7HDX:

September is almost here, and with it comes the Washington State QSO party – AKA “The Salmon Run.” This is an event sponsored by the WWA DX Club and is one of the most fun times on the air you can have (especially the Saturday night “slugfest” on 75 meters). If you are a seasoned contest veteran, or have never dipped your feet into the pool, we have a place for you in this event. The short and dirty overview is to work all 39 Washington counties, and other States and DX countries. To catch a “full stringer,” you must work all 39 counties, and the rest count as multipliers. Many stations take this event on the road, and activate some of our states rare ones. The last two plus years we have had activity from all counties.

.73..Mark.

Rewrite of DX Tip on BALUNS by Dan N5AR available
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In Idaho, Edward Stuckey, AI7H, of Post Falls, was elected Section Manager of Idaho with 155 votes; Chuck Robertson, KX7ID, of Nampa, received 150 votes. Stuckey will be stepping into the office that has been held by Doug Rich, W7DVR, of Boise, since the fall 2003; Rich decided not to run for another term of office. Stuckey, licensed since 1957, is a member of ARES/RACES organizations. He is currently active in the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society in Coeur d’Alene of which he is a past president and is an Honarary member of the SDXA.

SDXA members Steve K7AWB and Wilse WX7P attended Contest University, the day before the Hamvention In Ohio started. Wilse attended the regular 1st year classes and Steve attended Graduate School, his 2nd year.

Wilse WX7P (right) meets the founder of the Contest University Tim K3LR (left) of multi-multi fame
.

One of the classrooms at Contest University

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2008 HAMVENTION, DAYTON, OHIO

What you need to rotate that tower of yours from the ground

How to break a dx pile

The Hara Arena center

Gary K7OX takes 1st in Northwestern Division and EWA Section in Multioperator category.
Lamar WA7LT takes 1st in Northwestern Division and EWA Section in Single Operator, High Power category.
Randy K7TQ takes 1st in Northwestern Division and Idaho Section in QRP category.
More details at LINK.

TEAM OF WAYNE WA1PMA AND JAY WS7I TAKE 1ST IN NORTHWESTERN DIVISION IN RTTY ROUNDUP
See LINK

Jay WA0WWW takes 1st in the Single Operator, Low Power category in EWA Section; 28th place out of 92 overall in NW Division.
Wilse WX7P and multiop crew take 2nd place in EWA Section in the Multioperator category and 3rd in Northwestern Division in category; 10th place out of 92 overall in NW Division.

In the combined Club competition (CW and Phone), the SDXA took 2nd place out of 29 entries in the Local Club competition with 537,230 points.

More details at LINK.

669,900 points
956 QSOs
Multi-Operator, Single Transmitter
3rd place in 7th call area
more results at this LINK.

The 2-element Mosley antenna goes above the 6-element 20-meter yagi. Dan N5AR and Peggy W7PEG are shown next to the tool hauling golf cart.

Dan and his son-in-law are shown at the top of the nested tower.

The son-in -law did all the heavy work on top of the tower.

A wide view of the activities looking North.

Gary K7OX wins plaque from ICOM for high score in Single Operator Unlimited in Northwestern Division and takes highest score in entire EWA Section. Score is 6th nationally in category.
Lamar WA7LT takes 2nd place in Single Operator High Power in EWA Section.
Jay WA0WWW takes 3rd place in Single Operator Low Power in EWA Section.
Wayne WA1PMA takes 2nd place in Single Operator Unlimited in EWA Section.
more results at this LINK.

Dan N5AR has new way of putting up antennas with a ham airplane. Just kidding. Dan got an inquiry from a French ham who saw an airplane with markings resembling a ham license call. Dan assures us that he does not own an airplane. That pilot in front of the airplane is NOT Dan when he was younger!

JULY 2007 IARU HF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONTEST RESULTS. DETAILS AT IARU LINK.
CONGRATULATION TO WILSE WX7P AND GEORGE W6AEA.
.

Copyright CQ Communications, Inc. Used with permission

Wilse WX7P from Rice, WA give a presentation at the November, 2007 meeting where he showed how he and the neighbors in his Alaskan town installed antennas using a hot air balloon. This eposide was featured on the cover of CQ Magazine in September, 1980. Later, he also used a helicopter to install another antenna which was featured on the August, 1984 CQ Magazine cover. More pictures of these events at the WX7P LINK. Current photos of his station are available at this WX7P CURRENT STATION.