Spokane DX Association

We are honored to have Chris KL9A as our guest speaker at the September 7th meeting . He was a participant in the recent WRTC 2006 contest in Brazil. He and Ward N0AX finished 8th as a team from the USA. Chris will give a PowerPoint presentation on the event. Be sure to make this special meeting and bring your prospective new member friends.

From Chris:
I got my no-code tech in 1993 when I was 10 years old. That got old real fast so I upgraded to a tech plus and spent about 2 or 3 years in the novice bands getting my code speed up. Eventually I upgraded to general, then shortly after that, Extra at age 14.

My first contest was SS CW from KL7, while my code speed was just barely at 13wpm. I got on and after one CQ, had a roaring pileup that was about 20wpm too fast for me, so I gave up and quit. After I calmed down a bit I got back on and slowly worked a few guys. I was very active during high school as WL7KY, getting my code speed up.

I was invited to KL7Y for CQWW CW in 1997, and after that it became my permanent contest home. KL7Y (SK) was a fabulous contest elmer, and I spent many hours helping him put up antennas and learning as much as I could. In 2000 I came to the University of Idaho and hooked up with the gang at W7UQ. For most of my contests I end up traveling to big stations. The last few years I regularly go to NK7U for big SSB multi ops, or CW single ops. For CQWW CW and ARRL CW I go to K3LR and have been on 40m with N2NC the last few times.

As far as WRTC goes, 2006 was my first one. N0AX emailed me one day out of the blue and asked me if I would be his partner, and of course I said yes! I am currently a produce manager at Rosauers, and a student at the U of I. I like all aspects of ham radio, particularly contesting. But VHF weak signal is a lot of fun, even if there isn’t a lot of activity in the NW!

More information about the WRTC event is at their web site:

http://www.wrtc2006.com/site/home.asp

Field Day 2006 was a great success. Pictured are Wayne WA1PMA and Lamar WA7LT fine tuning the cw station before the contest. The SDXA combined with the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society (KARS) of North Idaho to make it a historic event.

The main HF antenna at Field Day – a Force 12 C3SS.

l
The outside of the station tent.

Doug W3AS at one of the operating stations.

Notice the amount of support staff Doug requires for his contacts.

Barbara (KE7AJ) and Gary (K7OX) Elliott—along with their collie, Milo on the Cover

Barbara (KE7AJ) and Gary (K7OX) Elliott—along with their collie, Milo—stand on part of their 15 acres of land outside Spokane, Washington, with a 72-foot tower in the background. On the tower are, from the top, a Hy-Gain TH6DX tribander at 72 feet and a Cushcraft A4 tribander at 40 feet, fixed on the Caribbean. The tower itself is shunt-fed as a vertical for 160 meters. (Gary tells us that since WB2ZPI took this photo, the TH6DX has been replaced by a 4-element Hy-Gain 204BA 20-meter monobander; and that he and Barbara have put up a second tower with monobanders for each HF band and a 4-square array for 40 meters.)

Both Gary and Barbara are active contesters and DXers. Gary’s main interests are CW and SSB contesting, while Barbara prefers RTTY DXing and contesting. “We both enjoy the competitiveness of contesting,” says Gary, who’s been licensed since 1953. Barbara has been a ham since 1980, and got the RTTY bug about 10 years ago.

Each of them has won a variety of operating awards. In addition, Gary says he has operated overseas many times and has held many overseas callsigns. Some of these opportunities came about in conjunction with his 20-year career in U.S. Navy intelligence, which he followed up with 20 years in law enforcement in Arizona. After retirement, Gary and Barbara moved to Spokane, where they are “just enjoying retirement.” Oh, there was no DX or contest club in the area when they moved in, so they started one. The Spokane DX Association now has 38 active members. For a look inside the Elliotts’ shack, see the March 2006 page of the 2006–2007 CQ Amateur Radio Calendar. (Cover photo by Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI)

The above was taken from the May, 2006 CQ Magazine.

Reference this SDXA link for additional information in the Contest Results:

SALMON RUN RESULTS

We received this email from Ward recently. Each member of our club interested in contesting should reply to him individually; that makes it easier than getting a club consensus as one voice.

Hello!

I’m the Northwestern Division’s Contest Advisory Committee representative.
We advise the ARRL’s Programs and Services Committee (PSC) on matters
pertaining to contesting. The PSC asks us to canvas our constituents from
time to time on various issues and this is one of those times!

The question regards the ARRL Affliliated Club Competition for ARRL
contests – if your club doesn’t participate in the club competition, kindly
disregard this message. At least one score was submitted on behalf of your
club in an ARRL contest – that’s why the email is sent to you.

Assuming your club does send in its scores for the club competition, is your
club satisfied with the scoring system (calculation of the final club score)
for the Affliated Club competition? (The current scoring system simply adds
the scores from each log submitted as part of the club.) If not, please let
me know of your specific concerns and include examples, if possible.

Ward Silver

[email protected]

We are now linked to the following newsletters from other clubs in the state.

Western Washington DX Club (WWDXC) Totem Tabloid January, 2006

Mike and Key ARC K7LED Relay January, 2006

Mike and Key ARC K7LED Relay February, 2006

Pacific Northwest VHF Society (PNWVHFS) Noise Floor Winter, 2006

ARRL President Jim Haynie has appointed William J. Sawders, K7ZM, of Bend, Oregon, to fill the remaining year of the current term of Northwestern Division Vice Director.

Several thanks are in order for SDXA events recently. These are are in no particular order.

Jim NE7F —– for his construction and maintanance of the web site in the past.

Ward N0AX —– for coming to our Annual Banquet in the middle of snow and telling us about his “vacation” on Kure Island.

Randy K7TQ —– for commanding the ship during the last two years.

Contesters —– for any SDXA members who entered contests AND sent in the results for the club competition

DXers —– for those SDXA members who phoned, emailed, or shouted the latest DX on the air NOW to other club members!

Dan N5AR , Lamar WA7LT, and Gary K7OX —– for starting the SDXA years ago, filling a void in Spokane.

Doug W3AS —– for arranging our Field Day site for three years, for the hospitality and equipment at the site, and being our “contest liason” for the club competition scores.

Oh, I probably missed someone and they are going to be mad; If you know you did something good for the club, YOU KNOW IT and no one can take that away from you!

Steve
K7AWB

Email from Lamar WA7LT says three of the monthly photos featured in the new 2006/2007 CQ Communications “Ham Radio Operator’s Calendar” (not the Classic/Vintage one) feature locals with the SDXA . You will remember that during our 2005 Field Day, Photographer Larry Mulvehill, WB2ZPI of CQ Magazine visited us.

Locals featured are:

LaMar, WA7LT, is October

As Lamar said, “That isn’t bad for a small town DX club–congratulations to all. I suggest you buy several before the supply runs out!”

Brandi Hammers & Doug W3AS, K7SDX GOTA Field Day station, are June

Barb & Gary, KE7AJ & K7OX, are March -picture pending.

They are available from the CQ Magazine web page and are $12.95 postpaid. You want the one with the blue sky on the cover and dated for 2006-2007.

http://unix8.sunserver.com/cq/Search.bok?category=CQ+Calendars

At the 2005 Annual Banquet, a plaque was presented to outgoing SDXA President Randy Foltz K7TQ

In recognition of leading the Spokane DX Association as President, January 2004-December 2005.

We now have a Google Group for communicating between members and friends. This will become a major method of communicating between SDXA members and with the outside world. You must join Google Groups if you are not a member already. A lot of people already belong to other groups. It is free. No cost! There are thousands of groups that you could enjoy besides SDXA.

To become a member of the SDXA group (free, of course) , go to:

http://groups.google.com/group/sdxa

and follow the instructions.

Once a member, send postings to:

[email protected]

or post on our Google Groups site, with more options.

Your postings must be in good taste, no flaming, and keep on the subject of amateur radio, the club, etc. Post your electronic items for sale, your latest ham station news, awards, dx worked, etc. If you need help on something, post a help message.

Remember, as with all message boards, your post goes to ALL subscribers, not just a few. If you have email that that is meant for one or two persons ONLY, then the message board is NOT the appliance to use. But, if you offered your Yaesu transceiver for sale, then you want the widest audience and the Google Group message board is great.

From WS7I Jay:

On 24 October, EWARG has added another cluster. This is the W7BT cluster. It has TelNet access from the Internet to fill that need. Login is with Callsign. It is linked to WS7I and to K7TJ as well as the other nodes in Eastern Washington when they are on-line.

Port 7300 is the port number and you type it in as it appears in this line from a windows Start-Run prompt.

telnet w7bt.ewarg.org 7300

===================================================
How to access the K7TJ Cluster:

Set XCVR to144.93 simplex.

Connect SPOKN

Connect K7TJ

====================================================
We need to use the packet cluster for both receiving and posting DX spots. Take advantage of this great resource.

posted Dec 20, 2005

Ward Silver N0AX (middle) from Vashon, WA was the association’s guest speaker at the Annual Banquet on December 1, 2005. He spoke on his K7C DXpedition adventures to Kure Island. At the left is Steve Sala, K7AWB, 2006 President and on the right is Dale Avery, WU7X, 2006 Vice-President. Cick here for more.

2005 Annual Banquet
December 1, 2005

The banquet was held at the Harvester Restaurant in Spangle, WA. Sixteen people attended, braving the snowstorm and storm alert. More pictures here. Our special program was Ward Silver N0AX presenting slides on his recent K7C Kure Island Dxpedition.

Ward came off Kure Island thinking he was a pirate! At least he did not bring his parrot to the banquet.

Ward tries to sell his “last copy!”

All the way from Vashon, WA, Ward is the author of two major radio-related books, Ham Radio for Dummies and the new Two-Way Radios & Scanners for Dummies. He has also published N0AX’s Radio Puzzler book.

Ward was recently appointed as Chairman of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee (CAC). He also creates an Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler on the ARRL web site and is editor for the internet contesting newsletter called the ARRL Contester’s Rate Sheet, both published every other week. He is often seen at Northwest conventions as well as at Dayton, either giving a presentation or being MC.

The goals of the Kure Island Dxpedition (September 25 through October 5, 2005) were to conduct amateur radio operations, implement an advanced real-time internet-based communications system (DXA), and carry out activities in support of the wildlife sanctuary and facilities on Kure. Many of you made contact with the Dxpedition, possibly with Ward on the other side of the circuit. Many thanks to Ward for braving the elements, safe inside his airplane ride, across the state. Because of the bad weather on both ends of the state, I tracked Ward’s air progress. Here is a typical shot of Ward at 19, 000 feet heading towards Spokane.

The Spokane DX Association (SDXA) gave its annual plaque to the winner of the 2004 September Salmon Run contest from the ARRL Eastern WA Section in the low power, mixed, single operator class. Again, for the second year in a row, W7WMO Gene Bye from Ephrata won it, this time operating from Pend Orielle County. The plaque was mailed to him as he was unable to receive it in person in Spokane.

For the 2003 Salmon Run, Gene came to our meeting and was presented the plaque in person.

The Salmon Run results are available from the Western Washington DX Club at:

http://www.wwdxc.org/salmonrun/2004finl.htm

The 2005 results are not available yet. The 2006 Salmon Run contest is September 16-17, 2006. When they are available, the 2006 rules will be posted at:

http://www.wwdxc.org/salmonrun/

SDXA members are asked to bring the plaque our way this year by entering the contest seriously.