Spokane DX Association

We had a fine time.

Mike, K7STO, brought the two antennas.  One was a 20, 15, and 10 m EFHW connected to a triplexer which allows up to three radios to use the antenna at the same time.  The other antenna was a 80/40 m trap dipole that got hung between two trees.

Jay, WA0WWW, brought and set up the three SDXA Icom radios.  They were controlled by N1MM and the three plus a laptop were networked together.  Each of the radios were capable of FT8, FT4, SSB, and CW and could be connected to either antenna.

Jim, N7ESU, and his wife Chris N7ZUJ did all the food preparation.  For Friday night’s supper we had lasagna, Caesar salad, and brownies.  Saturday and Sunday’s breakfast was Jim’s breakfast speciality of potatoes, sausage, and eggs.  Saturday night supper was a big hit, ribs from the fire pit grill, roasted corn on the cob, a fruit salad and more brownies.  Saturday’s lunch was sandwiches and chips.  Gary, AD7XG’s, wife, Svetlana, did a fine job of keeping the snacks  and kitchen in order and much more.

We started on time at 11 am PDT Saturday.  The bands weren’t very good to us until around supper time.  After that it seemed like conditions improved.  Twenty meters was our best band with 191 Qs followed by 40 m with 181 Qs and finally 15 m with 50 Qs.  Nothing on 10 m.  We didn’t try 80 m because 40 m was always too good to switch to 80.  FT8 and FT4 were 57% of  our Qs followed by 31% on CW and SSB got the remaining 12%.  Of those 51 SSB QSOs, nine were made by Jay, AC7DC, while solar powered.  Our score for 2026 was 2336 from 422 Qs.  That was down slightly from last year’s score of 2436 from 462 Qs.

Over the course of FD, we had three visitors.  Without checking, the members attending were N7ESU, K7STO, WA0WWW, AD7XG, AC7DC, KJ6MIC, K7TM, N7LL, W7BKS, and K7TQ.

It was a good weekend.  Cool temperatures, a fire pit, decent radio conditions, lots of visiting, and great food.  I suspect that we’ll do it again next year.

Congratulations Dale on the Trident Award.

Congratulations to Joe Somday KF7PBM for earning the ARRL DXCC Trident Award.

The ARRL DXCC Trident award recognizes amateur radio operators who have confirmed two-way radio contacts (QSLs) with 100 or more currrent DXCC Award Countries (entities) on all three modes:

• CW (Morse Code)
• Phone (Voice)
• Digital (FTx, RTTY, PSK, etc.)

Congratulations to Jeff NZ2S on a couple of more DXCC Certificates  and  putting together a successful  team for Salmon  Run  to  Pend  Oreille  County.

A great picnic on Saturday, August 9th, 2025 at the Morissette home in Nine Mile Falls. First of all a giant THANK YOU to Diane for allowing us to have the picnic at her home and another GIANT THANK YOU to Peter for cooking the ribs, pulled pork, and brisket. I think there were between 35 and 40 folks in attendance.

I also want to thank VP Jay (AC7DC), Anita (W7DRN), and Brandon (W7BKS) for assisting me in both the pre-picnic setup and post-picnic take down. Your Parking Crew of Jeff (NZ2S), Mike (K7STO), Woody (N7HCJ), and Gary (AD7XG) also put in extra effort to keep things running smoothly.

The usual SDXA suspects were there along with a double handful of the newer SDXA and Groups.io members. Discussions that I overheard inclded cruises, POTA fun, current and future DX operations antenna improvement plans, and contest plans. I’m sure there were other topics, as well.

Last, but not least, a THANK YOU to all who brought salads, side dishes, and desserts. As always, it is the club members who make our events a success. This year’s picnic will be a tough one to top in 2026.

Randy, K7TQ

Coming up at the end of August is the World Wide Digi (FT4/FT8) contest. Our own Mike K7STO set the 7th area World Record for 20 meters last year,

You might want to try a single band contest. It can be fun and several bands have records that could be set.

DXing (Distance Communication) is one of the key areas for the Spokane DX Association. To encourage people to connect all around the world, some highly sought after awards have emerged. In this article I would like to highlight several.

DXCC Top of the Honor Roll Award.

Currently there are 340 entities identified. To receive they “Top of the Honor Roll” award you must have confirmed contact with all of them. Some have even more because they have confirmation from deleted entities (Countries).

We have four members who have achieved this Award:

• Brian W7BJN (Phone & Mixed)
• Gary K7GS
• Jim K9JF
• Jay WS7I

DXCC Honor Roll Award

To receive DXCC Honor Roll you must be with ten entities of the Top of the Honor Roll. Currently that is 330 or more. In addition to those who have Top of the Honor roll, We have five more (One has this in a separate mode)

• Bob W7SX
• Jay WS7I (RTTY)
• Bob K7TM
• John K7KB
• Steve K7AWB

5BDXCC Award

Five Band DXCC on means you have confirmed contact with 100 entities on five specific bands: 10, 15, 20, 40 & 80. We have eleven who have received this award.

• Brian W7BJN (Phone & Mixed)
• Gary K7GS
• Bob W7SX
• Jim K9JF
• Jay WS7I
• Bob K7TM
• Pat N7UVH
• John K7KB
• Mike K7STO
• Steve K7AWB
• Jay WA0WWW

CQ 5BWAZ Award

The world is divided up into 40 CQ zones. To receive the 5BWAZ award you must have confirmed contact with 100 countries in each of the 40 zones on five bands: 10, 15, 20, 40 & 80. We have six who have achieved this award. In some ways I think this is the top award.

• Brian W7BJN (Phone & Mixed)
• Gary K7GS
• Bob W7SX
• Jim K9JF
• Jay WS7I (RTTY)
• Pat N7UVH

Challenge Award

The Challenge award is for reaching entities on various bands. The minimum to get the award is 1000 band slots, with recognition for each additional 500.

2,000 band slots

• Bob W7SX
• Bob K7TM

2,500 band slots

• Jim K9JF

Whenever you get a new award for DXing, please let one of our DX Committee know about it (Mike K7STO, Bob K7TM, and Mel N7GCO)

Ham radio enthusiasts Woody Jacobson, right, and Mike Wren make contacts up and down the West Coast Friday at the beginning of the Columbia Basin DX Club’s three-day event in honor of George Washington’s Birthday.

Joel Martin from the Columbia Basin Herald did a great newspaper article on the event. You can read the full article here:George Washington Special Event

Brian Nielson, founder of the event, stands in front of a collection of postcards the club has received from various other ham clubs and events around the world.

The SDXA supported a recent DX’pedition to Glorioso with Marek operating as FT4GL. Many of the club members were able to work Marek.

Marek was kind enough to send some pictures of him holding printouts of the SDXA logo and wanted to share them with you.

The Spokane DX Association had their annual picnic at the home of Del and Diane Morissette. Their son Peter cook incredible ribs and pulled pork. A great time of connecting was had by all.

In addition to the SDXA YouTube channel, two of our members also have YouTube Channels you will want to check out.

Toivo Mykkanen W8TJM has a very interesting channel that includes several videos on Moxen antennas. He also wrote a couple of articles for QST on these.

His channel is: https://www.youtube.com/@W8TJM

Randy Foltz K7TQ has many videos on the SDXA channel and additional ones on his own channel including a couple of awesome tower/antenna videos. The receive antenna video is also available here.

His channel is: https://www.youtube.com/@randyfoltz2355

The SDXA YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@SpokaneDXAssociation

I believe soon Jim Barber N7CXI will also be launching his YouTube channel. When he launches his channel I will add the link.

I am sorry to report that apparently Art K6XT became a SK last weekend.
Just one month after being diagnosed with esophagus cancer Art passed away.

Art’s accomplishments included:
9 Band DXCC 160-10M >300 80 thru 10 except 281 on 12M and at 247 on 160.
DXCC 363/338 lacking only P5.
5BWAZ and 5BDXCC, CWDXCC 350, RTTYDXCC 312. Currently 247 on 160.
8 HF band WAZ 38 on 160.
CWOps #728. NAQCC #1342. ARRL Life Member. NCDXF.
Past prez 2x, VP, bulletin editor and general flunky San Diego DX Club.

11 Members of the Spokane DX Association (2 from Ephrata, 2 from Moses Lake, 1 from Davenport, 1 from Okanagon, and 5 from Spokane) made their way to Okanogon yesterday to take down a tower with antennas, plus three other masts with antennas for the widow of a SK (Chuck KI7DG). In spite of the rain we were able to get the job done. Appreciate the willingness of these SDXA hams to help a widow.

Congratulations to Bob Lee N7AU for getting the WAS Award for 160 meters

More than a year ago Mike/K7STO and Brian/W7BJN were talking about doing the 2023 and decided to do 80 SSB….in different categories for the simple reason they don’t like butting heads with good friends in Contests. So they ended up winning 2 different categories on High Power Single Op SSB. The heavy lifting on Brian’s end was just a simple Double Bazooka Inverted Vee. Mike’s antenna was the DX Engineering VA-2 Vertical… As you can see in the attached picture…One year and 2 days later they both received their Division Winner plaques in respective categories.