After Dick's posting on the SCCC Reflector, the tributes started coming in. Here are a few of those.

I'm saddened to learn of Art's passing. He was a class act. I, and others, are the beneficiaries of his efforts with the City of Los Angeles to establish a process that allowed towers of competitive heights in the city. In my case, 89-foot US Tower with 18 feet of mast out of the top. My condolences to his family. -WA7BNM

I was as horrified as anyone when we learned of Art Goddard's passing yesterday. We're all grieving this enormous loss.
Let me tell about another aspect of Art's long and distinguished career: yes, he was an aerospace executive, a book author, a 65-year radio amateur, an ARRL director, and a world-traveling contester. But he was also the wagonmaster of our VHF-UHF roving groups.
In the 2000s and 2010s Art joined in our VHF roves where as many as 15 operators took 10 or 12 stations and roved together (while operating separately). It became obvious right away that someone had to coordinate everything or it would descend into chaos. It also became obvious that I wasn't the best field marshal or quarterback. Art stepped in and took charge. We came to call him our wagonmaster. On his watch, SCCC won about 12 or our 14 club gavels in VHF contests. With Art calling the signals, SCCC often left the likes of the Potomac Valley Radio Club and the Mt. Airy Packrats far behind. Not even Tom Brady had a winning streak as a signal-caller like Art Goddard.
Art Goddard was the best wagonmaster I ever met. -N6NB

Oh no! Art was a class act. I don't think I ever saw him where he didn't have a smile on his face and have encouraging words to say. What a loss not only to the ham radio world but the world in general. RIP Art! -N6VHF

This is very sad news indeed. I operated with Art as 40 m team from 6Y2Z M/M in 2005 CQ WW DX SSB. We met last time little over year ago after 2019 CQ WW SSB contest when we had small afternoon pizza gathering at his house with couple other SCCC members. Great guy. Rest in peace OM ! -N5ZO

I am so sorry to hear about Art Goddard’s passing. He was a true gentleman and an influential voice for all things "amateur radio". I enjoyed playing "radio contesting" with Art as one of the team rovers in many VHF/UHF contests.
He was an engaging speaker. He graciously served as the featured speaker at one of the get togethers for Orange County hams that I held at my home regaling all who attended about his trip and radio exploits from Ascension Island. He attended many of the other radio related get togethers that were held at the "Hotel California." He was very much respected as one of the Orange County "deans" of amateur radio and was liked by everyone. Art was a wonderful, level-headed individual who was a great resource and font of information for newbie as well as experienced hams. He had many other interests outside of amateur radio that made him a fun and engaging person…and many of these interests were service related much like his service at ARRL for all of us.
Sadly, we will no longer be able to benefit from Art’s humor and sage counsel. God speed, Art. You will be missed. -N6HC

So very sorry to hear this. One of my all-time greatest memories was when Joan and I were able to join you [N6AA], Art, and several others on our DXpedition to Corsica - TK4Z - in 2002. And it was your 40th zone! Art was so helpful in so many ways over the years. He was our "go-to guy" in Southern CA! RIP, Art. You left a wonderful legacy! -K6ZH

Yep. He was a great leader. I'm sure sorry to hear of his passing. -K6AH

I am extremely saddened to hear of Art’s passing. Ever since I first met him personally there in CA along with you (N6AA) in 2007 and more recently when we operated together in Oman at A44A in CQWW CW 2017, Art came across as a fantastic guy, always smiling and always had a nice word to say.
It is not easy to forget his big smile, insightful thoughts and also his meticulous photo journals of the contest expeditions to various countries on Facebook.
Kindly pass our my condolences to the family, it is indeed a painful loss and he will be in our prayers. -VU2PTT/W2PTT

You can find many pictures of Art courtesy of the JPL Amateur Radio Club from their January, 1996 newsletter. There are many others on Wayne Overbeck's N6NB rover page.

In fact, you'll find a plethora of stories about Art on the web via your favorite search tool. RIP Art.

Lastly, Tim, N6GP passed along this link to an article on Art that appeared in the Daily Pilot.

Welcome aboard to new member Gary, NY6Y! Gary lives in Tarzana and has been licensed since 1956. He worked in the defense industry for 27 years and served in the Nvay as a radio operator in the Caribbean and South America. He has operated from Puerto Rico (KP4UH) and went to Wallis Island with Don, N6IC back in 1974. He is looking forward to getting past the COVID pandemic so that he can possibly attend more club meetings.

Also, welcome aboard to another new member, Paul, W7IV. Paul joins us from Templeton and usually contests using the club call KK6P. He has a 160 foot rotating tower and stacked antennas.

Congratulations go out to Axel, KI6RRN who operated as NO6T and piloted the WA6TQT super station to 1st place in the August NAQP CW contest! He had 23 less Q's but 6 more mults than runner up K0RF. Those mults proved to be the difference in this one! Remote contesting has sure come of age, wouldn't you say? Full results can be found on the NCJ web page.

And...the January 2021 NAQP CW preliminary results have been published. Axel, KI6RRN is the projected winner in this contest as well, again using the NO6T club call. Here, mults again spelled the difference. Dan, N6MJ piloted ND7K to 3rd place although his score went to the AOCC Bank Robbers. Marko, N5ZO took 8th place. The SCCC #1 team placed fourth.

Congratulations are also in order to Dan, N6MJ who placed 5th in the September edition of the North American Sprint CW. In a somewhat unusual move (at least in recent Sprints), Dan made only two band changes (no doubt 20 to 40 to 80 meters). While four of the top ten went that route this time around, Dan posted the top score in that particular group. Band changes after most Q's has become more popular strategy in recent years. Take for example, NO3M. Eric finished just 41 points above Dan but made 175 band changes! Also of note, Dan's final hour (0300Z) is where he made up a ton of ground. He totaled 101 Q's during that hour. Two others in the top ten had 90 Q's and everyone else were well below that. Meanwhile, Marko, N5ZO had the top QSO total in the contest with 358! And he turned in one of only two Golden Logs! (See a picture of Marko at his station in the official results.) They and teammates N6AA, K6LA and K6ZH powered SCCC #1 to 4th place in the team competition! Full results can be found here.

Also, the California QSO Party 2020 results have now been published. Congrats to Axel, KI6RRN who set a new all-time S/O HP record and to Marko, N5ZO who set a new all-time S/O LP record! Dan, N6MJ finished 2nd S/O HP. Ken, K6LA finished 4th and Glenn, K6NA finished 6th. George, W6AYC took 2nd in S/O LP. Dan, KI6X was 7th. In the S/O QRP class, David, N6AN took 2nd place, Bruce, WA7BNM took 4th and Andrew, N7DA finished 5th. You'll find more SCCCers in the top ten in the assisted and multi-op categories in the results as well. And SCCC set a new club record in this contest!

Dean, N6DE from the contest committee reported the following related to the 2020 CQP.

Highlights:
* 1,365 logs received. 48% increase in logs over 2019. Beats all-time CQP record logs received by a margin of 360 logs.

* Records shattered. 104 new records set. All-time CA S/O HP record set by KI6RRN and all-time CA S/O LP record set by N5ZO. New club records set by SCCC, REDXA and TCG.

* Strongest Top 10 CA S/O scores in the history of CQP. The threshold to place in the Top 10 of all Single-Ops inside CA was over 300,000 points, an all-time high.

* SEQUOIA 1x1 station success. Over 42,000 QSOs were made by our 21 1x1 SEQUOIA stations. 11 stations outside of CA made more than 100 overall QSOs with the SEQUOIA stations. Over 500 stations spelled SEQUOIA at least once.

* 57 plaques, 40 bottles of wine, 13 SEQUOIA calendars and hundreds of certificates will be awarded.

* Largest results package in CQP history. 19 PDF files, links to two SEQUOIA station blogs, and a link to your 2020 CQP Certificate of Achievement (and much more-editor) await you at https://cqp.org/Results.html.
Stand by for more information about the SEQUOIA certificates.

The NA Sprint CW times were shifted an hour earlier last month. This temporary change was an attempt to make 20 meters more usable and avoid the two band contest syndrome (40 and 80 meters) that had been experienced in recent years here near the bottom of the sunspot cycle. On the CQ-Contest reflector, some west coasters surmised that it really was an attempt to get more of the east coast guys back into the Top Ten. The contest had seemed to favor the west coast in recent years. However, after the contest, several SCCCers were happy about the earlier start time, and the Top Ten is still heavily populated with west coast contesters. One SCCCer commented that the earlier start time reduced the significance of 80 meters where competitive antennas are more challenging to build. The NA Sprint RTTY will also have the temporary earlier start time this month.

ARRL has published the results of the 2020 IARU HF World Championships. The article has a great write up on the battle between Dan, N6MJ, Axel, KI6RRN, Chris, KL9A and Mitch, K7RL for west coast supremacy. When the dust settled, Dan had set a new Southwestern Division and ITU Zone 6 Single Op, Mixed Mode, High Power record from the N6WIN station in Arizona (the antenna farm is pictured left) using the ND7K call. Dan finished 2nd overall in the category. Just behind him in 3rd place was Axel using the NO6T call sign and running the WA6TQT super station. Alex, W6AFA took 3rd place in the SOHP Phone only category. Marko, N5ZO placed 7th as NT6Q in the SOHP Unlimited CW Only category. All of these are in the USA and Canada standings. Congrats to each on the outstanding scores!



The ARRL International DX CW Contest is in the books. Held Feb 19-20 UTC, the A index unfortunately jumped from 4 to 20 on Sunday. SCCC participants made mention of better conditions Friday night and Saturday followed by tougher ones on Sunday. The Phone version of the contest is the first weekend of this month, March 6-7.

ARRL has announced that it will extend the Field Day Rule waivers from last year to the June, 2021 event. Specifically,

Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations (including other Class D stations) for points. This year, however, Class D and Class E stations will be limited to 150 W PEP output.

An aggregate club score will be published — just as was done last year. The aggregate score will be a sum of all individual entries that attributed their score to that of a specific club.

More details can be found here.

WOW! What a great idea! Have you ever thought about how you and/or your club could promote contesting and/or amateur radio? I'm sure you will agree...we can use as much promotion as we can get! The Minnesota Valley Amateur Radio Association set up shop at a local TV station and took part in the Minnesota QSO Party during the Feb 7-8 weekend. The WXOW-TV news team covered the event on their 10 PM newscast! I'm sure many of you work, have worked, or know someone that works or worked at a TV station. And I can tell you from personal experience, they are always looking for local news stories, especially positive ones! More on this story here. If anyone wants to lead an effort here in San Diego, I have engineering contacts at most of the local TV stations here and some in Tijuana. I also have some contacts at some of the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara TV stations, so who knows, I might be able open some doors.



Rumor on the web is that the Elecraft has begun shipping their latest transceiver, the K4. Updates confirming this are not on the Elecraft website as yet but some folks on the world wide web are reporting receiving theirs. For example, a ham in Indiana reports receiving S/N 76. While not listed on the Sherwood Engineering site yet, we are all anxious to see how its measured receive specs compare to other top radios. The K3 has long been respected as a top contest radio. Will the K4 take it to the next level? We expect that it will. Speaking of Sherwood, the site now lists the new Yaesu FTDX-10 in third place in receive specs, behind only the FTDX-101D and Flex 6700. Pretty crazy considering that pricewise, the 10 is well below the 101D and 6700. The 10 replaces the FTDX-3000, which in itself was a very nice entry level contest/DX radio but was well down the list on the Sherwood site. We are looking forward to the K4 measured specs and reviews.



Jim Neiger, N6TJ and Dick Norton, N6AA have announced that the planned 2021 Visalia International DX & Contesting Gathering (in person March 19-21) has been postponed. Tulare County is currently among the most restricted California counties due to the COVID pandemic, and it doesn't make sense to go forward on those dates at this time. Future dates are TBD. Visit their web site for more information.

The following was published in the February issue of the Southern California DX Club newsletter. I mentioned something similar a number of issues ago in SCCCORE but I think it bears repeating. This is from John, N6QQ (a member of both clubs). (Note: this is not an advertisement or endorsement of Amazon.com.

"OK --for those that use Amazon. They are now giving 0.5 percent to the ARRL. If you buy a lot of things on Amazon like I do, one of the ways you could consider supporting your favorite non-profit is to use Amazon Smile. With every purchase you make at Amazon Smile, Amazon donates a small percentage of your purchase cost to the non-profit of your choice. I encourage everyone who uses Amazon frequently to use Smile and choose a non-profit to receive your donation. If you are unsure about who to donate to or if they aren’t part of the Smile program consider directing the donation to the ARRL. More information on the ARRL’s association with Smile can be found on their site. If you are using the Amazon app on your phone or table, you have to specifically opt-in to Smile there as well.

To date, AmazonSmile has donated a total of:
$40,613.70 to American Radio Relay League
$183,120,221.33 to all charities

If you would like to give a try. Log-in to Amazon with the following: smile.amazon.com
1) Go to Account & Lists (upper left corner)
2) Click on Amazon Smile Charity Lists
3) Under search, select America Radio Relay League

Every time you log-into Amazon - Log in with the URL 'smile.amazon.com'"

Note, there are many, many qualifying non-profits listed there on Amazon. Yours truly (NE6I) donates to INDEXA (the International DX Association). Whatever your choice, you will be helping that non-profit. So just DO IT. It costs you nothing extra to do so.

Strange but true...
The average life span of a Major League baseball is 5-7 pitches!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Our February, 2021 poll was "DMy favorite contests are (those in duration):"

28% said 48 hour contests, 11% said 30 hour contests, 5% said 24 hour contests, 17% said 
10 hour contests, 5% said 4 hour contests and 5% said 1 hour contests. 22% said all of
the above! One respondent said all of the above with the exception of Field Day and 
those with other complicated exchanges. 

Our January, 2021 poll was "Do you prefer hard copy QSLs or electronic ones?"

19% said they prefer hard copy (paper) QSLs, 50% said they prefer electronic QSLs (IE, LOTW, 
eQSL, QRZ, etc.), 25% said they had no preference, and 6% said they do not QSL at all. 

Our December, 2020 poll was "I sometimes have conflicts between contest events and
 family events on holiday weekends preventing me from as much participation in one or
 both of them as I'd like.

17% said often, 56% said occasionally, 22% said contesting always wins out, and 5% said
 family events always win out. 

Our November, 2020 poll asked "Is your antenna system mostly:"

42% answered less than 5 years old. 16% each answered 5-10 years old, 11-15 years old 
 or 16-20 years old. 10% answered more than 20 years old.

Our October, 2020 poll asked "Is your current primary transciever:"

43% answered 5-10 years old. 30% said less than 5 years old. 17% said 11-15 years old and
 10% said more than 20 years old.

Our September, 2020 poll was two parts. "Are you an ARRL member?"

87% said yes and 13% said no.

Are you a paid member of any other club other than ARRL?

73% said yes and 27% said no.

Our July, 2020 poll was "Where do you typically operate Field Day from?

23% said from home, 6% said portable by themselves, 59% said with a club and 12% said they
 don't typically operate Field Day.

Our June, 2020 poll was "Did you discover amateur radio on your own?

35% said yes, 35% said that they discovered it via a family member and 30% said that they
 discovered it via a friend.

Our May, 2020 poll was "Have you ever built and/or used Heathkit amateur radio equipment?"

65% said they have both built and used Heathkits. 20% said they have used but not built them
 and 15% have neither built nor used a Heathkit.

Our April, 2020 poll was "Did you participate in the National Traffic System (NTS)?"

25% said yes and 75% said no.

Our February, 2020 poll was "What is your thought on the new digital modes as it pertains
 to contesting?"

27% said great! And another 27% said "not for me." 21% said "they are poisoning amateur radio
 contesting." Wow, brutal. 14% said they haven't tried them. 8% said "not bad" and 3% said
 "unsure / too early to day."

Our January, 2020 poll was "Have you ever operated in a RTTY contest?"

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

Our December, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated in a VHF contest?"

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

Our November, 2019 poll was "Do you operate in very many contests just to have some
 fun / hand out some contacts?"

86% said yes and 14% said a few.

Our October, 2019 poll was "LOTW has revolutionized QSLing. How do you respond to
 hard copy QSLs that you receive after a contest?

87% said they send a return QSL the same way the incoming card was received (direct or via
 the Bureau). 13% said they send electronic QSLs only (IE, LOTW, eQSL, QRZ and/or other).

Our September, 2019 poll was "If you could go or are going on a Contest Dxpedition
 next year, where would you go?"

75% said to the Caribbean! 25% said somewhere in the Pacific.

Our August, 2019 poll was a two parter. "Do you miss (or wish we had) SCCC pizza meetings?"

20% said Yes, I really miss them. Another 20% said Yes, I hear they were a good time.
 10% said I could take them or leave them. Another 10% said No, I'm not that interested in
 attending meetings at this time. 60% said I probably wouldn't be able to attend many of them
 due to distance or other reason.

The second question was "If we had SCCC meetings, I would..."

10% said Attend as many as possible. 20% said Attend them if they were less than an hour's
 drive. 40% said Attend now and then. 20% said Might attend some of them, and 10% said Probably
 wouldn't attend any of them.

Our July, 2019 poll was "When was your first contest?"

16% said 2010 or later. 5% said 2000-2009 and another 5% said 1990-1999. 32% said 1970-1979.
 26% said 160-1969 and 16% said 1950-1959.

Our June, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated a Dxpedition in a contest?"

25% said yes, as part of a multi-op DXpedition. 25% said no. 20% said yes, as a single op.
 Another 20% said no, but I would like to! And 10% said yes, both as a multi-op and as a single-op.

Our May, 2019 poll was "Have you ever operated mobile or portable in a contest
 (not a DXpedition)?

35% said both, 35% said no, 20% said portable and 10% said mobile.

Our April, 2019 poll was "For manual CW sending, what do you use?"

65% of our respondents said a keyer. 35% said contest software. 12% said a straight key and
 5% said a bug. 8% said other.

Our March, 2019 poll was "What logging software do you use in contests?"

75% of our respondents said N1MM+. 10% said Writelog and another 10% said N3FJP. 5% each said
 TRLog/TR4W, Win-test or other.

Our February, 2019 poll was "Do you use high, low or QRP power in contests?"

56% of our respondents said high power. 21% said low power and 13% said QRP.

Our January, 2019 poll was "What brand of radio to you use primarily in contests?"

25% of our respondents said Yaesu. 18.75% said Kenwood. 12.5% said Icom. 6.25% said Flex, and
 43.75% said Other. We should have included Elecraft! 

Our December, 2018 poll was "Have you ever hosted a guest operator at your station?"

11% of our respondents said yes. 89% said no.

Our November, 2018 poll was "Have you ever operated multi-op in a contest (home or away)?"

80% of our respondents said yes. 20% said no.

Our October, 2018 poll was "What is your favorite contest mode?"

76% of our respondents favored CW. 12% favored SSB and 6% favored RTTY. 6% had no favorite mode.

Our September, 2018 poll was "What is your favorite contest?"

CQP took the top spot. CQWW DX, WPX, NA Sprint and Sweepstakes all tied for second.

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WANTED: SteppIR CrankIR, preferably with 80 meters. Contact John, NS6X ns6x [at] arrl dot net Posted 2 August 2020 WANTED: Johnson Invader 2000 Power Supply. I recently acquired an Invader 2000 but without the power supply and missing all the cabinet-mounting hardware, including the two long bolts from the back to the front panel common to most Johnson rigs. WANTED: Kaar KE-23A or KE-23AT communications receiver. Contact Steve, K0XP k0xp (at) k0xp dot com Posted 19 June 2020 FOR SALE: I have a two year-old SteppIR DB36 with 80 M dipole option for sale. The stepper motors, controller, etc all work perfectly, and the boom and trombones/straight fiberglass poles are in good shape. You will likely need to replace some of the small parts (some bolts and Nylock nuts), but can have a working DB-36 for less than half of what it cost new. I'm selling the antenna because the trees near the antenna became so large that tilting it over was becoming impossible, and I purchased a DB-18E to replace it. I have some extra fiberglass poles that I will include, and I guarantee that the antenna will work (motors, etc.). Due to the weight and size, I'm thinking it's going to have to be a pickup in the San Diego area. I might be willing to remove the heat shrink couplings and try to box it if the buyer covers the shipping charges (FedEx ground). Asking $3500 for everything. Seller: Eric, NC6K egruff [at] cox[dot]net Posted 9 Oct 2018, renewed 30 Apr 2020

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