October's CQWW SSB contest experienced some really good conditions, and SCCC members mopped up the QSOs! John, NS6X was up in the San Bernardino mountains for a POTA activation but decided to get into the contest. He had a lot of fun operating his KX3 at 5 watts along with a wire and small loop. He heard a lot of South Africa but couldn't get his signal over the mountains.

Bill, N6RV said he had a great time! He did oversleep an hour longer than he wanted but... He said the bands were okay but not as good as in past cycle peaks. John, W6JBR said "Finally, really great conditions!" He got some great reports from far-off locales. Bruce, WA7BNM said he felt loud at times and not loud at other times. He beat his score from last year thanks for getting more mults. Ken, K6LA as VY2TT said that 10 and 15 meters were amazing on Saturday but less so on Sunday. Glenn, K6NA was mainly on to experience these good conditions. He did mostly S&P and did not use assistance. He said that the increased activity from Indonesia and China is amazing to behold. Bill, W8QZA used club call W6QU as usual and was QRP again. He said that conditions were good except he thought 40 and 80 were noisy on Friday night. Overall, he worked 62 DXCCs (including 32 Europeans!) and 25 zones. Amazing with QRP! Dick, N6AA was mostly S&P. Unfortunately, his antennas look into the side of a hill toward JA. Dick, W6TK had limited time but had fun. It was his first time making more Q's on 10 than 15 in a long time. David, N6AN was SOSB10 and QRP portable from one of his favorite hilltops, Flink Peak. Conditions were good, he said, but at 0200Z, the local police decided he should not be there and chased him off with a helicopter! "News at 11 !" He went back on Saturday and Sunday but conditions weren't as good. The last few hours were windy. Marko, N5ZO/OH6DO logged his 36th Zone in his quest to contest from all 40. He operated as 9M6W and ran SOSB10 meters. Well, actually he started out as All Band but decided to go SB10 as the contest progressed. See his wonderful post-contest write-up here.

Conditions were a bit less exciting for the ARRL SS CW contest in early November, as there was a bit of a solar disturbance under way. Kurt, W6PH was only able to operate on 10m due to antenna limitations. He had a good start on Saturday until the band closed at 2330Z. Sunday was strange with QSB causing many repeats. Some signals were loud, he said, and others weren't there. Jim, W6KC looked up his first SS score in the QST archives and found it to be in 1961! Back then, he worked 48 of the possible 73 sections (including the Canal Zone - KZ5!). This time, he got the sweep of 85 sections, all with only 8 hours of operating time! Dick, W6TK also got the sweep, doing so in 10 hours. He experienced some big pileups from his Santa Barbara section. Frank, WA6KHK is another that got the sweep. Marko, N5ZO said the contest was brutal. He felt that participation was way down. 10 meters was hot to start on Saturday but 40 and 80 meter numbers were way down. David, N6AN was QRP from Tree People Park overlooking Studio City. He netted 51 Q's in about 2.5 hours. John, W6JBR put in about 5 hours and went barefoot this go round. He found 10m to be quite poor so he started on 15. 40 meters was his best band and 80 was useless. Axel, KI6RRN was able to log 143 Q's from his KL7 QTH using LP and a limited antenna. Ken (K6LA), VY2TT experienced what he described as CW Sweepstakes nirvana during the first hour on Saturday. He was working two per minute with an occasional three thrown in there, and working all over the country. He ended the hour with his all time best of 128. But six hours in (still Saturday, mind you), he'd worked out the contest and it was tough sledding from then on out. Jim, N6TJ got on to check out his new Elecraft K4. "So far, so good," he says. It was his first SS since 1984, surprising a few that worked him. Dana, K6NR reported great conditions on 10 and 15 on Saturday but 10 was poor on Sunday. Sunday afternoon was very slow (par for the course in SS). He missed ONN for the sweep.

Some SCCCers were active for ARRL Sweepstakes Phone. Some comments were:
Ryan, KI6BTY did his first SSB contest and had a lot of fun. David, N2JNR did QRP for the first time in SS, and this was also his first contest from the new QTH. He ran battery power the entire contest. Antenna was an end fed wire up only 7 or 8 feet in his backyard! Due to some limitations, he ran the antenna above his pool hi hi. His furthest contacts were WMA and both SNJ and NNJ. Great job! Ken, K6LA operated VY2TT. He logged a lot of low number callers on 10 meters on Sunday afternoon. He said that saved the day but still, he was down 200 Q's from last year. David, N6AN set up along the L.A. river concrete channel in Studio City. He ran 5 watts to a doublet made of CAT5, as usual. He operated for about an hour on Sunday afternoon local time starting at 00Z. Frank, WA6KHK logged the San Diego section to complete the sweep. Jim, W6KC also completed the sweep. He did so during the CW contest as well, so he swept the Sweeps! Dick, W6TK put in two hours Saturday and two more on Sunday and logged 303 contacts! Nicely done! ARRL Sweepstakes Phone - K6JO was ND7K and turned in his score for The Arizona Outlaws as is customary for that station.

The raw scores for the CQWW SSB Contest have been published. This page shows the Top Ten in each category. You can also search any call that turned in a log.

The 2023 WW Digi Contest results have also been published. Bruce, WA7BNM placed 5th in the SOSB15 LP category.

As the calendar rolls over to 2024 next month, the State QSO Party Challenge begins anew! From their website, "The purpose of the State QSO Party group is to be the catalyst to take state QSO party contesting to the next level." There are several awards and recognitions available to pursue! What a great way to have some fun!

NOAA is now predicting an earlier solar maximum in Cycle 25 but a stronger and longer one than previously expected. They now predict the maximum to be sometime between January and October of 2024. "Predictions on when solar maximum will occur are based on long-term historical records of sunspot numbers, advanced statistics and models of the solar dynamo — the flow of hot, ionized gases within the sun that generate our star's magnetic field which in turn drives the solar cycle," according to NOAA. They expect that their new prediction will be much more accurate than the 2019 panel prediction. Read more about this here. But...K9LA has his own observations. See the video presentation posted here on the website this month entitled Cycle 25 Update by K9LA. This video is courtesy of the Madison DX Club.

An article that was published by the ARRL in September, 2002 is a good refresher on Solar Flux and the A and K indices. While targeted at DXers primarily, the article is helpful to us contesters as well! Check it out here!

Our own Dick, W6TK was recently crowned SCDXC DXer of the year! The newsletter says "His love of the hobby is infectious." And as we know, Dick is an avid contester as well as a DXer. He is on regularly and submits scores almost weekly to 3830Scores. As it turns out, he is also occasionally active from 5X Uganda where he visits his son and family. If you need that DXCC entitry, be sure to hit him up! Congrats, Dick, on your SCDXC 2023 award!

As you may know, ARRL has a regular podcast entitled "On the Air." The November 9 edition is "The Value of Contest Clubs" and the guest is well known contester Craig Thompson, K9CT. Note that about 6 minutes in, Craig talks about how in their club, they call owners of calls in their area that show up in a contest for the first time (or maybe a second time). This is exactly how I was "lured" into the SCCC. I don't remember the exact year now but suffice it to say that it was many decades ago. Tree, N6TR called me one day after noticing my participation in a recent contest. He told me about the club and encouraged me to join. And I did! Anyway, check out the ARRL podcast here. You can also see a list of their other podcasts at that link.

Once in a awhile, I run across a good article that may or may not be contest related but we as contesters can appreciate and/or learn from. I ran across one of those the other day. KB6NU is a blogger and his article entitled "Building a New Shack?" is a good one. I thought you would enjoy reading it. Check it out here.

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, write ups on station improvments or contest war stories please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
PopSci estimates Santa Claus would have to travel an average speed of 5.083 million miles per hour based on a 24-hour cycle to hit each household on Christmas Eve. It bases this on 2.67 children per household, with 75 million households worldwide. The speed of light is 671 million mph. So if we ever get there, presents for everyone!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Some SCCC member comments about the contest follow.

Frank, WA6KHK was doing CQP for the first time with his 6BA-JK Force 12 antenna up at 80 feet. He says he did pretty well, working 60 mults (only 58 count toward the score). Kent, N6WT operated from the corner of Highways 41 and 33 near Avenal as a Single Op Assisted County Expedition using the cool-for-a-contest call of N6K. He parked his motorhome next to a truck stop off of the highway, which wasn't very conducive to sleeping! He used a BuddieHex for 10-20m and a dipole on 40, which he said worked well for him. Marko, N5ZO using club call NT6Q said his score this year was essentially the same as last year. He found that activity this year was higher on SSB than CW, despite the higher points for CW, so that's where he went. He had three times the contacts from CQ Zones 14 and 15 than last year. He said he worked several Europeans on 10 both days. He noted the big numbers by serious entries from out of state contesters, unlike most other QSO Parties. CQP rules, right?!

David, N6AN again paid QRP tribute to Dave Bell, W6AQ, former SCCC member and now SK by using his call during the contest. David did QRP on a county line (Kern/Ventura), now questioning his sanity on that idea! His 3830Scores post warrants a full paste here for your reading pleasure:
"I set up on Mt Pinos (SOTA W6/CC-002, Kern/Ventura county line) at 8800'. A 90 minute drive to the trailhead and 45 minutes of hiking got me to the summit. My KX3 ran 5 watts feeding a 66' doublet fed with twisted pair on a 30' Spriderbeam pole. I used a paddle from AME bolted to a clipboard for sending/logging on paper. Now it may be clear why I didn't answer as quickly as one expects these days. At that elevation if I didn't get things written down immediately they tended to escape memory, especially while sending KERN/VENT multiple times. CW messages were awkward to start so I only the CQ message. It was a beautiful cool day up there, 60ish in the shade, low 70s in the sun, at least 30 degrees cooler than temps in the SoCal heatwave. Conditions were quite good. I managed to hold a frequency for much of the time. Nine EU QSOs were logged, three with OM2VL, who called me on 10, 15 and 40! I had a funny exchange with HA5JI (thank you for the QSO!). He sent #62. When I sent 72, the QRP 73, he corrected me. A few exchanges and I finally got it and sent 73. All is good! Sending KERN/VENT by hand was tough. I forgot it can be a challenge to log so often got silence after sending the exchange. It could also be that I was pw and QSB had wiped away my signal. W8MJ was happy to get VENT, but I wasn't sure he understood KERN, too. That took a few overs to sort out. Again, TU for the Q! A couple stations in the Maritimes were heard working others, as were SC stations. KV0I, sadly, could not dig me out on 20 SSB, but thanks for trying! I had a great run on 20 during the 01Z hour, my last. It was a real challenge to take pictures of the incredible sunset behind me while people kept calling in. VT, SD and ME showed up in the last 15 minutes. Everything came down and got packed away after the sun went down. The hike down in the dark was uneventful yet exciting. It was hard to not imagine being stalked by something so I barked out my presence from time to time. I was dog tired driving home. Twelve hours at that elevation was hard on this 68 year old body and mind. One goal was to set a new Ventura county QRP record. Mission accomplished. Thanks to the CQP team and all the participants for another epic event."

Kurt, W6PH was not planning to be on at all due to work and other obligations, plus his antennas were down from normal at the 10 foot elevation height. This caused plenty of RFI problems with his computer while trying to run. Any time that he ran more than 500 watts, his computer would lock up. So he concentrated on answering CQs instead. Dana, K6NR used the call K6VO and reported experiencing great conditions. One disadvantage of the exceptional DX conditions, he said, was that some did not know how to provide a serial number. He noted that he worked more SSB than usual, with some good runs on 10 and 15 meters. He couldn't find an open spot on 20 or 40 to run there. Jim, W6KC did a county expedition to Mono County and used the call W6ML. He squeezed in his 20m wire beam on the property and ran dipoles on other bands. Despite some trouble with the 10m dipole, he wound up with 1,283 CW QSOs overall, his personal best in CQP. W6E was operated as another county expedition in Ventura County (Frazier Mountain) by Scott, N6MI, Andy, N7DA and Paul, W6PNG using Scott's "TV van" for the CW station and Paul's jeep for SSB. They too reported good conditions. Tom, KN6OKY is a new contester and new to the SCCC. This was his first time entering CQP. He did all SSB and was using an EFHW antenna and QRP. That would have been a challenge for most of us. He managed 42 contacts and 5 states including KL7! Keep at it, Tom!

N6RA was the UCSB radio club group with Steve, AC6T and Steve, K6AW leading the charge. Others joined the fun including a couple of students. John, W6JBR was under the weather so he didn't get much time on. Glenn, K6NA had some conflicts and could only get 14 hours in but recorded 1,224 contacts, all on CW! Larry, K6RO had a lot going on but put in nearly 17 hours. He could only operate 20-10 meters unfortunately. Bruce, WA7BNM, like others, reported excellent conditions. He recorded his second best score in CQP, with his 1999 effort still his best. Axel, KI6RRN went up to KL7RA and appears to have set a new Multi-Single record (with KL7SB) for non-California stations. They recorded 609 CW Q's and 538 on SSB for a total of 1,147! Add Joe, AA2IL to the list of guys that reported great conditions! He got several calls from Europe. Kent, N6WT was another county expeditioner. He was N6K from King County. On a funny note, he said that he packed TOO much equipment in the motorhome! Too much back up gear and that made it hard to move around inside. 95 degree weather at the site that he chose slowed down his antenna set up considerably. His first QSO was with the KL7RA M/S group mentioned earlier! Later, VY1AAA called him. He sent the exchange. Got nothing back. Sent again. Nothing. He ended up missing that one mult. Argh! Tim, N6GP said that conditions on 10 and 15 were superb! He nearly matched his personal best from last year, even operating several hours less this time. Alan, AA6DW and Don, NK6A were M/S at Santa Inez. They put together a short little fun video of them getting ready for the contest and posted it up on YouTube.

Jim, K6ZH and Dan, N6ERD got together with N7CW and N6EEG to activate Imperial County using club call K6QK. Jim's write up:
"All – “the old gang” got back together this past weekend for the annual CA QSO Party (CQP) contest. The group is Jim K6ZH, Bud N7CW, Dan N6ERD, and Dave N6EEG, plus a ‘guest appearance’ on Sunday by Terry N6CW. Joan N6KIM kept us all very well fed!
We used the antenna trailer originally built by Harvey K6QK (SK) which has been rebuilt and refurbished several times, including just a few months ago. Dennis N6KI arranged to get the work done.
Our QTH has always been the Desert View Tower (DVT), just off Interstate 8 before it heads “down the hill” to the Imperial Valley. The Tower is several hundred yards *inside* Imperial County! And Imperial County is always a “rare one” in the CQP contest. DVT is a wonderful radio location, and the property owner, Ben Schultz, has always made us feel very welcome.
We made over 2200 QSOs and got all 58 multipliers (in fact with the new rules this year, we actually got 60, but only 58 count). So we will have a big score for our entry category.
You can see photos at the link below.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/R9pTHsqL8wJzhTaw7"

CQWW CW is coming up at the end of this month. World-wide propagation should be FANTASTIC. You won't want to miss this one! Dan, N6MJ will be SOHP at ZF1A. Any other SCCC members heading out this year?

As we head into winter, we will experience longer nights and shorter days. This will of course help with propagation on the low bands during upcoming contests. We will still experience some great prop on the higher bands during the day but just shorter periods of it. Though at this point in Cycle 25, we may still experience propagation well into the evening and night on 20 and even 15. And on a good night, maybe even on 10, so you never know! But noise levels should be lower on 40 and 80 and even 160, so that will help with winter contesting.

The final results of the September NA Sprint CW contest are now out. The writeup says what we all knew, conditons on 20 were excellent but on 80, "not so much." Dan, N6MJ placed 8th, only 62 points behind N4AF. He was the only Op to do the classic two-band-change only thing. "In the old days," that's how we all did it. Run on 20 until it collapsed, move to 40 and run until it too collapsed, then go to 80 to finish the contest. Generally speaking, the later you could stay on 20 and 40, the better. In today's world, band changes are typically done many, many times in the Sprint. Second place finisher N9RV did 124 of them! on a separate note, Ron, WQ6X finished 3rd in the QRP category. He too did only two band changes.

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, write ups on station improvments or contest war stories please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
The University of Minnesota is older than the state itself!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Just announced is the ZF1A Multi-2 operation for CQWW SSB. Operators include SCCC members N6MJ and K6JO. Dan, N6MJ will be back at ZF1A as SOABHP next month in CQWW CW as well.

Also this month of course is the largest state QSO Party of them all: The California QSO Party (CQP)! October 7 and 8 is your chance to be The Hunted rather than The Hunter. Everyone will be trying to work YOU! Please note the 2023 rule changes. There are some VE mult changes, an addition of an M/2 class, a new clarification that live streaming is not allowed, some award changes, and ugh, there will be no T-shirts this year. Note that Self Spotting is NOT ALLOWED in this contest! Find all the details here at the CQP website!

And in November, we have the ARRL Sweepstakes CW November 4-6 and the SSB contest November 18-20, not to mention CQWW DX CW at the end of the month. Lots of other upcoming contests too as we head into what is often called Contest Season! Get ready to bang the scoreboards!

The August WW Digi Contest raw results have been published. Bruce, WA7BNM is running 6th in Single Op Low Power 15 meters. Check out the scores here.


Another popular electronics store has closed. We seem to be losing these more often nowadays. All Electronics Corp., located on Oxnard St. in Van Nuys, closed its doors on August 31 after nearly half a century in business. The company was incorporated in 1967. It is no longer accepting web orders either. The company had sold a myriad of components and supplies. Some of their long time employees have opened a similar business on the web and call it AREtronics. No word yet as to whether they will open a physical store. Their new website is at www.aretronics.com.

NCJ has released the preliminary results of the August NAQP contest. SCCC did not field any teams but Alex, W6AFA posted the highest score from California. The preliminary CW results are also posted. SCCC ran three teams for that one. Dana, K6NR had the 2nd highest score from California. Ron, WQ6X posted the top Single Op Assisted QRP score overall.

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, write ups on station improvments or contest war stories please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
A duel between three people is actually called a "truel."

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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From the ARRL Contest Update for August 16, 2023: "The ARRL Programs and Services committee has approved changes to the ARRL Affiliated Club Competition (ACC). The eligibility circle radius for clubs in the unlimited and medium categories active in the club competition will increase from 175 to 250 miles. The local club category radius will remain at 35 miles. Contest club secretaries should revisit their club's eligibility lists and make any necessary updates before the start of the next contest. Note that the new SCCC territory is now shown here on our website (see Territory tab in the main menu.) For more details regarding the ACC, visit http://www.arrl.org/contest-club-tools/ ."

From the same ARRL Contest Update: "Stu Phillips, K6TU, has announced that he is stepping down as curator of the Super Check Partial (SCP) list. Bill Fehring, W9KKN, will be taking over the role vacated by Stu. In parallel with the change of curator, SCP will no longer accept logs sent in via email. The implementation and support of the direct submission API into the major logging programs now generates more than 3000 logs each month. Please continue to send reports of busted callsigns, requests for adds, changes, etc., to logs@supercheckpartial.com. Be sure to check the latest release before making a request as most callsigns will now be automatically added when you participate in contests.
Stu added that he would like to thank the contesting community for all the support he has received over the years.

On Saturday, August 26, Dick, W6TK hosted his annual BBQ for DXers and Contesters at his home in Nipomo. There was a good turnout and from what I saw in one picture, Dick grilled some delicious tri-tip and chicken on his Weber grill! Let's give Dick a standing ovation! Dick announced at the gathering that this was his last time hosting this event but not to worry, Kent, N6WT will pick it up beginning next year. During the gathering, Dick, N6AA presented the 2022 SCDXC DXer of the Year award to Dick. A very fitting tribute. Speaking of N6AA, he gave an update on ARRL happenings including the recent dues increase. He also said that any ARRL Member can request a copy of the ARRL Annual Report. Google (or use your favorite seach engine) ARRL Form 990. He also said you can view ARRL Board Meeting Notes to get updates on those. Google to find them. Pictures from the W6TK BBQ can be found here. Thank you W6YI and N6WS for sending them along!

So how is Cycle 25 doing? According to a graph sourced from the NASA Space Weather Prediction Center, Cycle 25 sunspot numbers are rising much more quickly and sharply than the last cycle. And we are way ahead of the "official" prediction. One international team led by Dr. Scott McIntosh of the National Center for Atmospheric Research says that their method of prediction shows that Cycle 25 could be among the strongest cycles ever observed. You might not feel that way based on recent conditions with 15 and 10 meters often not playing nicely, but this is a result of a very active sun of late. There have been many solar flares that have caused some grief HF RF-wise. In fact, we had a near total RF blackout on Saturday, August 5 during the NAQP CW for about 10-20 minutes. 20 meters was the only band (including WARC bands) that continued to be active during that short blackout. The others were dead or nearly so. Let's hope we get some breaks from the flares during one of the upcoming major contest weekends...

Here is an interesting series of things about Solar Mysteries. https://www.wionews.com/web-stories/science/7-unsolved-mysteries-about-solar-system-1691688775354. If the presentation flies by too quickly for you, as it did me, just click the left arrow to go back a page.

The June issue of CQ Magazine quoted a Newsline report stating that vacuum tube manufacturing is making a comeback in the U.S. Ditto the Western Electric brand name. Apparently, the gentleman that purchased the rights to manufacture Western Electric tubes from AT&T 25 years ago is now ramping up his plant in Georgia. Now, don't expect 4-1000A's or such right out of the gate. He is starting with the venerable 12AX7 dual triode often found in guitar amplifiers. However, there are plans to add other tubes to the lineup. Apparently, he has plans to replace Russia and China as the dominant tube manufacturers one of these days!

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, write ups on station improvments or contest war stories please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
The UPC Barcode has its roots in Morse Code. Check it out in Wikipedia!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The results of the 2022 ARRL 10-Meter Contest are out. USA Single Op, Mixed Mode, High Power has Axel, KI6RRN piloting the FB station of WA6TQT and using club call NO6T taking top honors in the category. Jim, N6TJ at KH7Q took 6th place. In the SO Mixed Mode QRP category, Dorian, WA6FGV finished 6th. Single Op, Phone Only QRP has Bill, W8QZA (as W6QU) taking 2nd place. Dave, K6LL finished 6th in SO Unlimited, Mixed Mode High Power. The SCCC finished 5th in the Medium Club category with nearly 4.8 million points and 42 entries.

The 2022 WRTC contest in Italy is in the books. (The contest was rescheduled to 2023 due to the pandemic.) Our home team of Axel, KI6RRN and Marko, N5ZO finished 17th of 58 teams with 5.8 million points (claimed). They used the assigned callsign of I49K. The top score was posted by the UW7LL/VE3DZ team (I44W) with 7.5 million points (claimed). You can view the full standings on the WRTC web site. And thanks to those SCCCers that helped sponsor Axel and Marko. By the way, the 2026 WRTC event will be held in the United Kingdom and qualifying will begin with the 2023 CQWW SSB contest, ending with 2025 ARRL DX SSB. Will you be on one of the 50 qualifying teams?! Go for it!

Some comments from club members about last month's IARU contest: Paul, W8GJK tripled last year's score in half the time. He had a tuner fail the night before causing him to rearrange antenna plans. Obviously it worked though. Local QRM was "atrocious" on Saturday morning and he almost threw in the towel, but he came back later and found it was gone. He had a fantastic opening to Europe on 20 and then on 15. Asia was easy in the early morning on 40 and 20. Kent, N6WT said 15m was great most of the time. Bruce, WA7BNM was happily surprised to have a few Europeans answer his CQs on 15 while pointed at Japan. Never a bad thing! Jim, K6ZH was thrilled to work the WRTC contestants. 15 and 20m were in good shape much of the day, allowing him to work them. Nothing on 40 other than QRN though. He says a two hour run on 20 CW late Saturday evening was a rush! Joe, AA2IL got off to a very slow start so he threw in the towel after about an hour and took a nap! When he came back, 15 meters had opened and things improved from there, making it a very fun event. He said, "I'm absolutely amazed at how well the WRTC guys were able to pull out my peanut signal while I could barely hear them!" Terry, N6CW focused on working as many I4 and HQ stations as possible. He was surprised to actually work a few of the EU HQ stations with his low power. He said 20m was great Saturday night. Mike, W4EF (NI6W) did a relaxed, part time effort and said that 20 meters was on fire on Saturday night. He said that really put the wind in his sails after some earlier snafus. 15 was amazing as well and he even worked a couple of Europeans there at around 12:30 am local time! He was happy to hear and work so many of the WRTC stations. He was impressed by how well they matched in signal strength at any given time.

Bob, AA6PW said that 10 through 40 meters were in good shape but 10 was a bust. Late night and early morning was good into Europe and he was happy to work many of the WRTC stations. He used his new RF Kit RF2K-S amplifier for the first time in a contest and it was a pleasure to use and performed flawlessly. Jim, N6TJ was in Hawaii again, operating from the KH6ZM location and using the club call KH7M. He said that conditions weren't spectacular and 10 opened late. He worked 342 JA's and 342 Europeans. He only heard about six of the WRTC stations. John, W6JBR said conditions were amazing at his location, with incredible openings to EU on 15 and 20 meters. He thinks he worked every European HQ station! He also said, "I have never heard - and worked - so many Italian stations, they were more numerous than JAs usually are! Worked several Indonesian stations with no problem, whereas they usually never hear me. I hope these conditions continue." Bill, W8QZA was using the W6QU call as usual and was QRP SSB only. He had poor conditions during the first 8 hours and managed only 13 Q's! Finally, things warmed up and he had an unusual opening to Europe on 15 in the late afternoon. And then it got even better in the evening. He worked CR3Y late in the contest for his only Africa, completing WAC. Glen, K6NA did the contest sans internet and had a good time with it. Overall, he was happy with his results due mainly to spectacular conditions on 15 and 20. He experienced high QRN on the lower bands. Don, NK6A said that he took many breaks but was in the chair for the openings on 15 late Saturday afternoon and on 20 at night.

According to the Contest Expeditions site. Jim, N6TJ and a gaggle of others will be out in Hawaii again at KH6YY's station for a multi-multi effort in CQWW DX SSB in October. They will be using the KH6J KOOLAU AMATEUR RADIO CLUB club call sign. No word on the CW contest in November as of this writing.

The following news about the 2024 Hamvention hotel reservations came in last month.

"Attention Contesters and DXers!

Room reservations will be taken by the Hope Hotel for Hamvention week 2024 starting on Tuesday, July 18, 2023 at 9 AM EDT. Do not call them before that time. You can get room reservations by phone only. If you try to book on line you will see that there are no rooms for those dates. Every room in the Hope Hotel has been blocked for Contesters and DXers for Hamvention week. Starting Tuesday July 18, 2023 at 9 AM EDT, you can call 937-879-2696 and ask for a reservation in the Contest University 2024 room block. There is no minimum night commitment. Your room rate of $152 plus tax includes a hot buffet breakfast each day of your stay. The room rate is the same for a single queen, two queens or a single king with a pull out.

Good details are here:

http://contestsupersuite.com

Please spread the word to all Contest Club reflectors, etc.

https://www.hopehotel.com/

73,
Tim K3LR
For the Contest Hotel Committee

On a separate note, room reservations for the 2024 International DX Convention in Visalia opened July 31. Check here for details. The 2024 IDXC is April 12-14. These rooms often go quickly, so don't delay if interested.

Big news out of Newington, dated 23 July 2023. ARRL has made a tough but necessary decision to increase membership dues beginning January 1, 2024 and to separate the printed, mailed QST magazine from regular membership. If you are a Life Member, you will need to contact ARRL between September 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024 to request continuance of the printed version of QST at no charge. Obviously, inflation and ongoing challenges with operations and print drove this decision along with responses to their recent survey. ARRL notes that this is only the second time in 22 years that dues have increased. However, separating the printed version of QST for non-Life Members makes this much more painful if printed is your preference. The digital version of QST will remain a part of membership. That said, ARRL membership is important to many of us. There are a large number of services available from ARRL, most being free or free with membership. They also sponsor a large number of very popular contests. Perhaps most importantly, they are our voice at the FCC and at the WARC. Without them, we very likely would have far fewer operating priviledges. A copy of the email from Rick Broderick, K5UR, ARRL President appears below. As an aside, CQ Magazine is apparently experiencing challenges related costs to their printed magazine again this year. Many of us have not received an issue for several months. The digital version is fine I am told. More to follow on that subject.

Dated 23 July, 2023

A Message from ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR
Dear ARRL members,
Yesterday, the ARRL Board of Directors completed their second annual meeting. I'm writing to let you know that they made the tough, but necessary, decision to increase the regular membership dues rate to $59 a year starting January 1, 2024 (see 2024 Dues Rates). Additionally, we have chosen to separate the printed, mailed magazine from regular membership. Members will be able to choose whether they want to add-on a print subscription to any of our magazines including QST, On the Air, QEX, and NCJ. All members will continue to have online, digital access to each of these four magazines and the digital archive as part of their regular membership benefits.
This is only the second time in 22 years that ARRL has raised our dues. It is a necessary part of ensuring ARRL is supported so we can continue to promote and fight hard for our Amateur Radio Service, while providing benefits and services for our members that increase your knowledge and enjoyment of ham radio.
To help us make this decision, we invited every ARRL member to participate in a survey in May. Over 20,000 members responded (you can view the survey results here). We know from the survey results that most of you will find the new rate reasonable, or even ask why we didn't set it higher. We also know that some may find the rate is too high. As I've shared with many of you during my visits at hamfests and conventions, each of us has a responsibility to be active participants, and to support ARRL if we want to increase our ranks and ensure a lasting legacy for amateur radio's future.
You told us that you value ARRL's advocacy efforts, including spectrum defense, standing up to regulators and policymakers, and our work in other areas that defend, promote, and grow amateur radio - including STEM outreach to schools, teachers, and youth. There is no other organization that is working harder to advance a vision that allows any citizen to explore, develop, and practice radio communications and radio technology.
Your feedback showed us the many benefits, services, and programs you use - from Logbook of The World, to the work done by the ARRL Lab to test equipment for product reviews. While our magazines topped the list of benefits, many of you also shared that your reading preferences have changed. Some of you prefer print, and increasingly members prefer digital. As a result, for those who prefer print, you will be able to subscribe to QST and/or On the Air magazine. Again, all members will continue to have access to the digital editions of all four ARRL magazines.
Have you ever heard a Life Member say, "I got a good deal when I signed up for Life Membership 25 (or 30, or 40...) years ago." They're right! They got a good deal, but continuing to serve Life members is not sustainable without making some changes. So, we're going to freeze new applications for the program, not adding any new Life Memberships until we can price the offering to be revenue neutral over its term. And, again, as more members prefer digital, we'll be asking current Life Members to opt-in if they want to continue to receive QST by mail.
The cost of doing business goes up every year. During the last couple of years, the costs associated with printing and postage have increased significantly. We've cut and delayed hiring for some positions on our professional staff - one of the smallest teams we've had staffing our headquarters in Newington, Connecticut, in years. We are also continuing to examine other cost-saving measures, but we cannot go further without reducing or eliminating benefits and programs which our members have told us are important to them.
I can assure you that the ARRL Board exercises due diligence and oversight in making sure your association is a good steward of your membership dollars. The reality is that ARRL does a lot - in fact much more than dues cover.
ARRL shares your passion for amateur radio. We are committed to strengthening and growing our community, and protecting our rights to use and experiment on our amateur radio spectrum. We have a 109-year track record that includes YOU as part of that ongoing legacy of support for amateur radio and ARRL.

73
Rick Roderick, K5UR

Remember...The Quality and usefulness of the SCCC Newsletter (SCCCORE) depends on contributions from members. If you have photos from recent events, screen shots of new contest software, or brief writeups on station improvments or contest war stories please send them in any format to us via the webmaster. We really appreciate your contributions!

Strange but true...
There are 77 million pet dogs in the U.S. There are 58 million cats. There are 22,000 brands of pet food and treats! Over $40 billion is spent on dog and cat food every year!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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He says it worked amazingly! He logged 61 QSOs in just 90 minutes with this setup. Ryan, AI6DO didn't have much time to operate but threw up his usual 20/40 meter fan dipole and put in a couple of hours, mostly on Saturday. Ken, K6LA as VY2TT confirmed that 10 was poor but 15 and 20 made up for it. Frank, WA6KHK tested out his JK antenna at 80 feet for the first time. He logged over 1,000 Q's but said not many South American stations made it into the log. Steve, K0XP just played around as he had other things on the agenda. He thought conditions were poor on 15 and extremely noisy on 40 Saturday night. Disappointingly, he had to call most of the big gun stations 20-30 times to get them in the log. Bill, N6RV didn't find much on 10 or 40 meters. 20 was his money band. Dana, K6NR missed having 10 meters perform after having great conditions in February. Only 29 stations on 10 out of his 1200+ QSOs made it to the log. He said 40 was good to the Pacific but not to Europe. 15 and 20 were amazing well into the evening on Friday night but less so the rest of the time. He did struggle with QRN most of the weekend. Bruce, WA7BNM struggled to log much of any DX other than about four Caribbean stations. Bill W8QZA (W6QU) did his usual QRP thing and found conditions quite good except that they faded on him Sunday. He managed 50 DXCC countries and 21 zones, which he called average this time of the cycle. He worked NH7T on five bands. He had this funny comment: "By far the most amazing QSO I had in this contest was when N6BHX answered my CQ on 80 Meters. CQing on 80 is a total exercise in futility with my station, and I don't think I have ever done it before in 30 years of contesting. But there was not a single signal on the band so for some reason I decided to call CQ. After a minute or so I heard his signal!! I almost fell out of the op chair." Marko, N5ZO experienced noisy bands on Friday and worse on Sunday. He improved his score 10% over last year with 100 less Q's, focusing a bit on getting more DX into the log. He finished with a very nice score of 5.6M points.

The June ARRL VHF contest pleasantly surprised! We on the west coast are often blessed with good 6 meter propagation just before or just after the various VHF contests, with nothing or virtually nothing during! And with what has thus far been a mostly disappointing Es season on 6 (much fewer days of Es than normal), many were not expecting much this go round. Instead, prop was pretty good Saturday and there was very good north-south prop on Sunday afternoon and evening. This allowed for better than usual scores by SCCCers. Joe, AA2IL commented that it "Twas cool and rainy in DM12ox ... 6m was a lot of fun both days ... Actually made a bunch of CW QSOs for a change!" He logged 245 Q's on 6 and another 35 on 2m through 70cm. Jim, K6ZH said Saturday was tough but much better on Sunday. Most of his Q's were FT8 but he did manage some on CW, SSB and FT4. He picked up three all-time new FFMA grids (he is getting way up there in his quest for all 488!). He commented that he wishes there was a second calling frequency on FT8 so that when 6m opens like it did on Sunday, there isn't so much QRM. Mike, KX6A did a rover operation from DM13, DM03, DM04 and DM14. He said this was the first VHF contest where 6m provided some fun phone contacts. His best being Virginia while he was parked in a high school parking lot in Montebello.

Tom, KN6OKY did his first June VHF contest and had a lot of fun. He did 2 meters and 70cm only. Steve, K0XP had most of his QSOs on 6m and said he could not even work his own state on 2m CW. His only Q there was with Arizona. He did an analog only entry (no FT8 or other digital). Dennis, NE6I arrived home from a four day Palm Springs vacation Sunday afternoon and found 6 meters in good shape to the Pacific Northwest and surrounding areas. He got in five hours and recorded his highest score ever in this contest (but no new FFMA grids unfortunately). He worked several stations on CW and SSB, a first in this contest. Larry, K6RO had a tennis match in the way on Saturday and was only able to log 32 stations that night. He put another 127 in the log Sunday, mostly on 6m. Bruce, WA7BNM temporarily mounted 432 and 1.2G antennas on an extension ladder clamped to a fence with the antennas at 10-12 feet high. He also tried using a 30 year old 2m vertical and coax but couldn't even hear the locals. He managed one Q on 432 MHz and two on 903 but nothing on 1.2 Gig. He said he mostly operated FT8 but that it was nice to get some CW and SSB QSOs in the log. John, N6QQ recorded his best score ever for a VHF contest (48K+ points). He worked four stations in Europe and found 6m was very active on Sunday afternoon. The majority of his contacts were FT8 as he found little on CW or SSB. He's ready for the next one coming this month.

The link to the 2023 Dayton Hamvention Photo Gallery was released on the CQ-Contest reflector a couple of weeks ago by Tom, K8CX. Tom said there are 387 photos taken by him, and others submitted by N8AMY, WA3FET, K9PG, AC3GD and JA8RWU making a total of 444 photos this year! This makes a total of 7,105 Dayton Hamvention photos now up on Hamgallery.com, all searchable by callsign. (Note, hamgallery.com is not using the secure https so your browser may bark at you about it. If it does, you should be offered to click through the message to get to the photos.)

I don't know about you but I'm not ready to be at the solar maximum just yet. It's downhill after that and right now, I'm enjoying the improved conditions. According to an article in Business Insider, some scientists are predicting we could reach the Cycle 25 peak two years earlier than expected, possibly by the end of this year! Read about it here in this article.

From the ARRL website, "Congressmen Bill Johnson (OH-06) and Joe Courtney (CT-02) reintroduced a bill in the US House of Representatives on June 12 — H.R.4006 ... to remove private land use restrictions that prohibit, restrict, or impair the ability of Amateur Radio operators from operating and installing reasonable antennas on property that they own or control. Similar legislation, H.R. 9670, was introduced by Congressman Johnson in 2022." At least there is a renewed effort. We've seen these bills appear before Congress before only to go dead. And we would have to see what the definition of "reasonable" is because limiting amateurs to a two meter whip "ain't going to cut it." That said, we can hope for the best. Read ARRL's news article on the subject here. Of course, it wouldn't hurt for you to contact your local US House Representative expressing your full support of H.R. 4006 and why.

Strange but true...
50 years ago, in 1973, inflation had tripled, going from 3.4% to 9.6%. The country was in a recession, primarily due to an OPEC oil embargo against the United States and a Wall Street crash that caused a bear market. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion. The first handheld mobile phone was invented by Martin Cooper. MRI's were invented. Walkie-talkies were a popular Christmas gift. The average tuition at a four year college was $358. Minimum wage was $1.60. Gasoline was 38 cents a gallon. The average family income was $12,900. Bonanza, Laugh-In, and Mission Impossible all ended their TV runs, and All in the Family was atop the Nielsen ratings. An ounce of gold cost $106.48. Closer to home, there were no 2x1 or 2x2 callsigns in the U.S. My, how things have changed since then!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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It is with great sadness that we report the passing of long time SCCC member Chip Margelli, K7JA and also a long time employee of Yaesu. He passed away on May 25 and leaves a legacy of many, many contest entries (and wins!) over his many years in amateur radio. According to his QRZ.com page, he was a twelve time national winner of ARRL November Sweepstakes, a World winner of CQ World-Wide DX Contest (Phone), National Winner of the ARRL DX Contest, both Phone and CW, and a five-time world champion in the All-Asian DX Contest. He was also a Silver Medalist at the 1990 World Radiosport Team Championship with partner Mike Wetzel, W9RE. He was in the First-Class CW Operators' Club (FOC) #2123. He was also a 2008 inductee into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. In 2005, he and Ken, K6CTW faced off against a pair of young text messaging whippersnappers on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Old guys versus young guys. Who would win? Which technology was faster, CW or text messaging? Well, Chip and Ken beat the young whippersnappers and he professed, "Old guys rule!" Read the full story here. Also of interest is the fact that Chip had written a chapter about the New Digital Mode Revolution in CQ's 2nd Edition of the book "VHF Propagation". He had also appeared on several podcasts over the years (check your favorite seach engine).

The ARRL June VHF Contest is this month on the weekend of the 10th through the 12th. If you haven't dipped your toe into one of these VHF contests, you should give it a try. They are a lot of fun, especially if propagation blesses us with Sporadic-E! And not that it always does, or does for more than short periods, but being June, it often does give us some great prop on 6 meters. While you will find most people on 6, and even some very serious ones on 6 only, others are on 2 meters and up as well. I know that years ago, Marty, N6VI was very active from his home QTH in these VHF contests and operated on many of the VHF and UHF bands. Nowadays, it's true you will find most of the activity on FT8. When 6 meters opens up via Sporadic E, you'll also find many contacts on CW (usually 50.090 to 50.100) and SSB (usually 50.125 to 50.200), and on those modes, the guys are really rattling off the contacts. FT8 on the other hand lets you work signals as low as -25 dB signal to noise or so! Let me say that again. You can work signals that are 25 dB below the noise while using FT8! I know that many SCCC members are averse to FT8. What you will find is that during a healthy band opening (HF or VHF!), it is every bit as challenging as CW. Action is fast and furious and it's more than just click and let your computer work someone. You'd be amazed. And FT4 should not be forgotten either. QSOs are much, much quicker than on FT8, albeit at a 4 dB hit in S/N capability. MSK144 meteor scatter will often yield contacts in the morning just before sunrise and into the morning. Also, don't forget FM simplex. Activity has bounced back there in recent years. Check the usual simplex freqs, or you could even enter the newer FM Only category! Point being, if you haven't already, give this contest a try. No 6 or 2 meter antenna? Note that antenna size is much smaller than even 10 meter antennas! Use horizontal if you can only do one or the other unless you are going FM Only. Then, do vertical. Also, antenna height does not need to be 50, 80 or 100 feet as we often think for HF. 10 foot off the ground will actually get you started. 20 ft is better of course and if you can get to 50, you're golden but there is no need to write it off if you can't do more than 10 foot. I can tell you first hand! Most rigs manufactured in the past decade or so include 6 meters, so unless you are using an old Heathkit or Swan, you're probably halfway there! Do you need a KW? It's nice to have but 100 watts will work pretty darn well on 6m! Even less on 2m. Here is a little podcast by ARRL about this contest. Hope to see you on the air that weekend! Rules can be found here on the ARRL website.

Two weeks later is Field Day. While officially, it's not a contest, many approach it as such. In fact, more than forty years ago, the SCCC produced some mammoth scores and was featured on the cover of QST one year. You can read all about it on Wayne, N6NB's website! I know many of you will be out with your local clubs this year helping out. Have fun!

The final 2022 CQWW DX SSB and CW contest results and write ups have been published. In the case of SSB, the summary report says that the days of 1,000+ QSO 10 meter logs have returned! While log totals were down 10% from 2021, CQ still received 9004 logs. Bill, W8QZA operated as W6QU again and cracked the top ten in the QRP Single Op All Band category (2nd place USA). Dave, W6ZL finished 5th USA on 28 MHz USA LP Assisted. Alex, W6AFA was 2nd place USA HP Assisted on 21 MHz. On the CW side, Ken, K6LA piloted VY2TT to 6th place in the World SO HP All Band. Mr. Jim Neiger, N6TJ was at KH6YY using the callsign KH7Q and took 1st place SO HP 21 MHz! Axel, KI6RRN used the NO6T call while operating remote at WA6TQT and took 4th place USA SO All Band HP. Jim, W6YA was 4th USA SO HP 21 MHz. Bruce, WA7BNM was 4th place USA SO LP on 21 MHz. In the Club scores, SCCC's 71 entries were enough for 9th place overall. With Cycle 25 still on the up swing, the October and November CQWW contests should bring even more high scores! Start making your plans now!

Changes to ARRL VHF+ Contest Rules Announced

The ARRL Programs and Services Committee has approved rule changes to the ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest, and the January, June, and September VHF contests, effective with the 2023 10 GHz and Up Contest, and the 2023 September VHF contest. In the 10 GHz and Up event, distance point multipliers have been added for each band as follows: 10 GHz 1x; 24 GHz 2x; 47 GHz 3x; 75 GHz 4x; 122 GHz and above 5x. For example, an 80 km contact made on 10 GHz would be worth 80 points while the same contact made on 47 GHz would be worth 240 points.

Starting in September, in the January, June, and September VHF contests, contacts made on 902 Mhz and 1.2 GHz will be allowed for participants in the FM-Only category. Currently, the category only allows contacts on 50, 144, 222 and 432 MHz. Additionally, there will be changes to the Affiliated Club Competition scoring for entrants in the Rover categories. For a Rover's score to be included in their club's score, the entrant must make contacts from somewhere within the club's territory during the course of the contest.

Contact the ARRL Contest Program at contests@arrl.org for more information regarding these changes.

Are you updating your countries file regularly? What about your Super Check Partial file? The country files are often updated a couple of times a month (or even more). If you are using N1MM+ as your contest logging software, you will want to manually click on Tools, "Download and install latest country file" prior to each contest. Not doing so won't affect your final score as calculated by the associated contest committe but WILL affect your scoring and multiplier count on the N1MM+ summary window, which may be of importance to you, especially if you are using the multiplier window. I can't speak to other contest logging softwares but this is likely true there too. If you are using a general logging software outside of contesting as I am, you may or may not need to update the country file manually. I use N3FJP's ACLog and it updates automatically upon boot up if a new file is available. Your mileage may vary. Now, if you are a user of Super Check Partial for contesting, and you are using N1MM+, you will want to again manually update via Tools, "Download and install latest Check Partial File" prior to each contest. If using another contest logging software, be sure to check if this is automatic or manual. If you need to manually download the latest country file, as in download and place it in a folder yourself (no option to do it in the software menu), go here to find your required file. For Super Check Partial files, go here. Nudge to the N1MM+ guys...perhaps in a future software rev, your software could check for a new update to the country and Super Check Partial files automatically and download / install it or at least prompt to do so.

Strange but true...
People don't sneeze in their sleep due to their brain shutting down the reflex. (Wouldn't it be great if our brains would also do that during a contest?!)

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The 2022 CQWW RTTY DX Contest results have been published in CQ Magazine. Bill, W8QZA piloted W6QU to second place in the USA in the Single Op All Band QRP category. The results have not yet appeared online as of this writing but should eventually show up here.

Getting ready for Field Day next month? If you are a user of the N3FJP suite of contest loggers, you will want to download the updated ARRL Field Day Contest Log v6.6.7. This update includes support for the 2023 rule changes announced by ARRL. You can get the latest version here.

NCJ has published the results of the January, SSB contests. On the CW side, Tree, N6TR (part of the SCCC #1 team) finished 7th overall in the SO Unassisted category. Marko, N5ZO was second in the Assisted group. A strong SCCC #1 team was only able to muster 9th place in the team category. Obviously there were many other strong teams as well. The contest manager reported a huge increase in 10 meter QSOs overall this go round, nearly 50,000 as compared to just 13,000 in January 2022. Cycle 25 is making its presence known! In the SSB contest, we had very few entrants. SSB is not really our forte and is much less popular than CW with our club members. You can check out the results though by clicking the link above.

Dick, N6AA who is the ARRL Southwestern Division Director has announced that Mike Fulcher, KC7V has taken over as the Southwestern Division rep on the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee (CAC). Glenn, K6NA has stepped down from the position after many years of service. Mike has been a member of the First Class CW Operators Club (FOC) since 1993. He's an avid contester and DXer. He was first licensed in 1972 and is a member of the VooDoo Contest Group and the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club. He as done single op or been part of multi-op efforts at 3E3E, 3X5A, 4B2A, 4U0ITU, 5U5Z, 5V7A, 9G5AA, 9K2HN, CN5N, EL2A, HH2AA, KH2A, KP2A, KP2N, N7AT, NA7TB, ND7K, NN7AZ, TY5A, TZ5A, XT2DX, ZC4Z, and ZF2WW. He was also a referee at the 1996, 2006, 2014 and 2018 WRTCs.

Speaking of Dick, the WRTC team has announced that he has joined the Judging Committee. The contest will take place during the IARU 2023 HF Championship on July 8 and 9 of this year.

Congratulations to SCCC member Dick, W6TK! Dick was elected the 2022 DXer of the Year in the Southern California DX Club! The SCDXC May newsletter has this to say about him: "Dick is a superb operator and a real gentleman. He and his wife, Liz, with help from other central coast hams, have hosted the Summer Bash in Nipomo for several years. He has travelled and operated from semi-rare locales including Uganda where he helped set up a station for his son’s family. He is active everyday on DXChat and chasing the elusive ones with the rest of the us. If someone needs help, Dick is there. No one deserves this award more!"




It is with great sadness that we report that Wild Bill, WB6BFG passed away on April 17. He had been battling cancer. Bill was an active person and had helped many fellow hams over the years. He will be missed.









Kurt, W6PH and friends put together a sort of impromptu Friday night dinner gathering at the recently concluded Internnational DX Convention in Visalia. Tim, N6GP sent along this photo via the SCCC reflector.









My call for other photos from the DX Convention turned up some good ones. Thanks to those of you that sent them along! Enjoy!

First up is NCCC's Bob Wilson, N6TV's annual collection of photos. You'll undoubtedly recognize a large number of familiar faces, names and calls in the photos.

There are also a large number of photos published in the May edition of the SCDXC newsletter. The link published here with the permission of Bill, N6RV.

Bill, N6WS has his collection of photos published here.

And Scott, N6MI sent along these photos.

Thanks again for sending along the photos, guys!

Strange but true...
Bluetooth, as in bluetooth technology, was named after a 10th century king, King Harald Bluetooth. He united Denmark and Norway -- just like the wireless technology united computers and cell phones.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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John, W6JBR said conditions were fantastic. He experienced an amazing opening on 20m during the middle of the night/early morning Saturday. In fact, he worked EU countries that he didn't even think had active hams! Bill, W6QU (@W8QZA) also reported great conditions. He too was on for the late night 20 meter opening, and also found a polar path on 15 into northern Europe. He snagged JT1CO on 15 in the early evening. Dick, W6TK started an hour late on 10m Friday evening but the band sounded great. He was crashing the pileups without issue. 40 was good into Europe as well. Saturday afternoon, conditions seemd to deteriorate for him. Alan, K7ACZ was surprised by the big openings on 10 meters. 20 is usually his hottest band but not this year. He missed his normal 20m sunrise opening to Europe. There were almost no signals, he said (perhaps EU was already on 15 and 10?). He had high winds over the weekend so he had cranked his tower down from 85 feet to 50 feet up. This prevented him from working 80 and 160 since the slopers were too close to the ground. Larry, K6RO said 10 meters sounded like the old days.

Final results of the February NA Sprint CW have now been published by NCJ. Marko, N5ZO took 7th place overall and Dick, N6AA took 10th. David, N6AN used the W6AQ callsign and placed 5th in the QRP category. The SCCC #1 team finished fourth. Great job, all!

ARRL published the results of the 2022 September VHF Contest. Tim, N6GP placed 4th in the Limited Rover category. Endaf, N6UTC took 3rd in the Single Op FM Only category. As of this writing, ARRL had not published the results online but they should appear here at some point.

Welcome aboard to new SCCC member Thomas, KN6OKY located in the San Diego area (Chula Vista, to be speciific). Thomas is a relatively newly licensed ham, having acquired his Tech license in April of 2021 and his General the followinng July. He's already tried his hand at several contests, both HF and VHF. Thomas was in the U.S. Army for 31 years and his first job there was as a radio teletype operator. Thank you for your service, Thomas, and we look forward to adding your scores to our club scores.

As we have written here recently, HRO San Diego closed it's doors last month. Here are a couple of photos of the antennas and tower being removed. Sad day. Dennis, N6KI shared this collage of HRO San Diego memories put together by local N6SIX: posted on YouTube.

In case you missed it, or are not an ARRL member, QST recently reviewed the new Elecraft K4D transceiver. The K3 has long been a favorite of contesters and DXers alike, and while the K4 ranks a bit lower in the Sherwood Engineering Receiver Data table, it may not be significantly lower enough to notice. And the K4 adds several new features not found in the K3. Elecraft has now published the ARRL review for our discerning reading pleasure. We know that a couple of SCCCers already own the K4 and seem to be very happy with it.

Going to the Dayton Hamvention this year? The latest list of contesting related events can be found here.

And if you are going to the Visalia International DX Convention this month (April 21-23), be sure to stop by the NCDXF booth. They will be showing off a RIB (Radio in a Box) and you can operate one remotely that is in French Polynesia! The units are currently being tested at variius DX locations, and offer the ability to be set up quickly, efficiently and economically. It is likely only a matter of time before one is deployed for contest operation! Also of interest to many of you will be the 3Y0J presentation by KO8SCA and WD5COV. While that DXpedition was not a contest related one, it WAS to the #2 Most Wanted DXCC entity. Due to unforseen challenges despite immense planning and mega dollars, it fell way short of hoped for QSO totals. The pair will share with the audience their experience in activating such a rare and challenging location. Also presenting at Visalia (on Saturday) will be Jim, K6ZH. He will be doing his "K6ZH, 60 years of ham radio and eventually working them all" again. As of this writing, he wasn't sure of the time slot. On Friday at 9:00 am, Paul, W6PNG and Scott, N6MI will be doing a "fast and fun" presentation about their adventures using Paul's Jeep station and Scott's mobile news van. On a separate note, the IDXC website says there will be no Contest Dinner this year. Some SCCCers are discussing on the club reflector having an informal one instead.

By now, you've probably read Part 2 of Jim, N6TJ's "70 Years of Contest Memories" in the March/April edition of The National Contest Journal (NCJ). His stories are fascinating. If you don't get the print edition but are an ARRL member, you can read NCJ online free of charge on the ARRL website. And good news: Jim teases us at the end of Part 2 indicating that a Part 3 is up next!

Reminder: if you have a personal ham radio website, we can list it here on the SCCC site. Or if you have a contest plaque or certificate you'd like to share with us, we can do that too. And if you have news about station changes, contest plans, Contest-peditions, tips or tricks, station photos or pictures of you operating, etc., let us know. Bought a new radio, antenna or station accessory lately? Send us a review! Any and all can be shared here on our contest club website!

Several issues ago, QST Magazine had an article on how to identify unmarked ferrites. Ferrites come in handy for reducing or eliminating RFI. They come in different "mixes" with each mix working best in a certain range of frequencies. Mix 31 and Mix 43 are the ferrites most commonly used by amateur radio operators. According to the Palomar Engineers website, Mix 31 is best for applications from 1 to 10 MHz and 43 to 250 MHz. Mix 43 is best for 25-300 MHz use. Unfortunately however, ferrites do not come stamped with which Mix they are so it's easy to lose track of what you have if you have more than one type. One suggestion I've read about is to use "Wite Out" made by BIC to write the Mix number on the ferrites. You remember "Wite Out," don't you? The stuff that we used to use to correct a mistake made on a typewriter. (If you don't know what a typewriter is, you're not an old fart like me!) But I have found a more elegant solution. I use my trusty new Brady P-touch label maker. It makes nice, professional looking labels that can be sized to fit well on many different things in the shack, including as it turns out, ferrites! There are several brands of label makers out there and I'm sure they all do the job well. In my shack, I am one of the un-blessed ones to get RFI into my shack computer on certain bands, especially 30 and 6 meters. The ferrites do an admirable job of knocking down the signals that cause me all sorts of computer grief. I've included a couple of pictures of my labeled ferrites below.



Strange but true...
In 2014, a missing woman on a vacation in Iceland was found when it was discovered that she was in the search party looking for herself.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Ham Radio Outlet San Diego closed on February 25. According to the announcement, HRO was informed by their building owner that the lease would not be reviewed. HRO attempted to find an alternative location but between recent increases in rent and poor business policies by the state, county and city governments, they found it all but impossible to find an affordable location. It's always a shame to lose a ham radio retail outlet but we thank HRO San Diego for many years of great service to the area. The main HRO website www.hamradio.com remains available 24x7x365. And the Anaheim location remains open for those wanting to visit in person. Ironically, there was a short article in the February, 2023 issue of CQ Magazine about the history of HRO including its focus on being a family oriented business. No mention of the San Diego outlet. I'm sure the decision to close this location came after the due date for the issue's publication.







Preliminary results of the February North American Sprint CW contest have been published by NCJ. Full results are coming soon according to the magazine.

It's still not too late to register for the 74th International DX Convention in Visalia. Finding a place to stay overnight might be challenging at this late date but as you may know, this is one of the premier DX and contesting conventions on the planet Earth. If you are just now wanting to register and go, perhaps you can find a room to share with someone already registered, or find a room in a nearby hotel. You won't be disappointed attending the convention itself!

The 2023 edition of the ARRL DX CW contest is in the books. Much to anyone's amazement, the SFI started out at 343 on Friday evening and into Saturday! This was caused by an approaching CME from the sun and certainly is the highest we've seen yet in Cycle 25. It settled back down to more normal 160s on Sunday. Here is what some SCCC members said about their experience in the contest this year. Bill, N6RV was expecting major radio blackouts and disturbed conditions. Instead, it was just the opposite. 10 and 15 meters were so quiet that he thought his radio was kaput. He found both bands loaded with DX and that made it hard for him to leave for other bands. 20 stayed open the entire contest for him and he copied Europeans there at all hours. 40 performed more like 20 usually does and even 80 had some great DX. He was able to run stations on all bands 40 through 10, a rarity for him. He now knows what it's like to have a continuous pile of people calling on top of each other. John, W6JBR said 10m was smoking hot, with Europe slamming through in the morning. Jim, W6KC kept his short and sweet: "I had a blast!" Jim, W6YA said it's been many long years since 15 sounded so good (he was single band 15 in the contest). He did have a lot of aurora echo and distortion on Sunday morning though but by mid-morning, that was over and done. He did expect better than the 108 mults he logged. Joe, AA2IL wished he had more time to play because band conditions were great!

Chip, K7JA was single band 10 meters. He missed the Friday night opening and the first part of Saturday due to some local club responsibilities. However, he still managed to generate large pileups with only 100 watts and a tribander. Like W6YA, he found mults in short supply. It was great, he said, to be called by a number of Zone 16 and Zone 20 stations. Ken, K6LA operated VY2TT again and 10 meters was THE BAND for him. 1192 Q's there alone! Conditions were so good on 10 and 15 that he was almost able to forget about his 40m rotator and the top 20m antenna in his stack being frozen despite having heat tape turned on on them. Fortunately, both antennas were pointed at EU but that didn't help with Asia. Ken, K6RO got his new MA40 tower and JK Navassa yagi up a few days before the contest and felt really loud. He was planning just a short operation but wound up doing 31 hours off and on. He's lookng forward to future contests from his new QTH. He thanked Axel and Adam for their great work getting his station back on the air. Dick, W6TK was running his new RF2K-S solid state amplifier and said that it worked really well for him, running cool with no issues. He managed a few runs on 10-20 meters. Some other committments kept him from getting more time in than he would have liked. He said it was great to see 10 and 15 in such great shape. Thus he didn't spend much time on 20 and 40. Steve, K0XP was on mainly to add to his 10 and 160 DXCC totals. He said the 10m conditions were unbelievable over the weekend. Get this though. He used his 160m inverted L with a tuner on 10 and still put 488 Q's in the log! Nicely done!

Bruce, WA7BNM was single band 15. He reported great conditions into all of Europe on Saturday morning. He was able to easily work virtually all of the stations that couldn't hear him last year. Dana, K6NR said these were the best conditions he's heard in nine years or so. On Saturday morning, 10m was filled with signals. He found a blank spot up the band above 28.150, called CQ once and had an instant pileup larger than any he's experienced before. He had many Europeans, all about the same strength and all on the same exact frequency, apparently having clicked on a spot. Sunday morning was also great, he said, with Europe coming through most of the morning. 15, 20 and 40 were also good for him, and he also worked a few EU's on 80. He even got one on 160! JA was strong on all bands, he said. Terry, N6CW felt antenna challenged with just an AV-640 vertical. Never-the-less, he logged 1,127 contacts! He said it was the first time in a long time that 10 meters was his best band. He struggled on 20, and 40 was poor for him on Saturday night. He kicked himself for not staying up late to run some JA's on 40 to push him over a million points. Glenn, K6NA reported "wonderful conditions." He discovered a bad section of hardline Friday causing him to miss the first three hours of the contest while he made repairs. Never-the-less, he had a great time the rest of the weekend. Kurt, W6PH felt like he was in W1 land, running Europeans on 10 meters like never before. He called it absolutely amazing. It reminded him of Cycle 19 back in 1957. When 10 began to fade mid-Saturday morning, he went to 15 and had the same result. 20 didn't perform like that so he did S&P there until the JAs started coming through. Sunday, he found more of the same across the bands. He called it a fantastic propagation weekend! Tim, N6GP said 10 was as good as he's seen for ARRL DX. He too was able run Europe during the morning. He wished he'd run single band. He had a lot of fun on 40 meters as well.

Here's something that could be fun AND helpful to science. NASA is looking for information on contacts made during solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024. They say your recorded signals will help create valuable data to test computer models of the ionosphere. For more information click here.

Had to share as this doesn't happen everyday to me. I had a short QSO with OE8DDX on 12 meters in late February. A short time later, I received a nice email from Luca thanking me for the QSO and asking for a QSL card. He told me he is age 14 and the youngest ham in Austria! Checking his QRZ page, I learned that he received his ham license at age 11! It brought back memories for me. I got my own license a few months after my 15th birthday. I still remember the excitement of opening the mail that day as well as my first few QSOs. I am sure that Luca is having those same feelings and having a lot of fun in amateur radio. Glad to see a youngster like him on the air and working some DX! (And yes, my QSL went out to him in the mail the following day!)

Strange but true...
Restaurants can sing "Happy Birthday" now because the copyright claims are now null and void.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The ARRL International DX CW contest is later this month. With conditions continuing to be on the rise, it should be a good one and we can expect some big scores!

Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio on December 22 introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate private land restrictions that "prohibit, restrict, or impair the ability of an Amateur Radio Operator from operating and installing amateur station antennas on property subject to the control of the Amateur Radio Operator." The bill was assigned as H.R.9670. We can only hope that this bill gains some traction. See more here on the ARRL website. Fingers crossed.

In case you missed it, Jim, K6ZH did a fun presentation late last month on his 60 years in ham radio. Jim did it live and in person at the San Diego DX Club meeting with many others attending via Zoom (SCCCers were invited to join). He shared how he became interested in radio early on by hearing far away stations on his little AM radio and wondering how that was happening. Later he became fascinated with TV broadcast DXing. These things ignited the spark that led him to getting his amateur radio license and becoming an engineer. He also shared many of his experiences in ham radio from throughout his life, pointing out many of the Elmers that helped him. One of his stories caught my ear in particular: his chase for DXCC #1, as in "working them all" (including the elusive P5 North Korea!). Now, you might think that P5 was his last one to attain top of the Honor Roll. But you'd be wrong. It was actually VK0EK Heard Island. He said that propogation during that DXpedition had been very poor to the West Coast, but one day VK0EK popped up out of the noise just long enough for Jim to get him in the log. This reminded me of my own experience working VK0 for the first time. For me, it was back in August of 1983. VK0DA was on the air from Heard but not many of us on the west coast were hearing him. One night after dark our time, he was scheduled to be on 20 meter SSB at a predetermined hour specifically looking for for the west coast. A few of us locals hung out on 2 meter simplex talking DX and whatnot (I think it was 146.43 or .46 [definitely not the standard .52 or even the .94 simplex channel that was often used at the time]). That night we were talking about our chances of hearing VK0DA. All of a sudden, I started to hear something. I popped the headphones on and lo and behold, it was HIM! I started calling. The others on the 2m simplex channel couldn't hear him yet and were saying I was bluffing. Only I wasn't. After a few tries, VK0DA and I exchanged reports and I was in the log! A couple of minutes later, he came up in strength enough for the others to hear and work him. It wasn't that I had a superior station. I just got lucky. About five minutes later, he faded out and that was that. Quite the experience. (By the way, I did work VK0EK in 2016 too, getting him on 30 and 40 CW that time. Heard is a tough one for the west coast.) Anyway, it was a fun night listening to Jim's stories and history. We have the video posted here on the website. Thanks for sharing those, Jim!

The North Coast Contesters are proud to announce:

The 29th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner at the Hope Hotel - Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio https://www.hopehotel.com/

2023 Contest Dinner tickets are on sale now exclusively via our web site.

HUGE thanks to Scott, KA9FOX and QTH.com for designing, building, donating and running the Contest Dinner web site.

http://contestdinner.com

Master of Ceremonies for the 2023 Dayton Contest Dinner is Contest Hall of Fame member and CQ WorlWide Contest Director, John Dorr, K1AR.

Thanks to Teri, K8MNJ for coordinating and organizing the 2023 Contest Dinner.

The 2023 Contest Hall of Fame inductees will be announced during the 2023 Dayton Contest Dinner.

Thanks to Icom America and DX Engineering - the MAIN prize is a Icom IC-7610

I am very excited that our KEYNOTE speaker is CW (over 60 wpm) lover and noted super youth contester, Bryant, KG5HVO

The Dayton Contest Dinner will be held on Saturday night, May 20, 2023 at 6:30 PM Cash bar opens at 5:30 PM at the Hope Hotel.

Located at the Hope Hotel (Official Contester Hotel) https://www.hopehotel.com/

Seating is random. Tables are set in rounds of 10.

You can purchase an entire table for your group/club (purchased group tables are set for round 10). Lots of clubs reserve. Full Table purchases are reserved seating.

Tickets are only available on http://contestdinner.com

There are no tickets for sale at the door.

The 35th annual Contest Super Suite (all FOUR nights during Hamvention) details are here: http://contestsupersuite.com

And the 18th Annual Dayton Contest University seats are filling up fast http://contestuniversity.com

The 33rd annual Dayton Top Band Dinner tickets are available at http://topbanddinner.com

We expect another sold out event for the 2023 Dayton Contest dinner. Over 550 have attended the Contest Dinner in the past. Get your tickets early! http://contestdinner.com

73!
Tim K3LR
Dayton Contest Dinner Chairman - 29 years

WRTC Sanctioning Committee Now Accepting Proposals for 2026 Hosting

(Ljubljana, Slovenia - 15 January 2023) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The World Radiosport Team Championship Sanctioning Committee (WRTC-SC) today announced that it is accepting proposals for hosting the 2026 WRTC event.

The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) is an on-site amateur radio competition, usually held every four years. Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle, USA (1990); San Francisco, USA (1996); Bled, Slovenia (2000); Helsinki, Finland (2002); Florianopolis, Brazil (2006); Moscow, Russia (2010); Boston, USA (2014); and Wittenberg, Germany (2018).

WRTC2022, delayed due to the worldwide public health challenges and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, is scheduled to be held in Bologna, Italy in July 2023.

Teams of two operators representing a geographical region of the world come to the host site to compete using similar antennas and locations, overseen by on-site referees. The WRTC competition has typically been held as a contest-within-a-contest coincident with the IARU World HF Championship to capitalize on the high activity of a popular world-wide operating event.

Groups interested in hosting WRTC2026 should submit a Letter of Intent, with a summary proposal. This should include the following items:

* Committee Organization, identifying each of the principals involved and any relevant organizational and amateur radio experience especially in contesting/radiosport

* Competition Description, including planned number of teams, geographic location of operating sites, and competitor selection process

* Social Aspects, including approximate schedule, travel, and housing arrangements for participants

* Financing, including an outline of the budget and fundraising approach. A detailed budget is not required at this time.

* Expected assistance and involvement from local and regional amateur radio organizations and regulatory authorities

* Public Exposure, including plans to publicize and promote the event locally and worldwide

Letters of Intent must be submitted no later than March 31, 2023 at 2359 UTC. The WRTC-SC will review all proposals received and will respond by April 30, 2023. Additional information may be requested.

It is the goal of the WRTC-SC to announce the venue for WRTC2026 at the close of WRTC2022 in Bologna in July 2023. Letters of Intent should be submitted directly to the Chairman of the WRTC Sanctioning Committee, Tine Brajnik, S50A, via email to tine.brajnik@gmail.com

Members of SCCC have been invited to participate in a W1AW/6 Special Event February 15-21, 2023.

As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be operating from all corners of land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be approved to operate their stations during two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4.

California's first week starts February 15, 2023, at 0000z and will run through February 21, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/6. Each state coordinator will approve time, band, and mode slots throughout the week and hams will be able to operate their stations using W1AW/x.

If you wish to be one of the official W1AW/6 authorized operators for California, you must first email the CA VOTA Coordinator: John Litz, NZ6Q at nz6q@arrl.org . You may also call John at 209-687-0774. Once approved, you may, subject to the following conditions, select any available one-hour operating time slot for the band and mode (SSB, CW, Digital) of your choice. Once selected, it's selected - NO CLAIM JUMPING !! Use an approved electronic logging program capable of creating an ADIF file. You will email your files to the coordinator.

All approved W1AW/6 operators are expected to observe all FCC regulations, including only operating on frequencies allocated to their license class and at permitted power levels. Violators, may, unless The Old Man is merciful, be Wouff-Honged!

By a toss of the 2023 Toys for Tots US Marine Corp coin, it was decided that Northern CA would primarily sign-up to cover WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY, SUNDAY and Southern CA would primarily cover THURSDAY, SATURDAY, MONDAY. Tuesday is open for both North and South.

Minimum station requirements:
- 100W + yagi or hexbeam or better on 20-15-10M
- 100W (or more up to Legal Limit) + good vertical or dipole antenna on 80-40M

Be comfortable with the modes you select. If you work a lot of FT-8 or your station may be limited then sign-up on FT-8. If you like RTTY or digital do that. If you have a solid station on all bands then sign-up for bands/modes/times following the guidelines below.

Portable W1AW Rules
• Each operator must follow the rules for their own license class. Stay in the sub-bands that you are legally allowed to operate.
• Operators can operate anywhere in the state. Please observe the above guidelines when choosing your time/mode slots.
• ARRL members that contact the Portable W1AW stations will receive 5 points in the VOTA event.
• Each band/mode combination can be activated simultaneously. For example, N6ACL could be working on 20M SSB, N5SML could be working on 20M FT8, NZ6Q could be working on 20 M CW, and K6WX could be on 40 M SSB, all at the same time.
• The state weekly assignments are shown in the W1AW/ Schedule area at http://vota.arrl.org State operations start at 0000z each Wednesday and stop at 2359z the following Tuesday.
• Operations are not allowed on the 12 M, 17 M, 30 M, 60 M, 630 M, or 2190 M bands.
• All logs for the week must be consolidated into one ADIF file and sent to the state coordinator to be uploaded to LoTW.
• When you sign up for a one-hour slot, you are also selecting a band and a mode. Signing up for CW on 20M is one slot, phone and digital modes are two other slots.
• One operator per band/mode at the same time. (i.e. two stations cannot be on 40CW or 20 SSB from CA at the same time)
• You may only use the band and mode you have selected, for the time period you requested. You may request multiple slots throughout the week. To allow for as many stations as possible to operate, please limit yourself to no more than 4 hours in a row on any band and mode. You are encouraged to select multiple modes (i.e... 2 hours on CW, 2 hours on SSB, 2 hours on RTTY on any band is a full day - and it gives others the chance to participate.
• Check back on the sign-up sheet often & during the event. If you're operating 20M FT8 for two hours, but the next hour is open and you want to continue, then add your call into that 3rd hour and continue...

If you have any questions, please contact the California State Coordinator John Litz at nz6q@arrl.org or by phone 209-687-0774.

Strange but true...
The small indents in the bottom of frozen pizzas are there to prevent air bubbles forming inside the dough.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Dean, N6DE announced late last month the release of the final results of the California QSO Party! Marko, N5ZO took 1st Place in the Single Op High Power category using the NT6Q club call. George, W6AYC took top honors in the SOLP category, and David N6AN took 1st in the SO QRP category as W6NL. He also set a new all-time record in that one. These gave the SCCC a clean sweep of the three unassisted categories (not counting the Expeditions). The NCCC took 1st place in all of the assisted categories. Also of note, Eric, NC6K set a new SO(A)HP record for San Diego County, and Ron, K2RP set a new standard in the SO(A)QRP category for San Diego County. With conditions improving immensely as we head upward in Cycle 25, next year might see even more records fall! Full line scores can be found here and all of the other summaries can be found on the main results page. See the fun CQP video put together by Kent, N6WT here.

The 2023 International DX Convention (formerly [and still by some of us oldtimers] known as the Visalia DX Convention) has posted a list of major prizes available for the raffle. The list looks pretty juicy so far! Check it out here.

Welcome aboard to brand new SCCC member Jeff, AB6NE from Lakeside, CA. He wrote up a nice little bio to introduce himself to us.
"I was originally licensed in 73 as a Novice, upgraded to General, then let my license expire. I got re-licensed in 91 and CW came back to me easily. I still had my Tech license during the 10-meter contest and since Techs were worth more points, I was running stations left and right. I was hooked. Ultimately, I would do some contest regularly, mostly CW but some phone and RTTY. I won several 1st place Section awards."

"I moved to a condo in 96 and have tried various hidden or temporary antennas with not much luck. I started to put together a portable station, which will ultimately be solar powered, saw that 10 meters was starting to open up in the day time, and decided to jump back in this year. I always enjoyed Field Day and setting up this station and operating was a blast. Didn't make a lot of contacts but got the ball rolling again."

"I was Education Director and Control Operator for the ARC El Cajon (WA6BGS) and a VE for several years. I ran a SANDARC-VEC testing site for a few years. I have worked as an engineer in various capacities for Family Radio the last 29 years."

73, Jeff AB6NE

The ARRL 10 Meter contest took place last month, and the band was hopping. Europe wasn't filling up the logs of SCCCers but there were plenty of contacts to be had, especially compared to recent years! Dave, K6FA worked all states except Wyoming. Paul, W8GJK had a lot of fun in his first ever 10 Meter contest. He described conditions as awesome! His initial goal was to top 100K points but he kept pushing that out as each plateau was reached. Good times! Bruce, WA7BNM has been chasing North and South Dakota for 10m WAS for some time in recent contests and finallly worked them both. Marko, N5ZO said conditions were the best he has heard in a long time. He noted that the rain on Sunday kept power line noise down. Kurt, W6PH didn't find many Europeans other than those in Spain, which he said were plentiful. He didn't experience any Sunday doldrums as the contacts just kept on comin'. He picked up three Asian mults in the last 20 minutes of the contest when he swung his beam that way. Jim, W6KC also noted a lack of EU stations but a plethora of everything else. He enjoyed endless runs, doing so at will. Jim, K6ZH said conditions were good to JA, the Pacific and South America but as others said, not to EU. He said there were some very loud stations from the East Coast and Midwest. Jim, N6TJ was again at KH7Q and said conditions were marginal at best from Hawaii. Glenn, K6NA said it was great to hear loud signals simultaneously from NA, SA, Oceania and Asia. He said the EU openings were very short due to the limited mutual-daylight path at this time of year. Ken, KA6KEN said it was fun to have 10m open for the first time since he got back into ham radio several years ago. It was like gaining a whole new band.

Larry, K6RO played contest between tennis matches. He used a 60m dipole with an antenna tuner, and went QRP (5 watts). He thought conditions were very good. He heard many mults that he couldn't work. This was his first contest from San Diego after 33 years in Los Angeles. John, K6FI had a good time, enjoying the simplicity of operating just one band. Dick, W6TK said the band sounded pretty good but unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of time to play radio. Don, NK6A said he spent too much time on SSB but was setting up the voice memories and interface. In the end, he didn't need his mic very often. Bill, W8QZA once again used club call W6QU and was QRP SSB. He was happy to find conditions were good and logged 24 countries versus 1 last year. He worked two Europeans and nine Japanese stations. He even worked 33 stations while CQing whereas he usually gets none! Bob, AA6PW missed out on operating Friday evening and Saturday afternoon due to conflicts but had good run rates. No big openings to Europe and some of the big Caribbean stations were weak. Asia was decent for him during the last couple of hours of the contest. Dana, K6NR remoted into his station while visiting family in Arizona. He reported amazing activity from the US and Japan. Ron, N6XT focused mostly on CW, his first time doing so. Using an end fed wire only 20 ft. above ground, he recorded almost five times more CW Q's than on SSB. Paul, W6PNG had a great time for three hours operating portable on a park bench at 1,000 foot elevation, basking in sunshine until the storm rolled in. Tim, N6GP exclaimed, "This was the kind of conditions we have been waiting for since 2013!"

The RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada) split the Maritime (MAR) section into two new sections, New Brunswick (NB) and Nova Scotia (NS) effective January 1. This is expected to increase the number of multipliers in certain contests (such as Sweepstakes) by one. The number of mults in SS would increase from 84 to 85. You can read about this change here. You will want to update your contest logging software to take into account this change for contests that use Canadian provinces as multipliers.

ARRL has published the final results of the International Digital Contest. Congrats to Bruce, WA7BNM who took 2nd place in the SOLP One Radio, 8 Hours category. Watch for full results at the ARRL Contest page. As of mid-December, they were running behind on updating the page due to so many staff members being out with illnesses. So be patient...

Tim Duffy, K3LR has announced that registration is now open for Contest University 2023. CTU will take place Thursday, May 18, 2023 (one day before Dayton Hamvention opens in Xenia, OH. CTU will be held at the Hope Hotel. More information can be found at the CTU website.

Back in April, 2020, we wrote about Ted Henry, W6UOU turning 100 years old that year. In the December, 2022 issue of CQ Magazine, we learn that his son, Ted W6YEY retired in September and has sold the amateur and commercial amplifier portion of the business to Bob Burchett, WB6SLC who also owns NovexComm in Torrance. Ted is now happily living in Coloradio and maintains his eBay store there, distributing Bird RF products and Tohtsu relays. In October, Henry Radio's amplifier business was moved from the Olympic and Bundy location in L.A. to the NovexComm facility in Torrance. Bob says they were drowned in orders the day they reopened for business! The company has focused on solid state amplifiers primarily for VHF and UHF, with only two low power HF amps. Bob told CQ however that a solid state, high power HF amplifier is planned for 2023. THAT should be interesting! Their new website is www.henryradioamplifiers.com (Note, as of this writing, their website's SSL certificate had expired (early December) and may require you to click and extra link or two to proceed to it, depending on your web browser. Once they renew the certificate, the extra hoops will disappear.


Searching for the Search function on the SCCC website? It used to appear just below the Membership Badges section. In mid-December, we moved it from there to the main menu at the top of the page.

The N3FJP programming team has done it again! They at Affirmatech have many contest logging programs as well as a general logger. These programs are quite popular with the amateur radio fraternity. Now, they have released their newly updated version of what they call "Amateur Exam Study Buddy." This new version is web based and includes pool questions for the Technician license through Extra. Be sure to have your sound unmuted if you try it out. When you select an answer, a voice will tell you if you are correct or got it wrong. What a great new tool to help people get or upgrade their amateur radio license! Be sure to pass this along to anyone you know that would benefit, including your local clubs!

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and not only got all the great gifts on your wish list but gave some great gifts that made the recipients smile broadly!

Strange but true...
When watermelons are grilled or baked, they lose their granular texture and can even be used as a meat substitute. Watermelon steak, anyone?

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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