In the CQWW SSB contest in late October, SCCC was quite active as usual. Ken, K6LA was back at his PEI station VY2TT. He said that one USA operator told him he was below the US 40m band edge. He explained that he was in Canada and the band allocation was different there. The operator said, "That's not fair!" Ken also said that he couldn't get a run going during the Sunday morning 10m opening even though most Europeans that he called came back to him on the 1st call. Bill, N6RV said it was his best contest ever so far and it was his first time breaking 2 million points. He said 10 meters really took off, and he was amazed at what he could work on 80 meters with a 1/4 sloper tuned for the CW segment of the band. He was expecting a full radio blackout due to the solar flare that headed toward earth the Thursday before, but that didn't happen. Frank, WA6KHK experienced poor conditions but had a good surge at the end of the contest.

Bill, N6WS was chasing new band slots for the year and picked up 8 all time new slots during the contest! Dick, W6TK said it was great to have 10 and 15 open, and he even ran JA's on 10m on Sunday afternoon! Paul, N6LL summed it up as "The ionosphere works!" Paul, W7IV used the KK6P call and easily surpassed his goal of 2 million points (hitting 3.5M!). He hit it pretty hard on Sautrday in case the CME (solar flare) wiped things out on Sunday. He enjoyed running 10m again (I think we all missed that band!). Jim, N6TJ said it was good to return to Hawaii after a three year hiatus, and great to have 10 meters open again. He thought conditions were a bit flat there though. His first CQWW was back in 1955! Bruce, WA7BNM reported that the improved SFI resulted in QSOs he would have never imagined in a DX contest with 100 watts, such as A7 and FR. He also worked three Zone 2 stations before QRTing Friday night. Don, N6IC had his tower lowered for rotator repair and the antenna was fixed at 90 degrees but he had a lot of fun chasing the crowd on 15m. Kurt, W6PH reported conditions to be better than he had seen for many years, at least on Saturday. On Sunday, the A index was up to 25 and signals were weak. He had just over 500 Q's on Saturday (A index at 3) and only added 84 more on Sunday.

Dick, N6AA had S7 to S9 noise on all bands--ugh--and still managed to work 737 stations! He worked Jim at KH7M on six bands. Bill, W8QZA did QRP as W6QU as usual. He noted that conditions are definitely coming off the bottom. He recorded his highest CQWW SSB score since 2016, and double that of last year. He worked CR2K on 10m, his first European on 10 in several years. Marko, N5ZO used the TM2Y call from F6BEE's countryside station in France. Marko had saved Zone 14 on his list of contesting from all zones for a situation like we have today where travel restrictions have presented some serious problems. He says the station did well with only some minor issues. He noted that there was considerable QRM on most bands much of the time, with some European stations splattering widely. He caught a nice 10m opening Sunday afternoon where he worked mostly Zones 4 and 5 (only three stations from Zone 3). To minimize jet lag, he arrived there on Monday and was able to operate the entire contest save for a 30 minute unplanned nap during the second night. John, W6JBR remarked, "What an amazing weekend of excellent conditions, with wall-to-wall DX on 10 and 15 meters!" He worked 40 unique DXCCs in just six hours!

The ARRL Sweepstakes CW contest was the weekend after CQWW CW and just days after a virtual radio blackout on the bands due to a multiple CME event. The A index was observed as high as 69 during the week but settled back down to near normal by contest time. Some SCCC member comments follow. Bill, N6RV did the contest for the first time and had a blast. Dick, W6TK got the sweep with UT and NL being his last two mults. Paul, WN6K missed NL and PE. Ryan, AI6DO put up a fan dipole for 15-80 meters and only missed six sections with his 5 watt QRP station. Dan, N6MJ used the N6WIN station in Arizona (score went to the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club). Last year, they missed the M/S record by just one QSO after log checking and were ready to tackle it again this year. Unfortunately, a last minute change in plans left him operating single op instead. The Sunday doldrums renewed his respect for others that do single op in this contest. Marko, N5ZO also found Sunday to be a struggle but said that the online scoreboard made it interesting. He found 40m unusually weak this year.

Frank, WA6KHK wound up with his own section (Orange) being one of the last five sections he worked. He missed NL. Jim, W6KC noted that his first SS score was back in 1961! This year, he completed the sweep in just five hours! His last two were NT and NL. Axel, KI6RRN also missed NT. Bob, KF6I had too many conflicts to do a serious effort this year but managed to put in eight hours. Mike, W4EF (remote as NI6W) had to work late on Saturday but was fresh meat on Sunday. Dana, K6NR reported lots of great activity and was happy that 15m was open. By Saturday night, he had nearly reached his goal of a sweep, missing only NL and Orange. Fortunately, he worked both on Sunday including a bunch of Orange stations. It was his first sweep in quite some time. Steve, AC6T and Stephen K6AW did a multi-op from the the UCSB contest station, W6RFU, the first major contest from there. The new antennas were a big improvement and they got the sweep.

Roger, W6LAX says he did about 7 hours of the contest between work obligations, and said it was great to see all of the activity and to have 15m open. David, N6AN did another QRP operation, this one from Tree People Park in Studio City. And he did hand sending with paper logging again. He did two Sunday stints there with the second getting unceremoniously cut short when his battery gave out. Drew, N7AN also did a portable operation. His was using whips on his vehicle from a nearby park. He was able to run 100 watts using his 1300 watt-hour battery, and had some nice runs. Kurt, W6PH missed PEI. His last section was his own, Orange. Everyone seems to have had trouble logging that one. Kurt says he got off to a good start this year as compared with previous years. Having missed 2019 and 2020, he said it was good to get back into SS.

The August NAQP CW results are in and Axel, KI6RRN piloted NO6T to the top spot, nearly 14,000 points over runner up W0UA! It was Axel's best August NAQP score ever (324,264)! Marko, N5ZO took 3rd place (303,296 points). Marko was a last minute entrant and we missed him on SCCC #1. The team finished 13th in the team standings.

The August NAQP SSB results are also in. Marko took 5th place in this one and his combined CW/SSB points put him in 3rd place behind K0EU and K9CT. The SCCC team (we only had one for this particular contest edition) finished 4th.

Strange but true...
A penny is called a cent, short for percent, as in 1% of a dollar.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Solar predictions for last month's California QSO Party had the SFI at 95. We got 87 instead. Disappointing but hey, at this point in the sunspot cycle, I guess we can't complain too much. Here are come comments from fellow SCCCers:
Ray, N6HE said that the Wednesday CW OPs events have paid off for him. His CW speed is up and he had fun calling CQ in this contest. Ryan, AI6DO put in his most significant CQP effort ever. He played musical antennas during the contest though and his old Dell laptop struggled under the logging load. Dave, W6ZL scored 57 mults, missing only NT. Paul, WN6K missed only NT and PEI, and fell short of his goal of 200K points. Frank, WA6KHK had a nice flurry on SSB at the end of the contest. Steve, AC6T opened up the UCSB club station and found the new Skyhawk antenna to be working well. Dennis, NE6I had his main multi-band antenna out of action and threw up a 20 meter dipole. During the contest, he found his WARC antenna tuned up on 15 and 10. 15 was nice and quiet, and was productive. 10 was noisy and he never found any signals there.

Larry, K6RO planned a full time effort but plans changed. He wound up operating Sunday only and for just a couple of hours. Dave, K6FA did QRP and was surprised to work a few on 160 despite the SWR being extremely high. Roger, W6LAX operated around family activities. Saturday was good but he found Sunday conditions to be poor. Dick, W6TK picked up a clean sweep with Idaho being last in the log. He considered the bands to be poor over the weekend. Kurt, W6PH was amazed at the number of stations that answered his CQs. On 20 and 15 meters SSB, he found the majority of callers had QSO numbers under 10. He scored a clean sweep and found the multipliers piled up pretty quickly. Now, if he had just submitted his score to SCCC instead of the Bishop Club... Axel, KI6RRN went low power this time (after setting a new HP record last year). He had some local power line noise this time. Tim, N6GP thought he would miss the contest but his plane arrived back from Mexico in time to work the last 72 minutes. He had fun being fresh meat! Bill, N6RV started four hours late but had fun being the "DX." Dana, K6NR used the K6VO family club call. He was happy to see 15m open but disappointed that 10m was a flop. Using his new Elecraft K4 in a contest for the second time, he commented that it worked pretty well. He missed NT for the sweep. Ken, K6LA said he couldn't get much going on phone. So he recorded 1,400 Q's on CW against his 672 on Phone. Don, NK6A and Alan, AA6DW operated as W6COW M/M LP at Alan's house. Three hours in, they lost power to the house. Their solar backup didn't save the day as it kpet faulting. After disconnecting other heavy loads, they were finally back on the air. Everything else seemed to work fine though.

Marko, N5ZO turned in one of the top scores this year operating as NT6Q. He watched closely on the online scoreboard as Bill, W9KKN at NW6P chased him. He focused on CW (74% this year versus 70% last year). CW contacts are 3 points versus 2 points for SSB in this contest. He worked VY1 shortly after 00Z and three KL7s which were the rarest mults for him this year. Last year VE6 was rare, he said, but this year there were plenty of them. This year's score was his best ever in CQP. As I type this in late October, he stands 1st in SOHP this year, at least according to 3830Scores. David, N6AN operated as W6AQ from the W4EF station in Littlerock. As usual, David was QRP (5 watts). He had trouble getting much going on SSB but piled up 700+ Q's on CW. He missed NT and MR for the sweep. Bruce, WA7BNM ran a KX3 in a contest for the first time. He remembered last year that S&P with QRP was not effective so he CQed almost exclusively. He was surprised to have EU reply on 40, 20 and 15m. Bob, NC6Q had hoped to be on an Imperial County expedition for the contest but that didn't pan out. Instead, he operated from his HOA handicapped home QTH. So he used a 40m/20m vertical on his patio that he'd made up for another location and was able to compare it to his attic located dipoles during the contest. Despite being two floors higher than the vertical, the dipoles did not perform anywhere near as well as the vertical. He summed it up as "this experiment showed me just how awful my attic dipoles were this whole time!" N6MI and W6PNG operated W6E at 8,000 feet up in the Los Padres Forest in Ventura County a the N6MI Expedition station. They were pretty happy with their performance.

WRTC 2022 Team Leaders and Team Mates final qualifications have been published. Congrats to Axel, KI6RRN who will represent WRTC Area NA9! Congrats also to those on the Team Mates list: Ken, K6LA, Marko, N5ZO, Dan, N6MJ, Paul, WN6K and Dave, W6ZL. The WRTC will take place during the IARU Radiosport contest in July, 2023. More info at the official WRTC web site.

Less than a month after the contest, the September NA Sprint CW results were published on October 8! Hats off to the administrative team! Axel, KI6RRN operated as NO6T and used the WA6TQT station to take 3rd place! Nice job, Axel! Dan, N6MJ placed 8th using the classic method of just two band changes! David, N6AN used the call W6AQ and placed 2nd in the QRP category from the Flint Peak mountaintop, AND had a Golden Log while logging by hand (no computer)! His great writeup appears on Page 8 of the full articel found here. The SCCC #1 team finished 2nd in the contest! Congrats to all!


The November, 2021 issue of QST has a special insert "Resources, Ideas and Tips for Contest Season 2021-2022." It's an issue you don't want to miss as it includes several articles written by members of some of the big contest clubs around the country such as YCCC and Frankford Radio Club. If you're not an ARRL member, be sure to pick up a copy at your local amateur radio store.


A couple of new updates on the club web site... We have added SolarHam and Real Time MUF in the right hand column listing various tools. SolarHam shows all sorts of interesting information related to space weather that affects propagation. Real Time MUF is just that, real time maximum usable frequency information. It's handy for seeing those higher frequency openings that we all sometimes miss. Lastly, we have a new For Sale/Wanted listing from K6RO.

In the May, 2021 issue of SCCCORE, I mentioned an article that appeared in QST by W3LPL discussing what we can expect in Solar Cycle 25. Here is an interesting presentation by Frank posed on the PVRC web site on the subject.

I've mentioned it before but the Contest On Line Scoreboard is crazy good fun. You can watch how others are doing, and you can see how you are doing compared to the competition. And NO, it does not put you in the multi op category just because you are logged into it. It's easy to set up your contest logging program to send your scoring real time, and you can monitor the site to check how you are doing. It's a GREAT BIC motivator! Many of the top contesters are there, and that includes our own Marko, N5ZO. You will need to do a one time set up of a profile there on the scoreboard, and then, if you are using N1MM+ as your contest logger (as most of us are), you set it up like this. Not using N1MM+? Click on the one you are using here. During a contest, go here to check out the real time scoring! You will quickly become addicted!

Strange but true...
A jiffy is an actual unit of time. A jiffy is 1/100th of a second!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Welcome aboard to new SCCC member Terry, K9TAD. Terry lives in Pacific Palisades and is just getting started in the contesting world. He was first licensed in 2007 and upgraded to the Extra Class license. Terry has a fine looking station (see his QRZ page). Wish I could keep mine as neat and organized!





The WW Digi DX Contest raw scores have been published. Bruce, WA7BNM is currently 5th Single Op Low Power 20 meters. You can view the rest of the raw scores published so far here.

Preliminary results of last month's North American Sprint CW have also been published and can be found here.

Who doesn't like a fun interview?! This month we have one with Gordon West, WB6NOA. While not a contester, Gordon is a well known ambassador and promoter of our amateur radio hobby. Gordon is based in Costa Mesa and has overseen free amateur radio licensing classes for a darn long time. I provide the interview here for something fun and interesting to check out between contests. Check it out here.

And this one came across on the CQ-CONTEST reflector. Tim, K3LR interviews John, K1AR who is the Director of the CQWW Contests. This is good timing since we have the SSB and CW contests coming up this month and next. Check it out here on YouTube.

The NA Sprint CW contest last month had the highest SFI (99) in several years. This appears to have driven the mult count up above recent averages. Some big scores were turned in by SCCCers. Axel, KI6RRN recorded an 18K+ score as NO6T operating from the WA6TQT station. Dan, N6MJ decided at the last minute to put in a serious effort and scored 17K+ points. He did a traditional 2 band change, 1 radio effort this time around. Marko, N5ZO recorded 16K+ points despite some amplifier trouble. Fortunately, he had a backup amp ready and switched it up once he noticed the problem. He said conditions were excellent on all bands at his QTH. Dana, K6NR did the Sprint from his Arizona vacation QTH where he has modest antennas. It was his first Sprint in quite some time. David, N6AN did his usual QRP operation from Flint Peak using the W6AQ call sign. He used wire antennas, hand sending, paper logs and a mental dupe sheet. He tried to stay out of the sun on a very hot day (high 90 degree temps!). The site he chose was a 15 minute hike from the car, too. Dan, WA6URY did his usual remote from Tokyo. Dick, N6AA had a BBQ to attend and therefore got on later when he got home. Once the contest was over, he noticed that the 40 meter beam was pointed at Japan and that he had three antennas on 80 meters connected, including one rolled up on the ground! Jim, K6ZH had his highest multiplier count in a long time and described conditions as decent on all three bands. He recorded 13K+ points. Mike, W4EF put in a great score at 15K plus points. He reported good conditions and lots of mults. He had a beam on 20m for the first time in a long while. Wish I had placed him on SCCC team #1 !


The final standings for WRTC 2022 have been published. Axel, KI6RRN stands atop the standings. He has put in an incredible amount of work to get there and our hats are off to him. Marko, N5ZO is 28th USA (2nd in NA9) and Dan, N6MJ is 52nd (3rd NA9). It will be awhile before we see the final teams for the event but in the meantime, you can peruse the final standings here. And there is a lot of other interesting information on the site as well.







It is with great sadness that I pass along that Chuck Ingram, WA6R passed away on August 31 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Chuck was an SCCC member in the mid-1980s when he lived in Lancaster. His wife was also a ham. After retiring, Chuck and his family moved to Camas, WA. He is survived by his wife of 47 years and three children. I knew Chuck personally back when we both lived in Lancaster, and he and I often helped each other with antenna projects. I got him interested in contesting and he joined our club to add his score to our totals. He was formerly a Los Angeles County Sherrif back in the 1980s and he had some interesting stories to tell. RIP Chuck.







Strange but true...
Once upon a time in the early 1800s, there was no control at all over the names of U.S. towns. As you might imagine, confusion reigned as a result. There were 75 towns called Summit, with 20 states having more than one Summit. In fact, four of those states had four cities named Summit!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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And then there is this interesting presentation by former SCCC President and one of the early club founders Tree, N6TR. (As you probably know, Tree moved north to Oregon many years ago.) The presentation is called "How I Got Into Log Checking." It will require you to have Microsoft Powerpoint or something capable of reading .ppt files on your computer. Download the presentation here.

W7VO gave a very interesting 65 minute presentation on CAC (ARRL Contest Advisory Committee) at a recent virtual Pacific Northwest DX Convention. That video can be viewed here.

The ARRL is now providing a free RF exposure calculator on its web site. While not contest related, this is something you may find useful. The FCC recently adopted guidelines and procedures for evaulating effects of RF emissions. Since many of us contesters run the legal limit much or all of the time during contests, this subject is of particular interest to us. More info can be found here.

Perhaps of particular interest to long time SCCCers, the TRW Swapmeet re-opened on Saturday, August 28. This weekly event was a long time anchor of SCCC meetings in the 70's, 80's and 90's. SCCC meetings were held at one of many pizza joints (The Pizza Joint and Luigi's come to mind) immediately following the Swapmeet once a month, which made it an easily justified outing for the day! The Swapmeet is now on the last Saturday of the month, every month. Perhaps someone would like to figure something out for renewed SCCC gatherings after this monthly event? More info about the Swapmeet can be found here.

Strange but true...
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable."

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The 2021 ARRL DX CW results have been published by the ARRL. Dan, N6MJ piloted ZF1A to the top spot in the contest, more than two million points above the runner up! Bill, W8QZA placed in the top ten QRP US/VE using the club call W6QU.

The 2022 IDXC Visalia Convention is tentatively a go. Room reservations are being accepted at the Wyndham Hotel. More information can be found at the Convention website.

CQ Magazine has apparently been unable to get its print edition caught up with the calendar and subscribers have often been receiving them in the mail a month to six weeks late. CQ blames this on the general business slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They decided to make the June and July issues digital only and those can be found at their web site, available to all at no charge. The August issue will be the next print edition. Current print subscriptions are being extended two months.

Tip of the month. Many of us have or have experienced RFI. It can hit us in any of many forms, such as interference into things in our home (garage door openers, microwave ovens, lights, AM/FM radios and stereo systems, and even things in our shack like computer monitors). Many of these are caused by common mode currents and can be reduced or eliminated with ferrites of some flavor. Did you know that ferrites come in different mixes and that the different mixes have different frequency usabilities? That is, they perform best at certain frequencies. If you are having problems with 20 meter RFI for example, you would not want to use a ferrite with Mix 75. And did you know there is such a thing as Ferrite Chatter Noise? This can be caused by improper winding of wires on a ferrite. Palomar Engineers has a series of Ferrite Tutorials on their web site where you can read up on these subjects. And they are one of many vendors that sell ferrites. Check out their tutorials here.

Jim, N6TJ has announced his intentions to operate the CQWW DX SSB and CW contests at KH6ZM's station using the callsign KH7M. Naturally, these plans remain tentative based on what is going on with the COVID-19 pandemic when the time comes. With infection numbers currently increasing, we can only hope that travel will be allowed and safe come October and November.

John Dorr, K1AR sent out the following regarding the CQWW contest:

I'm writing to inform you about some exciting updates to the CQ WW contest effective this October/November. In summary, here is what's new: 1) We have created a new YOUTH overlay that will be available to all competitors who are 25 years old or under, effective on the dates of the contest. The Cabrillo overlay format will be CATEGORY-OVERLAY: YOUTH. In support of this change, Youth overlay entries will be highlighted in the results (as is currently done for Classic and Rookies). In addition, plaques will be available for the winners.

2) A new EXPLORER category has been established to allow amateurs to participate in the CQ WW Contest while experimenting creatively with Internet-linked stations and other new technologies. The goal of this category is to encourage innovation in operating strategies, station design, and technology adaptation. Please review the detailed rules at < https://cqww.com/explorer.htm> for more information.

3) As a reminder (Note: this is not a new requirement), audio recordings may be requested for your entry as part of the log checking process. Any single operator entrant competing for a top five finish at the
(a) World,
(b) Continent, or (c) USA levels, including Classic Overlay, must record the transmitted and received audio as heard by the operator for the duration of the contest operation. Failure to respond to this request may result in your log being reclassified or disqualified.

The combination of embracing new technology as well as recognizing the youth community amongst us is going to make the CQ WW an even more popular event. My thanks go out to the CQ WW Contest Committee and others who helped make this happen!

73, John, K1AR
CQ WW Contest Director

And finally for this month, Scott Bovitz, N6MI published a super fun and very well done video showing his and his team's 2021 Field Day operation from Ventura County. It's here on the home page this month and you won't want to miss it!

Strange but true...
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of the iconic jungle man "Tarzan," worked as a pencil-sharpener salesman before trying his hand at fiction. He only started writing at the age of 36 to support his wife and two kids.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Last month we shared that Tree, N6TR had been interviewed for the QSO Today podcast. This time, it's Marty, N6VI. Podcast 354 was published on June 5. The show notes and a link to the podcast can be found here or listen to it on your smartphone or tablet. QSO Today has interviewed many, many hams over the years including many prominent contesters.






ARRL has published the results of the 2020 ARRL 10-Meter Contest and the SCCC finished 3rd in the Medium Club category. Axel, KI6RRN operated WA6TQT to first place Mixed Mode, High Power. Bill, W8QZA operated W6QU and took 4th place Single Op Phone Only QRP. SCCC placed 3rd in the Medium Club category. The full results of the 2020 contest can be found here.

Meanwhile, in the January 2021 ARRL VHF contest, we also placed 3rd in the Medium Club category. Wayne, N6NB took 1st place in the Classic Rover category. Tim, N6GP placed 3rd in the Limited Rover category. The full results of this contest can be found here.

That's all for this month, gang. Send me your updates, news and comments.

Strange but true...
A green cat was born in Denmark in 1985. Some people believe that high levels of copper in the water pipes nearby may have given his fur a verdigris effect.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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I ran across something or another last month and it prompted me to re-read my write up of the SCCC visit to the legendary station of Don Wallace, W6AM. Don had passed away the previous year and thankfully, Jim, N6TJ offered to take us to visit the station after one of our infamous Saturday pizza meetings. Don's antenna farm consisted of 14 full size rhombic antennas. You read that right. FOURTEEN RHOMBICS! You and I would like to have just one! I know many of you have read the write up but it's worth another read, and for you newcomers to the SCCC, you will likely enjoy reading about the legendary W6AM station and checking out the many pictures. A huge thank you to Jim Neiger for taking us there that afternoon!

As a reminder, if you have a personal web site you would like to list on the SCCC site and it's not already listed, let me know (webmaster). Do you have something for sale or wanted? Let me know! Do you have a contest certificate or plaque you received that you are proud of? Send me a picture! Station photos? Always welcome! Upcoming station upgrades or contest plans, send those along too. We love including them in the bulletin and your fellow SCCCers enjoy reading about them!

Elecraft has confirmed on their web site that they are shipping the much anticipated new K4 transceiver. Also of note, the K4 now appears on the Sherwood Engineering Receiver Test Data site. Surprisingly, it comes in lower than the K3 and even the KX3.

Elecraft K4 Update 4/25/2021
We are working hard getting your K4's out the door and we have just finished shipping our Group 1 orders from May 16th, which was 1 day before the 2019 Dayton Hamvention opened. We are now shipping from the May 17th group 1 orders. We had a huge surge of orders on May 17th from both Dayton, online and telephone orders. We expect it will take us approximately 4-6 weeks to ship these orders. After that, you will start to see the order date that we are shipping change much more quickly. You can see regular K4 shipping updates on our Shipping Status page.

Here is a presentation on the K4 by Eric Swartz done during the recent QSO Virtual Ham Expo 2021.



Did you catch it? SCCC pioneer Larry "Tree" Tyree, N6TR was interviewed last month by Eric Guth, 4Z1UG on his QSO Today podcast. As many of you know, Tree now lives in Oregon but grew up in Southern California and was one of the early driving forces in the Southern California Contest Club, serving as President for several years. Check out the May 8 podcast or click here to listen to it on your browser.



Totally off topic here other than amateur radio related. Sort of. I had watched the PBS documentary "NOVA" recently as I often do, and caught the episode called Hindenburg: The New Evidence. It's a pretty fascinating story about what may have brought down the Hindenburg zeppelin airship back in 1937. We've all heard the on-air reaction by radio reporter Herbert Morrison, "Oh, the humanity!" And yes, watching the film often seen on television is pretty horrific. Ee are pretty fortunate to have video of the disaster. It's not like today where everyone has cellphone cameras always at the ready. This documentary centers around home movie film shot by the uncle of Bob Schenck, N2OO and surprisingly not asked for by authorities back in the day. It potentially provides insight into what caused the disaster that claimed 35 lives and shocked the nation. It's shot from a very different angle than the video from the newsreel footage that we have all seen. You may be able to find this documentary on your local PBS station if you search the NOVA episodes, and it is also available via streaming.

Strange but true...
A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge. A dime has one less!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Here comes the CQ WPX CW contest! The last full weekend of May, the bands will be full of CW contesters working anyone and everyone. The multipliers are prefixes regardless of country. This makes this contest a lot of fun for adrenaline junkies even without a ton of sunspots. Hopefully, conditions will be good and there will be plenty of DX to be had though. But during any slow DX times, it's easy to keep the rate up by working a lot of USA, VE and XE stations. This one is a lot of fun! Full rules can be found here.

Congratulations to Marko, N5ZO who placed 3rd in the Single Op Unlimited High Power category of the ARRL November Sweepstakes CW contest! George, W6AYC finished 4th in the Single Op Low Power category. And SCCC finished 2nd in the Medium Club category!

Congratulations to Axel, KI6RRN are also in order! Axel took the top spot in the January NAQP CW contest using the NO6T club call sign and the WA6TQT super station! Dan, N6MJ used the N6WIN Arizona station as ND7K to take 3rd place and Marko, N5ZO finished 8th. The SCCC #1 team finished 4th, just behind FRC Team Uranus.

Our own Wayne, N6NB has an interesting article in the May, 2021 issue of QST entitled "Green Roving in a Red Rover." It is the magazine's cover article in fact and describes his 6 meter through 10 GHz Chevy Bolt EV set up. He says that it "can do jsut about everything a gasoline-fueled rover can do, but with zero pollution and dramatically better energy efficiency. No more 14 mpg or less trucks!

Also in that issue of QST is an article by Frank Donovan, W3LPL discussing what we can expect during the coming rise of Solar Cycle 25. Frank states that at least 70 forecasts have been published in various scientific journals, predicting everything from a very weak to a very strong cycle. He notes that most predict that it will be similar in strength to that of Cycle 24. The first quarter of this year has been unimpressive, with an SFI at or below 80 the vast majority of the time. He expects 30 meters through 10 to begin to improve this fall. He reminds us that now is the time to begin adding to and/or improving out antennas for these bands in order to be ready for the better days ahead in this new Cycle.

The FCC announced some rule changes to its rules on RF exposure standards. These will go into effect on May 3, 2021. Of note is the requirement to evaluate amateur radio stations against existing limits. Amateur radio stations were previously exempted from this requirement. More information can be found on the ARRL web site.

ARRL has announced that Field Day rule waivers that were implemented last year due to the COVID pandemic will again be in place this year. Thus Class D home stations may work all other Field Day stations including others in Class D for points. New this year is a 150 watt PEP limit on Class A and E stations. An aggregate club score will be published after the contest as was done last year. We all know that Field Day is technically an operating event rather than a contest, but many SCCCers treat it like a contest and put in big scores. This year's event will take place June 26-27. More info on the ARRL Field Day web page.

And let's not forget about Kid's Day. This one is sponsored by the Boring Amateur Radio Club and is a great way for youngsters to share the excitement of amateur radio. In fact, it's a great way for you to open your shack to some neighborhood kids that might one day populate the contesting ranks! If you don't host though, I encourage you to spend some time on the air working the youngsters around the country. It's a lot of fun to hear how much fun they are having! This year's event is on Saturday, June 19 at 1800Z. More info on the Kids Day web page.

Contest University has announced its 2021 course outline and list of speakers. And it looks like a great lineup! Normally held concurrently with the Dayton Hamvention, this year's CTU will be held on Thursday, May 20 via Zoom and there is no cost to attend. You must pre-register in order to attend. Note that four ICOM radios will be given away at random times. You must be registered in Zoom and present during the random give-aways to win. Even if you don't win a shiny new ICOM, you will be a winner attending these presentations! More info on the CTU web site.

The 72nd meeting of the International DX Convention is now open for Registration. The *virtual* two-day meeting will be held Saturday, May 15 and Sunday, May 16, 2021 via Zoom webinars.

What you can expect from IDXC 2021:

- A safe, front-row seat without having to leave your QTH
- 8 - DX-related webinars on Saturday, May 15, 2021
- 8 - Vendor webinars on Sunday, May 16, 2021
- Some great door prizes (including over $5,000 in cash awards from NCDXC)
- Pre-Registration is required but it is Fast and *FREE*
- All Zoom Webinars will be recorded and posted to the NCDXC website at a later date


Click here for the conventions program.

IDXC has always been the premier DX Convention in the United States, attended by hundreds of avid DXers looking to improve their skills, their stations and their connection with fellow Hams.

Although we can't meet in person this year because of COVID-19, we intend to make IDXC 2021 a memorable DX event, and hope you’ll be able to join us.

Please register now: http://dxconvention.com/pages/registration.html

73,
John Miller, K6MM
Rich Seifert, KE1B
IDXC 2021 Co-Chairs

As you have previously read here, the SCCC once again won the Medium Club category in the 2020 California QSO Party, setting a new record in the category with just over 5 million points. Bruce, WA7BNM accepted the plaque and provided a picture. See it here. Way to go, everyone! The 2021 edition will be the first weekend of October.

Strange but true...
Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Congrats to Tim, N6GP who placed 4th in the Limited Rover category of the September 2020 ARRL VHF contest, a mere 20 points from the 3rd place finisher. Bruce, KG6IYN finished 5th Single Op, Low Power. Endaf, N6UTC placed 3rd, Single Op, FM Only. Full results here.

Axel, KI6RRN and Dan, N6MJ created a 2021 Unassisted Challenge to replace the unassisted category in the WPX contests. The WPX Contest Committee had decided to no longer separate assisted from unassisted beginning this year. If interested, you will need to upload your Cabrillo log not only to the WPX contest site but also to www.unassisted.org/rules/.

Speaking of WPX, the SSB contest was held the last full weekend of March. Paul, W7IV operated with the club call KK6P in Templeton and racked up over 3,000 Q's and 6.5M points! He submitted his score toward NCCC rather than SCCC however. Axel piloted NO6T (from the WA6TQT station via remote) to 5.7M points. Jim, W6YI powered NY6N to more than 1,000 Q's on 20 meters single band. Quite a few others reported just playing around in the contest.

The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) announced in their Spring, 2021 bulletin that they are funding a new "Radio In A Box" (RIB) program. This consists of an entire pre-assembled station in a weather tight enclosure, they say. This can facilitate a remote operation where the operators are aboard a ship offshore while the radios, antennas, and power sources are on shore. Obviously, this could make the foot print much less for DXpeditions to sensitive and/or challenging entities. And often times, these expeditions are on for major DX contests. According to AA7JV who participated in the 2018 Baker Island DXpedition (KH1/KH7Z), the US Forestry Service's main concern was with humans "camping" on the island along with the ferrying humans on and off the island in not so safe conditions along with hauling massive tent type things, etc. Apparently the antennas, generators and radios were not really an issue for the USFS. We may see more of these challenging entities in future contests if this RIB program pans out! It's a really interesting potential solution to a huge challenge. Kudos to AA7JV for thinking outside the box!

As you know by now, we are officially into Sunspot Cycle 25! Not that we are necessarily seeing greatly improved propagation yet, other than a short period here and there, but getting past Cycle 24's bottom should bring smiles to everyone's face. It seemed like forever but finally, things are on the upswing. As we know, the climb to the peak is much more quick than the fall to the bottom. We should start seeing some FB conditions in the next couple of years. Anything better than these recent doldrums will be greatly appreciated!



Strange but true...
Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

More details can be found here.

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



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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Jim, K6ZH has been appointed an ARRL card checker by Southwest Division Director (and SCCC President) Dick, N6AA. Jim has the materials to process DXCC, WAS and VUCC cards. He joins Arnie, N6HC (Orange Section) and John, N6QQ (L.A. Section) as ARRL SoCal card checkers. He also joins Pat, WA6MHZ (not an SCCC member) who is a San Diego Section checker. Pat is temporarily unavailable at the moment due to him recovering from a recent surgery. You can visit any available official ARRL card checker if you need cards checked for ARRL awards.

The January NAQP's are in the books. We had good turnouts for both the CW and SSB contests. According to 3830Scores, eight teams recorded a million points or more. AOCC Bank Robbers 1,534,472, PVRC SO2R 1,300,468, FRC Team Uranus 1,204,580, SCCC #1 1,159,611, CCO #1 1,135,145, CTDXCC Team Pfizer 1,128,717, SMC Kings 1,061,750 amd Big Sky Contesters - First Dose 1,017,224. As you can see, SCCC #1 currently stands fourth in a tight race in the middle of that pack. As an aside, there were many extra "Dave's" in the two contests in honor of the late Dave Pruett, K8CC. Dave was a huge contributor to the contesting world and most recently was the Contest Chairman of the Mad River Contest Club. Dave was well known as the author of the NA contest software which had been very popular during the MS-DOS days. ARRL had a short summary on Dave here.

Coming up this month is the ARRL International DX Contest. The popular CW contest is February 20 and 21 and will likely see increased activity compared to last year, just as other contests have seen large growth since COVID hit. It might be a good time to pad your DXCC band slot totals! The SSB version is two weeks later in early March. Let's hope we get some sunspots for these like we did for the CQWW DX contests last October and November.

Also coming up is the NA Sprint CW. Of note is a temporary shift in the times. The four hour contest will start at 2300Z Feb 6 and end at 0259Z Feb 7 (Saturday local time). The March NA Sprint RTTY will also move up one hour. According to Ward, N0AX, "The CW (Feb 6) and RTTY North American Sprint (Mar 13) will begin one hour earlier at 2300 UTC instead of 0000 UTC. The contests are still 4 hours long, so they will end at 0259 UTC. This change recognizes that 20 meters has been closing at the start of the winter contests. Moving the start earlier by one hour will give contesters in the north and east a much bigger window for 20 meter activity, making the contest more fun for everybody. The new start time in Feb and Mar are an experiment and will be evaluated after the contests to see if we want to continue with it. The September contest start times will not change." He also reminds us, "And for newcomers to Sprint, an updated "how-to" article by N3BB is available on the Sprint page at ncjweb.com/north-american-sprint. Look under "Tips" at the lower right of the page."

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another social gathering victim. The 2021 Dayton Hamvention, originally scheduled to take place May 21-23 in Xenia, Ohio, has been cancelled. The lag in vaccine distribution in the U.S. and around the world was cited as part of the reason for the decision. More on this story can be found on the Hamvention website.

Another is the cancellation of the Orlando HamCation. This cancellation was announced earlier. However, ICOM America and the Florida Contest Group have announced something to enjoy instead this year: The 2021 HamCation QSO Party which will take place on February 13. The objective? "To replicate the camaraderie and social experience of attending HamCation and have fun on the radio since we cannot attend HamCation 2021 in person. In the spirit of bonhomie, everybody works everybody!" This 12 hour contest should be a lot of fun.

I thought I had posted this one earlier but if I did, it has escaped my notes. Either way, it's fun reading. Many (MOST?) of us are very familiar with the Heathkit radios and kits of yesteryear. And many of us have built many of those kits. The HW-16 was my personal first as a matter of fact. Regardless, as I said, this is fun reading. Enjoy the article here.





A few weeks ago, there was a short conversation on the club reflector about the SCCC logo. I believe it was Bruce, WA7BNM who then published a copy of the current logo. If you've been reading these pages during the past year or two, you've seen the logo occasionally appear here. How did the logo come about? Well, way back in the May/June 1987 issue of SCCCORE, then-President Mark, WA6OTU (now N5OT) announced a Club Logo Contest Activity. The cutoff for submissions was stated as 1 July 1987 with the announcement of the winning submission to be made in the September issue of SCCCORE. It is believed that the logo shown in Mark's logo contest announcement was used for the next decade or so (see left). If anyone has a copy of that September-October, 1987 issue, please send me a copy. We do not currently have that one. In the March-April, 1998 issue, then-President Larry, N6NC announced the new full color logo that we have today. A black and white copy of the logo appeears on Page 1 of that issue. Just so you have it at your finger tips from now on, I've added the current logo to the right hand column here on the web site. Click on it to get a full size copy.





In the Trials and Tribulations Department, a few of us have had trouble getting N1MM+ and WSJT-X to play together nicely. In my case, my station enlists a pretty modern desktop computer and I have been using an external Rigblaster even though my current rig can easily do digital modes using its internal sound card. (I use the Rigblaster because old habits die hard with me.) Seems that every time I tried to get these two programs to work together, I failed and also goofed up existing settings such that RTTY and FT modes no longer worked. Then I would spend an hour or two trying to get them to work again. That, even with screen captures of working configs. Frustrating.

I had an epiphany a few weeks ago. I could install the softwares on my laptop and configure to my heart's content without altering my working desktop config. My laptop is an older and slower machine that my wife had been using but it got to be such a dog for her that I replaced it with a much more modern and faster one. The old laptop was then relegated to use by me. Anyway, I spent a little time on it last month using the N1MM+ docs online as well as an FTDX-101 doc for configuring WSJT-X with that radio, and voila! Works FB now.

The only thing I have left to figure out is how to reduce the incoming USB audio from the radio or on the input to the laptop (via Windows). At the moment, the waterfall looks highly overloaded, as if the incoming audio is too high, although it seems to be decoding fine as far as I can tell so far).

In the past, I had the desktop decoding FT8 signals and even logging to N1MM+ automatically but not duping and transmitting was not working. I think this had to do with my using the Rigblaster for non-contest operating. Probably missing a checkbox somewhere. Now though I can use the laptop and work the digital contests with duping done by the software. I might go back now and try again with the desktop (if I get brave). More playing required but...

And um, I just took delivery in late January of a smokin' hot new laptop. It replaces the XYL's doggish laptop mentioned above. Loving it so far, and I easily configured it for N1MM logger and WSJT-X. Bring on the digital contests!

Strange but true...
No piece of square, dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Beginning sometime in mid-2021, the FCC will require an email address on applications for an amateur radio license. It appears that this will include license renewals. The FCC may dismiss applications that do not include an email address. In addition, "Revocation of the station license or suspension of the operator license may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because the grantee failed to provide the correct email address." More information can be found here.

In December, Marko reported on his M/M operation with Oliver, W6NV at 8Q7ZO in CQWW CW. Their Maldvies effort was another new Zone (Zone 22) for Marko, his 31st of 40 that he has contested from. Marko has these nine left: 10, 13, 14, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Jim, N6TJ reminded us that Dick, N6AA and Phil, N6ZZ (SK) completed their 40 Zones a number of years ago. No small feat! Jim, K6ZH was there when Dick and Phil did it in 2002 at TK4Z in Corsica in Zone 15. I thought that was pretty interesting. One would think that one of the African or Middle East Zones might be the last, not a European one! Do we have any other SCCCers with 30 or more Zones of contesting to their credit?

CQ Magazine has published the raw scores of the CQWW DX CW contest held at the end of November. Dan, N6MJ operating ZF1A shows as 2nd place Single Op High Power All Bands. And the two man team of Marko, N5ZO and Oliver, W6NV (as 8Q7ZO) appear 7th in the Multi-Multi category.

As a reminder, we have a page on the SCCC web site for your personal web site. Many of our members have already shared theirs there. We also have an Awards page for photos of your contest awards. Plaques and certificates welcome! And wait! There's more! We also have a page for station photos! Send yours and/or photos of your antennas! Click on the webmaster link at the bottom of any SCCC page and send your info and photos! Don't be shy!

Scott Davis, N3FJP authors some popular general and contest logging software. In one of his recent newsletters, he wrote about contesting and why we do it. I thought I'd share his writing on the suject:

The reasons for the tremendous fun of contesting aren't always evident and they are too important to miss, especially for new folks just entering the hobby. What draws us to spend major contest weekends happily glued to our radios?

Following CQ World Wide CW 2020, one of our club's excellent, experienced contesters, having just made over 1,000 Qs, wrote on our virtual clubhouse text chat group, tongue in cheek: This contesting is nuts! Why do we do it?

Spent from the weekend, I couldn't help but laugh out loud, but the question stayed with me. This contesting IS nuts. It's hard work, takes education, effort, dedication, commitment, experimentation, knowledge, ingenuity, planning and serious time in the chair. Why DO we do it?

It turns out that, at least for me, there are lots of great reasons! Here are a few off the top of my head. I'll bet that you can add to this list...

- It is thrilling to to communicate to every state, section and the 4 corners of the Earth with nothing but a piece of metal or wire in our yards, from the comfort of our homes and families.

- It is joyful to share a quick connection, however brief, with all the other stations that have become familiar on contest weekends.

- It is thrilling to watch the bands rise and fall like the tide over the course of the contest weekend, anticipating what may open next.

- It is thrilling to watch our individual and club's collective QSO rates soar when the bands come alive, on our club's real time leader board.

- It is thrilling to simultaneously, whole heartedly cheer our NEMARCS brothers and sisters on, while doing our very best to leave them in the dust!

- It is thrilling to recognize the very real accomplishments of our scores, individually and collectively, with our club total team effort. We know full well what goes into building a successful station and putting in a successful contest effort!

- It is joyful to exchange quick banter on our virtual clubhouse text chat group during propagation lulls, as well as share needed multipliers, mentor new folks and encourage everyone to do their best.

- It is thrilling to see our club rankings in print and moving up the list when the final results are released!

- It is thrilling to watch our club's scoreboard participant numbers grow, seeing new guys jump in for the first times, knowing the fun that awaits them!

- It is thrilling to get that certificate in the mail, after you have placed well enough to earn one!

- It is fascinating to learn the strengths and weaknesses of our stations, that are so quickly revealed on contest weekends.

- It is thrilling, after the contest is over, to improve our stations, our antennas and our operating skills, to see what we can do better next time. In fact, the grand contest never ends. We are always looking for that edge and helping each other find theirs!

- It is thrilling to befriend such a fine group of folks, with whom to share this amazing adventure!

This is really, really fun stuff!

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Last month I mentioned that the ARRL Incoming QSL Bureau was reporting that incoming cards had slowed tremendously in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic but shipments to segment sorters would go out in December. They did and they were received by the sorters around December 8. Mailings to us from many of the sorters came out shortly thereafter but keep in mind that some sorters may take additional time to make mailings. At least one sorter has some very high risk people in the household and is quarantining anything and everything that comes in. That segment may be delayed more than usual. The ARRL Sixth District Incoming QSL Bureau web site can be found here. If the number in your call sign is something other than 6, go here to find your incoming QSL Bureau and get updates.

As we all well know by know, DXpeditions and ContestExpeditions have come to a near standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic. And rightfully so. We have a link to ContestExpeditions (a site run by NG3K) on the right hand side of our web site. Checking it out recently shows just how few expeditions are planned. Everyone is in lockdown mode and not traveling, reducing risk and exposure. As we know, the long awaited vaccine is now being administered and rolled out. We are now crossing our fingers for a better 2021, certainly by the time summer hits. Stay safe, everyone!

Strange but true...
It takes 5,000 cows to make a year's worth of Cheetos seasoning. It requires 10 million pounds (4.536 metric tons) of cheddar, which takes 11 million gallons of milk from 5,000 cows, averaging out to 2,200 gallons of milk per cow!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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