A Collection of Past SCCC News Stories (Newest to Oldest)
Monthly News (SCCCORE)
December 2018
We are now well into the fall/winter contest season, and many of you have been quite active. There have been some really good scores too. Even though we are at the low end of the sunspot cycle, there is plenty of fun to be had. So get those stations on the air!

Speaking of stations, if you're interested in making yours available to a guest operator, or you'd like to be a guest operator, or if your multi-op effort needs an operator or two, be sure to post on the SCCC Reflector or let me know. Let's keep So Cal active!

Recently, there was some excitement that a group of sunspots that were observed in late August possibly signaled the start of Cycle 25. It feels like we have been at the bottom of Cycle 24 for a long time, perhaps made worse in our minds by the relatively poor peak back in 2014. In April of that year, the smoothed sunspot number reached 81.8, the lowest peak since the early 1800's. So hopes were high that we had turned the corner. Not so, said The Royal Observatory of Belgium's Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence. Experts there stated that those particular sunspots belong to the current solar cycle, not 25. Oh so close...

NCJ has published the final results of the July NAQP RTTY now. The SCCC #1 team finished 13th. Axel, KI6RRN finished tops in California, and just missed making the top ten overall. Levi, KK6NON took 4th place in California.

The final results of the September North American Sprint CW were also published by NCJ. The SCCC #1 team took 5th place in this one. Marko, N5ZO finished 10th overall and 4th in California. Dan, N6MJ was close behind at 5th in California. Marko, by the way, had the top Golden Log in the contest with 314 QSOs!

The CQWW DX CW has just ended as I write this particular paragraph. SCCC was out in force, and conditions seemed particularly good compared to recent months. We didn't even have a solar flare or other disturbance to rain on CW weekend for a change! It was fun watching the battle on the scoreboard between TI7W (KL9A) and ZF1A (N6MJ) throughout the contest. Dan held the lead early on but Chris later pulled in front, and slowly built his lead. As the contest wound down, Dan began climbing back, but alas, Chris's lead was too much to overcome. A mere 3% separated the two final scores (a 652 QSO difference in a horse race where both had over 9,000!). To give some perspective, K5ZD finished 3rd in the category but was 9.7 million points and about 6,300 QSOs behind Dan in 2nd. Wow! The Contest Online Scoreboard reported that ZF1A had the highest hourly rate at 372! Sheez! Also out on DXpeditions were Jim, N6TJ at KH7M, Marko, N5ZO in Russia using RM0F at the QTH of UA3DPX and I believe Dick, N6AA was out somewhere as well. We had a really good turn out for this contest. It's great to see that. However, with 181 current members in our circle, we have some work to do to get even more activity. By the way, I ran across an interesting write up of some of the history of the CQWW DX contest on CQ's web site.

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
November 2018
Welcome aboard to new member Douglas, N6PZK who hails from Fallbrook. His first contest was the California QSO party back in 2013. He won the new contester category that year as KJ6ZQP. He's been hooked on contesting ever since! He moved to his current QTH a little over three years ago and has been constructing a new shack since that time. He loves both DXing and contesting. He is a member of SCDXC, the Los Angeles Amateur Radio Club as well as the Traveler Contest Club. He is a former marine and we thank him for his service.

The 2018 CQ WPX SSB results were published last month. Axel, KI6RRN placed second in the U.S. Single Op Low Power category. Alex, W6AFA was second USA 7 MHz High Power. Bill, W8QZA piloted W6QU to second USA Single Op All Band QRP. And Dick, W6TK took second in the 6th District All Band High Power. WN6K scored second SOABLP in the 6th District. Full results at CQ's Contest Results page.

The WRTC Sanctioning Committee has chosen the Bologna, Italy area as the location of the 2022 WRTC contest. The area is where Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi was born. Marconi is known for his development of long distance radio telegraph. WRTC is a contest within the IARU contest and brings together many of the best contesters in the world to compete against each other on a level field using similar stations and antennas.

As many of you have heard, whether on the SCCC Reflector or any number of other places, Paul Bittner, W0AIH passed away on Wednesday, Oct 31 due to a tower accident. He had been working on his 15 meter tower when a pulley failed. Paul was an incredibly active contester and most of us have many, many contacts with him in our logs. Pictures of his incredible Wisconsin antenna farm can be viewed on his QRZ web page. The accident reminds all of us to always, ALWAYS work with the utmost safety in mind, no matter what we are doing. RIP Paul.

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
October 2018
Welcome aboard to five new members this month!

Endaf, N6UTC was first licensed in 1997 with the callsign of MW1BQO. Four years later, he came to the USA and obtained the call KG6FIY. His current callsign is much more interesting. He enjoys the various data modes and is active on VHF.

Jaxon, N0XNN is in San Diego and currently lives in military housing. He's relatively new to contesting and looks forward to expanding his contest knowledge.

Tony, N6OO is an occasional contester and enjoys DXing and QRP. He joined us just in time for last month's NA Sprint SSB.

Angus, KA6AIL joins us from the high desert in Palmdale (near my old stomping grounds of Lancaster). Angus enjoys CQP and some of the QRP contests.

Bill, KB6WKT has been involved in every Field Day since 1988! He has also participated in VHF/UHF, RTTY and HF contests over the years.

NAQP SSB preliminary results have been published on the NCJ web site. This is not one SCCC participates in heavily. SCCC #2 is 13th and SCCC #1 is 15th. SMC #1 ran away with the thing, posting nearly 568K points. The runner up, SMC #2 had 383K. SCCC teams did not crack 100K. That said, SCCCers took the top three spots in California, with W6AFA narrowly topping WN6K. K5KT took the third spot.

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
September 2018
HeilBM-17 The Southern California DX Club (SCDXC) held it's annual Summer Bash on August 12 in La Habra, and was attended by many who are also SCCCers. This photo was sent to me by Terry N6CW. Click on it for a full size rendition, and see how many SCCCers you can spot. See if you can spot the SCCCer wearing his So Cal Contest Club badge!

The preliminary July NAQP RTTY results have been published on the NCJ web site. KI6RRN placed 5th overall, and the SCCC #1 team took 5th in the team category with 174,935 points.

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
August 2018
Welcome aboard to new SCCC member K0XP. Steve moved to Mission Viejo after 34 years on the east coast. He loves low band DXing and contesting as well as VHF contesting. He operates mostly CW. He says he was among those at the very first SCCC meeting.

Also, welcome to Wyatt, AI6V (formerly KK6RDY). Wyatt now has the call formerly held by Carl Cook, who passed away in December, 2014. Wyatt is a senior in high school and is President of the radio club there. He operates in most of the big contests.

HeilBM-17 In June, I shared the Dayton releases by Kenwood and Yaesu. Not to be overlooked is another release, this one by Heil Sound. The company announced its new BM-17 lightweight headset. It's available as either a single-side or dual-side model, and is available with either a dynamic mic element or an electret. The headset has many features that will make it attractive to amateur radio operators, contesters and DXers alike. Read more about these headsets at Heil Sound.

According to an ARRL announcement on 16 July 2018, Dan Craig, N6MJ, and Chris Hurlbut, KL9A, who operated as Y82V took third place in the recent WRTC contest. They racked up 506,461 points, putting 3,769 CW contacts and 1,052 phone contacts into their log. Chris posted recordings of their entire Y82V 24 hour operation and the log here. Caution, Google will be unable to scan for viruses due to the file size. I would suggest you download the audio files and scan them with your own anti-virus software just to be safe. (I'm personally pretty careful/anal about this stuff.)

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
July 2018
W6VNR
Our condolensces to family and friends of Joe Hypnarowski, W6VNR/ZF2AH. Joe passed away June 6 at 3:00 am at UCSD Jacobs ICU in La Jolla. While not currently a member of SCCC, he provided many contest QSOs over the years as ZF2AH, V3CQ, C5ABZ, T32AH and many other call signs. Joe was a member of the Southern California DX Club. A celebration of his life will be held July 21. Details sent on the club reflector.

Welcome aboard to new SCCC member W6ZL! David joins us from Newport Beach, CA, and happens to be QSL manager for 3D2KM, A35KL and KF6RY.

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Monthly News (SCCCORE)
June 2018
Who remembers the name of the club bulletin back in the 1980's? That's right, SCCCORE. Southern California Contest Club Operations, Results and Enlightenments. It was suggested by Jim, N6TJ. It and others were submitted and voted on by club members as we decided on a new name for the club bulletin. By popular vote, SCCCORE came out on top. The name debuted with the March-April, 1983 issue. I am considering changing this Monthly News column to SCCCORE, and of course continuing to publish it monthly. Let me know your thoughts.

I'd like to thank Jim, AF6O for his many years as SCCC webmaster. Jim did a great job putting the web site together and keeping fresh content up. I'd also like to thank him for coaching me as we worked on transitioning duties. I'm still learning about proper formatting, something Jim drove home during his coaching. It's harder than it looks, despite my years of authoring other web sites! And thank you, Jim, for continuing to host the web site.

2017 WRTC Winners N6MJ and KL9A WRTC 2018 is July 14-15. Defending champions N6MJ and KL9A (standing in the picture to the left) will be back. N6TR will pair up with N9RV on NA Team 6. David Hodge, N6AN will be one of the referees. WRTC takes place during the IARU Championship (as a contest within a contest) and pits the world's currently most accomplished contesters against each other using similar stations and antennas, all within the same geographic region.

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Monthly News
May 2018
NEW this month...

I will be looking to publish some Monthly News and blurbs in this space going forward. If you have anything you would like to share, please send to the webmaster. All contributions encouraged! Pics, thoughts, news, what you are doing with your station this season, observations, any & all are welcome!

2017 W6YI ARRL SS Congratulations go out to some SCCCers in the 2017 ARRL Sweepstakes CW!

K6LA was a Division winner in the Single Operator, High Power category.
KI6RRN placed 7th and was a Division winner in the Single Operator, Low Power category.
W6YI & team took top honors overall in the MultiOp, Single Transmitter, High Power category!

Shown here, left to right, N6KI, N6WIN and K6AM at the W6YI MSHP station.

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