Jim, N6TJ and Dick, N6AA are working on a, what they call, "mini-Visalia" to be held March 19-21, 2021 at the Visalia Wyndham (formerly the Holiday Inn). The emphasis will be on friends getting together, with minimal structured events. The plan is to have a catered BBQ Saturday afternoon, possibly followed by a gathering. The Wyndham is has a block of rooms for attendees at $95/night. Vendors have expressed interest in showing up as well. Jim says they will perhaps organize a catered dinner at the hotel for Friday. They are in the very early stages of planning. If interested, please contact Jim at N6TJ [[at]] sbcglobal.net. A web site is being set up and I'm sure you can get updates on the SCCC reflector.

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The CQ WPX CW contest was held the last weekend of May, just before publication of the June edition of SCCCORE. Despite being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, 20 meters had a good opening to Europe for several hours on Friday evening, and 10 opened up briefly during the weekend. 15 had openings both days, albeit nothing like what we will see in a few years, but hey, we'll take it!

Paul, WN6K said conditions to South America did not seem to be pop-ins from EU (not sure what he meant by that) and reported that the A index seemed to be goofy.

Dave, N6AN ran 5 watts to a 44 ft CAT5 twisted pair inverted vee with apex at 19 feet on a 1st floor apartment patio just 8 ft from the building! Nothing like being determined! Still, he managed 24 QSOs with this set up!

Frank, WA6KHK did not catch many DX openings but knocked out 916 QSOs!

Marko, N5ZO operated club station NT6Q. He had some challenges, shall we say, with time on and time off, and had to make some adjustments. He reported a great opening to deep Europe Friday night.

Axel, KI6RRN did a remote operation using the WA6TQT super station and used the NO6T call sign. He ran off 3,709 QSOs and a score of 8M + points! Holy smokes!

Steve, AC6T had a good opening to Asia on 80 and 40 on Sunday morning but said that EU stations were very weak to his QTH.

Bruce, WA7BNM said that he never heard Japan and only a few South American and Caribbean stations. He too reported a good opening to Europe Friday night.

Eric, NC6K had planned to be at KL7RA for another M/M effort but that was nixed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He reported that conditions at home seemed decent but not great on 20. He found reasonable propagation on 15 and managed a few Q's on 10.

Dan, N6MJ was again at N6WIN in AZ using the ND7K call (and his score goes to the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club as requested by station owner Tim). Dan reported on numerous additional station and antenna improvements at Tim's station, and that Hector, XE2K has been busy helping Tim with antenna work. Dan reported some equipment issues during the contest but he was able to overcome or create work arounds. His full writeup can be found on 3830scores.com.

Ken, K6LA used the WK6LA call sign but said that it's a lot more fun operating from his PEI station. He is going to work hard on remoting VY2TT!

Bill, W6QU again operated as W8QZA and was QRP as always. He commented how strange it was to have so few Caribbean stations on. He too caught the good Friday night EU opening on 20. He said, "Some of the best thrills of these contests come from "winning" little battles to get a good Q in the log. There is nothing like it and it is hard to explain to a non-ham. But that is sure what keeps me going at 80 yrs old through 4 hours of sleep the first night and 4 1/2 hours the second. These kind of thrills don't show up in the score but they sure make great memories!"

Dana, K6NR felt conditions were terrific given the current stage of the solar cycle. He said 20 was open later than he stayed up, and 40 was good to Europe on Saturday. He also caught an opening to Europe on 15 on Sunday! And he caught the 10 meter opening. He recorded 1,227 Q's in just 22 hours!

Jim, K6ZH operating as KG7NV also found 20 fruitful to EU Friday night, with the Russians especially strong. He also experienced a big 15 meter opening and a short one on 10 on Sunday.

Don, NK6A enjoyed the 20m opening to EU Friday night and again on Sunday. He did not work a single JA (nor did I, although I missed the early 40m window to JA both mornings-NE6I).

Steve, AC6T often operates the UCSB club station but ran the contest from home this time. Europe was very weak for him but he had a good opening to Asia on 80 and 40 meters Sunday morning.

Dick, W6TK found 20m still open at midnight over the pole! 40 was good Saturday night and not particularly noisy. He was happy to see 15 open up but missed out on the best of the 10m openings. Drew, N7DA did almost exclusivly 40 meters using a 26 ft vertical with a cap hat.

Wyatt, AI6V was part of the 9A1TT crew again, operating remote to Croatia using the call sign 9A0AA. They operated M/S using 7 operators from 6 different countries. He enjoyed working us SoCal guys from the other side of the world.

Terry, N6IC had a goal of working at least 10 stations on each band, and only fell short on 160 meters.

Dennis, NE6I knew going in that condx would be stinky but it was going to be a quiet stay-at-home weekend, except for grocery shopping with the XYL for them and his elderly mom. Plus he wanted to do a second contest run-through with the new FTDX-101MP obtained a few months earlier. The antennas were giving him some SWR issues Friday night and Saturday while running high power but seemed fine Sunday running low power. He will check on what's going on in coming weeks. He enjoyed the 15 meter openings both days. The band was quiet and stations were easily workable, even barefoot. 20 was crowded and the 101's filtering did not disappoint! 50 Hz BW with no ringing? Crazy! One mistake he realized later was not leveraging the second receiver to monitor for 10m openings. Next time!

Scott, N6MI operated at Frazier Peak from his ham van. He was running his first contest with his new 101D. He too reported great performance from the receiver. Glenn, K6NA was using the club call NA6TT and had a lot of fun, scoring 1302 Q's and 1.9M points. He found conditions surprisingly good and caught a nice 10 meter opening on Sunday.

Dick, N6AA reported having bad power line noise and made most of his QSOs using a tri-bander only 6 feet high that looks under the power lines. He left on a trip Sunday morning and missed operating that day. Yet he still managed 1,350 Q's for 1.5M points!

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The ARRL June VHF Contest was held mid-month. There were a lot of pre-contest announcements by SCCCers on the club reflector announcing operating plans during the weekend. The Magic Band (6 meters) had had some healthy openings here and there leading up to the contest weekend, so I think we all had high hopes for a spectacular contest. And it was. Out east! Here in California, we were mostly shut out of any kind of really huge Sporadic E openings on 6 (although it was depressing to me to look at where XE2CQ in TJ was being copied (using PSKReporter). For example, 00Z Monday (5pm local), his CQs were being copied by VE9GJ in the PEI area and WA1EAZ in Massachusetts, and all over the Great Lakes Region. NA6L was similarly copied in the northeast at that time as was NC6K and K6RO. Yours truly had only a brief opening to Texas Saturday afternoon and managed to QSO two of the guys out there. Never-the-less, I had a good time and found having the second receiver on the 101MP was quite handy! I was monitoring 50.313 on the main receiver and 50.125 on the sub receiver all weekend, occasionally snagging an SSB Q on .125. I also used the sub receiver to tune the CW and the rest of the Phone portion of 6 periodically. As an aside, I normally forget to monitor 2 meters during these contests (I only have an FM rig on 2) but had it on 146.52 Saturday and .55 on Sunday. I did log one FM QSO despite my handicapped ground plane situation. I've not figured out how to interface the N1MM+ contest logger to WSJT-X, so I used N3FJP's VHF contest logger instead and manually entered the Q's as I worked them. N3FJP's logging software can be interfaced to WSJT-X using JT-Alert but I didn't have time this go round to tackle it. Maybe next time. If anyone has figured out the N1MM+ / WSJT-X interface, email me offline. Tim, N6GP operated limited rover and recorded a personal best for number of QSOs on 6, 2 and 440 MHz. Footnote, rather incredibly, 6 magically opened up from SoCal just as the contest was ending and continued on for the next hour or two. Crazy.

Some comments from participants: Larry, K6RO: "I really never intended to do this contest for 18 hours, but when N6GP sent out an email to our club reminding us to get on, I said..what the heck. No preparation, but jumped in on 6m FT8 to start..then to 6m ssb...had a nice run there, and back to ft8. When I was on ssb, many guys asked me for 2m and 440...I said I didn't have those bands. But on Sunday, I grabbed my 2m/440 mobile rig,and started to make q's there...only had FM, but that was better than nothing. I spent Sunday rotating between 6m ft8, ssb, and asking everyone to move to my FM bands. Was kinda fun ..2 different radios on separate benches..2 logging programs..that was a mess.. Anyway..I had a great time playing radio. I only took one 3 hour tennis break on Sunday morning, and quit the contest 1 hour early to take Sharon out to dinner...our first sit down dinner in over 2 months. I think I have a good location for VHF contests, and now I am thinking of getting an IC9700 so I can do fm and ssb in the next one. Any other radios that are better ? or have 6m also ? Probably will need a dual band 2m/440 yagi also. I ran about 600 watts on 6m..not sure if I needed that, or if 100 watts would have brought the same results. I found out after the contest that the 3 band category is only low power..so I need to think about this before September. Thanks to Bruce WA7BNM for merging my 2 logs, and a few other guys that helped me with other things. I hope to do this contest in September...will the conditions be the same ? or typically better ? I hope better as my 6m grid total was not good. I have not done a VHF contest since 1996,so I have no clue..lots of reading to do before I do this one again. Thanks for the q's. My score may change, as these results were from the ARRL upload site,which didn't take out any dupes."

Drew, N7DA: "No 6 meter, so really limited. :-) WA5VJB cheap yagis and drive on-mast. HT and a ground plane. Roved local hilltops in DM12 and DM13. Ran out to Laguna, also in DM12 Sunday AM to work a bunch over in Arizona which was a lot of fun. FM, SSB, and CW. (The most CW I've ever worked in a VHF contest; crazy considering I wasn't on 6.) No digital, so again, really limited. :-) Paper logging; somehow only had to purge 4 dupes from my log. Worked a lot of SCCCers. Thanks! A number of fairly new callsigns (per current sequential callsigns.) New contesters? Thanks to N6MI for being patient and giving me another mult. Only glitch was discovering late in the contest that my microphone plug could slip partially out of a jack. Explains why sometimes they couldn't hear me on phone! :-) FM was hopping. I mostly used HT whip for FM. Need to get folks organized with more than 2 or 3 simplex frequencies so we can spread out more. It really was that busy at times."

Dana, K6NR: This was my first fairly serious effort in a VHF contest. I had a blast. I operated from our property in Phelan, California. I recently acquired a second AB-577 military mast and set up yagis for 2 meters, 440 and 1.2g at about 45'. I didn't install a rotator so I turned the whole mast from the bottom with the AB-577 wrench. I had three coaxes running down the mast to a switch connecting to the shack. I spent an amount of time running out back to switch antennas or turn the mast. At least I got some exercise. Next time maybe I'll add a rotator and use a triplexer to feed the shack? Don't want to make it too easy. I spent a fair amount of time listening on multiple frequencies, waiting for new stations to show up. I had my IC9700 as the main radio, with my K3 on 6m, and mobile rigs on 220 and 440 fm. Hard to tell which one I was hearing at times, and easy to pick up the wrong microphone. 6m FT8 was helpful to keep up a pace when no one new was on. The modest openings on 6m were nice, but, well, modest. The calling frequencies were a bit over used - folks would get on from mountain tops or strong base stations and make it hard for others to come on and announce and get off. I am too used to HF contesting where there is liberal use of VFOs. Greatest fun was working some distant stations on 2 meters. I worked a number of San Francisco area stations on FT8, as well as a few in Nevada and parts east. I wasn't setup for FT8 on the IC9700 but managed to crack that nut during the contest. I also worked K6MYC and his megastation up in DM07. That's about the longest haul for me on 2 meter SSB to date. Also worked K6MWK in DM06. At any rate, it was quite an experience. Thanks everyone for the QSOs, including my first 3 ever on 1.2ghz (W6PNG, N6AX and N6MI)."

Jim, K6ZH reported lousy conditions in SoCal. And great conditions before and after the contest! Levi, K6JO had a great time despite the propagation challenges. It was his first time contesting on 2m and 440 MHz. Marty, N6VI found 6m poor but he worked KD6RMS and N6UTC on all six of the bands he had. Bruce, WA7BNM operated for only the second time in a VHF contest, putting his SteppIR DB-36 to work this time around. Worked a few stations on SSB and CW during the first half hour and then spent the rest of his time on FT8. He was happy to work a couple of XE's and surprised to decode a PY. Eric, NC6K said, "Seriously, this was one of the worst years for Es that I can remember. For some reason, the weekend of this contest always coincides with practically no sustained Sporadic E. We had an opening Saturday evening for about an hour to the PNW and some very in-and-out openings Sunday to the FN grids and Hawaii (lasted less than 10 minutes and no QSOs). To add insult to injury, my friends east of the Continental Divide shared their misery at having to deal with extremely full waterfalls that made it hard to find an open spot. I spent most of the contest watching the Blue Screen of Death, which in this case was the empty waterfall. At least there were a few dozen locals to decode endlessly. I went to the 6 Meter FT4 segment a few times, but there was pretty much nothing there, and I did spend some time on CW, SSB and FM, but there was also very little going on. With conditions like we had, FT4 would probably have been better, but no one seemed to move from the FT8 segment. As Brooklyn Dodger fans used to say, "Wait til next year". I'm sure conditions will be so much better."

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ARRL published the final results of the 2019 ARRL 10 Meter Contest. John, K6AM placed 6th in the USA SOHP, Mixed Mode category. Paul, WN6K finished 3rd USA SOLP, Mixed Mode. Bill, W8QZA operating as W6QU took 2nd USA SOQRP Phone Only.

ARRL has also published the final results of January VHF contest. Of little surprise, Wayne, N6NB took top honors (by leaps and bounds!) in the Classic Rover category, well more than doubling the nearest runner up's score! Greg, W6IT took 6th in the category. Bruce, KG6IYN placed 1st in the SO FM only category. SCCC took top honors in the Medium Club category, edging The Ontario VHF Assocation by a mere 267 points! (387,843 with 18 scores versus 387,576 with 38 scores) What a photo finish!


I mentioned on the reflector last month that I had run across XE2SI on 6 meter FT8 and couldn't resist giving him a call for a quick QSO. Back in the 1980's, the SCCC partnered with him to do some multi-multis in the CQWW DX contests from a hilltop in Tijuana. The crew took tower trailers, antennas, radios, generators and of course all the contest fixin's to stage competitive runs from Mexico. My comment on the reflector conjured up some fond memories by those that participated in those M/M's. CQ Magazine has the results of those on their web site. The XE2SI/SCCC efforts ran up some respectable finishes from the west coast! Check out these stats!



1983 SSB 13,487,670 points, 10,848 QSOs, 162 zones, 380 countries. Ops were XE2SI, AA6RX (now N6AN), K6NA, N6AA, N6AR, N6NB, N6ND (sk), N6TR, N6TJ, N6ZZ (sk) and WA6OTU (now N5OT).
1984 SSB 9,984,236 points, 8,952 QSOs, 143 zones, 350 countries. Ops were AA6RX (now N6AN), K6NA, N6ND (sk), N6NI, NI6W (sk), and WA6OTU (now N5OT).
1983 CW 1,878,600 points, 7,668 QSOs, 142 zones, 308 countries. Ops were AA6RX (now N6AN), AE6E, N6TR, N6VI, N6ZZ (sk), NE6I, WA6OTU (now N5OT).
1986 CW 5,093,276 points, 5,052 QSOs, 141 zones, 298 countries. Ops were XE2SI, AA6RX (now N6AN) and AB6R.

That 1983 SSB effort placed 4th in the world! Read the article in the link telling about the "crazy Americans" in Mexico!
In 1984, a couple of those guys jumped ship and went to TI1C where they won the world on SSB in M/M. The XE2SI guys finished 5th that year.
On CW in 1983, the SCCC team took XE2SI to a close 2nd place world, also recording the highest QSO total! And you might also recognize the top single op all band winner: 9Y4VT operated by Dick, N6AA! Dick broke the SOABHP record that year.
In 1986, Dick, N6AA broke his 1983 SOABHP record operating 9Y4VT with over 5,000 QSOs, besting the '83 score by 1M points! Chip, K7JA was right behind him in 2nd place operating at NP4A. In 5th place was Jim, N6TJ who set a new African record that year from D44BC. The SCCC XE2SI team didn't quite make the Top 5 M/M that year but their 5M points certainly came close. SCCC finished 3rd that year in the Club standings!

Tree, N6TR shared these great photos from the 1983 contests (scroll down near the bottom of the list and then click each picture link).

Wayne, N6NB has these from the 1983 SSB operation.

This picture is the 1984 SSB team. Top: AA6RX (now N6AN) and Kurt, NI6W (sk). Bottom from left: K6NA, N6NI, N6VI, N6ND (sk), and just above N6ND is WA6OTU (now N5OT). Paul, N6LL (not shown) was the photographer of this shot. He recalls that Mark, WA6OTU demanded that everyone stop packing after the contest and pose with the tower trailer for this now classic shot. Thanks, Mark!

Larry, N6NC shared the story about and some pictures of the SCCC team that operated 6E2T in Ensenada and took 1st place Multi-Two! Ops were K6LA, K6LL, N6NC, N6HC, KM6SN and N6KI. Pepe, XE2MX (sk) was instrumental in helping SCCC with that operation. See separate story here on the web site.

CQ Magazine announced late last month that Tim Shoppa, N3QE has been named CQ Contesting Editor, succeeding Dave Sidall, K3ZJ after five years in the position. Dave's increased job responsibilites have limited his available time. Tim is an active contester and served as secretary of the PVRC for several years.

CT1BOH has a nice presentation on 2BSIQ (Two bands, synchronized interleaved operating protocol here. It's a good read. Check it out.

Once again, I have run across something that made me gasp. You might have seen these yourself at Dayton or another convention. A company called Luso Tower out of Japan makes some towers that can support just about anything you could throw at it. The LUSO150 Magnum (see KM8AM page on QRZ.com) can handle 183 square feet of wind load at 57 mph with the tower fully extended to 145 feet tall! Now here in Califoria, we would probably want to derate that a little by using a higher wind speed in our calcs, but you get the idea! And that isn't their tallest tower! They have others! Yikes! Now, these things aren't cheap, so you'll be needing a healthy bank account if you want to bring one home. The 150 Magnum was priced at $68,900 at Dayton in 2015.



Strange but true...
A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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

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

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

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

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

25% said yes and 75% said no.

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

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

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

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

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

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

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

86% said yes and 14% said a few.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Social Gathering Details

As announced previously, a Visalia DX and Contesting Social Gathering is planned for March 19, 20, and 21 at the Visalia, California, Wyndham Hotel (refurbished former Holiday Inn).

Health Concerns

None of us are interested in contracting the Covid-19 virus, nor are we interested in anyone else contracting it at the event. We are uncertain about what impact the virus will be having ten months from now. We may cancel the event. We may cancel the event very close to the planned date if health concerns warrant it.

We expect to know considerably more about how society is faring as we approach the date. Radio-convention wise, Quartzfest, Orlando, and Yuma will have recently either functioned or been cancelled, and that will impact our planning.

If the event happens, we don't know whether we will try to require masks, enhanced social distancing, diving helmets with oxygen tanks, or what. At present, I don't expect to be shaking hands with anyone.

Overall Philosophy

Rather than have any particular clubs involved, Jim Neiger, N6TJ, and I decided to run the gathering as two individuals. This permits rapid reaction to whatever the future holds. Note that I was the Convention Chairman, when the DX Convention was first moved to Visalia in 1978, and where we had a two-person convention committee. We have the experience to make this event function smoothly.

Our intent is to keep the event as simple as possible. We do not expect to make money. In fact, we hope to not handle any money. The exact procedure for paying for the dinners is presently undefined, but we are working to somehow have attendees pay the hotel directly.

We expect that there will be no raffles, no prizes, no programs, no registration packets, no patches, no reserved seating, and probably no something-elses.

We expect that this event will be smaller than previous Visalias, and smaller than the main Internet event as well.

There will probably be an organized ARRL discussion, maybe some sort of organized contest discussion and/or DX discussion, and maybe a presentation or two on some sort of operation such as an expedition. Major DX-pedition presentations should be left for the main Internet event. The format of the discussions will be in some way dependent on the number of attendees present. These may be round table discussions or larger forums. We have been given use of the hotels meeting rooms. Any agenda will likely be finalized in the week before the event. If you have something you feel would be of interest that you can present or lead, please let us know.

If an ARRL or CQ Magazine QSL-card Checker shows up, there may be QSL checking, something probably not expected over the Internet. A volunteer is presently expected.

The major activity is expected to be talking with each other, in a safe way. We will encourage getting to know people that you do not know well.

Exhibitors

We have received inquiries regarding exhibitors. The current plan is to suggest that anyone wanting to exhibit products simply rent one of the first-floor rooms that face hallways or other public areas, like we did 30 or 40 years ago. As we get closer, we will know the expected attendance, and whether the event merits exhibitors.

Volunteers

Some of you have volunteered to help. Let's see what is needed as we proceed.

Hotel

The Wyndham Hotel appears to desire our business, and is working hard to make this work. A reduced hotel rate of $95 per night for one or two beds has been negotiated. The rate applies for Friday night, March 19, and Saturday night, March 20. A smaller number of rooms is also available for Thursday night, March 18. Reservations may be cancelled up until one day before the check-in date.

Call (559) 651-5000, Group code: 031 821 CAL. Group name: California DX Club.

Parking is free.

Motorhome parking is free, but if hookup is needed, expect a small cost.

Expenses

We are endeavoring to run this without cost, but if we end up buying a bunch of cans of soda, we can probably survive eating the expense. Otherwise, there may be a donation jar.

You can now book your rooms with the Group Code and Group Name, below. Rate should be $95, and they are giving us a day before cancellation without penalty. Dates are 19, 20 March 2021 and you are welcome to arrive 18 March, of course, at the same rate.

Group code is 031821CAL
Group Name California DX Club
Wyndham Visalia tel 559.651.5000

From You

If you think you will attend, please let Jim know at N6TJ [at] sbcglobal.net. If you have a probability of attending, such as 50%, please add that information.

Make your cancellable reservations directly with the hotel. Show up. Bring adequate funds to pay for whatever you eat and drink.

Talk to your friends, safely.

Keep in mind that the event is 10 months away, and will not happen if conditions are not safe. We suggest not buying non-refundable airline tickets.

73,

Dick Norton, N6AA, Co-organizer, with Jim Neiger, N6TJ, Co-organizer

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

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The rains grew heavier, and Marv and I were soaked to the skin when unwinding and installing the vertical and placing the 32 radials in the brown MX clay-mud. The vertical required several tuning adjustments throughout the evening, and we got to the point of just stripping off our wet clothes and leaving them in a pile at the condo door ready to put them back on for the next adjustment. At one point the clay mud was so sticky and thick it was like walking around in platform shoes with 6 inches of mud caked on each sneaker.

Ken was a great operator even back then, and ran contacts like crazy. At one point FRI evening with the heavy, salty rain, the ceramic mushroom capacitors on the vertical literally exploded like hand grenades leaving a circle of ceramic shards all around the antenna in the clay mud. Later that night Ken's amp tripped out, having overloaded the condo's circuitry, so we stealthily found and rewired the amp power cord to the next door condo's mains. Then when Ken was out doing some work with one of the antennas he got a painful cactus thorn in his keying thumb, and the project office called the house doctor who came to treat and wrap the injury, so Ken did most of the contest with his keying thumb wrapped in a bandage.

SAT night Marv and I went up to the Rosarito Beach Hotel for dinner while Ken pressed on operating. We were amazed that it had snowed in Rosarito, with 6 inches of snow/frozen sleet on the roads in Rosarito Beach, traffic snarled, and dogs running wild back and forth across the streets like they were mad. Afterward, we called it "The night the dogs went crazy when it snowed in Rosarito." On Sunday Dennis N6KI visited to see what we were doing, and began to warm to the idea of operating from MX. (Dennis and I are Vietnam combat veterans, so these MX operations were a bit of a nostalgic adventure for us.)

I forget how we did in that 1994 ARRL DX CW, but we were beaten by Doug (N6RT) operating at Everett's Rancho Sordo Mundo (School for the Deaf) just north of Ensenada, who had many more 10m contacts than we did. None of the DX stations had done many 160m contacts.

1995 ARRL DX CW

The ‘94 operation convinced us that we could operate a DX contest from Mexico. The results showed us where we needed more band activity to be successful from Mexico. We discussed a potential 1995 operation amongst some members of SCCC, and Harvey K6QK(SK) and I drove the White Whale (my ‘89 Ford station wagon) to survey radio sites in Baja that might be more suitable than the Grand Baja Resort.

Harv and I traveled one weekend in northern Baja from San Diego east on Mexico Route 2 to Tecate and the Eagles Nest area, then down through the Guadalupe Valley to Ensenada, and south to the Pta Banda/Pta Estero area. We avoided Rosarito from having already operated there. We surveyed numerous sites on the way, and the best was the sandspit which created the south jaw of the Estero River lagoon south of Ensenada, on the road to the Punta Banda "Blowhole." This site seemed most promising, because we were copying 2 1/2 HF bands at high noon. At each site we used a mast with a single element HF aluminum dipole which we mounted on Harv's base placed under one wheel of the station wagon, with a Kenwood xcvr in the wagon. And we discovered there were several beach houses for rent on the sandspit that separated the Pacific Ocean from the Estero River lagoon.

After we returned, I discussed with Dave K6LL our site survey and the '94 results from the Baja stations, and we decided to try an M/2 Contest DXpedition to Ensenada in FEBR 1995. This required a lot more complex station equipment with three simultaneous CW stations, requiring more antennas, switching, bandpass filters, filter stubs, computers, and generator power for two amplifiers. We actually added a 3d MULT-hunting station to interleave between the two RUN stations, but it was not used much.

I insisted that we do MX licensing properly, unlike some of the other successful gringo MX contest efforts. We made visits to the Tijuana SCT office and met Oscar Rivera, the first lawyer in the MX SCT (their FCC), and the long-time honcho of the Tijuana SCT office. Oscar was very accommodating, assisted us and made sure we were aware of all the specific contest licensing requirements: 51% MX operators shown on the license application; MX /XE2 individual reciprocal licenses; individual tourist visas; special detailed contest permit requirements-- we could only gain a Class II MX license [500w] because our MX sponsors were not senior enough; special contest callsign requirements; understanding MX law re permit issuance; MX Federal pre-emption law re SCT permits trumping environmental regulations-- the tip of the Punta Estero southern jaw was an MX National Bird Sanctuary, and the house we rented was close to it.

We accomplished all this required legal detail for K6LA, K6LL, N6HC, N6NC, N6KI and KM6SN well in advance of the 1995 ARRL DX CW, and N6KI arranged the rental of a beach house near the narrow tip of the sandspit where there was effectively a salt water ground plane below because of the Pacific Ocean on one side and the brackish Estero River lagoon on the other side. The bonus was the empty lot at the north side of the beach house which we used to set up our antennas and towers.

There were more complicated equipment requirements for M/2-- filters, amps, towers, antennas and generators for three stations. Dennis N6KI had run the technical side of the Palomar Club's Field Day events, sometimes running up to 27 transmitters, so he undertook responsibility for all the technical aspects of our contest DXpedition set-up. We borrowed Harv K6QK's 40ft tower trailer, and I outfitted the White Whale station wagon for towing with a hitch and heavy duty adjustable "air bag" shock absorbers for the rear. We purchased two 2000w quiet Honda generators to run the amps, two Dunestar bandpass filters, two 49ft military push-up section towers from the fellow at Visalia who used to sell surplus gear around the pool there. We bought two used AL-80 500w 3-500Z amps (per CLASS II MX license), desktop computers, monitors and UPCs for the CT logging software. We built filter stubs for the bands, and we had tested every piece of equipment in San Diego before heading off to Ensenada for the 1995 ARRL DX CW on the THURS before the contest.

On the trip down, we discovered at the border that we needed a special US Customs form to bring all this gear into MX and then bring it out without paying duty, which required an inventory of every piece of gear including model and serial number, so that took some time. We arrived at the beach house in partly cloudy but clearing weather, and began setting up-- some members assigned to shack setup, wiring and testing, others to tower and antenna setup.

In the adjacent empty lot covered with sand dunes and scrub, we set up Harv's 40ft crank-up tower trailer with his TET tribander and the two 49ft mil towers section by section. One held Ken’s A3 tribander, the other held Harv’s 80/40m fan dipole (hung as an inverted V) and the far end of the 160m inverted L. (We had no DX cluster back then.)

For 160m, Red W6AE had told me vociferously after a couple of beers at Visalia-- "132 feet! That's all you need, a 132ft wire for 160m." So to create a 160m inverted L we ran a short length of coax out the window from the shack to an old Unique Single Wire tuner I had picked up at a swap meet, with a 4ft ground rod planted right next to it, ran the antenna wire vertically 14ft to the roof eave, then at a long, flat angle to the top of one 49ft tower, and laid a 132ft radial on the ground under the horizontal portion of the L.

For 80m and 40m we used Harv's fan dipole, and added stubs to the ends to resonate in the CW portions of the bands. The two tri-banders served one each station for 20-15-10m.


We tested everything and had it all working by mid-day FRI. We organized into three watch sections of two ops each for 4 hour watches. Dave K6LL and Ken K6LA opened and had combined CW rates of over 600 Qs/hr. Arnie N6HC and I had the 2d watch and had combined rates of over 300 Qs/hr. I had the 160m station when that band opened on FRI night and to this day I have never heard pile-ups as heavy as we encountered on 160m with Red's "132ft" inverted L. Dennis N6KI and Rod KM6SN did equally well in their 3d watch from midnight. We had brass MULT bells for each station and they were great for morale, even at 3am when two teams were trying to sleep.


Our only serious interruptions were from the president of the Punta Estero HO Ass’n (can you believe it?) and the Chief of the local Federales, who demanded to see our permits, and was astonished everything was in order, and that we had prepared full copies for them to keep for their files. We banged CW all night both nights, all day on SAT, and on SUN till close of the contest, when exhausted, we just turned everything off and went to dinner at a small fish restaurant we found open on the winding road to the Punta Banda Blowhole.

On MON we spent the day taking everything down, and suddenly noticed how beautiful the site was with panoramic views of Ensenada Bay, Todos Santos Island and the hills north of Ensenada. We had been too focused on the mission to notice and appreciate that until the end of the operation.

We knew we had done a creditable effort, and most importantly, everything worked great due to our planning and testing. About mid-week after, Dave K6LL emailed me and reported we had done very well amongst the DX M/2 stations who reported on 3830 or internet, and in fact, might have won WORLD 1st Place DX M/2 category with our 5200+ Qs, which turned out to be the case. Reviewing the line scores, we were neck and neck with the other DX M/2 stations on 80m through 20m, but we killed them on 160m and 10m to give us the victory (thanks Red W6AE!). (And I'll always remember than David N6AN, operating from his apartment house in MX City did ~5000Qs single op in that same contest!)

Anyway, folks, that's the saga of the SCCC contest station that won the WORLD 1st Place, DX M/2 from Ensenada MX in the 1995 ARRL DX CW Contest.

73, Larry N6NC

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