Peter, K3PS sent the bio below. (photo is him at the NX6T superstation in Bonsall, CA)

Unlike many hams I know, I do not have a background in computers, electronics or engineering. I became interested in radio as an active CBer growing up in New Jersey in the 70s. Back when CB had 23 channels, I had a PAL VFO and illegally worked the top of the 11M band on sideband with a bunch of others. Good DX as those frequencies were pretty empty. They eventually became channels 24-40. I always knew I wanted to graduate to amateur radio, but didn't do so until 1994.
Shortly after I got my General, Ron K2RP took me to my first Field Day with the Golden Triangle ARC in Wildomar. It was at that event where I got hooked on HF and bitten by the contesting bug. After seeing a contesting presentation at PARC by Dennis N6KI, I joined up with the NX6T group and have now been active with them for over 10 years.
I am a Life Member of ARRL and over the years, I have been active with RACES, ARES and CERT. Also a VE with SANDARC and ARRL. I am also a longtime member of the Downtown San Diego Lions Club, having served in every elected position.
I was a solo practitioner attorney for 28 years and now work as a Commissioner with the San Diego Superior Court. I am involved in judicial education and serve on the faculty of the Witkin California Judicial College. I was recently selected as California Court Commissioner of the Year and in September, I will be sworn in as president of the California Court Commissioners Association.
73, Peter, K3PS

Will we ever get out of the solar minimum of Cycle 24? It seems like it is dragging on forever, doesn't it? NASA's latest predictions assume we hit the minimum last December. Let's hope! Cycle 25's peak is predicted to happen in the summer of 2023, just three short years from now. It's peak is expected to replicate that of Cycle 24, which was nothing to write home about unfortunately. But hey, we'll take it. Anything is better than what we are experiencing right now. NASA's writeup can be found here.

On the other hand, here is a prediction we can all enjoy! Scientists associated with a variety of institutions in the USA and UK used a mathematical technique known as Hilbert Transform to analyze 270 years of monthly sunspot numbers. Their calculations predict that Cycle 25 will have a peak that rivals the top few since records began! Let's hope! You can read the article here (July 14 article) and the scientists' full paper here.

The annual ARRL Field Day event (often called "not a contest" but many groups and clubs treat it as such) was a different animal this past June. ARRL, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, allowed folks operating from home to attribute their scores to their club. And folks took this to heart. ARRL reports that as of July 16, more than 8,700 online entries had been received and paper logs were starting to arrive as well. Many SCCCers operated from home, making due versus attending their usual club activity. We hams adapt! What will ultimately be interesting is how club scores were impacted.

The IARU HF World Championship was held the second weekend of July. Conditions were what you would expect for the bottom of the sunspot cycle (SFI 69 A 3 K 0). Kent, N6WT reported there were a lot of Europeans on 20 meters. Larry, K6RO commented that there were only two bands open at any given time. He had a nice 147 QSO run on 40m after dinner, and then had a nice string of EU HQ stations on 20. Drew, N7DA had some fun working some DX on 20 at 10 pm. He then moved to 40. Don, NK6A experienced some great openings on 20 late Saturday afternoon. He even worked three Israeli stations in a row. Ryan, AI6DO tried this contest for the first time. He said that running QRP with dipoles at 22 feet is "character building." Axel, KI6RRN used the NO6T club call and operated the WA6TQT station. He put in one heckuva score! Dan, N6MJ was at the N6WIN station and used the ND7K call sign. Tim had torn down the station, not expecting anyone to use it this summer, so they had to set it up from scratch. He and Chris, KL9A along with Axel and Mitch, K7RL agreed to post to Live Scores, with a gentleman's agreement not to peek nor have anyone tell them about the others. I'm sure that made for some great scoreboard watching for the rest of us! Dick, N6AA jumped in Saturday night after a short trip and felt that conditions were good. Ken, K6LA had a visit from Murphy. Three hours in, the computer USB port stopped working. 45 minutes later, he finally had things working again. Then, he goofed when setting his alarm clock and slept three hours instead of one. Bruce, WA7BNM did 100% S&P but found that to be not very efficient on SSB. In retrospect, he feels he probably should have stuck to CW only rather than Mixed. John, W6JBR reported low QRN and QRM during the contest. He snagged his first SSB QSO with China and was pleasantly surprised to hear Asia in the middle of the night on 20. Alex, W6AFA found conditions poor overall and surprisingly few JA's on 40m. Dana, K6NR found conditions good considering where we are with the sunspot cycle. 20m was great later on Saturday, and he surprsingly found some Europeans to work on 15 and 10. Don, N6IC said it was great to have 15 open to Europe on Saturday for the first time in quite a while. Glenn, K6NA experienced a lot of power line and solar panel noise. He was surprised by the amazing night time conditions on 20 and the pretty good conditions on 15 during the day. He said, "Both bands sounded like 'the good old days!"

Dean, N6DE wrote an interesting article entitled CQP Goals and Planning in the July issue of the NCCC's newsletter "The Jug." His article explores the number of hams that entered their goals on the CQP web site in 2019, as well as how many entered their intent to participate and yet didn't. (Spoiler alert: 15% did not participate despite having intentions to do so. That seems to be a high percentage.) Things come up but to NCCC's credit, they are trying to understand the whys in an effort to continue to bring more participation to the contest, already the largest of the state QSO Parties. It is interesting reading and can be found about 1/4 of the way down the page of The Jug bulletin here.

Strange but true...
Were you a paperboy when you were a youngster? If so, you are in good company. Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss managed two paper routes when he as 14 years old, making $65 a week! Some others that were paper boys are Walt Disney, Wareen Buffett, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tom Brokaw, Tom Cruise, Kathy Ireland and Joe Biden.

And a double dip of strange this month! Dogs may use Earth's magnetic field to take shortcuts! I have often wondered how my little long hair chihuahua always seems to know the way home. On our normal evening walks, she pulls the leash to guide me on the route she is used to, especially as we get half way out and then round a corner to head back home. Really nothing mysterious about that I thought. But I can pick her up and go a couple blocks in a different direction, put her down, and she immediately starts pulling to head home. How does she know the way when we are in a strange (to her) part of the neighborhood?! Could this article explain it? Cue up The Twilight Zone music!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

less

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

25% said yes and 75% said no.

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

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

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

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

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

86% said yes and 14% said no. 

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

86% said yes and 14% said a few.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

25% of our respondents said Yaesu. 18.75% said Kenwood. 12.5% said Icom. 6.25% said Flex, & 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.

less

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

less

WANTED: SteppIR CrankIR, preferably with 80 meters. Contact John, NS6X ns6x [at] arrl dot net Posted 2 August 2020 WANTED: Johnson Invader 2000 Power Supply. I recently acquired an Invader 2000 but without the power supply and missing all the cabinet-mounting hardware, including the two long bolts from the back to the front panel common to most Johnson rigs. WANTED: Kaar KE-23A or KE-23AT communications receiver. Contact Steve, K0XP k0xp (at) k0xp dot com Posted 19 June 2020 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

close

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

less