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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