Southern California Contest Club
CQ 160-Meter CW: January 23-25 NA Sprint SSB: February 1 NA Sprint CW: February 8
CQ 160-Meter CW: January 23-25 NA Sprint SSB: February 1 NA Sprint CW: February 8
A Collection of Past SCCC News Stories (Newest to Oldest)
Monthly News (SCCCORE - SoCal Contest Club Operations, Results and Enlightenments)
January 2026
Welcome to 2026! The Southern California Contest Club turns 50 years old this year! Our club was formed on July 17, 1976. The first meeting that day took place at the Arcadia home of Pete Grillo, then W6RTT. There were were 60-70 contesters present. Leigh, KR6X sent out the invites, bought and cooked the burgers, and bought the keg of beer. Since then, the club has put together many competitive efforts, setting many records along the way and won the club category in many contests. Club members continue to set records and put in tremendous scores to this day. Read more about our history here https://socalcontestclub.org/historical.php. Perhaps we should put together a one day or part day sprint of some sort. If nothing else, perhaps we all get on the air on 40 meter SSB in July and shoot the breeze. Thoughts? Email me or better yet, chat us up on the Club Reflector!
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On a separate note, some of us were active hams back then. If you are one of us old timers, do you have pictures of you at your station, or maybe just your station or antenna from back then? Limiting it to just 1976 is a bit restrictive, so let's open it up to anytime in the 1970s or earlier! We'll post your pictures here in a future issue.
Welcome aboard to new SCCC member KC, N6EK. He lives in Diamond Bar. He has joined the club to sharpen his skills and explore the capabilities of his station. Welcome KC!
Also, welcome to Matthew, KA6JAR from Orange. First licensed in late 2023, he got his feet wet in contesting for the first time in the 2024 CQWW DX SSB contest, and the bug bit. He has mostly enjoyed DX contests thus far. He's enjoyed building most of his antennas and is looking forward to getting a tower up. His dad's late uncle was a ham and Matthew was able to obtain his uncle's call sign via the vanity program. Very cool! His QRZ page shows his many antenna projects and some fantastic catches while fishing! Welcome Matthew!
The CQWW DX CW contest took place the last weekend of November. It was one of those unusual times where it did not fall on Thanksgiving weekend. Conditions weren't quite as good as the October SSB contest, probably due to some solar disturbances that took place the week before the CW event. How popular is CQWW DX? I'm sure you already know this but these two contests are pretty much the MOST popular contests of the year! CQWW Contest Director John Dorr, K1AR reported that just 12 hours after the CW contest, 4,000 logs had already been submitted! That's crazy, and a testament to the popularity of these contests. He also noted that four SOAB stations had already submitted with over 10,000 QSOs each! That is mind boggling! That is an average of 208+ QSOs per hour over 48 hours! Most of us would like to experience an hour or two of 208 QSOs. Now, multiply that by 48 hours! Are you dizzy yet?!
Fritz, W6KK did single band 80 meters hoping to work Zone 40 for his 5BWAZ award. According to spots, there were two stations active but neither showed up on 80 meters when there was prop to California. Maybe next time. Ryan, AI6DO spent most of his short time in the contest working 10 meters to fill some DXCC slots. Bill, N6RV said that 10 wasn't as hot as during the SSB contest but the other bands made up for it. 40 was very good in fact and 80 was a lot of fun. He normally operates relatively slower speed CW. He increased it to 23 wpm during the last 20 minutes of the contest and noticed that the stations calling him were more attentive. He will operate at a higher speed going forward. Dennis, N6KI had a stuck rotator (NE at 45 degrees). Since he has a SteppIR, he could do a 180 reverse azimuth and work into the Pacific and Japan. Dennis, NE6I said that conditions weren't as good as for SSB but it was still a lot of fun. 40 though was horrible both evenings. He didn't work a single station in the evening but managed to work a few Sunday morning. He lost most of Saturday and quite a bit of Sunday while working on his home remodel project. Timing required his attention there unfortunately.
Steve, W6QX could only operate Saturday and Sunday mornings but had fun anyway. No new DXCC counters this time. John, N6MU was 100% S&P and was happy with his score considering he was low power to his backyard vertical. He said, it's "Frustrating when the loud ones can't hear you but brings a smile when the weak ones get you on the first call." Ken, K6LA was again operating VY2TT, this time on site. Murphy had hit and taken down his computer there so he had to put in a new one. Also, his antenna switches were down but since he was there, he was able to turn the antennas with the local controllers. When the dust settled, he had 6,533 QSOs in the log for 9.8 million points! Clayton, NF1R ran the club call (N6RA) at UCSB station W6RFU. He broke the previous LP Classic record for W6 by 190K points! His writeup can be found here. Jim, K6ZH didn't have much time to devote to the contest but wanted to get on and enjoy 10 meters. He said he also had a decent EU run on 40 Saturday evening. Jim, W6YA said this contest is the highlight of the year for him. However the solar disturbances put a damper on Saturday. Dana, K6NR said that conditions were pretty good, although not as good as the SSB contest. Europeans on 10 were fewer and weaker, especially on Saturday.
Terry, N6CW called propagation "interesting." He rated conditions a "C." 40 meters was noisy both nights. Sunday started slowly but picked up as 10 meters quieted down and opened to western Europe. The last hours of the contest were pretty good he said. He put up a low 80 meter dipole so that he could work KH6J on five bands, and it worked much better than expected. Bill, W8QZA (running W6QU QRP) said that conditions weren't as good as they have been. He only logged 33 Q's into Europe and there was no overnight activity on 20. John, W6JBR had trouble getting through to some stations on 10 meters on Saturday but had better luck on Sunday. His best hour in fact was the last hour of the contest. Kurt, W6PH said that he felt conditions were not that great. 10 meters didn't open to all of Europe, rather only to Spain and southern Europe. On the other hand, 80 was very quiet and OG5B answered his CQ at sunrise via long path. Bruce, WA7BNM agreed with most others that conditions were significantly worse than for the SSB contest in late October. He worked only one station in Zone 20 whereas he worked 11 in October. He had a nice run of JA's early Saturday evening on 15 (he did a single band effort) to make up for the lack of multipliers.
WOW! Dan, N6MJ was at EF8R and posted the highest score in the SOABHP category on the Contest Scoreboard Online, likely obliterating the all-time record in the category! Will it hold up against CQ9A's score (Chris, KL9A op)? It should. You can read Dan's wonderful writeup about the experience here. Tim, N6GP experienced very good conditions on 10 and 15 meters, and he had good runs to Japan and Asia both days. Not so much for Europe so he had to do S&P for those contacts. 40 meters was just so-so he said. Jim, N6TJ put together a team for the KH6J multi-multi that consisted of himself, Dick, N6AA, David, N6AN and former SCCC member and President N5OT along with five KH6 gentlemen and K1ZM. They racked up over 9,500 Q's and almost 20 million points! Read the write up here. Glenn, K6NA did about 90% S&P and racked up 869 Q's for 900K+ points. The Wednesday before, he reinstalled his 200 foot BOG for 80 and 160 meters to enhance RX capability on those bands. That and his full size TX vertical resulted in 110 Q's on the two bands.
The raw scores from the contest are posted here.
From The ARRL Contest Update for December 17, 2025, the "Word to the Wise" section...
UOS or USOS
UnShift on Space. RTTY uses the 5-bit Baudot code, which relies on toggling between Letters (LTRS) and Figures (FIGS) to expand its limited character set. For instance, "N9ADG" requires shifting modes: "N FIGS 9 LTRS A D G". If a shift command is lost to interference, text can become garbled (e.g., "599" appearing as "TOO"). The "Unshift on Space" (USOS) feature reduces errors by resetting to LTRS at every space. RTTY software often compensates for this by auto-inserting FIGS symbols before numbers and offering a "hover" feature to decode garbled words using the alternate character set.
The invisible yet needed shifting and unshifting symbols sent between letters and figures is why it’s NOT good practice to use “5NN” in your exchange for RTTY. It can cost you time since you’re sending “FIGS 5 LTRS N N” while “599” is “FIGS 5 9 9” and time is contacts!
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Tim Duffy, K3LR, Contest University Chairman released the following statement.
"I am proud to announce that registration is now open for the 2026 Dayton ConTest University ("CTU") to be held all day on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at the Hope Hotel. http://contestuniversity.com
The 2026 CTU Dayton course outline will be posted once all professors have confirmed for 2026. Check the CTU website frequently for updates. We have several NEW (first time at CTU - experienced) professors for 2026! Each presentation is carefully prepared with up to date information - the CTU professors are experienced contesters and will share their knowledge. You can ask questions and find out new ways to enjoy radio sport contesting!
There are scholarships (student registration fee paid) available for CTU through a generous grant from the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) for those students 25 years old and younger. Please use the "contact us" button on the CTU website to get more information. 2026 Student registration information is on the CTU web site now http://contestuniversity.com"
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ATTN: SCCC members! Have you registered for the 2026 Santa Maria DX and Contesters Convention? Do you have your SCCC member badge to wear to the event? Links to both are here on the website!
REMINDER! If you have a personal website and we don't have it listed here, let us know! We'll add it. And if you have a plaque, certificate or station photo you'd like to share, send that along too. It's been a while since we received updated ones so please do share!
Do you have something For Sale or Wanted? We have a page for that too!
AND (!), we are always looking for articles, contest writeups, antenna raising/modification articles, new radio or accessory reviews, photos, et al. Send them along so that we can publish them in SCCCORE and all can enjoy and benefit. Interested in doing a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or even annual article on a specific subject? Let us know! Thanks!
Are you subscribed to the SCCC Reflector? You should be! Click here to join and start getting emails that are posted to our group!
Strange but true...
Clinophobia is the fear of beds!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
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Welcome aboard to new SCCC member KC, N6EK. He lives in Diamond Bar. He has joined the club to sharpen his skills and explore the capabilities of his station. Welcome KC!
Also, welcome to Matthew, KA6JAR from Orange. First licensed in late 2023, he got his feet wet in contesting for the first time in the 2024 CQWW DX SSB contest, and the bug bit. He has mostly enjoyed DX contests thus far. He's enjoyed building most of his antennas and is looking forward to getting a tower up. His dad's late uncle was a ham and Matthew was able to obtain his uncle's call sign via the vanity program. Very cool! His QRZ page shows his many antenna projects and some fantastic catches while fishing! Welcome Matthew!
The CQWW DX CW contest took place the last weekend of November. It was one of those unusual times where it did not fall on Thanksgiving weekend. Conditions weren't quite as good as the October SSB contest, probably due to some solar disturbances that took place the week before the CW event. How popular is CQWW DX? I'm sure you already know this but these two contests are pretty much the MOST popular contests of the year! CQWW Contest Director John Dorr, K1AR reported that just 12 hours after the CW contest, 4,000 logs had already been submitted! That's crazy, and a testament to the popularity of these contests. He also noted that four SOAB stations had already submitted with over 10,000 QSOs each! That is mind boggling! That is an average of 208+ QSOs per hour over 48 hours! Most of us would like to experience an hour or two of 208 QSOs. Now, multiply that by 48 hours! Are you dizzy yet?!
Fritz, W6KK did single band 80 meters hoping to work Zone 40 for his 5BWAZ award. According to spots, there were two stations active but neither showed up on 80 meters when there was prop to California. Maybe next time. Ryan, AI6DO spent most of his short time in the contest working 10 meters to fill some DXCC slots. Bill, N6RV said that 10 wasn't as hot as during the SSB contest but the other bands made up for it. 40 was very good in fact and 80 was a lot of fun. He normally operates relatively slower speed CW. He increased it to 23 wpm during the last 20 minutes of the contest and noticed that the stations calling him were more attentive. He will operate at a higher speed going forward. Dennis, N6KI had a stuck rotator (NE at 45 degrees). Since he has a SteppIR, he could do a 180 reverse azimuth and work into the Pacific and Japan. Dennis, NE6I said that conditions weren't as good as for SSB but it was still a lot of fun. 40 though was horrible both evenings. He didn't work a single station in the evening but managed to work a few Sunday morning. He lost most of Saturday and quite a bit of Sunday while working on his home remodel project. Timing required his attention there unfortunately.
Steve, W6QX could only operate Saturday and Sunday mornings but had fun anyway. No new DXCC counters this time. John, N6MU was 100% S&P and was happy with his score considering he was low power to his backyard vertical. He said, it's "Frustrating when the loud ones can't hear you but brings a smile when the weak ones get you on the first call." Ken, K6LA was again operating VY2TT, this time on site. Murphy had hit and taken down his computer there so he had to put in a new one. Also, his antenna switches were down but since he was there, he was able to turn the antennas with the local controllers. When the dust settled, he had 6,533 QSOs in the log for 9.8 million points! Clayton, NF1R ran the club call (N6RA) at UCSB station W6RFU. He broke the previous LP Classic record for W6 by 190K points! His writeup can be found here. Jim, K6ZH didn't have much time to devote to the contest but wanted to get on and enjoy 10 meters. He said he also had a decent EU run on 40 Saturday evening. Jim, W6YA said this contest is the highlight of the year for him. However the solar disturbances put a damper on Saturday. Dana, K6NR said that conditions were pretty good, although not as good as the SSB contest. Europeans on 10 were fewer and weaker, especially on Saturday.
Terry, N6CW called propagation "interesting." He rated conditions a "C." 40 meters was noisy both nights. Sunday started slowly but picked up as 10 meters quieted down and opened to western Europe. The last hours of the contest were pretty good he said. He put up a low 80 meter dipole so that he could work KH6J on five bands, and it worked much better than expected. Bill, W8QZA (running W6QU QRP) said that conditions weren't as good as they have been. He only logged 33 Q's into Europe and there was no overnight activity on 20. John, W6JBR had trouble getting through to some stations on 10 meters on Saturday but had better luck on Sunday. His best hour in fact was the last hour of the contest. Kurt, W6PH said that he felt conditions were not that great. 10 meters didn't open to all of Europe, rather only to Spain and southern Europe. On the other hand, 80 was very quiet and OG5B answered his CQ at sunrise via long path. Bruce, WA7BNM agreed with most others that conditions were significantly worse than for the SSB contest in late October. He worked only one station in Zone 20 whereas he worked 11 in October. He had a nice run of JA's early Saturday evening on 15 (he did a single band effort) to make up for the lack of multipliers.
WOW! Dan, N6MJ was at EF8R and posted the highest score in the SOABHP category on the Contest Scoreboard Online, likely obliterating the all-time record in the category! Will it hold up against CQ9A's score (Chris, KL9A op)? It should. You can read Dan's wonderful writeup about the experience here. Tim, N6GP experienced very good conditions on 10 and 15 meters, and he had good runs to Japan and Asia both days. Not so much for Europe so he had to do S&P for those contacts. 40 meters was just so-so he said. Jim, N6TJ put together a team for the KH6J multi-multi that consisted of himself, Dick, N6AA, David, N6AN and former SCCC member and President N5OT along with five KH6 gentlemen and K1ZM. They racked up over 9,500 Q's and almost 20 million points! Read the write up here. Glenn, K6NA did about 90% S&P and racked up 869 Q's for 900K+ points. The Wednesday before, he reinstalled his 200 foot BOG for 80 and 160 meters to enhance RX capability on those bands. That and his full size TX vertical resulted in 110 Q's on the two bands.
The raw scores from the contest are posted here.
From The ARRL Contest Update for December 17, 2025, the "Word to the Wise" section...
UOS or USOS
UnShift on Space. RTTY uses the 5-bit Baudot code, which relies on toggling between Letters (LTRS) and Figures (FIGS) to expand its limited character set. For instance, "N9ADG" requires shifting modes: "N FIGS 9 LTRS A D G". If a shift command is lost to interference, text can become garbled (e.g., "599" appearing as "TOO"). The "Unshift on Space" (USOS) feature reduces errors by resetting to LTRS at every space. RTTY software often compensates for this by auto-inserting FIGS symbols before numbers and offering a "hover" feature to decode garbled words using the alternate character set.
The invisible yet needed shifting and unshifting symbols sent between letters and figures is why it’s NOT good practice to use “5NN” in your exchange for RTTY. It can cost you time since you’re sending “FIGS 5 LTRS N N” while “599” is “FIGS 5 9 9” and time is contacts!
Tim Duffy, K3LR, Contest University Chairman released the following statement.
"I am proud to announce that registration is now open for the 2026 Dayton ConTest University ("CTU") to be held all day on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at the Hope Hotel. http://contestuniversity.com
The 2026 CTU Dayton course outline will be posted once all professors have confirmed for 2026. Check the CTU website frequently for updates. We have several NEW (first time at CTU - experienced) professors for 2026! Each presentation is carefully prepared with up to date information - the CTU professors are experienced contesters and will share their knowledge. You can ask questions and find out new ways to enjoy radio sport contesting!
There are scholarships (student registration fee paid) available for CTU through a generous grant from the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) for those students 25 years old and younger. Please use the "contact us" button on the CTU website to get more information. 2026 Student registration information is on the CTU web site now http://contestuniversity.com"
ATTN: SCCC members! Have you registered for the 2026 Santa Maria DX and Contesters Convention? Do you have your SCCC member badge to wear to the event? Links to both are here on the website!
REMINDER! If you have a personal website and we don't have it listed here, let us know! We'll add it. And if you have a plaque, certificate or station photo you'd like to share, send that along too. It's been a while since we received updated ones so please do share!
Do you have something For Sale or Wanted? We have a page for that too!
AND (!), we are always looking for articles, contest writeups, antenna raising/modification articles, new radio or accessory reviews, photos, et al. Send them along so that we can publish them in SCCCORE and all can enjoy and benefit. Interested in doing a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or even annual article on a specific subject? Let us know! Thanks!
Are you subscribed to the SCCC Reflector? You should be! Click here to join and start getting emails that are posted to our group!
Strange but true...
Clinophobia is the fear of beds!
73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I
less
