The Director of the CQWW VHF Contest, John, N2NC, has announced a change to the VHF contest starting this year. Previously, all modes could be operated in the contest. Beginning this year, there will be two separate contests. SSB/CW will take place July 5-6 and Digital will take place July 19-20. The time slot was also moved up to 1200Z Saturday through 1200Z Sunday "to make the operating period more equitable for a World Wide VHF contest." Updated rules can be found here.


The 76th annual International DX Convention in Visalia is coming up April 11-13. They have announced that they are waiving the registration fee for all youth under the age of 18 this year. This allows for free access to the Convention programs and forums as well as the Exhibit Hall. Meals, raffle tickets and the bus tour are not included with the free registration. You can find out more on their website and their Facebook page. The theme this year is "Back to Basics."


The World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) is now managing the Contest Hall of Fame. WWROF has built a new website at contesthof.com that contains info about the inductees. They are also seeking photos, especially those before 2001 when digital photography became more common.

I couldn't but help notice that Ham Radio Outlet is looking for "candidates to join our incredible team!" Gosh, what a fun job it would be to work at a ham radio retailer! If that is for you or someone you know, check it out! (SCCC has no pecuniary interest in HRO nor do we receive any sponsorship dollars from them...though we would love to have them as an SCCC sponsor!)

Strange but true...
Southern Californian Leo Fender, of Fender Guitar fame, was an amateur radio operator when he graduated from high school in 1928! His callsign W6DOE is now licensed to someone else. You might be surprised about some other famous folks that were hams. Ray Dolby, founder of Dolby Labs was F5VBY. Bob Moog, inventer of the Moog Synthesizer was K2AMH. Howard Hughes was W5CY. David Packard, co-founder of Hewlet-Packard (aka HP) was 9DRV. Walter Cronkite, long time TV news anchor was KB2GSD. Paul Tibbets, the pilot of Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the first atomic bomb) was K4ZVZ. Priscilla Presley was NY6YOS. Marlon Brando (actor) was KE6PZH and FO5GJ. Donnie Osmond was WD4SKT. Tim Allen (actor) is KK6OTD (and he has a callsign plaque occasionally appearing on his current TV show, "Shifting Gears") and Joe Walsh of the music band The Eagles is WB6ACU. Did you know that you had something in common with all of these famous people?

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Many of our SCCC members are also club members of the Southern California DX Club. Last month, the SCDXC posted the message below on their website. Their 77 year run has come to an end.



SCDXC has long been a co-sponsor of The International DX Convention held in Visalia each year, and was a regular contributor to the NCDXF (Northern California DX Foundation). You can read more about their history here.

The ARRL 10 Meter contest took place during the middle of December, and what a fun contest it was! Being at the peak of the sunspot cycle really brings the band to life! Some comments from SCCC members follow. Cliff, K3LL summed it up: "Super Fun!" Bill, N6RV said it was fun hitting 110 Q's per hour for several hours even though most of it was North America (he slept in and missed most of the EU openings). Mike, W6RW had a lot of fun. It was his first contest that he's entered in a couple of years. Frank, WA6KHK is still not in his new QTH so he was limited to a vertical. Bill, N7VM worked stations on CW as high as 28.158 MHz. He ran above 28.100 much of Saturday. He recorded his personal best in this contest, posting 1,320 QSOs. Jim, K6ZH had limited time tue to holiday parties, etc. but enjoyed the openings to Europe both mornings. John, K6AM concentrated on mults and pretty much worked everyone that he heard. He said that the band was in "fabulous shape."

Marko, N5ZO was part time between periods of power line noise, which caused him to miss most of the EU openings. And unfortunately, he lost his K4D on Saturday and had to go with his K3. Experimenting with his three 10m antennas, he often found the low ones worked best. Dave, N2JNR was using a buddipole up 15 feet high and was amazed how many reports he got saying that his signal was booming. Jim, W6KC made WAS and only missed three Canadian provinces on CW. Bill, W6QU (W8QZA) had 85 answers to his CQs on QRP, his best ever. Kurt, W6PH said conditions were not what he expected with an SFI of 171. He said that Saturday was just average and Sunday was very unsettled with deep QSB. Surprising since others seem unanimous in their reports of great conditions. Saturday, the wind turned his antenna 90 degrees from its heading. He also had a 20 minute period of horrendous noise right in the middle of a good run to Europe. More bad luck occurred with his laptop occasionally locking out the keying. Still though, he recorded 1,591 QSOs.

Ken, VY2TT (K6LA) did this one remote for the first time and beat his score last year when he was physically present in PEI. He said that it worked so well that at times he felt like he was physically there. For Tom, KN6OKY, it was his first time working EU in a contest. It was also his highest QSO total so far (120). Mike, W4EF missed the first 24 hours of the contest. He said JA activity seemed thin on Sunday, and the Europeans never got particularly loud. Tim, N6GP recorded his personal best for any contest weekend QSO-wise. He was, however, a bit disappointed that the band shut down at 0200Z each night. In 1989, he remembers it staying open until the 06 hour. David, N6AN operated from four SOTA summits and did about 5 hours of hiking over the weekend to get to them. He said that it was fantastic to hear both modes humming with activity!

ARRL has published the raw scores for this contest. See them here.

Registration is now open for Contest University 2025. CTU is held the day before the Dayton Hamvention officially opens. The upcoming event will be held Thursday, May 15, 2025 from 7 am to 5 pm at the Hope Hotel. Registration and more at www.contestuniversity.com/.



On Saturday, December 28, Reinhard, DH3NAB, announced that he was handing off the RF-KIT business (many SCCC members own the veritable RF2K-S HF/6 amplifier) to the newly founded company RF-POWER-Gmbh. His press release was published on the RF-Kit mail group. He said that support for the ampolifier will remain unchanged. Locally for us in Southern California, excellent support has been provided by John, KF6I. The press release follows...

RF-KIT becomes RF-POWER

On January 1, 2025, the business of power amplifier manufacturer RF-KIT will be transferred to the newly founded company RF-POWER GmbH, based in Salzburg, Austria. “In order to meet the increasing demand for our power amplifier, production had to be expanded. Naturally, the tasks that my small company had to cope with also increased. That's why I had been looking for competent support for some time,” says Reinhard Förtsch, head of RF-KIT, explaining the reason for the move. This necessary “manpower” is now supplied by RF-POWER.

The owner and managing director of RF-POWER GmbH is Wolfgang Klier, OE2VEL. He has been Managing Director of the Austrian company ViCOS GmbH, which manufactures professional electronics, since 2004. “We have been producing the RF2K-S power amplifier from RF-KIT since spring 2024. We will continue this at the same location with RF-POWER,” explains Wolfgang Klier and adds: ”Reinhard Förtsch, DH3NAB will remain a contact person for our team. By handing over many operational tasks, he now has more time for further development of the RF2K-S and new ideas.” Reinhard Förtsch will be supported in this and in the production transition by Thomas Rieder, DL4MCD. Chris Sauvageot, DL5NAM was part of the RF-KIT team from the very beginning and actively helped to make the product a success. He continues to look after the B26-PA mailing list and represents RF-POWER at trade fair stands.

Christian Janßen, DL1MGB strengthens the product marketing team. He is responsible for advertising, the website, documentation and trade fair appearances. He will also provide customers with advice and support. RF-KIT's worldwide sales and repair network will continue to be available without restriction and as usual.

“I am looking forward to the production and further development of the RF2K-S power amplifier together with my experienced team at RF-POWER,” concluded Wolfgang Klier.

When the hobby project “B26-PA RF1K2” was launched more than 10 years ago at the Forchheim local club (DOK B26) of the DARC, none of those involved had any idea how successful the power amplifier would be today. The great interest shown by many radio amateurs was not without consequences. With the establishment of the small company RF-KIT, the product was consistently developed further. It is therefore not surprising that the third generation of the power amplifier, the RF2K-S, is now successfully on the market.

More information about RF-POWER at https://www.rf-power.eu

The ARRL published a new update on December 27 related to their "Service Disruption" that occurred last spring. DXCC appears to be one of the last remaining affected ARRL services. While not contesting related, I thought it would be of interest to SCCC members since most are also avid DXers. Read the latest update here.

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!

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. 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...
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye!"

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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