Last month's IARU Championship contest was not blessed by particularly good conditions. 10 and 15 meters were quite poor in fact. Bruce, WA7BNM found very little action on those two bands. He had a short opening to Zone 28 and heard no JAs or Asian stations. Bill, N7VM felt that conditions were better than last year but the bands were slow during the daylight hours and better after sunset. He had several instances during the day where S9+ signals disappeared into the noise for the exchange. Frustrating. Bill, W6QU (W8QZA) said that conditions were very poor for the first 12 hours. At about 2350Z, things started to open up for him and he was able to log a dozen Europeans. His best QSO of the contest was when he suddenly heard LZ0HQ with a 59 signal. Scot, KA3DRR was at N6WT. He said other than the European HQ stations, not much else from EU got through. At the start of the contest, 40 meters was healthy and he logged many strong JA stations. He also logged many South and Latin American stations on 40, on both modes. He thought that activity was up from Brazil and Mexico.

Dan, N6MJ was at the N2QV station. He said that conditions were great leading up to the contest but things went downhill quickly when the starting bell sounded. He said that it was a struggle the majority of the time. Glenn, K6NA thought that conditions were way down compared to last year. Prop to JA and East Asia were really poor on 10 and 15, and the path to EU was very tough. Marko, N5ZO used club call NT6Q and operated remotely at the WA6TQT super station. Unfortunatley, the remote connection failed about half way through the contest. There was modem/router failure at the radio site and it never recovered. He said that conditions were very poor before the station went down. Ken, K6LA and Ron, VE3AT did a Multi Two LP running VY2TT. Conditions were poor. Things really slowed during the last six hours of the contest, reminding him of Sundays in Sweepstakes.

The 2025 ARRL DX CW contest results have been published in the August, 2025 issue of QST. Ken, K6LA at VY2TT took 7th place SOHP. Bill, W6QU placed 9th in SOQRP. Dave, K6LL scored 2nd place SOUHP on 10 meters and Kurt, W6PH was in 4th in the category. Jim, W6YI took 9th.

SCCC member Mike, W6RW passed away on his birthday, July 23. He was 78. In the early 2000's, Mike spearheaded amateur radio antenna legislation, Assembly bill AB 1228, to "reasonably accommodate" Amateur Radio communications, to allow amateur station antenna structures" at heights and dimensions sufficient to accommodate Amateur Radio Service communications" and to constitute "the minimum practicable regulation to accomplish the legitimate purpose of the city or county." (See also https://www.eham.net/article/6042). Dave, K6LL, reporting on the SCCC Reflector, said, "I'm sad to report that Mike Mitchell, W6RW, passed away on July 23rd, his 78th birthday. He was an avid contester and DX'er, both in southern California and Yuma, Arizona. I knew him ever since he showed up in Yuma, after selling his accounting business in California. He loved to operate in CW and RTTY multi-op contests, and operated many times at the famous W6BA superstation in Twentynine Palms, CA, and then in Yuma at K6LL and W7WW, as well as single-op from his fine home station. He was an excellent operator, and his work ethic was particularly outstanding. Once he sat down in the operating chair, he just wouldn't quit. Mike was very active in the Yuma community, being a past president of Yuma Rotary. He loved his accounting work, and always said that he planned to never retire. He was working remotely for a large Yuma accounting firm right up to the end. He enjoyed breakfast meetings with local Yuma hams, and enjoyed regaling us with his interesting stories about contesting at W6BA. He always had a smile on his face. RIP, Mike! --Dave Hachadorian, K6LL Yuma, AZ" An Official Obituary is posted on the Yuma Mortuary website.

On July 3, Dave, VE3KG reported on the CQ-Contest reflector that the RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada) has announced the creation of a new section in the Field Organization. The new section is Yukon (YUK) and is a division of the TER territory. According to Dave, the change took effect July 1 and was made at the request of Radio Amateurs of Yukon. The news apparently appeared in the RAC's journal, "The Canadian Amateur (TCA)" in the July/August 2025 issue. I do not have access to this and have found no other confirmation. The change was allegedly NOT made for the purposes of contests but if ARRL adopts this change, it would affect Field Day, ARRL SS CW and SSB and the ARRL 160 Meter contests. This would increase the number of Canadian sections from 14 to 15. Ed, VE4VT, the RAC Midwest Director, seems to have confirmed the new YUK RAC Canadien section in a follow up post on the reflector, stating that a "developing program" was the driver. Stay tuned for more... https://dxnews.com/forum/forum/clubs/66669-rac-yukon

Coming up this month, NAQP CW (1st weekend of the month!), NAQP SSB (mid-month) and WW Digi DX Contest (last weekend of the month). A little something for everyone.

So what about this Cycle 25? Good? Bad? About average? Well, MUCH better than the last peak back in 2014. (See here. Pro-tip: hover your mouse over the top graph and use your scroll button to increase the years seen on it.) But not quite as good as the peaks seen in 2000 and 2001 and other peaks before that. Have we totally peaked yet? We can't be sure. It is not uncommon to get double peaks, although all of the hype about this one perhaps being one of the best Cycles ever was apparently just that. Hype. From the July 11, 2025 ARRL Solar Report, "Although solar activity is lower this year than it was last year, it is still at the maximum level of the eleven-year cycle. Moreover, it is quite possible that it will increase further this year. This is indicated by the continuing slight predominance of activity in the northern half of the solar disk, while in the southern half we more often observe relatively large coronal holes. The active regions are mostly simple (magnetic type alpha or beta) and therefore, with a few exceptions, do not show significant eruptive activity." It's mid-summer now and the high HF bands have really been lacking. Also, there had been a lot of hope for F2 propagation on 6 meters but we haven't seen much if any of that here in SoCal. We did get an amazingly good (and long!) opening on 6 in June for the ARRL VHF Contest but other than that, pffft! But stay tuned, fall is just a few months out, along with a new contest season. Perhaps Mother Nature will bless us with superb conditions!

Our brothers and sisters in the Northern California Contest Club are celebrating their 55th anniversary this month with a special on-air event they call "Fiesta del Norte de California. The event takes place Saturday, August 9 from 1900Z to Sunday, August 10 at 0300Z (1200 to 2000 PDT). Read about it on Page 3 of their July newletter (JUG).

SCCC turns 50 years old next July, our Diamond Anniversary! Perhaps we should put on some sort of similar event! Just for fun! Does anyone want to spearhead it? This could be something simple but fun. We could follow NCCC's example or do something else. Perhaps even a four hour sprint of some sort. Let your imagine be your guide. Let us know if you'd like to admin this. Let's do this!

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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 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...
The Boston Marathon did not allow female runners until 1972.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The 2025 WPX CQ WPX SSB contest final results have now been published. You will find them as well as the write up here.

The memorial service for Wayne Overbeck, N6NB took place lin late June in Tustin. A wonderful writeup honoring him can be found at Legacy.com.



Didn't make it to the Dayton Hamvention? See a series of pictures here. Watch for some current and former SCCC members, such as N5OT (formerly WA6OTU), N6AN, AA6AA, N6AA and many other famous and well known contesters. Ever wonder who was behind "The Prime Directive (the first rule of contesting is to have fun)?" That's W6SX from NCCC. There are several pictures of him in this collection as well. Hank was an early-ish SCCC member in the 1980s. WA6OTU, N6AN (formerly AA6RX) and N6AA were also very early SCCC members and I remember attending many a meeting with the three of them. We were all a lot younger back then.



ARRL is upgrading Logbook of The World (R). According to the ARRL website, "As a part of the ongoing modernization of the ARRL systems infrastructure, LoTW will be receiving major upgrades to the operating system it is running on, the relational database system it uses to store and access logbook and awards data, and server hosting, where it will be fully migrated to the cloud. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure LoTW performance needs can be better met based on user demand." LOTW is/was unavailable June 27-July 2, 2025. Read the full article here.

SteppIR antennas have become quite popular with contesters, and hams in general. Unfortunately, they announced last month on their website that they will cease production of consumer antennas and accessories effective September 1, 2025. Warranty service and technical support will continue however.

And then there is OptiBeam Antenna Technoloiges. Optibeam, a company now 24 years old, is quite popular with contesters and DXers, much like SteppIR. Wimo Antennen und Elektronik GmbH (best known as just Wimo) has acquired Optibeam effective June 1, 2025. The founder, Tom, DF2BO will be heading off into retirement. Read the full details here.

Conditions were definitely not the greatest for the 2025 running of ARRL Field Day but that rarely slows down participation. Phil, K6MUG sent along some pictures from where he operated with the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach. They were at Recreation Park there. Notice that each operating table was labeled as to what band it was set up for. Nice touch! If you have pictures from your own Field Day operation, please send them along for potential publication here.
Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4, Pic 5, Pic 6, Pic 7, Pic 8, Pic 9,

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 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...
As of 2017, according to National Geographic, more than half of the population of Iceland believe in elves!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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According to an online post by W1PY, the NCJweb.com site has been updated and migrated to a new server thanks to the help of WA7BNM, K5TR and K4RO. It has a bit of a new look and is still super easy to navigate. Thanks to N5KO, CW Sprint results from 1977 to 1999 are now available on the site as well.


Did you attend Visalia 2025 (the IDXC)? Historically, the NCDXC and the SCDXC have alternated turns administering the Convention. 2025 was NCDXC's turn. With the scaling back of the Southern California DX Club this year, 2026 is currently in question. Not to worry. Jim, N6TJ and Dick, N6AA have picked up the baton so to speak and are organizing a 2026 Convention in Santa Maria. According to Jim, "Our intention for SANTA MARIA 2026 is a low cost, casual affair where new and old friends can meet." Jim and Dick have put it under the banner of the SCCC and thus the Convention website is hosted here. There is already considerable USA and International interest, and it is hoped that many SCCC members will also attend. There is now a link on our website in the right hand column. The direct link is https://socalcontestclub.org/SantaMaria2026/. See you in Santa Maria!


CQ WPX CW was last month but someone forgot to tell ol' sol. The SFI was way, way down and 10 meters was a veritible ghost land, with most only working a few stations there. I imagine that it was an especially boring band for the multi-multi stations. Marko, N5ZO operated as NT6Q. He was supposed to be in Brazil about that time and had planned to operate from there but the trip was postponed to July. So he operated from home from the first time in a year in a major contest as he has been remoting into WA6TQT most of the time. He said it seemed that SDGE had apparently fixed most of the major powerline noise that he has had since last October. This was also his first time running SO2R with his Elecraft K4 radios. He didn't notice any improvement or non-improvement as compared to his K3 radios. He said that contest conditions were great (except 10 meters), and that surprised him since the bands have been so poor lately. Bruce, WA7BNM described conditions as strange (he was single band 15 meters). He said that Friday evening, JAs were few and weak but a 9M6 was loud. He had good openings to Zones 15, 16 and 20 both mornings. He heard only a few South American stations and no Caribbeans. Barry, N6VOH also described conditions as strange. Ken, K6LA (operating as VY2TT) had fun even with 10 meters kaput. He had good JA runs on 20 on Saturday and on 15 on Sunday. 20m was open all night on Friday.

Dana, K6NR described conditions as uneven. Some signals were very weak and some were very strong. 15 and 20 were his money bands. Like others, he said that 10 meters was not good. Scott, KA3DRR at N6WT recorded a personal best. Terry, N6CW said conditions were interesting. 40 was noisy both nights. 20 meters was a surprise with the band open to Europe at the opening gun, both evenings and a bit at the end. 15 was his money band with openings great into Europe both days. He easily worked everythng he could hear. He reported a lack of Asia and South America. Bill, W6QU (QRP as always) agreed with everyone else that 10 meters was not good. 20 meters on the other hand had remarkable openings both nights between 03 and 06 UTC. He was thrilled to work A62A on 15! Glenn, K6NA (NA6TT) said that conditions were better than last year.

The February North American Sprint CW contest results have been published by NCJ. No SCCC members finished in the overall Top Ten but Dan, N6MJ won the Classic category (12 band changes or less) with just TWO band changes. Dick, N6AA finished in the Top Ten in this category as well. The SCCC #1 team consisting of N6MJ, N5ZO, N6AA, K6ZH and AC6T finished in 5th place. Full results can be found here. Note that this September's CW Sprint will move one week later than usual to September 14 UTC (Sept 13 local) to avoid the CW Open contest. It will return to its normal schedule in 2026.

The Dayton Hamvention took place last month. We were hoping for some new amateur radio equipment announcements but have not yet seen any of particular interest to contesters. Have you? ayton is where manufacturers often announce new products or updates to existing ones. Let us know if you have! P.S., here is ARRL's video of opening day at Hamnvention: https://youtu.be/eAhra9pb8kA?si=1uxRJO4uVC-lENlN.

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...
Digging a hole to China is theoretically possible. IF you start in Argentina!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Marty, N6VI wrote of Wayne, "“Wayne Overbeck N6NB had been licensed for over 68 years and developed an early interest in weak-signal VHF and UHF operation. As K6YNB, he began mountain-topping on both the west and east coasts in a camper truck outfitted with radios, antennas and amplifiers (the “Cabover Kilowatt”) and, by 1980, had a dozen national first-place finishes in VHF + contests, setting scoring records that were never broken under the pre-grid scoring system. During that span, with help from Will Anderson AA6DD, Wayne designed and built the inexpensive and easy-to-reproduce Quagi antenna for several VHF and UHF bands as well as a vehicle-mounted 2-meter EME (moon bounce) array that he took to Alaska and other rare states. While continuing to win contests and set scoring records, Wayne was elected ARRL Southwestern Division Vice Director, serving the members for sixteen years.

When the FCC began their study of RF exposure, Wayne took Dr. Robert Cleveland around to several Amateur Radio stations in Southern California for measurement of RF field strengths in a variety of installations. Subsequent to the exposure rules being published, Wayne developed RF Exposure software, which was tested and approved by the Commission, to allow Hams to accurately determine their stations’ compliance with the new rules.

In the early 2000’s, Wayne started building microwave-capable rover stations and loaned them out to other contesters, attracting more of them to ten-and eleven-band roving in VHF-and-up contests. In the process, both Wayne and the Southern California Contest Club racked up dozens of national first-place finishes. Wayne generously shared his experience in building and modifying portable stations with others to stimulate ongoing activity.

It wasn't just contests, though, that captured Wayne’s interest. He set his sights on microwave distance records as well. He personally explored the tropospheric ducts that formed each summer between Hawaii and the California coast. In 2015, with a portable station and a rental car, he drove up and down the Kamehameha Highway on the Big Island until he found the sweet spot and proceeded to set terrestrial distance records with Greg Campbell W6IT on 2304 and 3456 MHz.

Wayne received ARRL Technical Excellence Award in 1977 and was honored as Radio Amateur of the Year at the Dayton Hamvention in 1980. He also received the John Chambers Memorial Award from the Central States VHF Society twice: first in 1978, and again in 2015. Professionally, Wayne held a Ph.D. and J.D. and was a professor of communications law at California State University Fullerton. He is survived by his wife Carrie W6TAI and his daughter Laura.”

Welcome aboard to new member, Jeff, K6JW. Jeff lives in Palos Verdes Peninsula. He says that he's mostly a casual contester and more of a DXer. He prefers CW but operates the other modes as well. Jeff was first licensed in 1958.

The CQ WPX CW contest is this month, perhaps the last major contest of the "2024-2025 contest season. Don't miss out on the the ongoing great conditions as we continue at or near the peak of Sunspot Cycle 25!

The CW WPX SSB contest took place in late March and we had a pretty good Club turn out. Here are some of the comments posted by SCCC members.

Barry, N6VOH worked the contest with a 132 foot long wire doublet and a 40m vertical. He did mostly S&P and had a couple of good runs on 15. He thought band conditions were just okay. He noted that many DX stations had very big numbers. Bruce, WA7BNM was single band 10m and thought conditions were down compared to recent DX contests. He heard few or no eastern Europeans and zero Zone 20 stations. He struggled to work EU/AF stations that he said are usually easy. Bill, W8QZA (as W6QU) was QRP as usual and said conditions were good but not great. He had trouble getting into Europe on Saturday but things were much better on Sunday. His best Q was FT8TZ on 10 meters. At 4:30 am local time on Saturday, he found a number of Europeans on 20m and he was able to work a few of them. John, W6JBR was happy to have been able to play in this contest with excellent conditions of late. He had a lot of EU coming through in the mornings but not many JAs later when he was on. Larry, K6RO was single band 10m and reported poor conditions on Sunday. Marko, N5ZO (NT6Q) was remote into WA6TQT. No equipment failures this year (last year he experienced a failed amp). He felt that conditions were down from last year but he still recorded a higher score this time.

Cliff, K3LL had a goal of completing 80m DXCC and he feels he did so. Bill, N7VM said that he spent more time trimming the avocado trees than operating. Say what?! Dennis, N6KI was just playing around mostly, testing a 500 watt amp that he plans to add to one of his remote stations. He said that 15m was great. Leo, KO6GSH did his second contest of his young contest career. His goal was to win 1st place in the SOAB LP Rookie W6 category. His biggest takeaway was to study more about propagation and understand what times are best for which band. He said that he had a lot of fun! Bill, N6RV had his amp fail on him earlier in the week. He said that there were nice openings on 20 ,15 and 10 meters.

The raw results of the contest have been published by the contest committee. Bud, AA3B, Director, CQ WPX Contest says, "The raw scores are calculated prior to log checking. This should give participants a good indication of their category placement at the World, Continent, or Country level. Score reductions of 2% to 15% (or more) are possible, so the log checking process must be completed before final results are announced." View the raw scores here.

While cleaning out some things in the garage over the weekend, I found a handful of old Club Bulletins (SCCCORE) that we did not have posted on the website! These filled in many of the gaps and are now added to the Historical page here on our website.
Newly added:

Mar-Apr, 2000

Jan-Feb, 2000

Nov-Dec, 1999

Sep-Oct, 1999

Mar-Apr, 1999

Jan-Feb, 1999

Nov-Dec, 1998

Sep-Oct, 1998

Jul-Aug, 1998

Jan-Feb, 1998

Nov-Dec, 1997

If you have any that are not already posted, please send them to me. I tried to find them on the Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org/web/changes/www.contesting.com/sccc and the sccc.contesting.com version there but could not get them to be coughed up. Perhaps someone more familiar with that site would have more success.



Long time SCCC member Dick, W6TK has moved to Oregon. He doesn't have the tower and station up yet but is working on it. The new tower base goes in soon and he has pulled the radio and shack computer out of the packing box. He hopes to be back on the air soon!

Eric, NC6K is getting ready to move too. He will have 2.5 acres in Colorado but with an HOA, so antennas will be a bit more limited than he has now.





A good place to compare 11 year solar cycles is https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/solar-cycle/historical-solar-cycles.html Makes for interesting reading.

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...
It's baseball season! 25 year old Harold Arlin voiced the first radio broadcast of an MLB game (Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh) on KDKA radio on August 5, 1921. He used a modified telephone as a microphone. The following day, he did the first ever broadcast of a tennis match, a Davis Cub match. Two months later he added the first ever broadcast of a college football game to his resume.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Dayton is next month beginning May 14. Well, actually, Dayton begins May 16 but the Contest Super Suite begins ealier. Here is a tentative list of contest related happenings there. And don't forget the contest dinner on Saturday, May 17. Again, if you go, please send me pictures for possible publication here! Thanks!

The ARRL DX SSB contest last month was a good one. Conditions were decent on Saturday and very good on Sunday. There were Europeans aplenty, always a welcome thing for SCCCers! Some comments follow. Ken, K6LA operated his VY2TT station remotely and was glad he didn't physically go to PEI because he managed to come down with a bad cold on Friday. Bill, N6RV thought conditions were poor and the bands were crowded. (They were definitely crowded on 15 and 10!) Dennis, N6KI spent the first half of the contest replacing the motor on his Prop Pitch rotator. The brushes gave out after 17 years. Phil, K6MUG said that 10 meters was his money band. He heard lots of DX on 15 but they didn't hear him. "20 meters was blah," he said. Leo, KO6GSH did his first contest ever, putting in about 10 hours. He had lots of fun and learned a lot. His primary goal was to chase DX that he hadn't worked before. Welcome, Leo. We hope that you are now hooked! Terry, N6CW felt that conditions were terrible overall. Saturday morning, 10 and 15m were poor to Europe and not many Asian stations workable in the afternoon. 20m was nearly dead for him. He said that Sunday morning was better to EU on 10 but he felt that there weren't that many stations active. Overall, he rated conditions a D. [Note that the SFI was down a bit and K index up a bit on Saturday but those improved on Sunday.] Warren, KN6ZZI was doing his second ever ARRL DX SSB and third contest overall. He had a lot of fun and continues to improve. He was able to break most pileups this year which he was very happy about. Bill, W8QZA again used club call W6QU and was QRP. He said that conditions were very good and he worked 111 Europeans compared to 69 during the CW weekend.

John, W6JBR was optimistic about conditions going into the contest but found that they were just okay on Saturday with no EU on 10 or 15. He did have many strong and clear DX signals on 40m overnight. On Sunday, he had a big 10m opening to EU in the morning and on 15 in the afternoon. He said that many Italian and French stations sounded like locals! Bruce, WA7BNM was able to replace his broken rotator earlier n the week which obviously helped immensely. He commented, "When running low power, it's always nice to have an Eastern EU station tell you you're really loud. Of course that was followed by another requiring six repeats of my callsign to complete the QSO." Levi, K6JO was at ZF1A. (To me, he seemed to be everywhere on the bands!--NE6I) He started on 15 but quickly realized that everyone was still on 10m so he moved there for a bit before going back to 15, all in the first hour. The relatively new self spotting rule helped prevent a loss of rate during that hour. Kurt, W6PH balanced contesting with having some yard work done on Saturday by a crew. He had a nice run of JAs on Saturday afternoon after the crew left. He found a nice EU opening early Sunday morning about 7:30 am. As he S&Ped up the band, he found a clear freq at 28.627 and called CQ. He was rewarded with a nice run of Europeans, better than he has ever experienced. In the end, he had more EU in the log than JAs. Nice! Barry, N6VOH thought the bands were "just ok." Dennis, NE6I thought conditions were pretty darn good Friday evening and even better on Sunday. Saturday morning conditions seemed disturbed but got better in the afternoon. Marko, N5ZO operated remote to WA6TQT and his raw score broke the W6 record he set last year by about 9.5%. We'll hope it stands up. He said that conditions did not seem especially good, especially the first day. Sunday was much better to EU. 20m was especially poor and he wasn't able to get much of anything going on that band.

Bill, N7VM was part of the Multi-2 group on Bonaire at PJ4G. His writeup was interesting. "I was thrilled to be invited by NA2AA to fill in for a team member who had to drop out." Noah, K2NG/PJ4NG, has built an incredible station on a hilltop in Bonaire. Tons of listening antennas are separated by enough distance (and a lot of feedline) to allow inband S&P stations. After starting the contest on one of the inband stations (where my SO2R experience proved very useful in interleaving QSOs with the run station), I was thrown into the deep end at 0154Z. I guess the team wanted to make sure my first experience "being the DX" would be memorable, and it was. I made our first appearance on 20m by calling CQ once, K3LR called first, and then the pile up exploded. I worked people as fast as I could thinking I would work the pileup down, but it seemed like the more people I put in the log, the bigger the pileup got. Two hours and 500+ q's later we swapped operators, and I was exhausted! Over the course of 48 hours, we vacuumed up every contact and multipler we could find. The run radios barely moved except for band changes while the in-band radios grabbed spots and when nothing new was spotted, tuned the bands for unspotted folks. We missed one spotted mult (YT) on 20m as there was no propagation at the time. Really fun station to drive, fantastic team of operators,and lots of fun socializing. I apparently didn't screw up too bad, so I was invited back for CQ WW SSB in October, and I can't wait! Most of the SCCC folks I see in the log were worked by the other operators, or I would have said "hi." "

In January, we reported that the Southern California DX Club had folded. Members did not step up to fill the open offices of President and Vice President, and the membership voted to dissovle the club after a 77 year run. But wait! On March 3, their website announced that the club will continue "but in a modified form." Newsletters will continue and membership dues have been abolished. See more at their website.




The Comstock Memorial Station, W7RN QTH in Nevada is for sale! Tom, K5RC recently posted:
"Due to escalating medical issues, K5RC and K7AFO will be moving to a retirement community outside Houston in summer 2025. We would like to sell to a Contester/DXer to continue the legacy of W7RN. The station has been dubbed “Every Ham's Dream.”" (Check out the plaques on the wall!) Details can be found at the W7RN for sale 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...
Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. I wish that hip bones were too!

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Welcome aboard to new member Leo, KO6GSH. Leo lives in Culver City. He is being mentored in contesting by Don, NK6A and may operate a bit in the ARRL DX SSB contest!

As for the ARRL DX CW last month, conditions were good but not as good as they could have been. The A index was at 27 and the K index was at 5 on Saturday. Jim, W6KC thought conditions were better last year. Bill, N7VM said it seemed that participation was down this year as compared to last. On the other hand, Jim, K6ZH says this is traditionally not one of his favorite contests with openings being so short to Europe. But..."Oh my, what excellent conditions!" he said. He was able to run EU on every band except 80. He only had limited time but the conditions made it a lot of fun for him. Dennis, N6KI was just playing from home this time around. He fell a bit shy of his goal of 1,000 QSOs and a million points. Unfortunately, his amp blew a final and the prop pitch motor quit half way through the contest with the antenna then stuck at 90 degrees. Having a SteppIR, he could at least reverse the antenna to work Asia and the Pacific. And he did have a spare amp that he put into service, so all was not lost. Bill, N6RV said conditions were not so good on Saturday but 10 meters into Europe and the Indian Ocean on Sunday were incredible. Another with antenna problems was Bruce, WA7BNM. His DB-36 was frozen due north and his OB16-3 was stuck southeast, making it a challenge to work EU and Asia.

Larry, K6RO was another with amp problems. His KPA dropped to 700 watts on Saturday so he swapped in his backup amp to get up to 1,200 watts. A tennis match on Sunday kept him on the sidelines that day. Bill, W6QU (W8QZA) was QRP again and remarked that conditions were good but not as good as last year. He worked 74 countries and 29 zones this go round compared to 94 and 32 last year. Jim, W6YA's score was way down this year. He said conditions seemed disturbed, especially on Saturday. He also had an increased amount of local RFI from the neighbors. Still fun, he said. Dana, K6NR operated from Arizona this year. He had good runs into JA and one good run into EU on 10 meters. Terry, N6CW, like others, said conditions were good but not great. 20 and 40 were noisy for him but he still had fun. Ken K6LA (VY2TT) was down over 900 Q's from last year. David, N6AN was portable on Flint Peak, QRP as usual and was single band 10 meters. He used a home-brew half sqaure this time as his antenna. He heard JT1CV at 01Z with nobody calling but he couldn't hear David. So close, and yet so far...

Kurt, W6PH started out as single band 10 meters but when he came back to the shack Sunday morning, he was half asleep and started working stations. When the logging program told hm a 9A was a new mult but he knew he'd worked several on Saturday, he realized that he was on 15 meters. He quickly QSYed back to 10 after just 3 Q's on 15. Whew. He said he wasn't really impressed with conditions. They were okay but not great. Seems to be a theme in the comments. Marko, N5ZO was remote into WA6TQT. He was shooting for a new W6 record in the contest but he fell a bit short. He feels he recorded the 3rd best instead. On Sunday, he found it odd at times that he could draw no answers to his CQs but could easily work stations while S&Ping. He said he felt that participation was down quite a bit compared to last year. Glenn, K6NA managed 24 hours in the contest despite some equipment issues in the shack and family visits on Sunday. He said that overall, conditions were "quite good." He agreed with others here out west that conditions were somewhat better last year (probably that higher K index tamped on things this year-editor).

The 2024 California QSO Party Club Results have been published and there is much good news. SCCC was categorized in the Joshua Tree group (up to 30 entries) and topped all others with nearly 4.6 million points. We tend to usually win our category in this contest but this year, the Mother Lode DX/Contest Club was a bit uncomfortably close! They are made up of NCCC folks. Let's plan on really punching the ticket in 2025! Results of the club category can be found here. As for the rest of the results, Marko N5ZO took top honors as NT6Q with 1,900 Q's and 411,684 points. Ken, K6LA took fourth with 1,340 Q's and 335,820 points. Joe, AA2IL took the top spot as Single Op Assisted Low Power running as W6A. Glenn, K6NA was tops in the CW only category. First place Expedition Low Power was N6WT as N6K in King County. W6KC as W6ML was tops in Expedition High Power from Mono County. The top Expedition M/S was K6QK in Imperial (N7CW, K6ZH, N6ERD and N6EEG as operators). First place Fixed M/S went to NX6T at WA6TQT with several SCCCers participating. WQ6X as W6R at KN6NBT set a new San Diego County QRP record. And there were a few others. Full records and updates will be published soon the site says. Congrats to all! Very nice showing! You can find all of the results on the CQP website.

The 2024 IARU HF World Championship resuts have also been posted (see QST and here. And the preliminary NA Sprint RTTY contest results have also been published. The SCCC #1 team finished 5th in the CW contest. It's been a while since we took the top spot but did you know that the SCCC #1 team holds the all time team record from back when there were ten person teams? They had 163,373 points! That record record will of course never be broken (the contest now has five person teams). And Dan, N6MJ has held the top low power score from W6 since February, 2004!

Meanwhile the final CQWW DX SSB results have been published. The article points out that half of the top ten USA were not East Coast based stations, which is rare. The article calls for a round of applause for "K5TR, ND7K (N6MJ-op), K5GN, W9RE, and K6JO!" The article can be found here. Scores and other things can be found here.

And lastly, the preliminary January 2025 NAQP SSB contest results have been published. Ken, K6LA (@VY2TT) currently shows in 1st place!

Strange but true...
The stage before frostbite is called "frostnip."

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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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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