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!

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Strange but true...
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye!"

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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