Ham Radio Outlet San Diego closed on February 25. According to the announcement, HRO was informed by their building owner that the lease would not be reviewed. HRO attempted to find an alternative location but between recent increases in rent and poor business policies by the state, county and city governments, they found it all but impossible to find an affordable location. It's always a shame to lose a ham radio retail outlet but we thank HRO San Diego for many years of great service to the area. The main HRO website www.hamradio.com remains available 24x7x365. And the Anaheim location remains open for those wanting to visit in person. Ironically, there was a short article in the February, 2023 issue of CQ Magazine about the history of HRO including its focus on being a family oriented business. No mention of the San Diego outlet. I'm sure the decision to close this location came after the due date for the issue's publication.







Preliminary results of the February North American Sprint CW contest have been published by NCJ. Full results are coming soon according to the magazine.

It's still not too late to register for the 74th International DX Convention in Visalia. Finding a place to stay overnight might be challenging at this late date but as you may know, this is one of the premier DX and contesting conventions on the planet Earth. If you are just now wanting to register and go, perhaps you can find a room to share with someone already registered, or find a room in a nearby hotel. You won't be disappointed attending the convention itself!

The 2023 edition of the ARRL DX CW contest is in the books. Much to anyone's amazement, the SFI started out at 343 on Friday evening and into Saturday! This was caused by an approaching CME from the sun and certainly is the highest we've seen yet in Cycle 25. It settled back down to more normal 160s on Sunday. Here is what some SCCC members said about their experience in the contest this year. Bill, N6RV was expecting major radio blackouts and disturbed conditions. Instead, it was just the opposite. 10 and 15 meters were so quiet that he thought his radio was kaput. He found both bands loaded with DX and that made it hard for him to leave for other bands. 20 stayed open the entire contest for him and he copied Europeans there at all hours. 40 performed more like 20 usually does and even 80 had some great DX. He was able to run stations on all bands 40 through 10, a rarity for him. He now knows what it's like to have a continuous pile of people calling on top of each other. John, W6JBR said 10m was smoking hot, with Europe slamming through in the morning. Jim, W6KC kept his short and sweet: "I had a blast!" Jim, W6YA said it's been many long years since 15 sounded so good (he was single band 15 in the contest). He did have a lot of aurora echo and distortion on Sunday morning though but by mid-morning, that was over and done. He did expect better than the 108 mults he logged. Joe, AA2IL wished he had more time to play because band conditions were great!

Chip, K7JA was single band 10 meters. He missed the Friday night opening and the first part of Saturday due to some local club responsibilities. However, he still managed to generate large pileups with only 100 watts and a tribander. Like W6YA, he found mults in short supply. It was great, he said, to be called by a number of Zone 16 and Zone 20 stations. Ken, K6LA operated VY2TT again and 10 meters was THE BAND for him. 1192 Q's there alone! Conditions were so good on 10 and 15 that he was almost able to forget about his 40m rotator and the top 20m antenna in his stack being frozen despite having heat tape turned on on them. Fortunately, both antennas were pointed at EU but that didn't help with Asia. Ken, K6RO got his new MA40 tower and JK Navassa yagi up a few days before the contest and felt really loud. He was planning just a short operation but wound up doing 31 hours off and on. He's lookng forward to future contests from his new QTH. He thanked Axel and Adam for their great work getting his station back on the air. Dick, W6TK was running his new RF2K-S solid state amplifier and said that it worked really well for him, running cool with no issues. He managed a few runs on 10-20 meters. Some other committments kept him from getting more time in than he would have liked. He said it was great to see 10 and 15 in such great shape. Thus he didn't spend much time on 20 and 40. Steve, K0XP was on mainly to add to his 10 and 160 DXCC totals. He said the 10m conditions were unbelievable over the weekend. Get this though. He used his 160m inverted L with a tuner on 10 and still put 488 Q's in the log! Nicely done!

Bruce, WA7BNM was single band 15. He reported great conditions into all of Europe on Saturday morning. He was able to easily work virtually all of the stations that couldn't hear him last year. Dana, K6NR said these were the best conditions he's heard in nine years or so. On Saturday morning, 10m was filled with signals. He found a blank spot up the band above 28.150, called CQ once and had an instant pileup larger than any he's experienced before. He had many Europeans, all about the same strength and all on the same exact frequency, apparently having clicked on a spot. Sunday morning was also great, he said, with Europe coming through most of the morning. 15, 20 and 40 were also good for him, and he also worked a few EU's on 80. He even got one on 160! JA was strong on all bands, he said. Terry, N6CW felt antenna challenged with just an AV-640 vertical. Never-the-less, he logged 1,127 contacts! He said it was the first time in a long time that 10 meters was his best band. He struggled on 20, and 40 was poor for him on Saturday night. He kicked himself for not staying up late to run some JA's on 40 to push him over a million points. Glenn, K6NA reported "wonderful conditions." He discovered a bad section of hardline Friday causing him to miss the first three hours of the contest while he made repairs. Never-the-less, he had a great time the rest of the weekend. Kurt, W6PH felt like he was in W1 land, running Europeans on 10 meters like never before. He called it absolutely amazing. It reminded him of Cycle 19 back in 1957. When 10 began to fade mid-Saturday morning, he went to 15 and had the same result. 20 didn't perform like that so he did S&P there until the JAs started coming through. Sunday, he found more of the same across the bands. He called it a fantastic propagation weekend! Tim, N6GP said 10 was as good as he's seen for ARRL DX. He too was able run Europe during the morning. He wished he'd run single band. He had a lot of fun on 40 meters as well.

Here's something that could be fun AND helpful to science. NASA is looking for information on contacts made during solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024. They say your recorded signals will help create valuable data to test computer models of the ionosphere. For more information click here.

Had to share as this doesn't happen everyday to me. I had a short QSO with OE8DDX on 12 meters in late February. A short time later, I received a nice email from Luca thanking me for the QSO and asking for a QSL card. He told me he is age 14 and the youngest ham in Austria! Checking his QRZ page, I learned that he received his ham license at age 11! It brought back memories for me. I got my own license a few months after my 15th birthday. I still remember the excitement of opening the mail that day as well as my first few QSOs. I am sure that Luca is having those same feelings and having a lot of fun in amateur radio. Glad to see a youngster like him on the air and working some DX! (And yes, my QSL went out to him in the mail the following day!)

Strange but true...
Restaurants can sing "Happy Birthday" now because the copyright claims are now null and void.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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The ARRL International DX CW contest is later this month. With conditions continuing to be on the rise, it should be a good one and we can expect some big scores!

Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio on December 22 introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to eliminate private land restrictions that "prohibit, restrict, or impair the ability of an Amateur Radio Operator from operating and installing amateur station antennas on property subject to the control of the Amateur Radio Operator." The bill was assigned as H.R.9670. We can only hope that this bill gains some traction. See more here on the ARRL website. Fingers crossed.

In case you missed it, Jim, K6ZH did a fun presentation late last month on his 60 years in ham radio. Jim did it live and in person at the San Diego DX Club meeting with many others attending via Zoom (SCCCers were invited to join). He shared how he became interested in radio early on by hearing far away stations on his little AM radio and wondering how that was happening. Later he became fascinated with TV broadcast DXing. These things ignited the spark that led him to getting his amateur radio license and becoming an engineer. He also shared many of his experiences in ham radio from throughout his life, pointing out many of the Elmers that helped him. One of his stories caught my ear in particular: his chase for DXCC #1, as in "working them all" (including the elusive P5 North Korea!). Now, you might think that P5 was his last one to attain top of the Honor Roll. But you'd be wrong. It was actually VK0EK Heard Island. He said that propogation during that DXpedition had been very poor to the West Coast, but one day VK0EK popped up out of the noise just long enough for Jim to get him in the log. This reminded me of my own experience working VK0 for the first time. For me, it was back in August of 1983. VK0DA was on the air from Heard but not many of us on the west coast were hearing him. One night after dark our time, he was scheduled to be on 20 meter SSB at a predetermined hour specifically looking for for the west coast. A few of us locals hung out on 2 meter simplex talking DX and whatnot (I think it was 146.43 or .46 [definitely not the standard .52 or even the .94 simplex channel that was often used at the time]). That night we were talking about our chances of hearing VK0DA. All of a sudden, I started to hear something. I popped the headphones on and lo and behold, it was HIM! I started calling. The others on the 2m simplex channel couldn't hear him yet and were saying I was bluffing. Only I wasn't. After a few tries, VK0DA and I exchanged reports and I was in the log! A couple of minutes later, he came up in strength enough for the others to hear and work him. It wasn't that I had a superior station. I just got lucky. About five minutes later, he faded out and that was that. Quite the experience. (By the way, I did work VK0EK in 2016 too, getting him on 30 and 40 CW that time. Heard is a tough one for the west coast.) Anyway, it was a fun night listening to Jim's stories and history. We have the video posted here on the website. Thanks for sharing those, Jim!

The North Coast Contesters are proud to announce:

The 29th Annual Dayton Contest Dinner at the Hope Hotel - Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio https://www.hopehotel.com/

2023 Contest Dinner tickets are on sale now exclusively via our web site.

HUGE thanks to Scott, KA9FOX and QTH.com for designing, building, donating and running the Contest Dinner web site.

http://contestdinner.com

Master of Ceremonies for the 2023 Dayton Contest Dinner is Contest Hall of Fame member and CQ WorlWide Contest Director, John Dorr, K1AR.

Thanks to Teri, K8MNJ for coordinating and organizing the 2023 Contest Dinner.

The 2023 Contest Hall of Fame inductees will be announced during the 2023 Dayton Contest Dinner.

Thanks to Icom America and DX Engineering - the MAIN prize is a Icom IC-7610

I am very excited that our KEYNOTE speaker is CW (over 60 wpm) lover and noted super youth contester, Bryant, KG5HVO

The Dayton Contest Dinner will be held on Saturday night, May 20, 2023 at 6:30 PM Cash bar opens at 5:30 PM at the Hope Hotel.

Located at the Hope Hotel (Official Contester Hotel) https://www.hopehotel.com/

Seating is random. Tables are set in rounds of 10.

You can purchase an entire table for your group/club (purchased group tables are set for round 10). Lots of clubs reserve. Full Table purchases are reserved seating.

Tickets are only available on http://contestdinner.com

There are no tickets for sale at the door.

The 35th annual Contest Super Suite (all FOUR nights during Hamvention) details are here: http://contestsupersuite.com

And the 18th Annual Dayton Contest University seats are filling up fast http://contestuniversity.com

The 33rd annual Dayton Top Band Dinner tickets are available at http://topbanddinner.com

We expect another sold out event for the 2023 Dayton Contest dinner. Over 550 have attended the Contest Dinner in the past. Get your tickets early! http://contestdinner.com

73!
Tim K3LR
Dayton Contest Dinner Chairman - 29 years

WRTC Sanctioning Committee Now Accepting Proposals for 2026 Hosting

(Ljubljana, Slovenia - 15 January 2023) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The World Radiosport Team Championship Sanctioning Committee (WRTC-SC) today announced that it is accepting proposals for hosting the 2026 WRTC event.

The World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC) is an on-site amateur radio competition, usually held every four years. Previous WRTCs have been held in Seattle, USA (1990); San Francisco, USA (1996); Bled, Slovenia (2000); Helsinki, Finland (2002); Florianopolis, Brazil (2006); Moscow, Russia (2010); Boston, USA (2014); and Wittenberg, Germany (2018).

WRTC2022, delayed due to the worldwide public health challenges and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, is scheduled to be held in Bologna, Italy in July 2023.

Teams of two operators representing a geographical region of the world come to the host site to compete using similar antennas and locations, overseen by on-site referees. The WRTC competition has typically been held as a contest-within-a-contest coincident with the IARU World HF Championship to capitalize on the high activity of a popular world-wide operating event.

Groups interested in hosting WRTC2026 should submit a Letter of Intent, with a summary proposal. This should include the following items:

* Committee Organization, identifying each of the principals involved and any relevant organizational and amateur radio experience especially in contesting/radiosport

* Competition Description, including planned number of teams, geographic location of operating sites, and competitor selection process

* Social Aspects, including approximate schedule, travel, and housing arrangements for participants

* Financing, including an outline of the budget and fundraising approach. A detailed budget is not required at this time.

* Expected assistance and involvement from local and regional amateur radio organizations and regulatory authorities

* Public Exposure, including plans to publicize and promote the event locally and worldwide

Letters of Intent must be submitted no later than March 31, 2023 at 2359 UTC. The WRTC-SC will review all proposals received and will respond by April 30, 2023. Additional information may be requested.

It is the goal of the WRTC-SC to announce the venue for WRTC2026 at the close of WRTC2022 in Bologna in July 2023. Letters of Intent should be submitted directly to the Chairman of the WRTC Sanctioning Committee, Tine Brajnik, S50A, via email to tine.brajnik@gmail.com

Members of SCCC have been invited to participate in a W1AW/6 Special Event February 15-21, 2023.

As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be operating from all corners of land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be approved to operate their stations during two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4.

California's first week starts February 15, 2023, at 0000z and will run through February 21, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/6. Each state coordinator will approve time, band, and mode slots throughout the week and hams will be able to operate their stations using W1AW/x.

If you wish to be one of the official W1AW/6 authorized operators for California, you must first email the CA VOTA Coordinator: John Litz, NZ6Q at nz6q@arrl.org . You may also call John at 209-687-0774. Once approved, you may, subject to the following conditions, select any available one-hour operating time slot for the band and mode (SSB, CW, Digital) of your choice. Once selected, it's selected - NO CLAIM JUMPING !! Use an approved electronic logging program capable of creating an ADIF file. You will email your files to the coordinator.

All approved W1AW/6 operators are expected to observe all FCC regulations, including only operating on frequencies allocated to their license class and at permitted power levels. Violators, may, unless The Old Man is merciful, be Wouff-Honged!

By a toss of the 2023 Toys for Tots US Marine Corp coin, it was decided that Northern CA would primarily sign-up to cover WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY, SUNDAY and Southern CA would primarily cover THURSDAY, SATURDAY, MONDAY. Tuesday is open for both North and South.

Minimum station requirements:
- 100W + yagi or hexbeam or better on 20-15-10M
- 100W (or more up to Legal Limit) + good vertical or dipole antenna on 80-40M

Be comfortable with the modes you select. If you work a lot of FT-8 or your station may be limited then sign-up on FT-8. If you like RTTY or digital do that. If you have a solid station on all bands then sign-up for bands/modes/times following the guidelines below.

Portable W1AW Rules
• Each operator must follow the rules for their own license class. Stay in the sub-bands that you are legally allowed to operate.
• Operators can operate anywhere in the state. Please observe the above guidelines when choosing your time/mode slots.
• ARRL members that contact the Portable W1AW stations will receive 5 points in the VOTA event.
• Each band/mode combination can be activated simultaneously. For example, N6ACL could be working on 20M SSB, N5SML could be working on 20M FT8, NZ6Q could be working on 20 M CW, and K6WX could be on 40 M SSB, all at the same time.
• The state weekly assignments are shown in the W1AW/ Schedule area at http://vota.arrl.org State operations start at 0000z each Wednesday and stop at 2359z the following Tuesday.
• Operations are not allowed on the 12 M, 17 M, 30 M, 60 M, 630 M, or 2190 M bands.
• All logs for the week must be consolidated into one ADIF file and sent to the state coordinator to be uploaded to LoTW.
• When you sign up for a one-hour slot, you are also selecting a band and a mode. Signing up for CW on 20M is one slot, phone and digital modes are two other slots.
• One operator per band/mode at the same time. (i.e. two stations cannot be on 40CW or 20 SSB from CA at the same time)
• You may only use the band and mode you have selected, for the time period you requested. You may request multiple slots throughout the week. To allow for as many stations as possible to operate, please limit yourself to no more than 4 hours in a row on any band and mode. You are encouraged to select multiple modes (i.e... 2 hours on CW, 2 hours on SSB, 2 hours on RTTY on any band is a full day - and it gives others the chance to participate.
• Check back on the sign-up sheet often & during the event. If you're operating 20M FT8 for two hours, but the next hour is open and you want to continue, then add your call into that 3rd hour and continue...

If you have any questions, please contact the California State Coordinator John Litz at nz6q@arrl.org or by phone 209-687-0774.

Strange but true...
The small indents in the bottom of frozen pizzas are there to prevent air bubbles forming inside the dough.

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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Dean, N6DE announced late last month the release of the final results of the California QSO Party! Marko, N5ZO took 1st Place in the Single Op High Power category using the NT6Q club call. George, W6AYC took top honors in the SOLP category, and David N6AN took 1st in the SO QRP category as W6NL. He also set a new all-time record in that one. These gave the SCCC a clean sweep of the three unassisted categories (not counting the Expeditions). The NCCC took 1st place in all of the assisted categories. Also of note, Eric, NC6K set a new SO(A)HP record for San Diego County, and Ron, K2RP set a new standard in the SO(A)QRP category for San Diego County. With conditions improving immensely as we head upward in Cycle 25, next year might see even more records fall! Full line scores can be found here and all of the other summaries can be found on the main results page. See the fun CQP video put together by Kent, N6WT here.

The 2023 International DX Convention (formerly [and still by some of us oldtimers] known as the Visalia DX Convention) has posted a list of major prizes available for the raffle. The list looks pretty juicy so far! Check it out here.

Welcome aboard to brand new SCCC member Jeff, AB6NE from Lakeside, CA. He wrote up a nice little bio to introduce himself to us.
"I was originally licensed in 73 as a Novice, upgraded to General, then let my license expire. I got re-licensed in 91 and CW came back to me easily. I still had my Tech license during the 10-meter contest and since Techs were worth more points, I was running stations left and right. I was hooked. Ultimately, I would do some contest regularly, mostly CW but some phone and RTTY. I won several 1st place Section awards."

"I moved to a condo in 96 and have tried various hidden or temporary antennas with not much luck. I started to put together a portable station, which will ultimately be solar powered, saw that 10 meters was starting to open up in the day time, and decided to jump back in this year. I always enjoyed Field Day and setting up this station and operating was a blast. Didn't make a lot of contacts but got the ball rolling again."

"I was Education Director and Control Operator for the ARC El Cajon (WA6BGS) and a VE for several years. I ran a SANDARC-VEC testing site for a few years. I have worked as an engineer in various capacities for Family Radio the last 29 years."

73, Jeff AB6NE

The ARRL 10 Meter contest took place last month, and the band was hopping. Europe wasn't filling up the logs of SCCCers but there were plenty of contacts to be had, especially compared to recent years! Dave, K6FA worked all states except Wyoming. Paul, W8GJK had a lot of fun in his first ever 10 Meter contest. He described conditions as awesome! His initial goal was to top 100K points but he kept pushing that out as each plateau was reached. Good times! Bruce, WA7BNM has been chasing North and South Dakota for 10m WAS for some time in recent contests and finallly worked them both. Marko, N5ZO said conditions were the best he has heard in a long time. He noted that the rain on Sunday kept power line noise down. Kurt, W6PH didn't find many Europeans other than those in Spain, which he said were plentiful. He didn't experience any Sunday doldrums as the contacts just kept on comin'. He picked up three Asian mults in the last 20 minutes of the contest when he swung his beam that way. Jim, W6KC also noted a lack of EU stations but a plethora of everything else. He enjoyed endless runs, doing so at will. Jim, K6ZH said conditions were good to JA, the Pacific and South America but as others said, not to EU. He said there were some very loud stations from the East Coast and Midwest. Jim, N6TJ was again at KH7Q and said conditions were marginal at best from Hawaii. Glenn, K6NA said it was great to hear loud signals simultaneously from NA, SA, Oceania and Asia. He said the EU openings were very short due to the limited mutual-daylight path at this time of year. Ken, KA6KEN said it was fun to have 10m open for the first time since he got back into ham radio several years ago. It was like gaining a whole new band.

Larry, K6RO played contest between tennis matches. He used a 60m dipole with an antenna tuner, and went QRP (5 watts). He thought conditions were very good. He heard many mults that he couldn't work. This was his first contest from San Diego after 33 years in Los Angeles. John, K6FI had a good time, enjoying the simplicity of operating just one band. Dick, W6TK said the band sounded pretty good but unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of time to play radio. Don, NK6A said he spent too much time on SSB but was setting up the voice memories and interface. In the end, he didn't need his mic very often. Bill, W8QZA once again used club call W6QU and was QRP SSB. He was happy to find conditions were good and logged 24 countries versus 1 last year. He worked two Europeans and nine Japanese stations. He even worked 33 stations while CQing whereas he usually gets none! Bob, AA6PW missed out on operating Friday evening and Saturday afternoon due to conflicts but had good run rates. No big openings to Europe and some of the big Caribbean stations were weak. Asia was decent for him during the last couple of hours of the contest. Dana, K6NR remoted into his station while visiting family in Arizona. He reported amazing activity from the US and Japan. Ron, N6XT focused mostly on CW, his first time doing so. Using an end fed wire only 20 ft. above ground, he recorded almost five times more CW Q's than on SSB. Paul, W6PNG had a great time for three hours operating portable on a park bench at 1,000 foot elevation, basking in sunshine until the storm rolled in. Tim, N6GP exclaimed, "This was the kind of conditions we have been waiting for since 2013!"

The RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada) split the Maritime (MAR) section into two new sections, New Brunswick (NB) and Nova Scotia (NS) effective January 1. This is expected to increase the number of multipliers in certain contests (such as Sweepstakes) by one. The number of mults in SS would increase from 84 to 85. You can read about this change here. You will want to update your contest logging software to take into account this change for contests that use Canadian provinces as multipliers.

ARRL has published the final results of the International Digital Contest. Congrats to Bruce, WA7BNM who took 2nd place in the SOLP One Radio, 8 Hours category. Watch for full results at the ARRL Contest page. As of mid-December, they were running behind on updating the page due to so many staff members being out with illnesses. So be patient...

Tim Duffy, K3LR has announced that registration is now open for Contest University 2023. CTU will take place Thursday, May 18, 2023 (one day before Dayton Hamvention opens in Xenia, OH. CTU will be held at the Hope Hotel. More information can be found at the CTU website.

Back in April, 2020, we wrote about Ted Henry, W6UOU turning 100 years old that year. In the December, 2022 issue of CQ Magazine, we learn that his son, Ted W6YEY retired in September and has sold the amateur and commercial amplifier portion of the business to Bob Burchett, WB6SLC who also owns NovexComm in Torrance. Ted is now happily living in Coloradio and maintains his eBay store there, distributing Bird RF products and Tohtsu relays. In October, Henry Radio's amplifier business was moved from the Olympic and Bundy location in L.A. to the NovexComm facility in Torrance. Bob says they were drowned in orders the day they reopened for business! The company has focused on solid state amplifiers primarily for VHF and UHF, with only two low power HF amps. Bob told CQ however that a solid state, high power HF amplifier is planned for 2023. THAT should be interesting! Their new website is www.henryradioamplifiers.com (Note, as of this writing, their website's SSL certificate had expired (early December) and may require you to click and extra link or two to proceed to it, depending on your web browser. Once they renew the certificate, the extra hoops will disappear.


Searching for the Search function on the SCCC website? It used to appear just below the Membership Badges section. In mid-December, we moved it from there to the main menu at the top of the page.

The N3FJP programming team has done it again! They at Affirmatech have many contest logging programs as well as a general logger. These programs are quite popular with the amateur radio fraternity. Now, they have released their newly updated version of what they call "Amateur Exam Study Buddy." This new version is web based and includes pool questions for the Technician license through Extra. Be sure to have your sound unmuted if you try it out. When you select an answer, a voice will tell you if you are correct or got it wrong. What a great new tool to help people get or upgrade their amateur radio license! Be sure to pass this along to anyone you know that would benefit, including your local clubs!

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season and not only got all the great gifts on your wish list but gave some great gifts that made the recipients smile broadly!

Strange but true...
When watermelons are grilled or baked, they lose their granular texture and can even be used as a meat substitute. Watermelon steak, anyone?

73 for now,
--Dennis NE6I

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