2023-03-05 Weekly Ham Radio Activities

Maybe you’re looking for next week’s or last week’s newsletter?

Recap 🔁

  • 03/01 Wed Cowlitz County ACS Meeting at LCARA Clubhouse

03/04 Sat ARRL DX Contest SSB

You may have noticed the HF contest over the weekend if you had a chance to listen, all the HF bands were jam packed. It was the “International DX Phone Contest”, a world event. Personally, I’ve only begun electronically logging since the middle of October 2022 and in these past 4 months I’m already closing in on 1000 Contacts in general and mostly on 10 meters! My DX country count was 37 before this weekend and is now at 52. This was not even working hard and I don’t have fancy HF antennas or an amplifier. I just have a bit of wire up in the trees and I’m having a ball!

It’s fun to work a ham across the country or around the world with a simple wire antenna. Mine cost me about $20 to build and with a little patience you “can” compete with the kilowatt stations and their monster beam antennas. It’s very satisfying to know an amateur radio operator on the other side of the planet heard ‘you’ louder than anyone else in the pile up for that moment in time.

This was a fun and easy contest to do from the club as the returning exchange is only 5/9 Washington “Whiskey Alpha”. Last weekend, Rick WA7NWN represented W7DG solo from the clubhouse. However it’s possible that with 3 or 4 HF stations going up there we could work DXCC over the weekend (yes, that means 100 countries).

The following link from the ARRL is the contest calendar for the next 5 years. https://contests.arrl.org/calendar.php

What If I’m Not a Contester?

There are many hams who are not interested in HF contests. Many of these hams will simply turn off the radio for the weekend. Others will go to 12 or 17 meters with the hope of working other hams not part of the contest. These bands are known as the “WARC bands” where no contesting is permitted by the ARRL. I got a little tired of the contest last Saturday and slid down into the 12 meter CW portion of the band and rattled out a satisfying QSO with a ham in the upper midwest. 12/17 meters can be fun bands so for those of you who might consider upgrading to General Class, now is a great time so you too can enjoy these fun alternative bands.

Shared by Brian KJ7OX

Upcoming Events 🗓

Later in March

  • 3/15 Wed LCARA Business Meeting

Sunspots and Propagation

Take six minutes to read a fun article discussing our Sun’s solar maximums and minimums and learn how amateur radio signals travel (propagate) the way they do around the earth.

We’re now halfway up Solar Cycle 25!

https://www.hamradioschool.com/post/sunspots-and-propagation

Shared by Brian KJ7OX

Nets ✅

For Sale 💸

#12 solid copper wire type USE RHH RHW AMERLINK-X

  • Suitable for use in general purpose wiring applications and may be installed in raceway, conduit, direct burial and aerial installations.
  • A full unopened 2000’ spool and a partial spool are available.
  • Rick Blackburn, KI7IF, offers to cut to length and will ‘meet up’ for delivery in Longview.

Price .25/foot cut pieces or .20/ft - $400 for full spool.

Contact - rablackburn [at] gmail [dot] com or 503 789-7449

Clubhouse Internet

In mid February 2023, LCARA switched internet providers for the clubhouse. The connection should be noticably faster and more reliable now. The wifi network name and password have not changed.

Please report any issues you experience with the internet at the clubhouse to Glen N7UIG or Masen KF7HVM

If you are interested in beta testing remote access to the clubhouse radios, please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Kindly send any comments, corrections, events, pictures, stories, or content for this newsletter to kf7hvm@0x26.net.

Consider joining the LCARA W7DG Facebook Group.