SOUTHERN ARIZONA DX ASSOCIATION
TUCSON - WS7DX
ARCHIVES

<click pictures to enlarge>

November Program 
17 November - 5:30 PM

Welcome to our newest members, AD7RZ - Mike Lindsay

and

W1GFH - Rick Comens!

After dinner Keith - KR7RK called the meeting to order and started out with the DX roundup and gave everyone a chance to strut their stuff with what DX they had worked this month. The group agreed that 10 is hot and is a lot of fun and new countries abound. Dick - K5RR   mentioned he did 2 million points in the CQ WW SSB DX contest and it may be the high score in W7 for his class of operation. Time will tell. Mike - KC9ORD , mentioned the Christmas party is coming together nicely and asked for folks to commit so they can get a head count for the event. The deadline to sign up is about the 10th or 11th of December. The party is Friday the 16th of December. Also during the roundup it was mentioned that Wally - KB7GAI , was taken to the hospital in ambulance with unknown problems. His condition is unknown at this time.

Larry - W7LB , mentioned he had a tower permit in hand, for an 89 foot tower,  and there were four others in Tucson in the process of getting permits and ordering towers. Four towers will be delivered from one truck probably the middle of December. They are looking for someone who has a five foot diameter hole auger that can do the hole for the tower base. Any help will be appreciated in identifying someone. *Sure, I have a 5 foot auger in my storage shed!

Larry also mentioned the club finances are in good shape and after elections in January he will get the new officers to sign on as cosigners on the checking account.

Bill - AB7AA wanted the club to know his Paket repeaters were available for field day activities but that you should contact him if and when you want to use them.

Keith mentioned that the annual officer elections are coming up in January and the membership should be thinking about who will run for President and Vice President of the club. Larry - W7LB, as agreed to stay on as Treasurer. The current president and VP didn't show a lot of enthusiasm to continue in office.

Jerry - W6XI , mentioned the projection screen being used by the club is one he has donate to the club and that the club needs to give serious thought buying their own projector and equipment needed to do the club programs. That would include a laptop and a projector as well as a speaker set for video DVDs quite often shown at meetings.

Following the discussions Jerry -W6XI, introduced Tom Kramer - NQ7R, who then presented his very  interesting talk on his DXpedition  

to

I hear it was a good one!  You shoulda' been there!

October Program
20 October - 5:30 PM

The club president, Keith - KR7RK was unable to be at the meeting due to travel plans.  Jerry - W6XI stepped in to conduct the meeting.

The membership decided that we should have a November meeting this year.  Normally the November and December meetings are combined into a Christmas party in December. The Christmas party is tentatively scheduled for the 16th of December and it being later than past years the idea of having a November meeting was brought up by W6XI the club VP.

The usual DX roundup was had and many of the members mentioned working the T32C DXpedition .  Larry - W7LB mentioned he is close to having all the paperwork and approval for installing a new 89' tower at his new QTH. He mentioned the tower is big enough to hold nearly his whole house atop it.  He plans to put up a large antenna array.  Mike - KC9ORD  is also in the process of ordering and installing a new tower at his new QTH.

                               FEATURE PRESENTATION

Ned Stearns - AA7A was this months speaker for a presentation on why "DXCC on 160 and 6 Meters Sucks".  Ned presented information showing it is very difficult to achieve DXCC because of distance, propagation characteristics of the two bands, and where the various countries around the world are located with respect to Arizona. Ned indicated because of the difficulty of achieving DXCC is no reason not  to try.  Ned mentiond the way an operators skill are measured in working on DXCC on these bands should be evaluated with additional merits to account for distance.

Once again, if you missed this one, you shoulda' been there!
 

Thanks to W6XI for providing a summary of the meeting.  The web-page editor was indisposed.

September Program
15 September - 5:30 PM

You may have noticed that during last month's meeting we had a rain storm and Coco's roof was leaking a bit, dripping on a few folks.  Luck would have it, today we had the most rain ever in September, however, other than a couple of buckets at the restaurant entrance, our meeting was dry!

Once again, our President KR7RK - Keith opened the meeting and introductions were made and everyone was afforded an opportunity to describe their DX activities.  KB7GAI - Wally mentioned that VK2AB - MC Cooper was running a suitcase DXpeditiion on the island of Niue , a small pinhead island about 2000 miles North East of New Zeland.  KE7DX - Gary said that the Arizona QSO Party had been redesignated the Arizona Statehood QSO party on October 8 and 9.  Next year, it would be the Arizona Centennial QSO party. (Has it been 100 years already?)   There was a bit of discussion of the Christmas party, details of which are to be determined.
W1KSZ - Richard told of two DXpeditions, the 4W6A  East Timor starting on 16 September and YJ0VK Vanuatu from September 30th until October 12th.  However, SADXA's own, NQ7R -  Tom along with DJ0YI - Ben Pyfer will be arriving and operating three days before and staying three days after. 

There were two guests attending the meeting.  Hope you will join our group.

FEATURE PRESENTATION

After a short break to prepare, our newest member, KW7CD - Cornell Drentea, gave a presentation about his Star-10 home brew, high perfomance HF transceiver.  To view Cornell's impressive BIO, run your mouse over the link below his picture.   Also, you can find many more pictures and dialogue by clicking www.qrz.com to go to his info.

As described in his presentation, the home brewed Star-10 transceiver, a high dynamic range (150 dB Composite LSFDR) unit which is fully synthesized in one band from 1.8 to 30 MHz with a resolution of 10 Hz and a frequency stability of 1x10-8. Its DDS-driven PLL synthesizer operates at microwave frequencies and is divided down for superb phase noise performance of -140 dBc/Hz at 500 Hz offset.

By his estimate, Cornell has $30,000 in this radio and had it not been for various venders providing samples for some of the more exotic elements of this rig, might have approached $100,000.  Comparison to other ham quality rigs, he estimated that the radio would cost about $800 per dB of dynamic range over the best amateur radio.

This was a very interesting presentation to say the least.  You should have been there.

 August Program
18 August - 5:30 PM

NQ7R - Tom told the story of being in his van North of Yuma, attempting to give a few grid squares to deserving operators when he had an encounter with a honey bee.  He said that he decided that the easiest way to handle the situation was to get the bee to sting him and then the bee would die.  So, he did and the bee did.  You can't let a little thing like a bee sting get in the way of operating!   W0LTL - Mike said that the Christmas party will be scheduled for the 15th of December in the Colonia Verde club house, the same as last year.  The meeting was closed out with a discussion of card checking by W6ZQ - Ron .

After the break, W6XI - Jerry introduced our guest speaker who gave us a story and slide presentation of the hardships endured during the DXpedition to T31A land. The trip from Samoa to Kiribati and the return were very difficult indeed, taking over four days each way in a very small and uncomfortable catamaran vessel.  There were approximately 30 residents on the island who warmly welcomed them but they had many obstacles to overcome and to make matters worse, they were three days late in embarking for the island and that threw them off schedule. It is apparent that a DXpedition such as this is not for the weak at heart and being physically fit would be a necessity.  All and all, it was a very interesting presentation.  You should have been here!

July Program
21 July 2011 - 5:30 PM

Prior to the main presentation, W6SCC - Barry  told of his search and destroy mission involving a 75 meter noise. Using a couple of loop detectors , he finally managed to find the elusive signal in a neighbor's tread-mill which was emitting noise whether it was on or off.  With all of the electronic gadgets these days, you can suspect anything.  Similarly, KW7CD - Cornell showed the loop built by AD7RZ - Mike and a borrowed receiver he is going to use to chase a source of RFI.  The receiver was provided by KD7AYQ - Gary Bruins, our Tucson Electric Power RFI investigator.  Our VP, Jerry, commented that Gary would investigate any source of RFI and it did NOT have to be related to the electric power grid.  Cornell mentioned that Gary is on vacation so he is going to do the chasing!

KB7GAI - Wally mentioned that K7XC - Tim Merek of Fallon, NV is on a 6 meter Rover Grid trip and says "This guy is going thru a lot of trouble and expense, so give him some contacts.  I worked him yesterday from his mobile from DN-10 with FB signal."  Check out the info in Wally's message on the SADXA Yahoo reflector.

After a short break, our meeting continued with a presentation by W6ZQ - Ron titled "Observation of Sudden Ionosphere Disturbance, Cycle 24 using a VLF receiver at 24.8 KHz"  Ron showed us his VLF loop antenna, receiver and link transmitter which he constructed and uses to observe, record and then analizes the VLF signals reflecting solar activity.  The source that Ron uses is the VLF transmitter NLK located in OSO Wash, Jim Creek, Washington. He explained that the Jim Creek unit is near our latitude and reflects changes in solar activity as applies to our area.  It was an interesting presentation...sorry you missed it.  Hey Mike, wake up!

June Program
16 June 2011 - 5:30 PM

Our President, KR7RK - Keith opened the meeting by mentioning the sad loss of a SADXA member AJ7EF - Jeff Jaster The meeting continued with all introducing themselves and telling of any DX activity. There were mentions of the VHF contest and a few 6 meter contacts.  NQ7R - Tom Kramer talked of his planning to attend the YJ-Vanuatu DXpedition in November. In addition, he mentiioned that the Pinal County EMCOM was having a General Class test session on Saturday from 10 - 12 AM at  the Florence County EOC .  If you're going for General, this will be the last session before the general class pool of test questions is updated.

Our to-be guest speaker, Cornell  Drenta - KW7CD had an extra ordinary opening on 20 meters where he had made contact with YO3APJ in Bucharest, Romania by calling with a few words of Romanian and busting the pile-up.
 We welcomed two new members: KW7RS - Rolly Sicard and KB7AZ - Carl Foster .  Welcome to SADXA!  We're glad to have you both!

We had two visitors: AD7RZ - Mike Lindsay and prospective ham, Paul Ledbetter Paul, hurry up and get that ticket! We hope you enjoyed your visit!  Keith mentioned that we are still awaiting the final approval by the ARRL for our card checker, appears to be the old  "Hurry up and wait!" routine.  Also, Gary Keck - KE7DX mentioned the upcoming field day location at AK7AR - Owen's place near Helmet Peak Road. This location was by default since Mt. Lemmon and Bigelo are closed to all traffic and personnel due to the fire hazzard. There will be the standard Saturday evening potluck.

The meeting was adjourned for a quick break.  During the break, we were visited by Cheree Miller, the waitress who served all the Hams breakfast at Jerry Bob's on Broadway every Saturday morning for several years.  The group stilll misses her.

Our presentation for the evening was given by Cornell Drenta, KW7CD.  Cornell has published over 80 technical papers and articles in professional national and international magazines and holds five (5) patents. He is also the author of two books: (1) "Radio Communications Receivers", McGraw Hill, ISBN 0-8306-2393-0/ISBN 0-8306-1393-5, 1982 and (2) "Modern Communications Receiver Design and Technology" , Artech House 2010, ISBN 978-1-59693-309-5.

He visited Puerto Rico with the express purpose of touring the Arecibo Radio Telescope.  The slide show consisted of photos of his tour which traveled the perimiter of the island with the focus of the presentation on the giant radio telescope.  It was a very interesting,  sorry you missed it slide show!  Our meetings are usually a very fun filled evening! And I'm sorry to spoil the scenery with the old guy(s) in a couple of the pictures below.  Note Richard's magic trick!  Thanks to Wes - N7WS for a couple of the pictures!

May Program
19 May 2011 - 5:30 PM

Attendance was good for the April Meeting.  The President KR7RK - Keith opened the meeting and, as usual, introductions were made and recent individual DX activities were discussed. Our senior SADXA member   W9OSN - Jim was present for the meeting.  Welcome back!   We had two guests and prospective members,  KF7EZI - Joe Hirte and  KD7TMX - Cliff Schneider.  Welcome to SADXA!  Our amateur radio-active friend from the CADXA NQ7R - Tom has joined SADXA.  We're happy to have you Tom.  And, last but not least, W0MPH - Richard Hyde from Oro Valley has joined our group.  Welcome Richard.   N7UQ - Chuck , as an ex-Navy man,  was happy to announce that he had been invited to be a guest operator on the USS Midway in May.  That should be fun!
As a matter of business, our Secretary/Treasurer, W7LB - Larry, announced that we have nearly completed the steps necessary to have our own SADXA card checker and that will be W6ZQ - Ron Cade.  Our bank account is up to date and Larry and VP W6XI - Jerry are the signaturaries for the account, and we are solvent with 44 paid members at this time.  A donation of $100 was given to the Northern California DX Foundation as was discussed and approved at the last meeting.  With no further business, we took a short break before our guest presentation.

Our guest speaker for the evening was AA7BQ - Fred Lloyd, founder of .  He was accompanied by his XYL - Robin.  They came down from Phoenix in their elegant QRZ bus which we were able to board and examine after the meeting.  Fred gave us a slide presentation and told us how QRZ was started and how it had progressed over the last 19 years from a dial-up bulletin board to the very useful amateur radio database and information source. QRZ.com has  more than 1.2 million callsigns from all over the world and over 400K registered users plus an almost unbelieveable 50,000 unique visitors PER DAY!  QRZ.com is a truly successful internet enterprise. So, if you missed this one, you shoulda' been there!

As a final note, there is a link to the newly formed Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club below in the "Links" section.

The March meeting was opened by the President, Keith - KR7RK. Introductions were made all around including recent DX activities.  There was a mention of the International DX meeting in Visalia in April and it's undetermined if anyone is going to attend.  VP W6XI Jerry mentioned that in the past, the club had been sending money to the Northern California DX Foundation and suggested that the club donate this year.  It was voted unanimously to send funds. The Secretary/Treasurer, W7LB - Larry, said he would tak care of it.  There was a brief report on the financial condition of the club and the club is solvent at present.  There was more discussion concerning SADXA getting a QSL Card Checker.  The ARRL requires 25 members in order to be eligible to have a card checker.  The VP stated that we will meet that goal very soon.

The presentation for the meeting was by W1KSZ - DIck who demonstrated several computer programs available for those who want to track DX and see what's going on on other bands.  He demonstrated programs in real time via the local WIFI from McDonalds next door.  The also demonstrated logging programs which are readily available on the internet.  Some are free and some are reasonably priced.

Thanks to the VP for providing a summary of the meeting and thanks to N7UQ - Chuck who provided a few pictures.  The web site manager was out of town and missed the meeting.

During the pre-meeting socializing, a call was received from W0LTL - Mike, wishing he was able to attend.  Mike was  just released from the hospital having had surgery.  He said he is doing well.

The second meeting of the year was brought to order by the President KR7RK - Keith and introductions were made all around with discussions of DX activities during the last month.   In addition to our guest speaker, AA7A - Ned Stearns , we had two guests from the Central Arizona DX Association. WE7K - Tommy Berggren of Chandler and NQ7R - Tom Kramer of Casa Grande. Tom invited SADXA to join the CQ DX Marathon Club Competition which had begun as a challenge between the Northern Arizona DX Association and CADXA, explaining that it was a year long competition between the two clubs and that CADXA had won the contest hands down. Keith then explained that someone needed to step forward and fill the vacant Vice President position unless SADXA was to become a supper club with a monthly meeting.  At that time W6XI - Jerry stepped forward and took the job.  Thanks Jerry!  

The main program   was presented by Ned Stearns, almost a continuation of the February 2009 Sierra Leon DXpedition by the VooDoo group. You can find that presentation in the 2010 SADXA Archives.  The expedition call was 9L5VT in honor of K5VT - Vince Thompson who is a silent key.  The 20 Nov to 2 Dec event went well with 3rd place scoring with only four operators .  Of course Ned and the others were intending to win the competition. 

As usual, if you missed the presentation, you missed a good one.