NORTH COAST CONTESTERS
Supporting Ham Radio Contesting Since 1989

Supporting Ham Radio Contesting Since 1989

NORTH COAST CONTESTERS

NCC News

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NCC Officers Re-elected at Annual Meeting

NCC Club secretary Ray Fallen, ND8L submitted the following report on the January 3 annual meeting held at the QTH of Tom, K8AZ.  See also the Photo Galleries for a few pictures of the meeting:

Well, the 2015 North Coast Contesters Annual Meeting has come and gone. Once again, thanks to Tucker and K8AZ for hosting a great get-together. Attendance was a little down this year probably due to the balmy Ohio weather and no Mad River guys, but it was a great opportunity for Warriors reconnect, share a story or two and look forward to 2015.

Officers (Note:  Tim K3LR president, Tom K8AZ vice president and Ray ND8L secretary/treasurer) were re-elected, whips were re-appointed, we welcomed Rod Erhart WN8R as our newest member, K8CX shared details on his amazing ARRL Ten Meter effort from P4 and K3LR presented an excellent review on The State of the North Coast Contesters.

If I may summarize Brother Duffy’s comments (and since I found out I’m supposed to take notes) here goes…

The state of our club is strong, vibrant and relevant. NCC continues to be a significant presence in the contesting community both from a contest participation standpoint (we own the WW Medium Club Gavel and have for the last ten years or so) and from our activities outside of the actual contest arena, such as WRTC and the Dayton Contest Super Suites.

Our brand is well represented though W1NN’s efforts to make NorthCoastContesters.COM…an internet resource for current and prospective contesters. We all owe Hal huge attaboys for taking that project and making it happen. Let’s all support his efforts with photos, stories, links and any other content ideas you might have for your NCC website.

 If you have a personal website, make sure you include a link to the NCC site!

 Finally, and hey, I’m just doin’ my job…your 2015 dues of $20.00 US money is now due. Many of the guys at last night’s meeting kicked in a few extra bucks for our rainy day fund, on top of the $20.00 annual dues. As ‘AZ pointed out, this financial cushion gives us a flexibility to act on various opportunities that arise with a simple e-mail vote, without the added pressure of securing funding. It works!

Please mail your check payable to me (not NCC, since the club doesn’t have a checking account) and send to my CBA:

Ray Fallen

504 East Liberty Street

Hubbard, OH 44425-2136

 Humbly submitted,

Ray, ND8L

 

K8CX in Aruba for ARRL 10M Contest

Tom, K8CX visited Aruba with friends W8SHR and KB8OBO to operate as P40CX, making 1407 / 138 on CW and 1929 / 150 on SSB for a total of 3336 / 288 and a claimed score of 2.7 Million points.  Congratulations on an excellent score, Tom.  See the Photo Gallery for more details and pictures of the trip.

K3LR Sets new US M/M Record in CQWWDX CW

 

The gang at K3LR just doesn’t know how to quit. In the 2014 CQWWDX CW contest, the ops at K3LR cranked out almost 13,000 contacts to exceed their record-setting 2013 all-time record. Their claimed score came in at 38.8 million points versus a final score of 37.4 million points in 2013. Here are the numbers:

CQ Worldwide DX Contest,CW

Call: K3LR

Operator(s): K3LR K3UA G4TSH N2NC W2RQ KL9A N6MJ N3SD N6TV N6AN N3GJ VE3RA

Station: K3LR

Class: M/M HP

QTH: West Middlesex, PA

Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:

Band   QSOs   Zones Countries

160:      400       23       84

80:      1549       35     121

40:     2845       40     151

20:      3410       39     166

15:      2684       39     161

10:      2103       40     164

Total: 12991   216     847     Total Score = 38,838,831

 

In the SSB weekend, the ‘LR ops produced 13,689 contacts for 32.8 million points, just a hair below their 33.9 million point record in 2013.

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: K3LR

Operator(s): K3LR DL1QQ N2NC N5UM W2RQ W5OV K3LA K1AR N2NT K3UA N2IC N3GJLU7DW WM2H

Station: K3LR

Class: M/M HP

QTH: West Middlesex, PA

Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:

Band    QSOs   Zones Countries

160:        417   16       48

80:         864   26     102

40:       2053   38     137

20:       2786   39     168

15:        3327   39     164

10:        3242   38     170

Total: 12689   196     789

Total Score = 32,840,580

Club: North Coast Contesters

 

 

W2FU Challenging in CQWWDX CW M/M

The ops at W2FU keep improving and are starting to nip at the heels of the K3LR crew.  W2FU’s claimed score was just behind K3LR and W3LPL.  Great job there guys.

 

 

Here is their 3830 summary:

Call: W2FU

Operator(s): AI2N KØSM K2AXX K2CYE K2QO K2SSS K2TJ N2CU N2PP N2ZN NW2K W2FU W2GN WB2ABD

Station: W2FU

Class: M/M HP

QTH: WNY

Operating Time (hrs): 48

Location: USA

Summary:

Band QSOs          Zones Countries

160:   431      19    78

80:     1485   35 120

40:     2389    40 143

20:     2775    39 158

15:     2648    39 166

10:     2068   39 160

Total:          11796   211         825

Total Score 34,341,328

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

160 Meters – N2CU & WB2ABD

80 Meters – K2AXX & AI2N

40 Meters – K2CYE K0SM K2QO

20 Meters – N2ZN W2FU W2GN

15 Meters – K2TJ NW2K

10 Meters – K2SSS N2PP

A great time was had by all, and maybe the best is that we didn’t have any snow or cold WX to deal with at the end. Wonderful warm winter day here on Sunday. Mostly veterans of W2FU, and two new ops this year. Everyone did an outstanding job and improvements across the board this year.   Jeff – W2FU

K8AZ First in US M/S in CQWWDX CW

On the heels of significant antenna improvements during the summer of 2014, K8AZ and crew set a new all-time station record and stands at first place in the US in the M/S category.  The following is Tom’s 3830 report on the contest:

 

 

Call: K8AZ

Operator(s): K8AZ K8BL K8MR K8NZ K8PP KQ8M W3YQ W8CAR W8WWV WB8K WT8C

Station: K8AZ

Class: M/S HP

QTH: OH

Operating Time (hrs): 48

Location: USA

Summary:

Band            QSOs   Zones  Countries

160:                 55        16         51

80:                268       30       102

40:               1474      37        130

20:               1528      39       145

15:                 939      37        143

10:               1050     37         147

Total:          5314   196         718    Total Score 14,048,180

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Fabulous conditions and an all-time high score here (including multi-two efforts.) Big thanks to all who helped build this station, and congratulations to holders of all the new record-breaking scores. 73, Tom, K8AZ

WRTC – K8MR Team Leader

As we write this, the annual IARU contest is just over a week away.  NCC’s K8MR along with his teammate K9NW will be one of 59 two-person teams from 29 regions around the world battling it out for the 2014 Championship.  Representing the W8 region, Jim and Mike are exceptional operators and we’re confident that they’ll show up very close to the top of the list in this contest.  NCC members who are not travelling to Massachusetts will certainly want to get on and support this event.

NCC 6th in 2013 CQWWDX

NCC in 6th Place in 2013 CQWWDX Club Competition

We wanted to call members’ attention to the fact that NCC placed sixth in the combined SSB and CW USA club competition with a score of 120 million in last year’s CQWW.  Leading the pack in this competition was the Yankee Clipper Contest Club with a score of 549 million points.  The interesting thing about this is that NCC achieved its score with only 35 entries compared with 280 entries from YCCC.  K3LR’s scores contributed well over 50% of the total NCC score.  NCC’s score was 12th in the world.  If we could get more activity, we could see our ranking improve considerably.

Most members have seen the final results of the 2013 CQWW DX Contest (http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_contests/cq_ww_dx_contest/index_cq_ww_dx_contest.html) , but we wanted to mention here the fantastic results from our three top multioperator stations.  K3LR again came in first in the USA and fourth worldwide in both the CW and the SSB weekends.  The CW win was ‘LR’s ninth consecutive USA win. Also noteworthy in the MM category was the W2FU third-place score just behind W3LPL.  And K8AZ’s tremendous scores also deserve mention.  Tom’s MS crew produced second place USA showings in both the CW and SSB weekends.  In the CW weekend, they were competing with the W1WMU crew operating from a QTH in eastern Maine.  The CQ Magazine article by K5ZD covering the CW contest featured a color picture of the K8AZ station showing W3YQ, K8NZ, W8CAR and K8BL hard at work during the contest!

NCC Members Receive RTTY Plaques

NCC Members WW3S, ND8L and K3GP were honored at the Dayton Hamvention RTTY Banquet for placing first in the World for MS Low Power at VP9I in September 2013.  Ed Muns, W0YK, RTTY Contest manager, presented the guys with a handsome plaque at the banquet.  Congratulations, guys!  Then Ray ND8L turned around and awarded another NCC member – Jeff W2FU – with his own plaque for winning MS High Power for North America.  The W2FU team’s score was second in the world, being edged out by 100,000 points by I4DZ. We will be posting picture of these champions in the photo gallery

Dayton 2014

Dayton Hamvention 2014

The 2014 Dayton Hamvention took place May 16-18 and all reports are that it was a great success despite less than perfect weather.  Attendance was reported to be 24,873, slightly above 2013’s pace.

The contest dinner, hosted by NCC and arranged by NCC president Tim Duffy, was sold out again.  Those who missed it can see the program atwww.contestdinner.com/page_past_programs.html.

Other contest-related information on Dayton 2014:

Contest University – 2014 Programs are available on Youtube.  Links can be found at www.contestuniversity.com/main/page_videos.html

www.contestsupersuite.com

Contester and DXer photos can be seen at the K8CX Ham Gallery – http://hamgallery.com/dayton2014

Jan/Feb 14 NAQP and Sprint Results

Results of the January CW NAQP and February CW Sprint

NCC along with MRRC worked hard to promote activity for this popular event and we ended up with six teams (each team is five stations).  22 stations ended up submitting single op scores.  Our top team ended up in 16th place, with the other teams coming in 24th, 53rd, 59th, 77th and 80th out of a total of 90 teams.  Factors holding us back include the winter band conditions which really favor the far west, and the fact that several of our top ops were operating at the W2FU Multi-Two operation.  And speaking of which, Jeff’s team (K0SM, K2TJ, N2ZN and NW2K) came in Number One with the tremendous score of 761,976 points (2,228 contacts and 342 multipliers).  Well done, guys!

In contrast to the five-member NAQP teams, Sprint teams consist of 10 members.  Thanks to the efforts of our CW Sprint whip K3LR, we were able to field two full Sprint teams and, amazingly, all 20 stations got on the air and submitted logs.  MRRC/NCC East ended up in fourth place, just ahead of MRRC/NCC West in fifth place.  Two teams in the Top Ten!  The only other club to put two teams in the Top Ten was the Northern California Contest Club, whose teams placed second and ninth!  Well done everyone!

Preliminary results of these two events (and lots more interesting contesting information) can be found on the National Contest Journal website www.ncjweb.com. Final results will be published in a future issue of the NCJ.

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Solar Data
K8ZT Useful Links
NCC member K8ZT has a website full of useful links and resources. See the following: http://www.k8zt.com/contesting http://www.k8zt.com/dx http://www.k8zt.com/propagation http://www.k8zt.com/maps