NCC News
NCC Shines in 2014 CQ WW DX Contests
It seems like the final results for the CQ WW DX contests are announced earlier and earlier each year. For the 2014 contests, NCC again showed its multi-op prowess with a number of top and near-top finishes. Here is a brief summary of the final results for our club:
SSB
Fantastic high band conditions and near-record participation (8,283 logs submitted) combined to produce another year of great SSB scores in 2014. In the MM competition, for the 10th consecutive year, K3LR placed first in the USA, achieving the second highest score in the world behind only HK1NA. In the multi-single category, K8AZ’s crew achieved another good score from Ohio while the VE3EJ team produced the top Canadian MS score.
CW
Great conditions and record activity helped NCC multi-operator stations K3LR, W2FU and K8AZ produce some fantastic scores. K3LR bested its winning 2013 score to set a new USA record in the MM category. The K3LR gang’s score was not only the top US score but fourth in the world and not far from second place in the world. Close behind was the W2FU team at third place in the US and seventh in the world. Jeff’s ops are doing better each year and no doubt are gearing up to give K3LR some real competition. The guys at K8AZ again triumphed in the MS category.
In the combined CW + SSB USA club competition, NCC, with only 26 scores, came in sixth, competing against the likes of YCCC whose score included logs from 270 stations. Well done!
NCC President K3LR Recognized
Tim Duffy, K3LR, president of NCC, has been honored as the 2015 Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year. The award was presented at the Dayton Hamvention in May. This award has been given to individuals that have made great contributions to our hobby and Tim joins a list of award winners that goes back over half a century. Here is what the Hamvention press release said about Tim:
Tim Duffy, K3LR, of West Middlesex, PA, has a long history of giving back to Amateur Radio. He is founder, promoter and chairman of the successful Contest University (CTU) which has helped to teach radio sport contest operating with excellent volunteer professors. The first CTU was held in Dayton in 2007. Since then more 3,700 radio radio sport enthusiasts have attended 25 CTU’s held in eight different countries under his watchful guidance.
Since 1984 K3LR has moderated the Dayton Hamvention antenna forum, coordinating the presentation of more than 100 papers about antennas. He is also involved in scheduling many contesting activities during Hamvention including the Contest Super Suite, the Contest Dinner and recently the annual Top Band Dinner.
Duffy serves as an officer of several radio clubs and was recently elected to the position of ARRL Section Manager for Western Pennsylvania. He became a ham at age 12 in 1972 and lives in Pennsylvania on 11 acres with over 50 antennas.
Congratulations, Tim! We’re very proud of you!
NCC Announces 23rd Annual Dayton Contest Dinner
The North Coast Contesters are proud to announce: The 23rd Annual Dayton Contest Dinner 2015 Contest Dinner tickets are on sale now exclusively via our web site. Thanks to Scott, KA9FOX and QTH.com for designing, building and running the Contest Dinner web site. http://contestdinner.com Master of Ceremonies for the Dayton Contest Dinner is Contest Hall of Fame member and World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF) Chairman, John Dorr, K1AR. Our featured speaker will be announced later. The 2015 Contest Hall of Fame inductees will be announced. The Contest Dinner will be held on Saturday night, May 16, 2015 at 6:30 PM Cash bar opens at 5:30 PM. Located at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (Official Contester Hotel) 5th and Jefferson Streets (Next to the Dayton Convention Center) Dayton (Downtown), Ohio in the PRESIDENTIAL BALLROOM on the second floor. Seating is random. Tables are set in rounds of 10. You can purchase an entire table for your group (purchased group tables are set for 8). Tickets are only available on http://contestdinner.com There are no tickets for sale at the door. The 27th annual Contest Super Suite (all FOUR nights during Dayton) details are here: http://contestsupersuite.com And Contest University seats are filling up fast http://contestuniversity.com We expect another sold out event for the Dayton Contest dinner. Get your tickets early! 73! Tim K3LR Dayton Contest Dinner Chairman President, North Coast Contesters
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!
