Northwestern News Volume one, May 2024
What a busy month it has been. ARRL scholarship reviews, WWDXC meeting,
ARRL Clubs subcommittee meeting, N7YRC tailgate swap meet in Yakima,
Kamiah Hamfest in Idaho, ECFSC committee meeting, Trip to Denver for the
A&F meeting, a partial Solar eclipse, and a flat tire on my little
truck. Not to mention all the phone calls and email to and from members.
It’s great to talk with you all.
Registration is now open for the PNW DX Convention which will be held on
August 9th 10th and 11th in Everett, WA.
https://pacificnwdxconvention.com/ This is always a great event. For
those new in the group, the convention rotates around the Division.
WWDXC (Seattle) WVDXC (Portland) SDXA (Spokane) and ORCA (Vancouver BC)
are the hosting groups. Look below under CLUB news for additional
information from the club.
2024 7th District QSO Party (Thanks to Dink, N7WA, for the reminder and
below information)
I just want to remind you that the 18th Annual 7QP will run on Saturday,
May 4th, 2024. Based on number of logs received last year, 7QP is the
3rd largest QSO party in the United States.
Now is a good time to make plans for this year’s event.
This is a good contest for going out and putting a portable station on
the air, running mobile, or just sitting back in your chair at home.
Park and Summit on the Air (POTA/SOTA) activation’s are great ways to
get on.
It’s expected that 15m and 10m will be hot as we near the peak of the
solar cycle.
At www.7QP.org, you will find information including rules, planned
operations, awards, and history from the past 17 years. We would really
like to hear of any planned operations you may attempt.
If you have specific questions, you can contact Mike, N7WA at
n7wa@arrl.net
We hope you will join us for the 7th District QSO Party.
TQSL Backup, SAVE YOURSELF A HEADACHE (if you do not use TQSL and LoTW,
skip ahead)
Two members in the last month have asked about how to restore station
information after a computer crash or getting a new computer. As I
investigated this, I found I am as guilty as most in that I had never
backed up the station location and other details out of TQSL. One member
had twenty plus location files as they were all from VHF roving
operations. His computer crashed, and he was able to salvage most of his
files; however, not making a backup of the TQSL data he had no file to
restore. On the help page inside LoTW you can find the detailed
instructions on how to save your data. It was the first thing I did when
I got home that night. https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/backuprestore/
ARRL Foundation news: (ongoing reminder)
The next window for clubs is open from June 1st through June 30th.
https://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-grants
CLUB news (snippets from various club newsletters)
Thanks to Dink, N7WA for catching the latest FCC proposal that for some
reason slipped past the ARRL. I did receive a phone call about it so it
proves some people are reading the news. You can read the K7LED RELAY
here: https://www.mikeandkey.org/newsletter.php (keep in mind it was the
April edition)
The Western Washington DX Club is this year’s DX convention host.
Hosting rotates yearly between the four Pacific Northwest DX clubs. The
convention is August 9-11 at the Marriott Delta Hotel in Everett. One of
the presentations will be a live presentation by Don Greenbaum, N1DG, on
site from Jarvis Island during the DXpedition to Jarvis. When has that
ever happened at a convention? The Saturday Banquet keynote speaker will
be Robert Fanfant, N7QT, sharing the Clipperton TX5S DXpedition story.
An amusing presentation will be How NOT to Get in the Log by Brian
Moran, N9ADG, written in the Honiara airport as we were delayed 6 hours
on departure from H44WA. I will be presenting The Business End of
DXpeditions–It’s Only a Hobby! There will also be SOTA and POTA
presentations, as well as a contesting presentation by local top
contesters and club members, K7RL Mitch Mason and N7DX Tony Garland.
(Some of us finally get to meet them in person!) That is only part of
the line-up, as more will be added over the coming weeks.
Also, there will be evening Attitude Adjustment hours in one of the
hotel suites, as well as a Sunday breakfast with a presentation. Here is
the link to the Convention Registration Page. Staying all weekend for
the full convention is well worth it and highly recommended, though a la
carte options are available. We have a block of rooms reserved at a
special convention pricing. Reserve a room here before the specially
priced rooms are sold out.
EARLY BIRD convention rates through June 30. And a limited supply of
rooms at our convention rate!
73,
Robin, WA7CPA
Clearwater ARC celebrates its 50th year of ARRL affiliation!
They became ARRL affiliated on February 18th 1970. Ok, I get the fact
that math does not work considering its 2024, but just stay with me
here. Back in 2020, when it should have been recognized, it was the end
of February, and as I recall, we were at the beginning of the pandemic
and it seems the Clearwater club fell through the cracks. So,
congratulations are in order even if a few years late. I was able to
visit with several of the club members at the Hamfest on the 20th in
Kamiah Id. Also present were members of the 3 Rivers ARC along with
other amateurs from the area.
Confirmed ARRL sanctioned Hamfests and Conventions:
May 4th Spout Springs Repeater Association Swapmeet Richland, WA Flyer
in PDF
May 11th Southwest Idaho ARC Spring Hamfest
http://www.dosomethingradio.com
May 11th Stanwood Camano ARC Electronic Flea Market and Hamfest
https://www.scarcwa.org
May 31 – June 2nd ARRL Northwestern Division Convention “SEA-PAC”
https://www.seapac.org
June 7 – 9 Wenatchee, WA Hamfest https://www.applecityarc.com/events
June 8th Port Ludlow ARC Tailgater http://www.n7pl.org
July 20th Chehalis, WA Valley ARS Tailgate Swap
https://cvars.org/Swapmeet_2024.pdf
July 20th Coos County Radio Club hamfest / swap
http://www.coosradioclub.net
August 3rd KARS, ARRL Idaho State Convention http://k7id.org
August 9 -11th Pacific Northwest DX Convention
https://pacificnwdxconvention.com
Check the N7CFO Pacific Northwest Hamfairs & Events webpage often for
the most up to date information. http://www.n7cfo.com/amradio/hf/hf.htm
or https://arrlnwdiv.org/ and click “PNW Events”
73..
Mark J. Tharp – KB7HDX
Director, NW Division
+++++++++
From the shack of Vice Director Sterba
Hello Northwestern Division,
Welcome to the month of May! Another month has passed with fun and
excitement both operating and representing. We had a solar eclipse on
April 9th which opened an opportunity to witness propagational effects
as the event cross the country. On the 19th we experienced a G3 (Strong)
Geomagnetic Storm impacting our HF bands and produced the opportunity
for AU conditions. We also had the Lyrids Meteor Shower on the 22nd and
23rd which produced an approximate 20 meteors per hour at its peak. I
mention these events as each represent unique opportunities to
experience amateur radio differently thus gaining additional enjoyment
and understanding how nature influences hobby.
During the course of the last couple of months I have had opportunities
to present at several clubs within the division. The first being the
Snohomish County Hams Club where I witnessed a vibrant group who at
their core were very active promoting amateur radio into their local
community. The second being the Radio Amateurs of Skagit County where I
observed membership spanning across multiple generations from founding
to new members representing five decades of diversity. Both clubs
supported active volunteer examinations, repeater systems, community
involvement, and promoting STEM initiatives in local schools.
In addition to my visits within the division, I have had the opportunity
to start attending several monthly ARRL Committee meetings as an
observer. These committees offer an organizational capability which is a
practical way to give order to the board’s purpose. In addition, they
also offer flexibility allowing the board to adapt to the fluctuating
needs and requirements surrounding ARRL concerns and amateur radio in
general. Having non-committee visitors from across the board allows for
transparency of what topics are being covered and the productively rich
dialogs navigating through the considerations. The best take away is
that each committee member is doing their best to represent their
constituents and the broader membership.
It is that time of year to mark your calendars and plan on attending the
ARRL Northwestern Division Conference hosted at SEAPAC, Seaside, Or.
This year’s event will be from 5/31/24 through 6/2/24 with over 30
different seminars to select from and of course the swap-meet to find
those treasures. There will be exhibitors with plenty of eye candy not
to mention the family friendly location so everyone can have an
enjoyable time. I’m personally looking forward to catching up with
each of you in person with the hopes that you bring your thoughts and
voice to share.
Division stats (Lagging Indicators):
At the time of this writing, the NW Division reported 11,618 members
which is .5% lower from the prior where we had 11,676.
New members joining in April totaled 81.
Members that re-joined after a lapse totaled 53.
Total new hams within the Northwestern Division were reported as 323
(This represents a great opportunity to educate about the ARRL and
member benefits!).
License class upgrades were 163.
National Stats:
At the time of this writing, the ARRL had 146,265 total members.
The number of Amateur licenses in the US was 751,147.
Mark and I are always open to input, good and bad, (we prefer good) from
members. If you have anything you would like to talk about, shoot us an
email or call on the phone. In addition, we are always looking for
information to share with the Division. If you have a news item you
would like to offer, please send us a note and we would be glad to
include it here. It is always great to
hear from members.
73,
Michael A. Sterba, KG7HQ
ARRL Vice Director
Northwestern Division
kg7hq@arrl.org
ARRL Northwestern Division
Director: Mark J Tharp, KB7HDX
kb7hdx@arrl.org