Volume 12, Number 4 April 2007

The Nugget

The Newsletter of the Mother Lode DX/Contest Club

The MLDXCC Newsletter Page 1

MEETING DATE, LOCATION & PROGRAM

None this Month, CU All at Visalia!

Next General Meeting-- May 19th- venue TBD

2007 VISALIA INTERNATIONAL DX CONVENTION. The 2007 International DX Convention will take place April 27th, 28th and 29th, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference Center in Visalia, California. This is an ARRL sanctioned convention that is sponsored this year by the Northern California DX Club. It is expected to draw visitors from around the World and will feature programs from recent DXpeditions and contest operations. The Convention theme this year is, "Elmering New DXers is Job Number One!" Accordingly, a portion of the programming will be devoted to helping new DXers learn how to be noticed in a pile-up, snag a "new one" and get that elusive QSL card. Other Convention offerings will include: DX, Top Band and Contest Forums, technical talks, many door prizes, both Friday and Saturday evening "attitude adjustments", Saturday Barbecue Lunch, Saturday night banquet, Sunday morning "power" breakfast, Vendors Exhibits and QSL card checking. Current information and registration forms are available on the Convention web page which can be found at: http://www.dxconvention.org Additional registration information can be obtained by contacting Convention Registration Chairman, Dick Letrich, W6KM via Email at: If you're interested in DXing, the Visalia DX Convention is the place to be. We hope to see you there.

2007 Dues are due now!

So far this year we have NOT received dues from the following folks:

AD6E- Al Maenchen
AA6EG- Pat Barthelow
WK6I-Jeff Stai
W6RKC-Rick Casey
N6XI- Rick Tavan
AE6Y-Andy Faber

Basic dues are $15. It is $10 more, if you want a paper copy of the ‘Nugget’. Donations gladly accepted. Please, pay at meeting…next best, mail to Treasurer, Carolyn Wilson, K6TKD at Box 273, Somerset, CA., 95684-0273.

FROM THE PREZ

Message from temporary chairperson...

If you are entertaining thoughts of operating Field Day, contact Jim, WX6V ASAP. So far it appears six or seven people are doing just that. It looks like we will be back at Peddler Hill. I don't think snow will be an issue this year.

Hope everyone that wanted to work N8S got it. They certainly were loud on the 8 bands I worked them...many times on the first or second call. They are reported to have made well over 100 K QSOs. QSL via YT1AD.

Stand by for the BS7 operation. Not too much info coming out. All that's really been announced is that they will be QRV in the latter part of April. BS7H is Scarborough Reef and is one of 'the most wanted'. See Rick's bulletins for more DX info.

We're still waiting word on our meeting place for May. Watch the web site and the reflector for updates.

After waiting 4-1/2 months, we finally have our satellite internet service. We had to wait until another satellite went up and get configured. Now the challenge is getting WildBlue's spam' filter adjusted. In the past few months, requests for NCDXF videos would get caught without any rhyme or reason. This was happening on SaberNet, DirectCon and now WildBlue. The service is available in three speeds...we opted for the cheapest. Download was about 472 kbps and upload was 98 kbps. Dialup was around 24 kbps, sometimes slower.

I see rain in the forecast a couple of times in the next week or so. May be a good time to catch up on QSLing before the rates go up. You'll probably want to include the new 41 cent stamp on your reply, but use up all those 39 centers on the outgoing.

The NCDXF Library has just received two new videos...5A7A-Libya & J20MM-Moucha Island/Djibouti. Each is about a half hour long. Which one for May meeting?? I expect to get videos from WRTC-2006 and 3Y0X-Peter I soon.

Plans for the annual joint meeting of the Northern California Contest Club and the MLDX/CC are lurching along. The date this year is July 7. It was chosen in an attempt to miss the IARU, the rtty contest and the IOTA contest at the end of July. It seems to me that the weather was not as blazing hot as it was closer to the middle/end of the month. We'll see.

We still need a Vice President/Contest Chairperson. VP acts in absence of president. C/C gathers contest scores and notifies sponsors of club participation.

There are still a few who have not paid dues. Bring to meeting or mail to Treas. at Bx 273, Somerset, CA 95694-0273. Our insurance is coming due soon. That may deplete the treasury. Good luck to all on BS7 hunt!! 73, Dick Wilson K6LRN

(bad) acting chairman.

Simplified Logbook of The World (LOTW) instructions. By Rick Karlquist N6RK
First 12 steps you only do once.

Steps 1-6, <15 minutes
1. Create directory My Documents/lotw.
2. Go to
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/trustedqsl/tqsl-111.exe?download
and download Trusted QSL program to My Documents/lotw directory.
3. Start/Run/My Documents/lotw/tqsl-111.exe to install program. Delete tqsl-111.exe.

4. Start/Programs/TQSLcert. Menu: File/New Certificate Request.
5. Using wizard, fill in your call, DXCC entity, QSO begin date, leave end date blank, name and address as shown on FCC license and email address. Leave password blank. QSO begin date is when you got on the air from your current QTH. (You can do other QTH's later).
6. Save .tq5 file to lotw directory and also email the .tq5 file as an attachment
to .
7. Wait a few days for postcard from ARRL (USA stations only).
Step 8, < 5 minutes
8. Go to https://pk1.arrl.org/lotw/password and type in the number on your postcard.

Note "https" not "http" (USA stations only)
9. Wait for email from ARRL.

Steps 10-12, < 15 minutes
10. Open email from ARRL and save attached .tq6 file in lotw directory.
Go to https://pk1.arrl.org/lotwuser/default and type in the password included in the text of the email. Click on "Your Account" then "Change Password" and change the password to something you can remember. You can now delete
the email, along with <your call>.tq5. IMPORTANT: Save the number on the postcard in a file you can remember such as My Documents/lotw/postcard.txt(or keep the postcard). It can expedite getting reinstated if you lose your certificate.
11. Start/Programs/TQSLcert. Menu: File/Load Certificate File. Check TQSL. Open
My Documents/lotw/<your call>.tq6. Exit program.
12. Start/Programs/TQSL. Menu: Station/Add Location. Using wizard, fill
in info on your current QTH.
Each time you want to submit logs to LOTW (< 5 minutes):
A. Export ADIF or Cabrillo file from logging program to lotw directory.

B. Start/Programs/TQSL/File/SignExistingADIFOrCabrilloFile.Open My Documents/lotw/ <filename>.adi. Save to My Documents/lotw/ <filename>.tq8
C. Email <filename>.tq8 to .
Wait about 4 hours for email from ARRL saying your log was received. Then go to https://pk1.arrl.org/lotwuser/default and click on "Your QSO's" to see how many QSLs you got. GL de Rick N6RK

CQ Field Day!!!

Hi Folks, Well - it's been at least three weeks since the last club bulletin went out containing my message about Field Day. So far, I have only heard from two club members (and one was to let me know that he can't make it this year). We're not having a club meeting in April, so most all of the planning for FD this year is going to have to be squeezed into a very short time frame. What am I saying? If you plan to be at FD this year - I need to hear from you soon. The number of participants will determine what class we can reasonably expect to enter. This has a major effect on the size of the setup required and the coordination needed.
Here's another item. We have the option of operating from Jeff Stai's (WK6I) winery this year, which I believe is in Mokelumne Hill. At any rate - there is a big winery event happening on FD weekend, so operating from this location would give us quite a bit of public exposure. On the other hand - Peddler Hill is hard to beat. Let me know what you think about this option in your response. Thanks and 73s,
Jim -WX6V-

AE6Y March 2007 Aruba Trip Notes – CQ WPX SSB Contest

Andrew L. Faber, AE6Y, P49Y

3/27/07 [pub. ver.]

Tuesday, March 20 - Wednesday, March 21, 2007. I took a 9:15 p.m. red-eye from SFO to Miami, arriving at 5 in the morning. A five-hour layover and one flight later, I was in Aruba at 1:00 p.m. local time. When I arrived at the cottage, John Crovelli was already there working on the 20/40. The 40m reflector had come loose on the boom, after I left in February, and was resting against the 20m reflector.

John and I set about the repair, when we finished it was getting dark, so we hoisted the antenna back up and secured it for the night in a slanted position. The whole operation was complicated by windy conditions. Meanwhile, Jackie Oduber, P43P, came by to pick up his FT1000MP, which I had brought down after Dick Norton, N6AA, had it repaired in the States.

The temperature was in the low 80s during the day with relatively low humid, so working outdoors was rather pleasant. It hasn’t rained in a while, and as a result, there was lots of power line noise.

Thursday, March 22, 2007. Woke up at about 7 and went off to have breakfast. John came over at about 9 and together we pushed up the antenna and he bolted it into position, reattached the 20m director, struts and feedlines. The whole process took less than an hour. John and I then did some shopping.

Back at the house, I setup the 160m H-antenna and pulled up the house end of the 80m dipole. Also had to shorten the end by about five feet to get resonance in the phone band. I hooked up a new Logikit keyer and connected the computer to the radios. I have the computer set up on the table to the left of the radio desk, with everything run off one USB port, hooked up as follows: USB cable to Compaq 4-port USB expander, USB relay outputs to PTT, Mic/DVK, and R1/R2 on the DX Doubler; USB to 2-serial port device to the rig control cable for both radios (com4); USB to PS2 to mouse and keyboard; external monitor. It all worked fine, except that a new problem developed during the contest: every few hours the keyboard and mouse would freeze up. This was fixable by simply unplugging the USB connector and re-plugging it in; fortunately, since this always seemed to happen when I was logging a new mult, no rebooting was needed. Next I checked the beverages, and they all seemed to be OK. It’s not really possible to verify that the feedlines are OK, but all 3 wires were still up, and the connections looked OK.

I started to get worried since radio conditions seemed poor, 10 was dead and 15 was close. Worse, there was a very high man-made noise on 15 and some on 20.

Friday, March 23, 2007. Woke up at 7:30 and noticed that the noise on 15 completely disappeared for a few hours starting at about 1300 local, and I had high hopes that it will stay that way for the contest. [Alas, that was not to be. It reappeared for the whole weekend and stayed until Monday morning’s rain]. I got the contest food ready: sandwiches in the fridge (peanut butter and jelly, cream cheese and jelly, egg, salmon and chicken salads) and put out a bowl of M&Ms and cookies Checked the radio gear and I was ready to go.

WPX SSB Contest Saturday, March 24-Sunday, March 25, 2007 – Contest notes more or less as dictated during the contest. The contest starts out with a bang on 14235, with 50 QSOs in the first ten minutes. The band is wide open to the US, and I stay on 20 until 0356Z, making 797 contacts with 267 mults in that time. [This of course was great fun, but probably a major strategy mistake, cutting short my low band time.]

After a brief food and stretching break, I make 37 Qs on 80, but the rate is a snail’s pace after the exhilaration of 20. It’s very noisy. I go to 40 and work some EUs but end up two kHz away from P40W and can’t hear anything, so I decide to go split and listen on 7196. It’s surprisingly productive, as I have about 80 Qs in 40 minutes. A strange frequency fight on 80: I have been on 3769 for almost 20 minutes when I suddenly get yelled at by N0NI and accused of taking his frequency without listening first.

Constant obnoxious noise on 40, S7 even on the beverages. I bounce around between 40 and 80 for several hours then decide to take 3½ hours off at 0739Z. [My rates for the previous hours had been 88, 101, 76 and 39 (39 minutes only). Since the next morning on 20 the rates for the first 6 hours averaged about 85, this was a mistake. That was even more true on Saturday night. In retrospect it would have been much better to keep slugging it out on the low bands to avoid the low rates on the high bands in the morning. OTOH, if the noise level had been lower, the morning rates would have been quite a bit higher]. I have 209 Qs on 40 and 89 on 80, but haven’t worked nearly as many EUs as I had hoped.

I’m on 20 using the right radio and the 86 feeding the monobander to EU. The band is not wide open but I get a steady stream of callers and it’s great to see the EU mults roll in. It’s tough going with generally weak callers, though. I can hear 15 starting to open, but there is still horrendous noise clearly visible on the band scope. I go there at 1245Z. Propagation is to the East Coast and a little bit of EU. The 1300Z hour is my best of the whole contest on 15, with 138 Qs on 21156. I listen some of the time on the EU beverage. Some interesting Middle Easterners call in: 3V8BB, 9K2HN, HZ1GW, A45WD, 4Z5JM. JP comes over to the house to borrow the climbing belt at about 1445Z and confirms that the noise is present at his house also. A milestone at 1506Z: 1500 by 550 for 2.95M points. Crovelli stops by on 15 and we are 3 QSOs apart out of 1740. [I started out the morning ahead of him because he had 500 Qs on the low bands on Friday night, but he gradually overtakes me then steadily pulls ahead]. I take a 12-minute break at 1511Z, then return on 20. EUs aren’t answering CQs, so I do some searching and pouncing to work them.