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Northwest Indiana DX CLUB Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2018

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

1 President Speaks

2- Member News/DX News

President’s Corner

I want to thank Steve KD9HL for all the

articles he provides for the newsletters.

Without him and the ones that submit

links and tidbits, it would be a very

small newsletter.

Hard to believe this is our 6th year for

newsletters.

The End-of-Year DXCC Standings for

Club Members is in this issue. See how

you are doing against the others.

Don’t forget Bouvet is coming up soon.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

73

John W3ML

Good DXing!

Don’t Forget DXCC CARD CHECKING Doctor Richard Lochner, K9QA is our

Official ARRL DXCC Card Checker.

Contact Rich to schedule an appointment

for card checking.

You may email him at mailto:k9qa@arrl.net

for details on how to mail your cards to him,

if you desire to go that route.

NWI DX Club Website http://nwidxclub.weebly.com/

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Reminder, the NWIDX Club has a club call W9NWI. The call is available to members for use during contests, special events, Field Day, etc. To schedule dates for its use, contact the trustee, Steve Mollman – KD9HL. kd9hl@arrl.net QSL cards are available.

We support the LoTW.

NWIDX Club Logo

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Bouvet Coming Soon!

“So, the plan remains unchanged. We will have two stations on every open band whenever humanly

possible, gain and directional antennas where possible, high power stations and a propagation-driven

operation. The primary modes will be CW, SSB and RTTY. FT8 will be utilized if it is the only productive

mode. Anyone preparing to utilize FT8 must read the 3YØZ FT8 protocol on the Band Plan page of the

DXpedition website.”

https://www.bouvetdx.org/band-plan-frequencies/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqdSuVdJhxb0H4OAXB7ljNw

W6LG videos on ham radio

Some interesting videos on his site.

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NWIDXC

Member DXCC Scorecard (As of December 31, 2017)

K9FN DAVID BUNTE Honor Roll 362

AG9S JAMES R SJOBERG, JR Top of the Honor Roll 353

AJ9C MIKE KARISH Honor Roll 350

K9LA CARL LUETZELSCHWAB Top of the Honor Roll 350

W9KTP JEROME E HESS Top of the Honor Roll 350

W9UM NICHOLAS G COMINOS Honor Roll 350

N9FN DAVE CHASEY Top of the Honor Roll 346

KD9HL STEVE MOLLMAN Honor Roll 344

N9RD JUERGEN NITTNER Honor Roll 344

K9SUH KENNETH REISING 330

K9QA RICHARD LOCHNER 320

K9WWT GEORGE D KELLY 320

ND9A JOHN SIKORA 320

W3ML JOHN POINDEXTER 317

AE9YL VICKI LUETZELSCHWAB 316

N7GVV JAMES RAISLER 311

W8FIB TOM RUGGLES 295

W1PIT ALAN PITTS 279

WA9JNO EARL GUMM 279

K9DE ROBERT J NELLANS 260

N9DD THOMAS E FRISZ 236

N9ID MICHAEL P STRONG 226

K9MV PAUL COREY 207

K9KJ THOMAS A JOHNSON, JR 197

KB9ALG JERRY M JANCO 162

N9HSB CLIFFORD BELZ 155

WB9FQS LARRY A BRECHNER 153

KA9FAX ANTHONY KOSTELNIK 129

NA9U JOHN M NASON 121

W9DZ ALLEN JONES 120

WD4MSM BARRY KEATING 115

KC9GTN EDWARD P BENCHIK 110

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N9AFU MICHAEL BURDETT 109

W9ORW ROBERT PENCE 106

KB9BIT THOMAS M LASKOWSKI 105

K9MQ MARK SKOWRONSKI 103

KC9OYE CHUCK HILL 103

AB9QU BILL CARTER 100

AB9RY THOMAS BREYMEYER 100

WJ9Q MARTIN DZIK 100

The ARRL DXCC is awarded to amateurs who submit confirmations for contacts with 100 or more entities on the ARRL DXCC

List. As of 21 Oct 2016, there were 339 current entities on the list. The DXCC Honor Roll includes those who are within 9 entities

of that figure for the Mixed, Phone, CW and RTTY awards. The “Top of the Honor Roll Award” is presented to those who have

contacted and confirmed all 339 current entities.

The listing of the DXCC membership contains the call signs and exact credited totals by endorsement level. Awards and Credits

are NOT activated automatically; participants must apply to have a particular award or Credit (band, mode etc.) activated when the

qualifying number of confirmed contacts are obtained.

Only current call letters are listed. If a member obtained a DXCC certificate under a previous call sign we could not

list it. Old call signs are not available to us.

The listing was abstracted from the current ARRL records of approved submittals:

http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings

If you have worked and confirmed a DX station but have not formally submitted it to the ARRL, either through a card checker or

the Log Book of the World (LOTW) program, those contacts are not counted. We have no way of knowing what new DX has been

worked but not submitted.

The ARRL listing DOES NOT include records from other organization’s DX programs such as eQSL, Club Log, CQ Magazine

and QRZ.org.

Congratulations to those who were able to add to their totals over the past year!

Ω

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What Do You Think? Listen more, Enter the log sooner…

By Paul S. Ewing - N6PSE At the 2017 IDXC in Visalia, the subject of out of turn calling and bad pileup behavior was discussed among DX’ers and

DXpedition Leaders. Here is an article written by Steve-N6SJ:

When a DXer stands by and listens while the DX operator is completing his QSO with another caller, he will get himself in the log sooner.

The very fastest pileup would be one where no one else calls while the DX is completing his current QSO. But this is unheard of on the bands today.

These days the normal behavior is for many other DXers to keep calling while the DX operator struggles to complete the current QSO. Every additional caller simply adds to the QRM and frequently leads to the DX station needing to ask for multiple repeats to clarify a partial call.

Each extra exchange for “fills” or a call correction could have instead been a new QSO with yet another DXer. But unfortunately, that joy is delayed while the DX loses time trying to log a solid QSO through all the QRM. Any DXer should be able to grasp this simple concept:

Each time you call out of turn, you are delaying your own QSO.

Are you calling out of turn? Well first, can you actually hear the DX station? If not, you will only cause QRM by calling. I have heard many DXers calling at the same time the DX is transmitting. They obviously are not hearing the DX and will never be in the log.

Do you hear the DX send a report to another call sign that is not yours? If so, sending your own call will only make it harder for the DX to complete his QSO. Each additional transmission required to finish the contact keeps you from getting into the log.

Yes, there are times when you may hear the DX send a partial call very similar to your own, followed by a “?” or “again?”, eg., N6S? on cw, or “The N6S, again?” on SSB. In this case it is likely the DX heard you and needs to confirm your call. By all means try again. But when the partial call is nothing like your own, stand by. Calling in that case is just wishful thinking, and will simply delay your own QSO.

When E30FB was fading fast on 30M CW back a couple of years, I heard the DX operator Dima RA9USU reply with “N6S?” several times. I kept calling, but also heard fifteen or twenty other stations who kept calling at the same time. Only one was another N6 prefix, but his suffix was M or K, nothing like S. The rest of the callers were K7’s, N7’s K6’s, WA6’s, etc. Dima hung in there through 9 or 10 exchanges before he got

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my call right and completed our QSO. After me he worked two more stations and the band closed. If those other callers had stood by and let me finish my own QSO sooner, Dima could have worked another 6 or 8 of them before the band closed. They all shot themselves in the foot, and never got in the log. E30FB was QRT the next day.

If you’re a smart DXer, you’ll stand by while the DX finishes his current QSO. The very next QSO might be your own!

What do you think?

Thank you to Paul Ewing-N6PSE for his kind permission to print this item. Paul is a noted DXpeditioner having operated from many rare and semi rare spots, including the South Sandwich Islands, Yemen, Myanmar, Eritrea and the South Georgia Islands. He can be reached at pauln6pse@gmail.com

______________________________________________________________________________

Handy Hint Never Saddle a Dead Horse

NEVER PLACE A U-BOLT OVER THE LIVE LINE

By Steve Mollman-KD9HL

It may seem like a simple thing but there is a correct and an incorrect way to install guy wire clamps. If yours are installed wrong

is it an emergency to redo them? Probably not, but at your earliest convenience, it would be advisable to correct them.

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The “saddle” is the cast part of the clamp. The dead horse, or wire, is the one that does not have to handle the strain of the tower.

The reasons why you don’t saddle the dead horse is if you do, the clamp does not give its rated grip to the live wire (live -the one

under strain).

Will it hold for now? Probably, and in normal weather conditions that’s fine. But, with our winter winds and summer’s big

thunderstorms, make it correct so the clamp provided its full strength. The other reason is the saddle keeps the live wire intact and

the “U” bolt crushes the dead wire into it. The other way, the “U” of the U-bolt crushes the live wire weakening it giving it a stress

point that could fail at the crush.

If you see corrosion, rust, on the outside of the guy cable, you can be sure it is MUCH worse inside. Plan on changing it,

preferably to stainless. There are many rules in properly installing a tower; this one seemed to give the most bang for your buck

being the easiest to correct.

Wire Rope Clamps Wire rope clamps or cable clamps are commonly used with tower guys. There are several different types of clamps and each has

their own application. See manufacturers’ literature for specific types and applications. If these clamps are not used properly, they

can lead to failure. When using a cable clamp, your load capacity in any form is only 80 to 90 percent of the cable’s current

strength. If the cable is new, its strength is easy to calculate, but if the cable is old, rusty or damaged, the lifting capacity, holding

capacity etc., is much more difficult to gauge.

Cables Prior to each use, any cable should be inspected. The inspector should look for cables that have:

• Broken wires/strands

• Rust

• Sand

• Kinks

• Any visible damage to the cable, eyes, etc.

• If the damage covers more than 10 percent of the strands in one wrap or the lay of the cable is broken, it should not be used for any application and should be discarded. See the cable manufacturer’s specific cable inspection instructions. Inspections should only be made by a competent person.

The old saying “you never saddle a dead horse” is true. Never apply a clamp with the saddle on the dead side of the cable. Only

the U-bolt should be on the dead side of the cable, where crushing will not affect the breaking strength of the hoist line.

Ω

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Handy Hint-A Follow UP Oxidation-Rust-Corrosion

By Steve Mollman-KD9HL In the October 2017 Newsletter we had an item on hazards of using plastic electrical tape for securing items on antennas and

towers. Below is another example of the possible consequences of using electrical tape.

Upper photo: 162' Rohn tower with broken top guy wire; courtesy Hurricane Irene in 2011. So you think Rohn 25G is tough!!!!! Corroded guy installed in 1985. Note electrical tape precluded water from exiting system, accelerating corrosion.

Conclusion: Do not use electrical tape to secure the ends of guy wires. Thanks to Bill Sheehan-N1CQ for these photos.

<73’s and good DX>

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HANG SOME WALLPAPER By Steve Mollman-KD9HL

The World of United Nations Plaque

The United Nations Amateur Radio Contest DX Club in Vienna, sponsors a number of awards, all recognized with a plaque.

Probably the easiest award qualify for is “The World of United Nations”. To obtain this award you must work and confirm all of

the nations (with the exception of P5-North Korea and EZ-Turkmenistan) that are members of the UN plus one of the following

UN club stations - 4U1A, 4U2U, 4U0R, 4Y1A or C7A. Those stations are often on the air during major contests. Many

NWIDXC members probably already qualify for this award.

Contacts must be made on legal amateur frequencies on HF and VHF/UHF Bands. Only two-way simplex type contacts count by

CW, SSB and DIGITAL Modes. No contacts on repeaters, satellites IRLP, Echo link will count for these awards.

All contacts must be confirmed by QSL cards. Apparently LOTW confirmations are not accepted. Qualification for the UNA

awards is based on an examination of QSL cards that the applicant has received. All QSL cards (no photocopies) must show the

mode and/or band.

To make an application contact: ARCDXC Award Manager RW3DD-Konstantin (Ken) N. Vershkov by Email: rw3dd@mail.ru. For more information: http://www.cqdx.ru/4u1a/un-award-program/

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Editor Comment: I was searching a call sign the other day on QRZ and saw this write-up. My question is how is he going to help others gain their goals of WAS or Grid Square? He is in a State that has under 700 hams.

“NOTE: As of 7/10/2017, I only accept eQSL. No LoTW. No

QRZ logbook. No paper cards.”

Not sure about all of you, but eQSL does nothing for me.

Tom W8FIB was helping Earl WA9JNO with a 40-meter sloper G5RV antenna. Earl reports that it has helped him worked new 40-meter countries. He is hoping to get an 80 meter one up next year. Thanks Tom for helping out a fellow ham! This is what Clubs are for.

Mike Kasrich’s YN2CC Dxpedition report is here: “The report for CQWW is 4378 Q's by 110 Zn and 335 cty for 4.45M points.

Right now, on 3830scores.com it is listed as the number two score behind

V26K. Hopefully I will remain in the top after log checking. I had

another 2.3k Qs outside the contest so in the 6.5 to 6.6k range for the

trip.”

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For Sale Items

NICHOLAS G COMINOS w9um

Email

mailto:w9um@arrl.net

Comment

Several items for sale: IC765 Mint contest radio w/250 cycle cw filter,

Ameritron 4 position coax switch, two 3kw tuners, Alpha 89 amp legal limit

amp and many other ham radios for vhf/uhf all working order. Two rotators,

Alliance Heavy Duty and Ham 4 with control boxes. I will entertain most

offers.

Address

402 North Indiana St.

Griffith, IN 46319

Contact John L Gianotti mailto:w9wy@sbcglobal.net

There are several good items for sale at http://w9joz.org/forsale.htm

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I want to thank those that have been sending in articles for the newsletter. All items are appreciated. Don’t forget to send in any information you would like to share with the Club members.

Until Next Time,

73

John W3ML

http://nwidxclub.weebly.com/