Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
Outlaw Jack Reed WA7LNW/W7CXX operating the 2022 CQWW CW contest. This is his HF remote setup using two K3’s over the internet.
Outlaw Mike KC7V sez!
August 2023
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Welcome AOCC members!
2023 is flying by. Fall contest season is upon us shortly. We are hoping for great propagation this fall in our contest activities. This year we are meeting in person after a three year wait for the AOCC Roundup. I hope to see many of you there. I was fortunate to be selected as a referee for WRTC2022 (held 2023) in Bologna Italy. There were many visitors in Italy and some were even put to work helping out. I toured the fascinating Marconi house and museum. In all, I had a fantastic time and my team this time was DM5EE and DL9EE. They finished 6th out of 58 teams. I will be presenting an account of my WRTC2022 Referee experience at the Roundup.
WRTC2026 is scheduled for July 2026 to be held in the UK. There are many contests that are part of the qualifying process. If interested, you need to read up on those events, as they begin with 2023 CQWW DX SSB Contest in late October. Check out the WRTC2026 website at: https://www.wrtc2026.org/
We appreciate everyone’s contribution to our AOCC score totals. Keep those scores coming. We do not care how many points you make. We just ask you to submit your effort for the club score.
For you VHF Contesters and DXers, we enjoyed trans-equatorial propagation to South America and ZL on a consistent basis from January to the end of March. Personally, I worked 64 new grids and all were DX Grids. The ARRL VHF contest this June was outstanding. The band was open both days. Not a lot of DX but all the USA was workable. That was the highlight though as the “e” season was disappointing this summer.
We’ve seen some pretty good conditions in 2023 with great solar flux. We’ve also had some bummer days because of the high sun activity and flares creating bad conditions. If you are on the air regularly, you will do well. Some contest weekends have been great, and we’ve had a few to struggle through because of disturbed conditions. You get the good and bad with new solar cycles.
The club has moved to groups.io for our reflector. Groups.io is more modern and allows us to do things not possible in the past. Chuck, KF7U, managed the change and he is the person to contact if you have not yet signed up for our reflector.
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The 2024 International DX and Contest Conference will be held in Visalia mid-April. It is hosted by the Southern CA group this time. Make hotel reservations if you plan to attend. The 2023 event went well with over 400 attendees.
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I’d like to hear about changes and improvements in your contest station so everyone will know about it. Send me your updates and send your pictures with descriptions to webmom Sandy N7RQ.
AOCC Roundup
We are holding the 2023 Roundup on Saturday, August 26. As mentioned earlier, I will be presenting an account of my WRTC2022 Referee experiences. This is the 5th time I have been a WRTC Referee.
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2023-24 AOCC Officers
President – Mike Fulcher KC7V
North Area VP – Ray Benny N6VR
Central Area VP – Chuck Zanella KF7U
South Area VP - Owen Watson AK7W
Secy/Treas - John Merrill N1JM
AOCC Ladder
HELP WANTED: Bob K8IA is now in charge of scoring for the AOCC Ladder awards. He is looking for an Outlaw to help with QA of his work starting June 2024. An Outlaw with decent Excel skills and a reasonable knowledge of the Ladder rules (available on this website) is sought.
Next year we are going to cut back on the number of categories and possibly contests. We may also look at replacing the Ladder with another type of event. We are open to ideas so please let me know if you have any in mind.
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Contest News
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AOCC member Andy KK7AC leads the charge promoting QSO parties. He is a great resource if you have questions about these domestic contests.
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AOCC has now hosted two presentations thanks to Virgil K7VZ who allows us to use his Zoom capabilities. Rob Sherwood, NC0B, shared an excellent presentation on receivers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxS4zc3hpgA. Kyle AA0A enlightened us on Node Red and his contest dashboard. Video is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvjVmvdOZc0.
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If you do not subscribe to the ARRL Contest Update, you should. Brian Moran N9ADG, authors the publication and it's free and chock full of interesting tidbits. You can go here to subscribe: http://www.arrl.org/the-arrl-contest-update
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The Daily DX is a great source for upcoming contest expeditions. If you do not subscribe you can try a free 2 week trial here - http://www.dailydx.com/free-trial-request/ or https://twitter.com/dailydx
Don’t forget the WA7BNM Contest Calendar where you can find dates and links to rules for all contests. https://www.contestcalendar.com/
I’d be remiss to not mention the National Contest Journal (NCJ) as our own Lee Finkel KY7M is the editor. Lee has one more issue to finish before retiring as editor. Great job Lee! NCJ - the National Contest Journal
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MAJOR AOCC Contest Happenings since our last website update (Jan. 2023)
See the “ACCOMPLISHMENTS” section of this website for the full rundown
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AOCC FINISHES AS THE #1 USA CLUB IN 2022 10 METER CONTEST. That is the only time AOCC has ever placed first in a significant contest!
ND7K (N6WIN, KC7V, W4IX and two non-outlaws) have set a new M/2 record for 7-land in the 2023 ARRL DX CW Contest.
AOCC Finishes #8 USA in 2023 CQWW160 (CW+SSB) Contests. NA7TB (ops AA7A, KY7M, N7NR, K9DR) won the Multi-op USA Zone 3 plaque.
AOCC Finishes #4 (Medium Club) in 2023 ARRL RTTY Roundup. NA7TB (AA7A, KY7M, NA2U, K9DR) finished #2 USA, #2 World in the M2 HP category. N7AT (K8IA, KC7V) finished #2 USA, #2 World in the M/S HP category.
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AOCC Success in Contests
AOCC scores in contests continue to be impressive. Please continue to report your scores to 3830 no matter how small you think it may be. We want all the points! The URL for 3830 posting is: http://www.3830scores.com. Submittal choices are usually on the top left.
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Outlaw Bob K8IA’s team of score reporters, (K6LL, K8IA, KE2VB, KF7U, N1JM and N7IR) report success, both individually and team-wise, on the AOCC reflector. New score reporters are always welcome. Email Bob K8IA if you are interested.
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Website Contributions
We encourage you to send pictures of you and your station, tower, or antennas. We also invite stories of any contest experience you have had that we can post on the AOCC webpage. Club members want to know you!
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Important: Contest Dates through the end of Dec. 2023 - AOCC Ladder Events
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Sep 09-11 ARRL VHF Contest (300 pts)
Sep 10-10 North America Sprint (300 pts)
Sep 16-17 WA State Salmon Run (300 pts)
Sep 23-24 CW WW RTTY Contest (900 pts)
Oct 07-08 California QSO Party (300 pts)
Oct 14-15 Arizona QSO Party (300 pts)
Oct 21-22 JARTS RTTY Contest (500 pts)
Oct 28-29 CQWW DX SSB (1000 pts)
Nov 04-06 ARRL Sweepstakes CW (1000 pts)
Nov 18-20 ARRL Sweepstakes SSB (1000)
Nov 25-26 CQWW CW Contest (1000 pts)
Dec 01-03 ARRL 160m Contest (700 pts)
Dec 09-10 ARRL 10m Contest (700 pts)
Dec 30-30 RAC Winter Contest (300 pts)
Dec 30-31 Stew Perry Topband Challenge (500 pts)
More information and rules of these contests can be found at:
https://www.contestcalendar.com/contestcal.html
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NEW MEMBERS
A wild west welcome to new Outlaws:
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Brian Betz W7JET, Mesa AZ
Arlene Schwartz KE6GFI, Wickenburg AZ
John Kountz WO1S, Wickenburg AZ
We’re glad you’ve joined the gang!
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73, Outlaw Mike KC7V
“There’s a ruckus brewing out there!”
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