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2015 News

Dec 18, 2015

Barry K7BWH

New Website Supports Mobile Devices

Do you have a smartphone or tablet? You're now looking at a major new update to the Society website. Some of the changes are:

  • Page layout adapts to all manner of screen sizes for desktops, phones and tablets
  • Three-level nav bar supports more Conference Proceedings
  • Forward [>] and back buttons and [<] let you flip through pages sequentially like a book
  • Breadcrumb trail tells you where you are in the forest (we have about 125 web pages)
  • The changes are extensive under the covers but I kept the DayGlo color crayon palette for historical consistency
  • An interesting new Heat Map shows our members by geographic density
  • Modern replacement graphic for the club territory page

Click around using smartphone, tablet and desktop systems. If anything can be improved, however minor, please let me know. (email)

Barry K7BWH
PNWVHFS Webmaster & WWA Director

Dec 8, 2015

Jim Pace K7CEX

2015 June VHF Contest Results

Pacific Northwest VHF Society June VHF Contest Results: Congratulations to the PNWVHFS for their score in the 2015 June VHF Contest Affiliated Club Competition. They placed eighth in a field of 38 with a score of 314,130!

Jim Pace, K7CEX
ARRL Northwestern Division Director

Dec 3, 2015

Lance W7GJ

FFMA #7 for Lance W7GJ

Lance Collister W7GJ and FFMA #7 Lance Collister W7GJ and FFMA #7 plaque

The FFMA Award was developed to encourage collecting of 2° wide x 1° high grids across the continental United States on the 6m ham band and recognize the accomplishment of W5FF, who was the first operator to contact stations in all those 488 grids. Many MANY thanks to all the Magic Banders who helped make it possible to achieve this award during my time on the 6m band over the last 19 years! I am especially thankful for the many 6m operators who operated portable to activate a rare grid for me!

Thanks also to K1JT for the WSJT modes that were so useful (especially FSK441) in contacting portable stations in rare grids within 1000 miles of my QTH, and for JT65A to enable me to log some of these rare and distant grids on 6m EME! From DN27 (off-site) here in Montana, it would have been very difficult to complete contacts with many of those grids on traditional modes of CW and SSB via sporadic E skip. And special thanks to AK3E, K1BZM, K1WHS, KB3SII, K5QE and KX8D, for the 6m EME contacts!

Thanks to the heroic efforts of KB3SII and K1WHS, who traveled up to northernmost Maine to activate FN67 on 6m EME, I completed contact with my last grid on September 28, 2015 (also my birthday)! How cool is that? Thanks to everyone who sent me QSL cards confirming our contacts in the required grids!

Lance Collister W7GJ (website (off-site))
Frenchtown, MT   DN27ub

Nov 26, 2015

Dave Lofgren, K7RWT

6m DXCC from Oregon

Greetings Friends and Fellow VHF’ers,

Dave Lofgren K7RWT

Paul (K7CW) and Mark (W7MEM) completed 6 m DXCC from the states of Washington and Idaho in 2013, and I am happy to report that after fifty two Sporadic-E seasons, five solar cycles, and two years on 6 m EME I have received the ARRL Six Meter DXCC certificate (off-site) number 1424 and joined Paul and Mark in their accomplishment.

Prior to 2012, I had 75 countries confirmed on 6 meters. Sunspot Cycle 24 was proving to be a 6 meter fizzle compared to the previous five cycles and I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever working 100 countries on six meters from Oregon. Then, on June 29th, 2012, six meters treated many in the Pacific Northwest to an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime, six hour opening to nearly all of Europe. I worked twelve new countries that day which brought my country count to 87 and renewed hope that I might be able achieve six meter DXCC within my lifetime.

After talking to Dan (NN7J), Hal (N7NW), Paul (K7CW), and Mark (W7MEM) and reading the wealth of information on Lance (W7GJ)’s six meter EME page it became clear to me that I might be able to work at least some of the remaining thirteen countries I needed for 6 m DXCC on EME. With that encouragement and information, I decided to build a 6 m EME array and give the moon a shot. It turned out that I was able to work eleven of the last thirteen countries I needed for DXCC on EME and in September of this year I completed my goal of working one hundred countries on six meters from Oregon.

I know there are other six meter operators in the Northwest who are chasing and closing in on six meter DXCC and I wish them the best of luck in achieving their goal. It is not an easy task to work one hundred countries on six meters from anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. I am looking forward to hearing soon from those PNW operators who are also in the six meter DXCC hunt that they too have achieved their goal.

Happy Holidays and may the DX Gods be with you!
73, Dave Lofgren, K7RWT

Nov 14, 2015

Barry K7BWH

Poodle Dog Breakfast

Paul Kiesel K7CW

Paul K7CW received his shiny new Lewis & Clark certificate for the Spirit Bear Award #1 for working 15 grid squares in British Columbia.

Poodle Dog breakfast, Nov 14, 2015

Twelve members enjoyed breakfast at the Poodle Dog restaurant in Fife, WA: Bob W7BA, Barry K7BWH, Mike KD7TS, Chuck N6KW, Stan KG7P, Dale KD7UO, Jerry W7IEW, Jim K7ND, Adam W2NCC, Paul K7CW, Tom KE7SW, Bob N7QOZ

October 30, 2015

Barry K7BWH

Website Performance Improvement

The PNWVHFS website has moved to a high-performance web server. I’ve tested everything but please tell me if you notice a glitch in the matrix.

In the October Conference, I heard that www.pnwvhfs.org response time is variable and page delivery is not 100% reliable. Until today, it has been running on GoDaddy web hosting. GoDaddy is generally reliable but they don’t have the best or fastest network. Frankly, the performance is about what can be expected using an economy subscription from a massive low-cost web hosting provider. Personally, I run a small business building and hosting websites; today I moved the PNWVHFS website onto my production servers in Seattle.

Web speed clipart

I believe everyone will enjoy a slightly faster and more reliable Society website. You don’t need to change a thing about how you access the website; everything is automatic. My measurements indicate that page load times for Seattle users were averaging 1.7s and will decrease to about 0.8s. Let me know if there are any hiccups, thanks.

Barry K7BWH
PNWVHFS Webmaster

October 23, 2015

Barry K7BWH

Lewis & Clark award winner Paul K7CW

Paul Kiesel K7CW

Congratulations to Paul K7CW for working 15 grids in British Columbia from his home station. This achievement earns the first Spirit Bear Certificate awarded in the Lewis & Clark Grid Explorer program.

In addition, Paul made all his contacts on a single band, 6 meters, thereby also winning the Outpost endorsement.

Also a big thanks goes to all of the active portable and rover stations that lit up remote parts of BC, including VE7DAY, VE7AFC, W7CE, KB7Q, and others.

Paul was close, very close, to receiving this award at the Oct 10th Conference in Issaquah, but the last QSL didn’t quite arrive in time.

By the way, for his fifteen confirmed contacts, there were six FSK441, five SSB, and four CW. His longest distance contact was to CO88 near the Yukon Territory border (about 770 miles) with KB7Q/ve7. Also by the way, British Columbia has 89 grid squares and 33% more square miles than Texas. And a lot fewer roads. Now all we need is a rover crazy enough to activate fifteen BC grid squares to win the Fraser Certificate. Not it!

Barry K7BWH /R

September 28, 2015

Barry K7BWH

New Members!

The society welcomes our newest members that have joined us in the last few months:
Fred Moore KF7WZK,   Stephen Hutchings WM7X,   Dick Tooley W7RFT,   Andy Burri K7UL,   Stacey Kirkpatrick KB7YS,   Dave Miller VE7HR,   Michael Schulz K5TRI,   Robert Patton KD7YDL,   Barry Williams AC7MD,   Ron Simonson N7WMX,   Franz Niedermeyer N3HFS,   David Lofgren K7RWT,   Bob Nielsen N7XY.

August 22, 2015

Barry K7BWH

Big Gathering on 8/22 at Parker's Steakhouse, Castle Rock

Before lunch, some hams visited the Clark County Ham Fair (off-site) in Vancouver, WA.

Twenty people came from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia for our casual group lunch:
Mike KB7ME and Siri, Jim K7ND, Tom KE7SW, Lou WA7GCS, Ron N7EA, Ed N7SNT, Kevin WH6KO, Bob KB7ADO, Veda KG7OOL, Barry K7BWH, Paul K7CW, Marc KD7RYY, John N7MWV, Merle W7YOZ, Jerry K0JJ, Dave K7RWT, Mark KE7MSU, Mark VE7AFZ, and Loren WA7SKT.

Midway between the Puget Sound area and Portland is Parker's Steakhouse (off-site) at I-5 Exit 49. Very good food, and a great chance for the two areas to meet up.

Gathering at Parker's Steakhouse in Castle Rock on Aug 22, 2015   Gathering at Parker's Steakhouse in Castle Rock on Aug 22, 2015

May 30, 2015

Barry K7BWH

Poodle Dog Breakfast

Many fine lies and complete fabrications were shared on the Wet Side at the Poodle Dog breakfast among the 12 people.

Attending: Matt Lawson KC7EQO from Sequim, Jim K7ND, Mike KD7TS, Bob W7BAS, Mark W7PJ, Stan KG7P, Barry K7BWH, Jerry W7IEW, Darryl WW7D, Bob N7QOZ, Tom KE7SW, Hal N7NW

Apr 13, 2015

Kent O'Dell KA2KQM

Spring Sprints Announcement

The Central States VHF Society is proud to sponsor and announce the dates and times for the 2015 run of the VHF and up Spring Sprints!

  • 144 MHz: Monday, 4/13/15 from 7 - 11 PM local
  • 222 MHz: Tuesday, 4/21/15 from 7 - 11 PM local
  • 432 MHz: Wednesday, 4/29/15 from 7 - 11 PM local
  • Microwave, 902 MHz and up: Saturday, 5/2/15 from 8 AM - 1 PM local
  • 50 MHz: Saturday, 5/9/15 from 2300Z until 0300Z Sunday, 5/10/15

More information and rules will be posted on the Central States VHF Society website.

Kent O’Dell KA2KQM & Mike Metroka WB8BZK
Central States VHF Society Spring Sprint Organizing Committee