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. 
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
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 
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 )
Frenchtown, MT DN27ub
Nov 26, 2015
Dave Lofgren, K7RWT
6m DXCC from Oregon
Greetings Friends and Fellow VHF’ers,
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 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 K7CW received
his shiny new Lewis & Clark certificate for the
Spirit Bear Award #1
for working 15 grid squares in British Columbia.
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.
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
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
2015 VHF 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 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 at I-5 Exit 49.
Very good food, and a great chance for the two areas to meet up.
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
