If you’ve read the posts of the clubs 160M mavens, you know that conditions on that band have been excellent. Many club members are racking up new countries as if Santa was handing out rare QSL card every time he laughed, HO, HO, HO! Beginning this afternoon is your shot at running up your 160M totals in the Stew Perry Topband Challenge. This is 160M, CW only contest where the exchange is simply the your grid square. Nice. Your webmaster is a HUGE fan of this exchange because it is what is used for VHF contesting. The scoring is unique as it is based on distance. The festivities begin at 10 AM local time and run for 24 hrs. Check it out here.

Tags: Contest, 160M

Some neat photos of K2ZR/4 operating portable in the Dry Tortugas have been posted to the Activities page.

Tags: DXpedition, IOTA, Portable

A new web page has been added to this site. It is called Activities and is found in the About Us section. Here we will highlight member activities like antenna parties, get togethers, etc. The first one is posted, that being the W2YJ SteppIR repair party. If you have a submission, please notify the webmaster. Enjoy!

Tags: Website

Club President Mike Lafferty, W2TB, accepts an award from Steve Piotrowski for the use of our club repeater for the 2009 running of the Ride for Roswell. As you know, the W2DXA machine which is located on UB's north campus has excellent coverage. The Rides top brass were indeed pleased and have already expressed interest in using our repeater again next year. What club could say no? --Posted by the Webmaster

Tags: Awards

The ARRL 10M Contest runs this weekend. If you need some juicy DX to fill in some blanks on 10M, this may be a good opportunity. Traditional thinking may lead one to the conclusion that this will be a waste of time, but the in-the-know crowd knows otherwise! As far as propagation, E-skip combined with meteor scatter should provide some good fun. So jump in! Here are links to ARRL for the contest rules and this weeks propagation report.

http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2009/10-meters.html

http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/prop/2009-arlp051.html

Good luck.

Tags: Contest

Please check out the new Tribute to WNYDXA Silent Keys page. It is under development and as of now the webmaster only has one detailed biography. If you have more information for this page, please email the details to the Club President.

Tags: Members

Tom, N2CU, has found a really cool free publication with loads of good information including DX, construction, EVE, and even cool photos. Enjoy! (If they stay in production, we’ll have a link to their site. If not, we won’t.....) Click on the cover page and you’ll be directed to our Files page where you can find the E-Zine.

Tags: Publications

The results of the June VHF QSO Party (link) were posted earlier today and club members K2QO and W2TAU have again cracked the top 10 in Rover competition with a 10th place finish (1st place Atlantic Division) against some seriously stiff competition! If you've been paying attention lately you'll have noticed that many club members have been lighting up the scoreboards in a slew of contests.

Attaining the top levels of radiosport competition for so many members is a testement to the skills and knowledge within WNYDXA.

Another local rover, Steve, KC2QZF, had a nice 9th place finish in the Limitied Rover Category which was good for 1st Place Atlantic.

Tags: VHF, ARRL, Contest

Yesterday the ARRL posted the results of Field Day 2009. Those results reveal that the Buffalo Lighthose Crew, operating 2A-Battery QRP from the Coast Guard base in Buffalo, had the best score of all QRP groups regardless of size, and scored #8 overall! The Crew has been working hard for many years chasing down the elite QRP groups in this event in an effort to attain first place. Those years of dedication, experimentation, hard work, and sweat have yielded results.

The Crew members are: K2ZR, N2CU, W2TB, WB2ABD, WB2AIV, K2RSK, and K2QO.

Check out the full results at http://www.arrl.org/contests/results/2009/fd.pdf

Click HERE for photos on our Members Raves Page.

Click on Photo for Link to Full Story

Just after take-off, a twin-engine plane carrying four Amateur Radio operators crashed into the woods, only 250 yards off the end of the runway in Jedburg, South Carolina, about 20 miles northwest of Charleston. The plane -- piloted and owned by Peter Radding, W2GJ -- carried Ed Steeble, K3IXD, Dallas Carter, W3PP, and Randy Hargenrader, K4QO. The four men were on their way to the Bahamas to operate in this weekend's CQ World Wide Phone Contest as C6APR, competing in the Multi/2 category.

With the big contest season quickly approaching, here are some notable results from last season. First up is K2ZR (affectionately know as the cZaR) who posted the following:

1st Place Single Operator QRP Phone Certificate for the ARRL SS Phone, WNY Section

Next up is a biggie. If you have ever been lucky enough to be a guest operator at W2FU (Jeff Ach's superstation), you know the dedication and drive required to be at the top of the world Multi operator standings. Just the routine maintenance alone is a full time job with 3 huge towers, an operating position for each band and miles of gigantic coax to feed the beast. And without further ado, W2FU has won:

1st Place CQWW CW M/S

WNYDXA members who helped pilot the effort are in bold: K0SM, N2PP, N2ZN, N2CU, WB2ABD, K2DB. Great job guys!!

On August 12, ARRL DXCC Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, announced that after more than eight years, the 7O1YGF operation in 2000 from Yemen has been approved for DXCC credit. Moore cited a review of "recently received information," as well as "additional dialogue" with the leader of the 7O1YGF DXpediton, as reasons for the approval. For the full article, click on the QSL card.

Gang, the annual WNYDXA picnic is fast approaching! But that is not the reason for this post. I’ve started to put together short member biographies in the new Members Profiles section of the site. Please consider this an early beta version.

To join in, send me a photo and a paragraph or two. In the case of K2QQ, all I got was a photo. That is OK too. I’ll get them posted when I can.

Thanks and 73. Mark K2QO

(Click on the photo for a slideshow)
On 7/22, select WNYDXA members took KB2ADB and his antenna raising project by storm, Art Storm that is. DeWitt Street on Buffalo's west side will never be the same.

At 10am Bill, WB2AIV, John, WB2EPH, Dave, N2RHL, George, W2YJ, Jim, W2IMY and Dick, K2ZR had gotten a strong start to getting KB2ADB's new multi-band vertical up and on the air. Elements were attached, nuts were tightened, antenna tests were made and in the end, success was found.
By 2pm, Art had a new antenna, new 12 volt wiring from his power supply to TS570D and a newly soldered key jack plug. The best of all was the big smile on his face.

Art in all of his generosity donated a tidy sum to WNYDXA's treasury in appreciation for WNYDXA's help.

All is well cuz DX don't sleep,
Dick, K2ZR

This weekend marks the annual running of the RSGB Islands on the Air contest. For full details, click the image. Band conditions always seem to “improve” for major contests. There has been some nice E-Skip on 10M lately so this may be a good weekend to bag some new ones on a band that has been fairly dead for the past few years. Good luck!

73,
WNYDXA Webmaster