GA from Albuquerque and the ARRL/TAPR DCC (Digital Communications Conference). The has been great thus far! I’m looking forward to this afternoon’s and tomorrow’s presentations. I had the opportunity two weekends ago to visit the Alamogordo Hamfest when I got to meet some of you. That was a fun event even though I didn’t find any treasures to bring home. Thanks to Rick, KB7SQF, and his team for their hospitality.
Next Thursday evening, I and others will be setting up for the Duke City Hamfest/Rocky Mountain Division Convention at the Isleta Pueblo Convention Center. We’ve sold all the hotel rooms and meals for which
we contracted which is a financial relief. I won’t repeat all the information here; it’s available at the event web site:
https://www.dukecityhamfest.org
You can still make the early registration deadline (18 Sep) so go there and sign-up now, if you
haven’t already.
Four weeks after the convention at Isleta, I will host the annual NM Section forum at the ARRL Section Convention at the Socorro Hamfest (Oct. 19-20). You can register for it at:
https://www.socorroara.org/socorro-hamfest/
We’ll also have the annual NM Section ARES meeting hosted by Jay, W5WHN, our Section Emergency Coordinator. Preceding Saturday’s hamfest, I’ll present the annual Section awards at the Friday evening banquet.
It surprises me how few hams attend these events. I’ve heard recent comments like: “I don’t ever attend this or other events.” “There isn’t anything there that interests me.” “It’s too, far, expensive…” or other reason why not to attend. Without ever having attended, I would question how you know?
I encourage to find out why attending gatherings like these is valuable. The home page at the DCHF site provides a great explanation of why to attend any hamfest/convention. It’s a long list of just some of the
things you’ll find. While there is much to learn and do, I feel meeting old friends and making new ones is probably one of the best things to do.
I hope this encourages more of you to come join me and the rest of the crowd. I look forward to meeting you as new friend or seeing you again as an old one!
Not having enough to do this month (a joke, folks), I and a team of other ops have been operating W6H for Route 66 On-the-Air. A nine-day event, this celebrates the USA “Mother Road” from Chicago to Los Angles.
Numerous stations along the route (W6A through W6U) offer contacts on all the HF, and some VHF bands.
Our group (New Mexico, not a single city like the others) has made as many as 8,000+ contacts in nine days during past Route 66 events. We won’t reach that this year for several reasons. I assert the most valid is not enough ops calling us! Yes, propagation is a factor, especially the G1 and G2 geomagnetic storms this week. Probably worse is the “knowledge” that HF propagation is terrible which makes it impossible to contact us.
Well, after 2,835 QSO’s (as of 14 Sep), apparently some ops could contact us! 85% of our QSO’s have been on SSB. We have had FT-8 in operation, but for far fewer hours than SSB. I mention this to encourage those who have HF stations to get on the air. There are stations to work, even as we approach the solar nadir! With just a dipole, I’ve worked from JA to DL (Japan to Germany) on SSB and CW this. Don’t give up on HF. Don’t believe the doom and gloom.
I’ll get just a few more hours this weekend due to my conference attendance. Check your favorite DX cluster for W6H. You’ll likely be able to work one or more of us since we do drop down to 75m/80m to work the locals.
73!
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ARRL New Mexico Section
Section Manager: Bill Mader, K8TE
k8te@arrl.org
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