October 2025

October is here, which means the Defiance County Amateur Radio Club Christmas party is right around the corner. This year it will be held on Saturday, December 6th and we hope you will all be able to attend.

This year, along with the Christmas party comes a set of awards. I hope you have been tracking your activities throughout the year and will submit the results. As mentioned clear back in January, the awards are as follows:

1. WAS (SSB) in 2025
2. WAS (CW) in 2025
3. WAS (Digital) in 2025
4. Most contacts (SSB)
5. Most contacts (CW)
6. Most contacts (Digital)
7. Most total contacts (all modes)
8. Longest distance unassisted VHF/UHF contact
9. Attend most DCARA meetings/nets
10. Attend most events (Breakfast, Summer Field Day, etc.)

The “logs” need to be turned in (or emailed to me, W8NI) by our November meeting (November 10th). If you completed the WAS, please let me know how many states you worked and/or the date it was completed, just in case several of you got all the states. For the most contact categories, a number of contacts per mode is sufficient. The longest distance category, I only need to know the number of miles (and I would like to know the band you used for it). Finally, for category #9 and #10, just a number will suffice.

If you have any questions, please just ask. I look forward to getting your “logs” and am even more excited about handing out the awards at the Christmas party.

And for those of you looking ahead to 2026, our awards will be different. Next year the awards will be as follows:

For HF, the award will be for most DX entities. This will be broken down into CW, SSB and Digital modes, as well as a combined category. For VHF/UHF the award will be for most States/Provence. So, start working those into your plans for 2026, and I look forward to seeing you all on December 6th.