Contests & Events

Club News & Events, Contests & Events

2024 OSPOTA

On Saturday, September 7th, the DCARC joined together at Independence Dam State Park for the annual Ohio State Parks on the Air contest. Many members came out to experience this contest and either operate a radio, help with logging, or even just provide support. Every member there was appreciated as it was a long day.

Scoring a total of 25,000 points was our goal this year. In recent years that would rank us somewhere in the top 5. But every year is different with some years higher than others. This is based on propagation as well as the number of parks (multipliers) activated.

Propagation was in our favor as we made contacts with 10 DX entities, 39 individual states, 49 different Ohio State Parks, and 511 total contacts. This all added up to a fun but exhausting day. But we believe the work was worth it as we totaled 25,039 points!

Obviously, we are excited for our success. Especially as we look back over the last 10 years from 2013-2023. In those 10 years, K8VON took part in OSPOTA only 5 times. During those 5 outings our highest score previously was in 2023 when we scored 6,270. This was far above the other four outings. In fact, if we added our scores over the 2013-2023 OSPOTA contest, we accumulated just 8,623 points.

That’s right, this year in 2024, we almost tripled our score over the previous ten! That is amazing and speaks to the devotion and dedication of our club to this event. 

All the logs have been submitted, and now we will wait to hear of the results. I will assume that we will hear of the results in early November. After all, that is the regular release date of the results. Until then, rest up, and then get out into the Parks to get ready for next year!

73, Kevin-W8NI

Contests & Events

NVIS Day

While the bands may not have been up to par for NVIS Day, the group made up for it with the usual food, food, comradery, and food.

As usual, thanks go out to the Defiance County EMA for use of the EOC building.

Pictures courtesy of Kathy Noethen.

Contests & Events

World Amateur Radio Day

We are one week away from World Amateur Radio Day. And this year we will return to Pontiac Park to celebrate. Many of us will be arriving round 8:00am to setup tables, flyers, radio’s and antenna’s. The purpose is to expose the public to the joy’s of amateur radio, and answer any questions they may have.

Everyone is invited to come out and participate. You can be involved by making contacts on the radio, answering questions from the general public, or even ASKING questions of your fellow HAMs. And although we will be near the Pontiac Park boat ramp until approximately 4:00pm, you can come and go as you wish. Come out and celebrate for an hour or the whole time.

World Amateur Radio day is a celebration of the formation of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). Which happened on April 18th 1925 in Paris, France. Now, 100 years later, the ARRL set this years theme to be: “A Century of Connections: Celebrating 100 years of Amateur Radio Innovation, Community, and Advocacy”.

The ARRL points out that this Celebration “…is not a contest but rather an opportunity to talk about the value of amateur radio to the public and our fellow amateur colleagues.” It is also a great opportunity to recruit potential members and learn from other amateurs. We hope you will take this opportunity to join us.

Contests & Events

Winter Field Day 2024

Hello All,

Winter Field Day is coming up once again.

January 27th, 2024 starting at 2:00pm local time.

Our location is once again the Ney Church of God, 03413 OH-15, Ney, OH 43549

Plan to show up early enough to set up anything you bring.

It will be a potluck for the food. Please let me know what you are planning to bring so I can coordinate that.  We also could use some extra heat in the barn.

It would also be nice if there are some club members that can spend some time demonstrating to anyone interested, especially newer Hams, things like antenna setup, finding a clear spot on the band, working CW, etc. Let me know so we can make a list and schedule to post.

Lastly (for now) I’m starting a list of DCARC translations for Winter Field Day terms…

1. Winter Field Day

      translation: Winter Food Fest

2. Going to make a lot of contacts

      translation: Really going to pile that plate up

3. Multibander

      translation: Can carry two or more plates

4. QRM

      translation: Quit blocking the crock pot

5. Working a pile up

      translation: See #2

6. Dup Check

      translation: Two crockpots, same stuff

7. QSY

      translation: Going back for dessert

8′ QRT

      translation: I’m full

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

73 John

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