Category: Member news

Sheila, K4WNW, Achieves DXCC Honor Roll

~ Jim, WY4O ~ Leave a comment

At our June meeting we celebrated our long time member, and current Vice-President, Sheila, K4WNW, on achieving ARRL DXCC Honor Roll. The DXCC Honor Roll is earned by amateurs who submit confirmation for contacts reached within the numerical top 10 of the overall number of entities on the DXCC List. As of 25 Jun 2023, there were 340 current entities on the list, with 331 being required for the Honor Roll.

Sheila keeps her eyes open for new opportunities to add to her DXCC numbers by monitoring the DX news for upcoming DXpeditions. And she shares this information each month through her Upcoming DX presentation. This presentation is distributed to club members, and is also made available to all interested amateurs via the DDXG website. You can find the Upcoming DX from the current meeting in the right column of the home page of this website.

Sheila and husband Bruce, WD4LBR, also an Honor Roll member, are models of amateurs who give back to the community by sharing knowledge, “elmering” new and aspiring ham operators, and supporting our club community. Congratulations Sheila!!!

2023 Installation of Officers

~ Jim, WY4O ~ Leave a comment
L-R: Tom, N3GTG, President; Sheila, K4WNW, Vice-President; Jim, WY4O, Secretary; and, Lauren, WD4FMG, Treasurer

During the January meeting our long time club president, Sheila, K4WNW, handed the gavel to our new president, Tom, N3GTG. The club is incredibly grateful to Sheila for serving as our president for many years. And she remains active as our vice-president. Jim and Lauren continue in their roles as secretary and treasurer respectively. Here’s to a great 2023 for the club. How’s DX? It’s great! Consider joining DDXG! Visitors and new members are always welcome!

DDXG Ladder Champ

~ Jim, WY4O ~ Leave a comment

Our friendly club competition, the DX Ladder, allows club members to compete for the most new band-countries in a calendar year. For example, work a new country on three bands for three band-country credit in the ladder. Work an existing country on a new band, score a new band country.

Tom N3GTG, Lauren WD4FMG, and Sheila K4WNW

Our 2022 DX Ladder champ is Lauren, WD4FMG. Lauren logged an amazing 724 new band-countries. And she earned her DXCC on 10, 12, 17, and 30 meters in the process. DXCC, short for DX Century Club, is amateur radio’s premier award for confirming 100 countries. That’s quite a year Lauren! Congratulations!

Ladder chair, Tom, and club president, Sheila, presented the 2022 DDXG Ladder award plaque to Lauren at the club’s January meeting. And members are already off to chasing new band-countries for the 2023 calendar year. Interested in chasing DX?… why not join our club!

DDXG Holiday Social

~ Jim, WY4O

Our DDXG tradition is to skip our regular December meeting and instead celebrate the holidays with a social event. And we LOVE Vinny’s Grill on Lauderdale (owned by our own Giacomo, KK4FTC, and his lovely wife Victoria). Everyone enjoyed the food and the fellowship. Of course we missed those who could not join us.

All of us at DDXG wish all of you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful new year! Hope to see you at our January meeting on Saturday, January 25th. And if you are not yet a member why not start of the new year by joining us. New and prospective members are always welcome.

DDXG 2012 Year in review

~ w4bno

RTTY Roundup

Many members of the club participated in the ARRL RTTY Roundup contest in January.  The combined club score was well over 600,000 points.  Thanks to everyone that participated.

Tangier

Our Tangier operation this year was different than what we have done in the past.  We only operated a single station and let club members and guests operate under their own call sign if they chose to.  We had a great time and made several hundred QSOs over the weekend.  W4BNO has uploaded some pictures of the weekend to flickr.

DXCC

Several club members got DXCC awards this year.  Congratulations to these folks for the work they put into getting their awards.

  • KC4QYG
  • KW4CQ
  • W4DKR
  • NQ4A

KC4QYG DXCC
KC4QYG presented with his DXCC award.

KW4CQ DXCC 2012
Bob, KW4CQ, proudly displays his DXCC certificate!

W4DKR DXCC Phone - 2012
Barry, W4DKR, receives his DXCC Phone certificate.

NQ4A 15m DXCC 2012
Jon, NQ4A, receives his 15 meter DXCC award at the December 2012 DDXG meeting.

 Other Awards

In addition to DXCC, several members of the club received other awards.

  • WD4LBR received his “Worked All States” Triple play certificate.
  • Joe Fijol, KJ4SSX, received his eQSL 25 Country certificate.
  • WD4LBR received a “DX Champion” award from the Central Virginia Contest Club for working the most new band entities and the highest percentage of needed entities.
  • Several members of the club participated in the 2011 ARRL SSB DX contest from Costa Rica and took first place!
  • Andy, KC4QYG, earned his WAS Triple Play certificate.

WD4LBR WAS Triple Play 2012
Bruce, WD4LBR receives his Triple play award from Sheila.

KJ4SSX eQSL feb 2012
Joe (KJ4SSX) with his eQSL 25 country certificate.

WD4LBR DX Champ 2012
Bruce, WD4LBR is presented with his DX Champion award.

Costa Rica team
Costa Rica DX Contest team 2011

New Members

Despite having known the members of the club, Joe Fijol, KJ4SSX became a full member of DDXG in 2012. 😉  Welcome, Joe!

KJ4SSX becomes full member
Joe Fijol (KJ4SSX) becomes a full member at the May 2012 DDXG meeting.

Looking back, 2012 was a great year for DDXG and we are looking forward to more radio active fun in 2013.

DDXG Welcomes KC4QYG

~ w4bno

Sheila welcomes Andy
DDXG President, K4WNW, welcomes Andy Hodges, KC4QYG to the club.

Andy Hodges, KC4QYG, was welcomed to the club at the October 2011 membership meeting.  Andy was first licensed in 1990 and is getting back into the hobby after several years of being inactive.  In 2010 he became active again and started hanging out with the DDXG.  Andy has been an active member of the club – he taught us all about JT65 and WSPR by giving a presentation to the members earlier this year. Andy has achieved the following awards:

  • Worked All States Basic #55,101
  • Worked All States Digital
  • Worked All States JT65
  • Worked 88 DXCC entities and confirmed 83. Working to achieve DXCC by end of this year.

The DX Century Club Welcomes W4LEW!

~ admin

W4LEW DXCC
W4LEW with his DXCC award

Club member Lew Best W4LEW poses with his first (mixed) DXCC. Along with this award he also received his DXCC phone endorsement. Licensed for less than two years, Lew quickly obtained is Amateur General and Amateur Extra class licenses in order to take full advantage of the DX found throughout the spectrum. Congratulations to Lew for a notable achievement in an incredibly short period of time!

DDXG Welcomes KJ4NPR!

~ admin

KJ4NPR and K4WNW
KJ4NPR with his new membership!

The club welcomes William Orndorff KJ4NPR as a Full Member. A relatively new ham, William is on the cusp of obtaining his Amateur Extra class license. Nephew of Robert W4BNO and quickly logging DX contacts, William now becomes the youngest member of DDXG. Welcome aboard, William! Here, president Sheila Blackley presents William with his membership certificate.

DDXG Welcomes K3WRY!

~ admin

K3WRY accepting member certificate

DDXG welcomes Dr. Joe Palsa K3WRY as a Full Member. An ARRL Life Member and the EC for Chesterfield County, “Dr. Joe” enjoys experimenting and working with equipment for seismic and weather recording, among his other ham radio interests. Here, President Sheila Blackley presents him with a membership certificate.

12M DXCC

~ w4bno

Bruce and Sheila receive their 12M DXCC
Bruce and Sheila receive their 12M DXCC

Husband & Wife 12m DXCC – Bruce WD4LBR and Sheila K4WNW both received their 12 meter DXCC awards. Presenting the certificates is club Vice-President, Josh KD4ZDQ.