Opportunities for Multi-Multi Operations in the CQWW

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, two of the biggest U.S. competitors in the CQ World Wide DX Contest are taking a step back from their usual categories. CQ Contesting Editor Tim Shoppa, N3QE, reports that both K3LR and W3LPL have announced that they will not compete in the multi-operator/multi-transmitter (also known as multi-multi or M/M) category this year in either the SSB or CW weekends of the CQWW. Both stations plan to be on the air, but neither had announced its revised plans. This creates a new opportunity for other groups capable of mounting a COVID-safe M/M operation to compete in the category with an actual chance of winning! 

CQ recommends that multi-operator contesting at this time be limited to family units already living in the same house or remote operations in which each of the operators is in a different location. (We want you to have fun but also to be back next year!)

Upgraded Space Station Ham Gear Coming Online

The first batch of upgraded ham radio equipment aboard the International Space 

Station has been installed and is on the air. The new gear replaces equipment that is 20 years old. The ARRL reports that the first of the new radios – a "space-modified" Kenwood D710GA transceiver installed in the ISS Columbus module – came on the air on September 2 in FM cross-band repeater mode. The uplink is on 145.990 MHz with a 67-Hz CTCSS tone; the downlink is on 437.800 MHz (plus or minus Doppler shift).   

A second batch of new ham equipment – planned for installation in the Russian Service Module – is still undergoing flight certification.

Milestones: DK6SP Named to WWROF Board; N1IN, K9STH SKs

Twenty-two-year-old Philipp Springer, DK6SP, has been named a director of the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation, which provides logistical support for CQ-sponsored contests and others. He succeeds longtime board member Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, who stepped down. According to WWROF, Springer has been a ham since age 10, is a member of the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 Youth Working Group and coordinates the Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) program in Germany. He was also a youth participant in the 2018 World Radiosport Team Championship (WRTC 2018) held in Germany.

K9STH's first FM column in CQ
appeared in 1971 and was republished
as a CQ Classic article in December
2019.

 

We are sad to report the passing of frequent CQ contributor Bill Sexton, N1IN. After retiring from a long career in journalism, much of it spent at New York's Newsday newspaper, Bill became the Public Affairs Officer for Army MARS. According to Newsday, he was honored with the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Bill was 91.

 

Also joining the list of Silent Keys this month is former CQ FM Editor Glen Zook, K9STH. Glen was the magazine's first FM Editor, penning the column from 1971-73, just as VHF FM operation was beginning to take off. More recently, Glen was a content moderator on QRZ.com.