Many, many thanks to club member Darrell, K9MUG for his tireless work on the CW portion of the Triple Play Award. A big thank you to KD4POJ in North Dakota, KK7UV in Montana,  and WW3DE in Delaware for their help with last minute qsos.

A very Merry Christmas from the Heart of Dixie Amateur Radio Society – W4HOD!

W4HOD is down to the final two contacts for the LOTW Triple Play Award. AA4YL contacted Maine tonight, which leaves Montana and North Dakota on SSB for the final two. Many thanks to Darrell, K9MUG for his wonderful efforts in the award hunt, we could not have done it without him.

UPDATE:  AA4YL worked North Dakota on December 23rd, a nice birthday present for her. One to go, where are you Montana?!

Call: W4HOD
Operator(s): AA4YL
Station: W4HOD

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Pts  Countries  OK Stns
————————————-
80:
40:   68  258      18        3
20:   53   75      20   4
15:    2    3       2        0
10:
————————————-
Total:  141  336      40        7  Total Score = 15,792

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

Enjoyed this one a lot. Thanks for the contacts.

HODARS received a pleasant surprise in our mailbox last week. A certificate for first place, Alabama Section in our category in the RTTY Roundup. Multi Operator, Low Power in the Alabama Section.  Club members KF4OPX and AA4YL were operators in the contest.

HODARS has completed 144 of 150 contacts for the ARRL Triple Play Award.  2 needed on SSB, 2 on Digital and 2 on CW.

Many thanks again to K9MUG for his extra efforts to make it happen on CW.

At the November meeting, club members voted to establish a contesting fund for HODARS contesting activities. The first purchase was an order of QSL cards from KB3IFH in Maryland. First, let me brag on KB3IFH. Randy does an outstanding job of printing and his customer service is top notch too. Take a minute and read the over 14 pages of feedback on eham.net

The card we designed is shown on the new State of Alabama amateur radio tag background. The border is the Alabama state flag. We wanted a professional image to reflect our new emphasis on contesting and I think the card looks great!

K9MUG, KA4PKB, and AA4YL travelled to the Montgomery Hamfest on Saturday. We arrived late, but in plenty of time for the Alabama Contest Group lunch/gab fest at Country’s BBQ in Montgomery.  Lunch was great and conversation was varied as usual. Great to see fellow W4HOD members KA4NDY and KG4CQZ there.  Those in attendance were:WA4WLI, KA4PKB, K4ZGB, AA4YL, K9MUG, KE4GWW, WA4AW and Myra, KG4CQZ, KA4NDY, KY5R and  Patti, and KC4HW.  A very robust group.  Lots of DX, CW and RTTY stories!

http://alabamacontestgroup.org

At the November meeting of HODARS, Darrell Penrod, K9MUG was appointed to head up the contesting effort of W4HOD, after he agreed to become the contest coordinator for the club. Thank you Darrell for all of your contest efforts in putting W4HOD on the air and for heading up the club’s future contest participation.

Darrell Penrod, K9MUG

Call: W4HOD
Operator(s): K9MUG
Station: K9MUG

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Alabama
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  153
   40:  277
   20:  229
   15:   19
   10:     
------------
Total:  678  Sections = 80  Total Score = 108,480

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

Always fun! Condx Sat. nite were horrific QRN 20 over on 40 and 80. 
Quit early and slept. Also lost the last 5 hrs of the contest.

Thanks to all who qso'd and special thanks to the rare sections for being
there. I want to single out VE8EV for calling me and sticking with 
me for many repeat requests--- you were better than I deserved.

The good ones make up for the many #@$%%%###'s who send QRL 
and CQ in the same macro!!! Why do they bother?

Oh well tis almost the season to be jolly, so 73 to all and to all a good
night!

Darrell
W4HOD(K9MUG)

The Ukrainian DX contest is this weekend. W4HOD will be working SSB for the contest.  We should have a new 20 meter antenna up for this contest.

Worked All Europe (WAE) RTTY contest is this month, the second full weekend. Saturday, November 14, 2009, 0000 UTC until Sunday, November 15, 2009, 2359 UTC. This will be a new contest for W4HOD. It should be lots of fun.

In 2008, W4HOD won the plaque for Multi-Multi SSB in the Alabama QSO Party. Shown is club member Don Huey, KA4NDY receiving the award from Jim Johnson, KC4HW of the Alabama Contest Group.

At least I wasn’t last!