Mother Lode DX / Contest Club

Author: Jeff Stai

  • 2025 RTTY Roundup Final Results

    I’ve seen the final results for the 2025 RTTY Roundup and here are the results for the MLDXCC. The club competed in the Medium Club category and came in 9th place.

    RTTY Roundup Medium Club

    Generated by wpDataTables

    Club member scores for Single Op, Low Power:

    • K8TR – 6174
    • KE6GLA – 4294
    • K6DGW – 1650
    • KN6TZK – 735
    • N6NFB – 323

    Club member scores for Single Op, High Power:

    • W7RN – 231990
    • K6TQ – 41391
    • KH6TU – 35108
    • N6XI – 19642

    Club member scores for Single Op, High Power, Unlimited:

    • AF6SA – 60900
    • W1RH – 57798
    • WE6Z – 53054
    • K6NV – 34293
    • NU6T – 28416
    • N6GEO – 25527
    • W1SRD – 23785
    • W6RKC – 11926
    • WX6V – 11122

    Thanks everyone for your participation!

  • Deleted Country of the Month – PDR Yemen

    An occasional feature, courtesy of the Southern California DX Club.

  • Rotate Your Yagi

    by Gary Johnson NA6O

    Everyone knows how to rotate their Yagi antenna: Just turn the knob and away it goes. But this article isn’t about that rotation, it’s about rotating it a different way, for maintenance. When your beam has a problem wayy out where you can’t reach it, the usual expectation is that the whole thing is going to have to come down off the tower. Many of us have seen balun failures or lost the tip off of an element or had an element twist on the boom, and there’s no obvious or easy way to reach it. It’s bad enough that we have to hire a climber, and even worse when the work involves tramming the whole shebang down to the ground and back up. Thankfully, professional tower busters have tricks that save us much time and effort. The first time you see it, the light goes on and it’s obvious… If only you had thought of if first!

    The simplest trick is to rotate the Yagi by loosening the boom in the boom-to-mast clamp, allowing the boom itself to rotate. This lets the elements swing down alongside the tower. Now it’s possible to climb up or down and reach at least the elements that are close to the tower. Our local climber Mark, N9LS, did a service call at my station W6SRR where some plastic clips out on the elements had slipped out of position. He was able to reach them and fix the issue easily.

    The more elaborate and flexible trick is to dismount the Yagi entirely while temporarily supporting it at its balance point with some combination of slings, ropes, and a come-along. At N6RO, we had a balun failure on a long 20m Yagi and Hector, AD6D, used this method. Once the antenna is free-floating, it’s easy to position it at any angle along the tower, allowing access to anything that needs attention.

    So be sure to consult the pros when you have a problem up the tower. They may even show you a different way to rotate.

  • Tube of the Month – March 2025

    by Norm Wilson N6JV – Visit the museum at N6JV.com

    WD-24

    Westinghouse was one of the first American companies to commercially produce vacuum tubes. RCA held the triode patent so Westinghouse and General Electric made tubes for distribution by RCA.  These companies also developed experimental tubes for their own use and to develop new products and perfect construction techniques.  The featured transmitting triode was found at a swap meet.  I don’t think I paid much as nobody knew what it was other than an early, primitive triode that was probably made about 1920.  Eventually I identified it as a Westinghouse WD-24, but I have no reference source to prove it.  All tube collectors have a library of reference material and I think someone knew what it was and supplied the operating voltages and currents.  The plate could be run as high as 2000 volts at 250 ma.  The filament was 10 volts at 15 amps.  The tube stands 12 inches tall.  Westinghouse tubes had several prefix codes and often WD was used to indicate a developmental tube.

    This tube was made by spot welding rods to support the plate and grid.  The ends were connected to internal metal clamps.  In operation, the tube was mounted with straps.  This system is similar to what de Forest tubes of this period used.  The feature that doesn’t make any sense is the square box shaped plate.  Making the spacing between the grid and plate uniform, minimizes the creation of hot spots  The variable grid to plate spacing may result in an odd-looking set of performance curves.  This design didn’t catch on but it is an interesting example of early experimentation.