The Nugget – May 2026

Next meeting is a joint meeting with the NCCC: 11:30AM June 13th at Peter’s Steakhouse 203 Second Street – Isleton, CA 95641. You must RSVP at this link no later than June 10th if you will be attending. Find out more.

Thirty Years Ago, a bunch of local hams gathered for pizza at Mountain Mike’s Round Table in Martel, and the Mother Lode DX/Contest Club was born!

In this issue: Missives! – news – Monthly features! – Points Generator! – state QSO parties – a look back 10 & 20 years – classifieds – DX – focus contests? – more funny stuff! and AI and 73? – Club Log updates – and more!

From the Prez

No missive this month, but scroll down to Steve’s Points Generator Profile below.

From the Veep

First of all I want to thank Jay KE6GLA for the great parks on the air presentation. It was very informative and made me want to start making contacts to guys that are doing parks on the air.

I have been dealing with an antenna that seems to work all bands but two without tuning. The conclusion that I have come to is trying to get a antenna to work from 6m to 160 without turning is just not going to work. I’m asking too much of the off center fed Windom. And the other problem is I’m running remotely so I control everything remotely. Next is to either get a tuner I can control remotely or antenna switch that can be remotely controlled. I must admit amateur radio is so much fun but can drain your pocket book. 

KE5JTS Jason Pritchard VP

Treasurer’s Quarterly Report

Next report will be in the July issue.

Dues are due (we run our finances January – December), and at the November 2025 meeting those in attendance voted to increase dues to $30 per individual and $45 for a family.   That’s a steal – only $2.50/month (or $3.75/mo for a family) – just 58 cents a week!   Show your club some support and pay your dues today – you can pay them by:

• Sending a check payable to MLDXCC to our treasurer, Sue K6SZQ at 17610 Red Mule Road   Fiddletown, CA  95642
• Paying through Paypal – motherlodeclub@gmail.com   Make sure that you spell Motherlode correctly, and choose the “friends and family option” to avoid us having to pay fees.
• Best way: Bringing a check or cash with you to the meeting!  Hope to see you there.

Secretary’s Report

Minutes of the May 16, 2026 meeting.

Steve NC6R mentioned it at the meeting so here is a repeat of the link. If you haven’t yet checked out SWR Magazine, do it now. They’re celebrating one year of (online) publishing and it’s a pretty good looking rag. Check out the anniversary issue!

Got news? Send it to me for inclusion in the next issues of The Nugget! – ed.

Recently Posted Articles

None this month. Write something for The Nugget!

Points Generator!

New Feature! Each month we will feature a Points Generator member profile. (Learn how to submit your own profile.) We’re kicking things off** with President Steve NC6R.

• Name/Call Sign: Steve Allred / NC6R
• Past Call Signs: K6SCA
• Location: Fiddletown, Amador County / CM98pl
• In the Shack: Yaesu FTdx101MP / Alpha 87A amp
• Antenna System:
  • JK Yagis are mounted on a LM-470 tower with a Falcon (20/40) @ 72′ and Quattro (10,12,15,17) @ 85′.
  • Pair of switchable inverted “V’s” for 80 @ 70′. Inverted “L” for 160.
  • Diamond CP610 for 29.60 & 52.525 MHz, Comet CX-333 for 2/220/440 MHz.
• Previously: Kenwood TS-50 & 10/20/40 fan dipole.
• Future: Improve my CW, beverage antennas, second tower for 6 & HF.
• Career: RF System Engineer / 911Public Safety radio systems
• Family: Married to Sue (K6SZQ), a very understanding and supportive wife. Four kids / six grandkids.
• DXCC: To date 316 DXCC entities, first 196 on homemade dipoles
• Favorite Contests: WPX / 10 meter
• Tips: When contesting keep you calls short, clear and concise. It’s a contest, not a rag chew. When working DX, check to see if he’s working split and listen for his call. Get it right BEFORE calling!
• Help the Hobby: Mentor a new hams. Help them build a dipole & get on HF. Our hobby has far more to offer than just a rubber ducky.
• Other Hobbies: NASCAR and Giants baseball. I’ve also built and maintain a 2/440 linked repeater system.

Videos!

Subscribe to our YouTube channel!

DX…

DXpedition Timeline (updated regularly) – Via DX-world.net

Upcoming DXpeditions via NG3K

DX Calendar via 425 DX News

Upcoming Contests

Focus contests for 2026-2027 should be on the agenda in the next couple of meetings – think about which contests you’d like, and contribute to the decision!

Other contests of note coming up in the next month or so, via contestcalendar.com:

• May 30-31: CQ WPX Contest (CW)
• June 6-7: ARRL International Digital Contest (Digital except RTTY)
• June 13-15: ARRL June VHF Contest (All modes)
• June 20-21: All Asian DX Contest (CW)
• June 20-21: SMIRK Six Meter Contest (SSB, CW, Digital (all))
• June 27-28: ARRL Field Day (All modes)

State QSO Parties (via statesqoparty.com) – It’s that time of year when the major contest season winds down, but fortunately we have a bumper crop of State QPs for May:

• June 6-7: Kentucky QSO Party (CW, Phone, RTTY)
• June 7-8: Atlantic Canada QSO Party (CW, Phone)
• June 20-21: West Virginia QSO Party (CW, Phone, Digital (non FT modes)

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Classifieds

C’mon folks, buy this stuff! Make offers!

Rick NK7I (Rick.NK7I@gmail.com) notes that “The NCDXC repeater is looking at having DMR access soon so if you’re a member you may want a DMR radio to access it (or via your local DMR repeater or hotspot IF you’re out of the coverage area).  Two DMR capable HT for sale here. $175 shipped for the pair.

• 1 TYT MD-380 UHF HT; DMR and FM/NFM (25/12.5/6.25 KHz width) capable; with charger, spare (NEW 50% more capacity) battery and programming cable; ham, GMRS, FRS and commercial capable. * $100
• 1 TYT MD-380 VHF HT; DMR and FM/NFM (25/12.5/6.25 KHz width) capable; with charger, spare (NEW 50% more capacity) battery and programming cable; ham and commercial capable  * $100

* These are nice radios.  One really useful feature is being able to load multiple zones into the radio at programming time; so as your needs change, simply change zones (home, cabin, GMRS, vacation location).  Programming software is free, available online.   Buy both TYT radios, I’ll cover the shipping and add one extra battery (total 5).  Useful on DMR or analog repeaters, or a DMR hotspot to talk around the planet. Both HT’s are in excellent condition, rarely used outside and never mobile.  Sales to non-ham licensed folks will have the ham programming removed before transfer.

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For Sale and Wanted: Skip N6NFB is selling a US Tower TX-455 (used, very good) with tilt fixture, Yaesu 800 rotor, and 15 foot mast tube $1100. And also selling a US Tower MA-40 tubular tower. New old stock, still on shipping pallets. $250. Skip – N6NFBskip@gmail.com

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Humor!

John K6YK writes, “Thomas Edison at his portable Field Day rig. That was his big rig from home. Note the white zip cord feedline! 

“My original portable transceiver is in the other photo. Note the streamlined compact design.

“I ran out of people to work about 45 years ago when the railroads discontinued using the wires along the tracks;  Darn !”

A few more things that popped up around the web this month:

I saw this assertion made on social media. I don’t have handy access to ChatGPT but I do have Gemini, so I asked it instead. – Jeff WK6I

Send more funny stuff for the next issue! – Ed.

ClubLog DXCC Standings

Standings for 2026 as of 25 May. You can see complete MLDXCC standings on ClubLog here.

Overall

1	W1SRD	195
2	K6YK	171
3	W6DR	166
4	K6RIM	152
5	WU7W	151

CW

1	K6YK	142
2	K6RIM	125
3	W6DR	98
4	K6OK	80
5	WU7W	34

Phone

1	WC6H	119
2	K6YK	101
3	K6TQ	72
4	NC6R	55
5	W6RKC	49

Data

1	W1SRD	193
2	W6DR	145
3	WU7W	138
4	NJ6G	128
5	W6KAP	119

20 and 10 Years Ago in The Nugget

May 2006

The May 2006 meeting was held at Round Table Pizza in Martel. Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, was the featured speaker: “Kristen will explore the emerging field of Software Defined Radio (SDR). Come and hear about the future of Ham Radio! Kirsten will describe how the ever increasing speed and capability of digital signal processors are rapidly moving radio systems from all analog, to DSP based IF processing found in many current ham transceivers, to the nearly all digital radio architectures of tomorrow. The day when a transceiver will consist of a low noise, wide dynamic range receive preselector-amplifier and a wide band power amplifier both interfaced to a fast and powerful DSP based computer system is not many years away…”

Field Day plans continue: “Since we do not have a designated “club cook,” everyone is expected to provide their own for food for the weekend. There will be a camp stove and a BBQ grill on site for folks to use for cooking and we have secured a large coffee-maker which will keep us supplied with “go juice” for the entire weekend.”

“If your spring cleaning produces any un-needed transmitting tube sockets, please let N6JV know. Large numbers are required for the tube museum project.” de Norm, N6JV

Three new members! Lila Jean KG6YSR, Barry K3UG, and some guy named Bob W1RH. More from Lila Jean “I passed the General Theory test and am studying for the CW test which I will be taking May 20.”

May 2016

The May 2016 meeting was held at Max’s/Holiday Inn in Auburn. The program was TBD, you’ll just have to wait for next month to find out.

President Shirl AA6K announced, “In the event you have not yet heard the news here it is; the MLDXCC is the official winner of the gavel for the ARRL Sweepstakes medium club. Congratulations to all who made this happen! At our next few meetings we need to discuss the possibility of defending this title. If the NCCC does not go for the Sweepstakes we should have another run at it but it won’t be as easy this year as we have set ourselves up as the visible target.”

There were several pages of photos of members displaying lumber. You should go look at them!

This issue had an actual table of Meeting Locations listed.

• Mountain Mikes, Martel
• Spaghetti Factory, Stockton
• Max’s, Auburn
• Denny’s, Cameron Park
• Habanero Hots, Lodi
• Thai House Restaurant, Valley Springs

Did these snippets from years ago trigger any good memories? If so, please send them for inclusion in the next issue of The Nugget!

Resources

Check out the Resources menu up there at the top of every web page for useful DX and contest info.

Prepared for the MLDXCC by Editor and Webwookie Jeff WK6I. Please do send me any corrections, omissions, or material for future issues of The Nugget. It is much appreciated!