Organizing a RadioSport club is not a simple task and Bob, K8IA with 50 years of Amateur Radio experience is founding another. He was first licensed in 1957 at 11 years of age and his callsign was K8HLR. Seven years later in 1964, he successfully passed his Extra Class examination, and in 1976 pinned the callsign K8IA to his shirt.
The 1970s, at least for me, was a benchmark RadioSport era when passionate 20 and 30 somethings broke new ground. Bob, at this time, served twice on the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee and helped co-found the Mad River Radio Club (MRRC).
Not one to stand down from leadership responsibilities, K8IA, served as Contest Coordinator for the Central Arizona DX Association (CADXA) and Board of Directors as well. His achievements also include the prestigious CADXA DXer of the Year award and DX Honor Roll with 346 all-time countries confirmed.
There remains new ground to break and I want to thank Bob, K8IA for answering my questions. My best regards and may success follow as the Arizona Outlaw Contest Club establishes itself as a perennial organization of passionate and dedicated RadioSport operators.
Tell us when you became interested in RadioSport?
I was first licensed as a Novice (KN8HLR) in Detroit in August 1957, at age 11. I didn't have a station set up until sometime in October of the same year. My first interest in RadioSport was after hearing the commotion going on in the ARRL Sweepstakes, November 1957. Next followed the winter Novice Roundup (February?) in 1958. On one of those I recall my score as 8 qso's in 6 sections, SS I think. That got me going.
In 1969 thru 1973, A friend, WA8LYF now K8LX, and I, partnered in the cost and construction of a 3 tower DX contest station at his Dad's farm 30 miles north of Detroit. We were "kids". Steve was 19 when we started this endeavor and I was 23. Being as well funded as any average young ham (as in NOT well funded, hi) we resorted in a lot of used stuff and built the rest. He already had an 80' tower when I entered the seen and we put up 120' R-45 and 140' R-25 during our partnership. We had some big quads there, and even a two element full sized 40m quad at 120', more or less unheard of in the late 60's. The contest prowess of that station opened up the DX contesting world for me.
I remained a very active contester until 1985, appearing in all the major and minor DX Contests (K8IA since 1975) and the bigger domestic contests as well. I had a long hiatus from ham radio, about 1986 and did not come back until 2001. I have contested feverishly since then!
Describe your first ham radio station and a favorite operating moment as a novice?
Very modest station, as I was 11 yrs old when I got my Novice license in 1957, and didn't have much money. I had a Heathkit DX-20 transmitter (50w input, probably 30 w output), a Hallicrafters S-40B receiver and one 40m dipole at about 23' high. That DX-20 was xtal controlled and I had only 3 xtals. Two operated 40m, and one operated 3rd overtone on 15. That was it, 3 frequencies. VFOs weren't allowed then for Novices.
I guess my favorite operating moment was a DX moment and not a contesting one. Some G3 had wandered into the 40m Novice CW and (7150 to 7200 then) and called CQ on 7155, or something like that. My lowest xtal was 7163, I called him and he tuned the band came back and gave me a 349! Nutso considering that AM BC wiped out that band over there back then (and until recently).
Did Amateur Radio play a part in choosing your career path?
It sure did!
I had a rather checkered youth and being in Murder City (Detroit) didn't help that any. Broken home, gang involvement and no father figure for a long while and a mother who had to work a to just to make ends meet, let alone spend any time with me. She remarried just before I turned 10. My step father was a tough guy, but he was an engineer and knew the value of an education. He cajoled me all thru my teens and I graduated HS and went to college (Wayne State University in Detroit) and got a BSEE in 1970.
My jobs throughout both a corporate and a consulting engineering (PE) career, mostly involved two way radio and microwave systems and the integration and testing of very large systems for municipal, state and federal clients. That specialty would not have interested me without a ham radio background.
Why did you chose RadioSport given the number of operating niches in Amateur Radio?It was either DXing or Contesting for me. Both of those niches brought out operating skill sets that I enjoyed and a technical skill set (HF antenna design) that still sparks me today.
DXing was more interesting then than now, as it was more difficult. Now its "click on a spot, click on a keyer message, and log the station". Very boring to me. Back in the no-cluster days you actually had to find the DX yourself and it was much more of a chase. Although I am on the DXCC Honor Roll, the only DXing that I really do today is on 160 Meters. That band offers a real receive (and transmit too) challenge.
Contesting bit me from the start, and when I could actually afford significant station upgrades, they were all done with contesting as the main thrust. No other niche in ham radio ever could come close to capturing me, totally.
What is the purpose of a Contest Advisory Committee based on your two term experience?
I was on the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee for two terms in the mid-70's. The CAC, and the other Advisory Committees, were a relatively new concept then and much smaller in number than now. Back then they were appointed one per call area as compared to one per ARRL Division in modern days.
I don't recall anything specifically significant that came out of our CAC back then. In a large respect, it was a committee put into existence to promote the ARRL stance on contests, not cause too many waves, but still provide contesters with an input process for rules changes etc. Rules modifications, then, were difficult and, as it probably should be, not particularly a streamlined or well defined process. Lots of politics. But that was 34 yrs ago!
I recall a lot of head butting with the League then by many on the CAC. I can't comment on recent years, since I have had no CAC involvement at all for a long time. At any rate, it did introduce me to the politics of being on an advisory group and the workings of HQ. Very educational.
Tell us about your challenges as a co-founder of the Mad River Radio Club?
Crazy times for sure. The MI/OH/IN/IL contest contingent had no particular wide reaching contest club to give any of the east coast clubs any kind of competition at all. All that existed then (early 70's) was a loose bunch of local clubs that turned in individual scores for, primarily, ARRL Sweepstakes. No one large SS club! No MRRC no SMC, nothing of contest significance at all in the Midwest.
Quoting from K8CC's writeup on the SS section of the MRRC website, "MRRC was formed in 1971 by a group of Great Lakes Division contesters expressly for the purpose of winning the SS affiliated Club Competition against the giants of the day (Potomac Valley Radio Club in VA, Frankford Radio Club in PA, and Murphy’s Marauders in CT)."
Btw, Murphy Marauders eventually morphed into YCCC, the Yankee Clipper Contest Club.
That original organization meeting was in Dayton, 1971, and included 5 of us. I recall only 4 of them. Doc Sheller WA8ZDF (now K8RR), Dick Bennett K8EHU (now K8MZ), Terry Dilahunty now K7TD (can't recall his OH call back then) and myself, Bob Epstein K8HLR (now K8IA). The fifth guy in that organization meeting may have been Ron Harps (now K8NZ) or Jim Staal (now K8MR) but I cant say for sure. Probably was Ron.
That meeting kicked off about 1am in Dayton, in Doc's room, I think. Many of the five attendees were in pretty poor cndx for a meeting, for sure. It was late and most of us had been partying with other contesters all evening. Sitting down was a good thing!
Dick Bennett unveiled a map of 4 states with the locations of significant SS participants and tacked it to the wall. He produced a scale circle of whatever was the club circle rule then (135 mile diameter?) and we fit in the best scorers of those states (primarily MI/OH/IN) for our first "membership".
Doc threw a dart at the map circle and it landed near the Mad River in west central Ohio. MRRC was born!
Challenges were many. After all, we were an upstart club that successfully took on the "old guard" clubs of contesting and caused ARRL HQ to rewrite several Club Competition rules. But that was then.
As a contest coordinator, what essential activities are required to build a successful RadioSport event?
All the usual answers apply here. Having a contest that interests the masses, a reasonable scoring procedure, support by the major contest logging program providers, good "advertising", a active sponsoring group, good awards etc. I was one of the original rules committeemen for the Seventh Area QSO Party (7QP) and am still involved as the Arizona Captain. Next year will be its 5th successful year! That contest is a good model for success for others that contemplate a start up event.
Arizona Outlaws Contest Club? Share with us about building a competitive club from the ground floor?
Arizona Outlaws Contest Club is brand new, officially announced on June 5, 2009, less than three weeks ago from when I am writing this. We are 105 strong as of today, June 23. It was organized to bring a contest focus throughout the entire state of Arizona.
What a lot of the members don't know is that a statewide Arizona contest club was actually conceived, by several of the people now on its Board, three or more years ago! We were several of the contest core of the Central Arizona DX Association, a long established DX club with a proud tradition. The timing for the full organization of an AOCC, though, developed only recently.
My function, with CADXA, was as its Contest Coordinator, a position I was appointed to in 2003 and held until a few weeks ago. It's a club of about 130 members, but only about 20 are what you would call intense contesters and about 25 others in the "casual" contester corner. The rest of the club is mainly DXers and some were actually coal anti-contest types. In addition, my agreement with the CADXA BOD, since they were a DX Club, was to promote DX related contests only. This left a segment of contests and contesters without much representation at CADXA.
AOCC BOD was chosen; AB7E, K7WP, K8IA, KC7V and N7RQ, all very experienced and well known contesters.
The spin off from CADXA was an amicable one. The CADXA BOD fully understood what we were doing in organizing a contest-only club and endorsed what we did. In fact, most of the CADXA BOD joined AOCC! Plus all but two of the 45 CADXA contesters joined AOCC, and quickly. None of the AOCC BOD, all CADXA members too, have any intentions of quitting CADXA. The two clubs have their defined purposes and both are noble endeavors.
The response has been amazing. Within the first hours, we had stations sign up that are in the top tier of contesting in Arizona. K6LL, W7WW, KO7AA/WB0O, K5RR to name a few. The momentum continued with many contesters of all levels joining. As of June 23 we have 106 members!
Our next step is ARRL Affiliation and continuing with the organizational efforts to keep everyone interested. Right at the start we established a AOCC Reflector which is doing a good job for club member communications.
We have to keep the momentum and enthusiasm going for AOCC to be successful! We are confident that will happen. Any suggestions for ham radio operators who want to participate in RadioSport?
Catch on to others that participate in contesting and get involved with local or regional clubs that have a contest focus. Participate, ask questions etc. I think you'll find most veteran contesters more than willing to help out. There is a world of contesting info now on the Internet. Dial in and use it!
Share your vision of RadioSport in the year 2020?
I'll be only 74 then, so I'll still be around. AOCC will have over 300 members and, considering all the CA hams that are coming to AZ, we may be even able to challenge NCCC! (Well....yeah, that's far fetched, but you never know).
Technological advancements in contesting will abound. Heck, just a few years ago, who would have thought cw skimmers would be an easy reality? In 2020, we'll probably have a dozen different assisted classes, some of which will require no attention at all. That kind of sucks, imho, but technology does not stand still. Some of the real SO2R gurus of today will be complaining that their SO6R stations are not enough.
Heck, who knows what it will be. I just hope contesting stays around for a long time. It seems as strong as ever!
Why I like Field Day? I have another opportunity at learning and meeting other ham radio operators in our county. There are good memories in my long term read only and Field Day operation is among them. Moments exist like Polaroid pictures stretching across my lifespan from the novice days into an unknown tomorrow.
