Mysteries of the 070 Club Explained!
N3DQU@...
Every so often we hear from an 070 Club member who wonders why he got his
certificate in the mail but not his endorsements, or visa versa. For those newcomers to the 070 Club and those members who have often wondered but were afraid to ask, here is a brief description of the 070 Club organization and what happens with your applications. The 070 Club is a PSK awards program sponsored by the Penn-Ohio DX Society, a very small (4 regular members, 4 honorary members as of this date) HF-oriented club located in western Pennsylvania and more commonly known by its initials PODXS (properly pronounced PO-DIX), not to be confused with the Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin, a very fine weekly DX newsletter published by Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW. The 070 Club itself is run by two guys, both named Jay. For convenience sake and to avoid any confusion, they will be referred to by their callsigns KA3X and N3DQU. KA3X is the manager of the 070 Club and holds certificate #001. He is the Top Banana and takes care of the new members, issues 070 Club member numbers, member certificates, Ragchewers certificates and QSO upgrade spots (e.g. 50, 100, 150, etc). KA3X's email address is < JHudak3rd@aol.com >. N3DQU holds certificate #010 and takes care of the 070 Club website and all of the information placed therein. He also takes care of the 070 Club reflector, issues the endorsements (e.g. Aloha, Lower 48, Hot Dog!, etc.) and often spends his off hours thinking up new ones just to keep you guys busy! N3DQU is also the chief contest manager and takes care of such things as the PSKFest (with much appreciated help from N6YIH/7) and the Three-Day Weekend (TDW), which is coming up this June btw. N3DQU's email address is < n3dqu@aol.com >. If they are lucky, KA3X and N3DQU may see each other once a month. There is no central database and no meetings to conduct 070 Club business. Almost all correspondence regarding the 070 Club is passed between the two via the internet, and each mails out the respective items that they are responsible for to the members. For example, if a member puts in for an upgrade to the 300 QSO level and also applies for an Aloha endorsement, then the 300 spot will be mailed out by KA3X and the Aloha endorsement will be mailed out by N3DQU. For best results, please send your applications and requests to the person responsible for that particular item. If you send a QSO upgrade to N3DQU for example, your request has to be forwarded to KA3X and may result in a delay. By the same token, if you send an endorsement request to KA3X, then he must forward the information to N3DQU, once again possibly resulting in a delay. So you can see that it is quite possible to receive your upgrades, certificates, and endorsements all at different times, even though you had applied for them at the same time. Also, please note that when there are many endorsements to be sent out for 070 Club member participation in a PSK event like the PSKFest, TDW or TARA Rumble, then the turnaround time for certificates and endorsements will also be longer until things get caught up. There are also two new programs sponsored by the 070 Club that are worth mentioning here. The first is called the "Loyal Order of the Narrow-Banded Phaseshifters" or LONP for short and is run by 070 Club member K8IJ. The other program is of interest to those who are into the SWL part of our hobby and is run by another 070 Club member, KF4FHS. Information on both of these awards along with all the 070 Club information can be found up on the 070 Club website at < http://hometown.aol.com/n3dqu/podxs070.htm >. The 070 Club is open to all amateurs interested in the PSK31 mode who are licensed to operate on the HF bands. Operation of this awards program is made possible thru the support of the Penn-Ohio DX Society and 070 Club members. Thank you for your participation and enthusiasm! 73 de Jay N3DQU.
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