Are you ready for the Southwest convention? Now is the time for the yearly Southwestern Division ARRL convention and it will be in the San Diego section in the town of Escondido. This will provide us with another weekend away from the Arizona heat. As usual, we will have many presentations and lots of vendors along with VE exams. The Holiday Inn is the hosting hotel. They are still taking reservations. I am looking for some new equipment and will be checking out the vendors to see what new product is available. I will be out of state from August 12-20 for vacation the first part of the week and the convention the last part of the week. We have two (2) new clubs in the state, The near Space Amateur Radio Club in Phoenix and the Air Museum Amateur Radio Club in Williams. The address and POC for these clubs and others can be found on the state web site, www.qsl.net/arrlaz. Tom Fagan, WB7NXH, is the webmaster and has been doing a great job. Also on the web is a listing of the latest ARRL volunteer’s for the section. Check out our web site and if you have any ideas on improvement, let us know. Here in Arizona we have over 50 clubs located in every part of the state. This means that you have no excuse for not being a part of club activities. These clubs do a lot of community service and can always use experienced operators. If you need list of the clubs you can contact the club coordinator, Bruce Makas, K1MY or me, both our e-mail address are through "arrl.net". Here in the state we have three (3) DX clubs, Northern Arizona DX association, Central Arizona DX Association, and the Southern Arizona DX association. These clubs are very active and provide information on where to find the latest DX stations, equipment needed, and even tips on what techniques to use. Because of these people taking time to answer my questions and provide me with a few tips, I was able to obtain DXCC easily. The newsletter from the Hualapai ARC contained an article on the new space station. Take a look at this picture from the NASA web site, http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg, it is interesting and shows where world population is located and what areas of our planet are very much industrialized. Don’t forget the Kingman Hamfest on 28 September 2002. All information can be obtained on their web site, www.qsl.net/harc-az, or you can call Bob Kimbrell, W7KU, at 928-692-5440. Also start planning for the Fall Hamfest at Mesa Community College on 07 December 2002. See you in Kingman, Clifford Hauser, KD6XH