Category: CW

Rig Nostalgia – the Good Old Days

I was just browsing some pictures on the web this evening and came across a photo of what my original receiver looked like as a Novice licensee. Actually I was a SWL even before that.

lafayette-he80

So I said, “Hey, maybe I can find a photo of my first transmitter.” So here it is!

dx100b_front

The Lafayette receiver and the Heathkit DX-100B transmitter served me well. I actually don’t remember what ever happened to them. I like to think I passed them on to another ham, but I draw a total blank … I have no idea where they went.

What I do remember, however, is the weight of that DX-100B. It had a huge transformer and weighed a ton! I remember that vividly … tubes and transformers — not built for portable operation. The antenna was an end-fed long wire. I haven’t a clue about what I used to tune it. I only had two crystals to start with … both in the 40 meter Novice band. Worked quite a few stations using that combo. Ah, the good old days!

 

73 de Dick K4FTW

 

More QSO Party

I worked a few stations on both CW and PHONE in the New York QSO Party on Saturday evening on 40 and 80 meters. Some were pretty strong and I got a couple of comments that I had a good signal into New York. That always makes me feel good when someone makes a comment like that :-).

Earlier, I went to the QCWA Chapter 119 lunch. Met a lot of great guys and matched up some faces and calls. The program was by Stu, WA4JUO, on his trip to China. He really made some interesting points and gave a lot of insight into not just ham radio there, but society in general. It was quite enjoyable. The 80 meter Chapter net is tomorrow (Sunday) morning, so I’ll check in there before heading out to church.

Hope to get a little more air time on the bands tomorrow afternoon and evening. Today has been a gray day with showers, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with a high of 64F.

73 de Dick K4FTW

Good Ops

OK … finally getting some action above 14 MHz. Ten through seventeen meters all were showing some life this weekend. The WARC bands were especially fruitful. I suspect the RTTY contest drove quite a few onto the newer bands. Forty meters was a zoo with the RTTY contest pretty much covering the whole band. Not much room left for CW. Got shoved right down to the bottom of the band.

I worked a few new countries and a bunch of Texans in the Texas QSO Party so I’m happy. It never fails to amaze me how supposedly “dead” bands come to life during a major contest weekend.

The new vertical is working out pretty well, but I’m not sure if its better or that much different from the Windom. I did a bit of work on the OCF antenna, fine tuning the length and getting the ends up higher and do see some improvement in its performance. Sometimes one antenna is better than the other on receive and the next time it’s the other. I do notice that the vertical has a lower noise level most of the time, which is exactly the opposite of what I’d always been led to believe. So go figure … I’ll use whatever works the best at the time.

Well, the bands are still pretty good so enough writing … back to the radio!

73 de Dick

Progress

Well, I’m still wringing out the new vertical. I’m likin’ it! I had time to work a couple of stations tonight — European Russia on 20 and Greenland on 12. The XP3 station was booming in … 59+ at times. He had a respectable pileup going and I grabbed him sending my callsign once.

Overall though, the bands don’t seem too lively. Not much action on either antenna here at just past 0000Z. It was better earlier in the evening. Now’s a good time to catch up on YouTube 🙂 .

 

73 de Dick