HI OM,
I really appreciated your read and I'm
sorry we didn't get to work in the
contest. Looking at my log, we never have
had a Q yet... but I look forward to it
when we do.
73 & Merry Christmas,
Gary
KA1J
> I was playing on 160 back in the late 1950s with and S40B RX and a
> much modified ARC5 TX from our farm in Central KS as W0PSF. Would
> work about 130 Qs in the CQ contest. Took advantage of a trip to
> Boston to visit Stew in his attic shack and got to hit the key on his
> spark rig. Life and work got in the way and my CW skills went way
> down (from the straight key level!). Now at age 77 I saw the notice
> for the Stew.
>
> When we built my house I put in a large office/hamshack on the 2nd
> floor and totally covered the walls with aluminum foil and lots of
> spare wire all anchored in three places to ground. Not sure why.
> Anyway, I have some cables going to the tower base so lifted one, tied
> a 120 ft wire to it up to the flag pole and down again. Checked the
> SWR against the screen in the room with the SARK-100. Close. Tied
> the Omni VII and loaded. Couldn't run more than 20 watts or dumped
> the computer monitors. Off to a Christmasconcert.
>
> Back to the contest. Found out the Bencher key didn't work. Contacts
> corroded. Fixed that. Gave a call to a loud sig running about 25
> wpm. Right back, but the report at 30wpm. Now was that a R? No an
> EM, by then I'd forgotten the #. Either age or lack of practice, that
> was beyond my comprehension. Sent a ? and my grid report. Got an R
> back and away he went. Oh well, I got the grid from his next QSO. So
> I slowed my keyer way down to 12 wpm. Next guy slowed and OK. Then
> back to the fast guys. I'd call and they were back at way too fast
> for me. Worked both coasts with 20 watts, but waiting for some of
> those guys calling CQ over and over at 30 wpm... and no replies...so I
> could fill their report was a pain. So I stopped calling the fast and
> loud guys. After 31 contacts in 2 hours decided this wasn't much fun
> so off to bed.
>
> Kind of frustrating. This morning I came up with a plan. I'm not
> going to win anything anyway so: If I'm around next year I'm going to
> put up the Titanex, now resting in the shed, get the the Orion and
> ACOM 2000 set. Run the contest and not bother with copying the
> reports. Will just send in a check log. Won't sweat the...was that
> an EM or W, and EN or R, etc. Will have a good time and get back to
> SSB.
>
> Meanwhile I need to dig out the newsletters Stu used to send in red
> and black mimeo with all of the personalized notes as well as the
> SWL I got from him when he was on an European cruise....I guess it
> was a bit of trouble to get a big tube type RX approved for use on the
> deck! Thanks stu for being the inspiration for all of the 160
> activity...even if the CW has moved faster than my skills. See you
> guys next year.
>
> N0UU
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