Interesting stuff!
I was licensed in 1967 so I'm just a youngster to you all. But I started
subscribing to both QST and 73 shortly after I got my Novice license.
I met Wayne a few years ago at a local hamfest, where he was a guest
speaker. I have to say he looks really good for his age!
73, Zack W9SZ
On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 6:37 AM, Carl <km1h@jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
> Bill, from my reference point I was 2 years ahead of you and graduated HS
> in June 57 and was out in Valley Stream on LonGG Island by then.Originally
> lived on Greene Ave in Brooklyn between Evergreen and Bushwick.
>
> Some of those calls I remembered but didnt "hang" with any particular
> group. Radio was a second or third interest at the time shared with girls
> and stock car racing at Freeport. Mario was a good friend for decades thru
> many of my moves up to the present one. I was a very early 6M SSB convert
> using a 10A to start with.
>
> Lettine (aka Latrine) was also in Valley Stream and I survived maybe 5
> months as a part timer, not a pleasant experience.
>
> My visits to Wayne didnt involve 73 except when I volunteered to play
> gopher for National and drop a radio off. I met very few of his remote staff
> except when 73 and National were at ARRL Conventions. I was more in tune
> technically with Ham Radio Magazine which was only a 30 minute drive instead
> of an hour. Jim Fisk was also a regular visitor at National and I'd pick his
> brain every time! I used to hunt around Pack Monadnock mountain which was
> the "wall" separating both magazine companies.
>
> Ive never missed Brooklyn or LonGG Island for a minute, I was born for the
> wide open spaces.
>
> Carl
> KM1H
> K2QJM & K1UHY in the vintage years
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "William M. Pasternak" <
> newsline@ix.netcom.com>
> To: "Carl" <km1h@jeremy.mv.com>; "Jordan" <outposter30@shaw.ca>; <
> les@highnoonfilm.com>; "vhf email_list" <vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu>; <
> vhfcontesting@contesting.com>; <wsjtgroup@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 12:36 AM
>
> Subject: Re: [VHF] Log Periodic Antenna Performance?
>
>
> Carl,
>>
>> I think I was a few years ahead of you. I graduated High School in June
>> '59 and by that time Id already been on 6 AM a year or so. Like most in
>> Brooklyn -- on 50.4 Mc..
>>
>> Larry Levy WA2INM may best be remembered for his ongoing on-air
>> on-upsmship "contest" with Richard Cowan, WA2LRO, and Editor of CQ. Dick was
>> the son of publisher Sanford Cowan and Larry did not like muc of the
>> younger Cowan's editorial positions -- and was rather vocal in letting his
>> point of view be known -- usually by beating our LRO in working most of the
>> DX that showed up on 6 AM and doing it with only 40 watts plated modulated;
>> a Techcraft CC-50 converter and 5 el Telrex on an AR-22 rotor. I eas Levy's
>> 2nd op for a number of yrars and can vouch that all the contacts were legit.
>>
>> Other calls from that era that I can recall were the husband/wife team of
>> Lenny and Marie Simon K2RMA and K2YEA. Marie made the first ever QSL
>> confirmed 6 meter AM contact to Japan with her 40 watt Lettine 242
>> transmitter, Hallicrafters SA-40B receiver and a 4-el Telrex. I not only
>> heard the contact -- but was her proof as I recorded it on my trusty
>> Wollensak T-1500 tape recorder.
>>
>> Others of that same era were Paul Sussman, WA2KQZ; Al Falcoff WA2ERX; John
>> Peterson WA2FMF, Bob Shernan K2SJP; Henry "Hank" Feinberg K2SSQ and his
>> brother Jeff K2MOT; Mario Rotundo K2MUB; Eric "Rickey" Small, WA2AKT; Bob
>> "Mr. RCA" Leefe, K2EVR; "Coughing" Hal K2UMS; Dan Starley WA2AVI; the late
>> Lou Belsky K2VMR; and loads of others. Up your way in New England I knew
>> Dan Burbank K1BXC ad the late Carl Lindemann (whose call I cannot remember)
>> and all the folks at W2NSD/1
>>
>> If you knew Wayne in the early '70's you likely also knew -- or know my
>> buddy Warren Elly -- then WA1GUD -- now W1GUD. Warren as one of the
>> Associate Editors in that era and went on to a highly successful career at
>> the Fox TV station in Tampa as a news reporter and anchor. At 73 he was my
>> column editor for "Looking West."
>>
>> Also from that era there was the famed Kendall Webster "Ken" sessions,
>> K6MVH, who served as the Editor of 73 from about 1968 to 1974. Hes the
>> author who was "supposedly" forced to leave Southern California after
>> publishing the "Chronicles of '76" -- a kind of in-depth exposae' of
>> on-the-air lifestyle on 146.76 Mhz FM in the Los Angeles - San Diego RF
>> corridor. Most -- if not all -- 100% true.
>>
>> RE: Waynes wages? What wages. Im stiull owed payment for stuff I write
>> in the '70's. If one got a check from 73, it was a collectors item. One
>> wrote for 73 because -- unlkike QST and 73 -- one could speak ones mind and
>> opine.
>>
>> As I said: that was a very interesting era on VHF. Likely a lot more fun
>> than the scientific approach to hamming most seem to take these days. Back
>> then it was the person -- not so much the contact that really mattered.
>>
>> de
>> Bill P. / WA6ITF
>>
>>
>>
>> At 08:38 PM 5/9/2009 -0400, Carl wrote:
>>
>>> Cant say as Ive ever heard Levy but I was off to the Navy by Oct 59 and
>>> never looked back to NY except family visits.
>>>
>>> 6M was right at the peak of Cycle 19 then and I was running a HB 829B
>>> with 6L6 modulators into a HB Ed Tilton, W1HDQ, 5 el. Receiving was a HB
>>> converter into a HQ-129X at 7mc. Lots of excitement including 10M cross band
>>> QSO's with Europe and Africa.
>>>
>>> I was also on 2M with HB gear and often had Q's with Wayne Green.
>>>
>>> When I left the Navy in 10/63 Wayne and 73 was the first place I
>>> interviewed. He had a Polycom 6n2 drifter and another model for SSB which he
>>> was evaluating. His job offer was at slave wages so I declined and was
>>> offered a job at National Radio a week later where I had an enjoyable 7
>>> years.
>>>
>>> I always remained friends with Wayne, visited him whenever I was going
>>> thru Peterborough or Hancock, and even have his 16 el 6M Cushcraft
>>> collinear, one of three built. Another went to Sam Harris, W1FZJ, and I have
>>> that one also. Both have been overhauled with new center insulators and one
>>> was fixed on Europe for several years. Its an outstanding antenna and all 32
>>> el will be going up this year with one facing W and the other NW.
>>>
>>> Wayne was at Nearfest last Saturday and we had a nice chat, he is still
>>> mighty sharp.
>>>
>>> Carl
>>> KM1H
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "William M. Pasternak" <
>>> newsline@ix.netcom.com>
>>> To: "Jordan" <outposter30@shaw.ca>; <les@highnoonfilm.com>; "vhf
>>> email_list" <vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu>; <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>; <
>>> wsjtgroup@yahoogroups.com>
>>> Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 5:07 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [VHF] Log Periodic Antenna Performance?
>>>
>>>
>>> Jordan,
>>>>
>>>> How do I put this nicely. Oh wel, Ill say it this way: The Finco dual
>>>> band antenna was not an LPA. Rather, it was a true piece of (explativve
>>>> deleted).
>>>>
>>>> A company called The Finney Antenna Company brought out that "work of
>>>> art" to compliment the first-ever dual band transceiver -- the AM Polycamm
>>>> A-62. While the Polycamm has a lot going for it -- like a VFO that drifted
>>>> up the band while the receiver drifted down-band, at least -- engineerring
>>>> wise -- it kind of opened the door for what wwould come later.
>>>>
>>>> The same cannot be said for the Finco beams. It was merely a rework of
>>>> an FM broadcast receiving antenna with 4 elements for 6 meters added as
>>>> space on the boom permitted. They were a shoty boom (under 10 feetl) with
>>>> loads of elements (not stingers) that -- as I said --
>>>> were -- seemingly -- random spaced. More like trying to cram as many
>>>> elements onto the boom for looks than engineering a real antenna. (Heres a
>>>> link to a photo of the FM antenna is was based on.
>>>> http://www.ham-radio.com/k6sti/fm-5.htm)
>>>>
>>>> Needless to say that they did not have a lot of popularity -- mainly
>>>> because they did not work very well. When it was on the market, I still
>>>> lived in Brooklyn and did a load of mods on 6 meter AM gear in partnership
>>>> with the great "6 meter kid DX'er" Larry Levy, WA2INM. (My call then was
>>>> WA2HVK.)
>>>>
>>>> Anyhow, we got given one of the Finco's by 73 magazine to evaluate and
>>>> review. Larrys parents had a summer home in the Rockaways where Larry kept
>>>> a spare station and a home built copy of his 5-element wide spaced Telrex 6
>>>> meter beam -- that he made out of --ready for this --
>>>> irom plumbing pipe. At that time my station consisted of a Clegg 99'er
>>>> transceiver and a 3-ring Saturn 6 halo. I was very aware of how Larrys
>>>> signal come in using the pseudo-Telrex fed with a "Levy-designed" 20 watt
>>>> transmitter that used the Larry Levy designed "AM Hairy Modulation System."
>>>> With his 5 element iron pipe yagi, he was just above S-9. When he put up
>>>> the Finco, he dropped to an S-3. Other stations gave him similar reports.
>>>>
>>>> I was not in on the 2 meter evaluation as I had no 2 meter rig at the
>>>> time. That said, Larry reported that the performance of the Finco on 2 --
>>>> using a borrowed Gonset Communicator -- was -- just about one step short
>>>> of abonomible. A simple Hi-Gain 2 meter "loop" at ground level gave signal
>>>> reports 5 to 8 db stronger than the Finco.
>>>>
>>>> The antenna was returned to 73 with a review -- that the magazine
>>>> actually published -- which tore the antennas performance to shreds.
>>>> Needless to say, Finco stopped advertising in 73.
>>>>
>>>> By the late 1960's Finco had gone belly-up and what was left of the
>>>> companys tooling was sold to Antennacraft -- who began making consumer TV
>>>> antennas with the machinery. And for what its worth -- those TV antennas
>>>> reportedly worked about as well as the ham antenna design.
>>>>
>>>> B-T-W: If you want a cheap LPA, go out and buy a Weingard or Jerrold
>>>> VHF/UHF TV receiving antenna and extend the reflector and low-band driven
>>>> element into the 6 meter band with some salvaged aluminum tubing. The
>>>> antenna will perform far better than the Finco as I can attest having with
>>>> our group -- the "Flying amateur radio Team" --
>>>> having won numerous VHF contesrs in the late 1960's using them. I thinl
>>>> that they cost all of about $30 back then.
>>>>
>>>> The only mods -- extending the low-band elements to cover 6 meters and
>>>> adding a coax balun to convert 75 ohm coax to the 300 ohms required by the
>>>> antenna. Those little 70 cent ferrite based baluns the manufacturers
>>>> supplied for receiving burn up if you pump more than a few watts into them.
>>>> They also make interesting fireworks at night when hit by a 500 watt 6
>>>> meter amplifier.
>>>>
>>>> Ah, the good olod days when we hams would not have known a Standing Wave
>>>> if it came in, sat down next to us and oidered lunch!
>>>>
>>>> de
>>>> Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF
>>>>
>>>> Notes: "*AM Hairy Modulation." Anyone can do this on any band using
>>>> any tube-based Class C pentode or tetrode amplifier and a simple, single
>>>> ended tube type public address amplifier. You simply connect a "big old
>>>> hairy .1 or .2 mfd "condenser" -- this was the pre-capacitor era -- between
>>>> the plate of the audio output tube and the screen grid of the final class C
>>>> amplifier. You turn up the gain until you hear a splattery sounding signal
>>>> on your local receiver and then turn the modulation level down until the
>>>> signal isnt splattering. Thars the optimum modulation point. When you
>>>> call
>>>> CQ, ask the station responding how your audio sounds. If the other station
>>>> says that it "sounds hairy" turn the gain down a bit more.
>>>>
>>>> In college as an experiment our club was able to almost fully screen
>>>> modulate a 500 watt amp that ran a pair of 813's on 40 meters from an audio
>>>> amplifier consisting of a 6SL7 2-stage preamp and a single ended Class A
>>>> 6L6
>>>> audio output tube. The RF driver was a Collins 32V2 transmitter. I think
>>>> we had a National NC-109 receiver.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> At 09:43 AM 5/9/2009 -0600, Jordan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Years ago a company named FINCO made multiband VHF yagis on a common
>>>>> boom.....Stingers I believe...Something like this would undoubtedly be
>>>>> better than any LPA I've seen, but I'm not sure if you can put more than 2
>>>>> bands on the same boom with interlaced elements without seriously
>>>>> degrading
>>>>> the pattern beyond the compromises of the multiband system itself....
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps someone could run some simulations..? 73...Jordan VE6ZT
>>>>> ------
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>>>>>
>>>> ------
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>>>> Human list administrator: vhf-approval@w6yx.stanford.edu
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>>>>
>>> ------
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>
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