Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Pre-Stew
Call: W1NN
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 55 Total Score = 91
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
This month marks the 60th anniversary of getting my ticket back in October of
1957. My call then was KN8HVT. To commemorate the occasion, last week I hauled
out my old Viking Ranger (a crain would be helpful for this) and Hammarlund
HQ-110C and set them up on my operating desk. They take a lot of space!
Amazingly they still work after years of just sitting there. The RX is the
original radio I purchased in 1958 while still a Novice and has been in its box
for most of the last 50 years. I bought the Ranger about 10 years ago from
another ham but it is identical to the one I bought in kit form right after I
upgraded to a General in 1958. Last week was the first time I plugged the
Ranger in and I am so happy that it works. Boy, does that radio get warm! After
it's been on for a while, you can't keep your hand on top of the cabinet for
more than a few seconds. It could almost provide enough heat for the whole
second floor of my house. The consumed electricity per QSO with this station
must be about 100 times what the K3 uses.
I worked about a hundred stations in the PAQP last weekend and decided to use
these old radios in the Pre-Stew this time and see if I could work some
stations further away than PA. No problem. I had lots of practice zero
beating last weekend so I was ready to go this week. I was pretty much able to
work anything I could hear, with a couple of exceptions. Unfortunately the
receiver, which never was all that good, has deteriorated in performance and
there are sections of the band that have some weird noise and blips and were
basically unusuable. There is no bandwidth adjustment so you hear a slice of
the band about 3 khz wide, making it tough to hear the weak stations, but the
challenge was fun and I enjoyed watching the Q total increase. I still have my
original Vibroplex bug but I couldn't make the CW sound very good and I can't
monitor my CW, so I sent everything with a straight key at about 12 wpm. I
even had a few answere to my QRS CQs.
The only stations that I could hear but couldn't hear me were K7RAT and N3BB.
I think I got a couple of ?? from Tree, but quite a few stations were calling
him and then he left, so no luck this time. I have had trouble working him
with my barefoot K3 previously, so its probably not the fault of the old
radios.
Lots of fun plaing with the old boat anchors, but I won't be selling my K3.
73, Hal W1NN
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