Monday saw the arrival of CQ Contest. However, on the way home from work,
stopped by WB4VIM's to transact one of those can't-wait-until-next-hamfest
deals. And there on his operating desk was the September issue of QST.
Strange, I thought. Was off work Wednesday enjoying (?) a day running
errands with the kids, so I made a special effort to swing by the PO box, but
still no QST. I thought - this is not good, maybe my Life Membership finally
ran out! Don't remember seeing my name/call listed as SK. So I checked
again today, Thursday, and it was finally here, along with a sample copy of
Worldradio and another interesting magazine - American Heritage of Invention
& Technology (articles on birth of cable TV and airline black boxes). As I
thumbed through the Worldradio, I noted an article titled "W4KFC is heard
again". My first thought was WOW, talk about your really
long-delayed-echoes. Then I thought that maybe those recently discovered
Martian microbes were really inteligent and that they were pirating old ham
calls. And someones EME antenna accidently strayed off the Moon and picked
up a Martian LEO repeater operator. So I read further; seems that Ken Clark,
K4OKZ has obtained his father's old call via the vanity call sign system.
Just think, in 2260, on space world Babylon 5, when some ham, using an old
museum-piece radio picks up a stray signal from W4KFC, he will not know
whether it is Ken or Vic.
OK, so I have rambled enough, so what's inside this issue of QST....
Contest related items: Heavy-Duty HF Propagation-Prediction/Analysis
Software - Part 1; SWR Analyzer Tips, Tricks and Techniques; Six Meters and
Beyond on Mt. Greylock; Happenings - WRTC-96; and Results - 96 ARRL
International DX CW.
Other interesting items: High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
(HAARP); Miniature Charge Controller; WRC-99 Survey; The Global Positioning
System; The Wolf-Hong and Rettysnitch - Lost Traditions? (are these secret
contester weapons?); Product Review - Index Laboratories QRP Plus, Comet
CA-HV HF/VHF Mobile Antenna, MFJ-906 6-meter antenna tuner, and Sigmatech DX
Peeper DX PacketCluster CW decoder; and more....
73 and good reading,
Henry Pollock - WB4HFL
henrypol@aol.com
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