beginner contest stns

Wed Apr 17 12:53:18 EDT 1996

 >>Since you were discussing the beginner stations of current contesters, I
 >>thought I would kick in a description of my beginner stations!  There have
 >>been a few upgrades in more recent years...
 >>
 >>It will be interesting to hear descriptions of the beginner stations of
 >>some other CONTESTers!

 K5> Well, here is the early K5NA story.

 K5> Dec 1957 - I am 15 years old when I pass the novice exam at the Jasper
 K5> (TX) high school radio club.

 K5> Jan 1958 - My mom (a school teacher) goes in hock to buy me a "good"
 K5> receiver on the time payment plan. It was a used SX-100 from World
 K5> Radio Labs. A Heathkit DX-20 kit is also ordered.

EGADS! An SX-100 (drool)! I'm still playing catch up with some of you guys!

After earning my radio merit badge and becoming licensed as WV6CZR (Czar) in
Nov'58 at age 13, I did yard work for the neighbors in to afford a Knight
Kit "Ocean Hopper" with plug in coils for $14.95. I really wanted a "Band
Spanner" which was band switched but it exceeded my budget at $22.95. I built
a 25W rock-bound 40m rig from a Radio-Electronics article with a 6AG7/6L6
(metal tube) tube lineup and plug in coil tank with a paint can shield. I
painted the chassis with very cool looking copper paint!

I erected a 40m vertical fed with TV twinlead outside my parents
bedroom (next to the cold water faucet) using a glass Coke bottle for an
insulator. I couldn't afford a T/R relay so I used a knife switch but for some
reason located it on the wall of my parents bedroom and had to run from room
to room every time I turned it over!  I remember working my first DX
- what I copied as an SN7. I couldn't figure out where "SN" was so I logged
him as "SM7" and bragged to my friends that my antenna was really working
since I worked Sweden in the afternoon on 40 CW! Luckily, I didn't hear many
answers to my CQ's with this setup, which I used to justify getting an S-85
and Heathkit Q Multiplier the following Christmas and Birthday. Over the next
few years, this station evolved to a trap vertical on the roof and TA-33JR on
a pushup mast (purchased from famous DXer ex WA6SBO), driven by a Heathkit
Mowhawk/Apache combo and homebrew 811A KW, my "dream station". I loved the SS
in those days but never had much success competing with the likes of W6HJT
and his 100' boom 5 el 40, etc.!

73 Bill
N6CQ at paonline.com

>From stockmal at usa.nai.net (stockmal)  Wed Apr 17 17:52:29 1996
From: stockmal at usa.nai.net (stockmal) (stockmal)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 12:52:29 -0400
Subject: e-mail address needed...
Message-ID: <199604171652.MAA18102 at usa.nai.net>

Hi All,
        Does anyone know N8BJG's e-mail address?  I tried "n8bjg at erinet.com"
and got bounced.
                Thanks for your help
                        73 Phil/N1TMG
************************************************************************
    The Stockmal Household......................stockmal at nai.net    
                      http://www.nai.net/~stockmal         
                Middle Atlantic District Labs - MAD Labs
               IT'S NOT THAT IT DOESN'T WORK AS A COMPUTER, 
                  IT JUST WORKS BETTER AS A PAPERWEIGHT
************************************************************************

>From Hans Brakob <71111.260 at CompuServe.COM>  Wed Apr 17 18:16:02 1996
From: Hans Brakob <71111.260 at CompuServe.COM> (Hans Brakob)
Date: 17 Apr 96 13:16:02 EDT
Subject: QRZ Robinson Crusoe
Message-ID: <960417171602_71111.260_EHM87-1 at CompuServe.COM>

Author Unknown - Adapted for cq-contest by K0HB

There was this DXer, who in the valley of the sunspot cycle, 
decided to take a cruise ship trip in the south Pacific
for the first time. It was wonderful, the experience of his
life. He was being waited on hand an foot. But, it did not
last. A typhoon came up unexpectedly. The ship was blown
onto some uncharted reef and sank almost immediately.

The man found himself, he knew not how, swept up on the shore of
an island. There was nothing else anywhere to be seen. No person,
no supplies, nothing. The man looked around. There were some
bananas and coconuts, but that was it. He was desperate, and
forlorn, but decided to make the best of it. So for the next four
months he ate bananas, drank coconut juice and mostly looked to
the sea mightily for a ship to come to his rescue.

One day, as he was lying on the beech stroking his beard and
looking for a ship, he spotted movement out of the corner of his
eye. Could it be true, was it a ship? No, from around the corner
of the island came this rowboat. In it was the most gorgeous woman
he had ever seen, or at least seen in 4 months. She was tall,
tanned, and her blond hair flowing in the sea breeze gave her an
almost ethereal quality. She spotted him also as he was waving and
yelling and screaming to get her attention. She rowed her boat
towards him.

In disbelief, he asked, "Where did you come from? How did you get
  here"?

She said, "I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed
  on this island when my cruise ship sank"

"Amazing", he said, "I didn't know anyone else had survived. How
  many of you are there? Where, did you get the rowboat? You must
  have been really lucky to have a rowboat wash-up with you?"

"It is only me", she said, "and the rowboat didn't wash up,
  nothing else did."

"Well then", said the man, "how did you get the rowboat?"

"I made the rowboat out of raw material that I found on the
  island", replied the woman. "The oars were whittled from Gum tree
  branches,  I wove the bottom from Palm branches, and the sides
  and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree".

"But, but, asked the man, what about tools and hardware, how did
  you do that?"

"Oh, no problem, replied the woman, on the south side of the
  island there is a very unusual strata of alluvial rock exposed.
  I found that If I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln,
  it melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools,
  and used the tools to make the hardware. But, enough of that,
  she said. Where do you live?"

At last the man was forced to confess that he had been
  sleeping on the beach.

"Well, let's row over to my place, she said." So they both got
  into the rowboat and left for her side of island.

The woman easily rowed them around to a wharf that led to the
 approach to her place. She tied up the rowboat with a beautifully
 woven hemp rope. They walked up a stone walk and around a Palm
 tree, there stood an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white.

"It's not much, she said, but I call it home. Sit down please,
 would you like to have a drink?"

"No, said the man, one more coconut juice and I will puke."

"It won't be coconut juice, the woman replied, I have a still,
 how about a Pina Colada? Trying to hide his continued
 amazement, the man accepted, and they sat down on her couch to
 talk.

After a while, and they had exchanged their stories, the woman
 asked, "Tell me, have you always had a beard?"

"No", the man replied, "I was clean shaven all of my life, and
  even on the cruise ship".

"Well if you would like to shave, there is a man's razor upstairs
 in the cabinet in the bathroom." So, the man, no longer
 questioning anything, went upstairs to the bath room. There in
 the cabinet was a razor made from a bone handle, two shells honed
 to a hollow ground edge were fastened on to its end inside of a
 swivel mechanism. The man shaved, showered and went back down
 stairs..

"You look great, said the woman, I think I will go up and slip
 into something more comfortable." So she did.

And, the man continued to sip his Pina Colada. After a short
 time, the woman returned wearing fig leafs strategically
 positioned and smelling faintly of gardenia.

"Tell me, she asked, we have both been out here for a very long
 time with no companionship. You know what I mean. Have you been
 lonely, is there anything that you really miss? Something that
 all men and woman need. Something that it would be really nice to
 have right now."

"Yes there is, the man replied, as he moved closer to the woman
 while fixing a winsome gaze upon her, "Tell me ... Do you
 happen to have a 20-meter rig around. This place HAS to be a 
 New One!"

>From Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW" <gswanson at arrl.org  Wed Apr 17 18:20:00 1996
From: Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW" <gswanson at arrl.org (Swanson, Glenn,  KB1GW)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 96 13:20:00 EDT
Subject: Puerto Rico
Message-ID: <31752881 at arrl.org>

     Greetings,

     Looks like I may be able to do some contesting (or at least some 
general operating) from Parguera in PR. Anyone know *anything* about this 
area? Beaches? Shopping? Resorts? (YL will be along.) It's in the southwest 
portion of PR. How log to drive there from, say, San Jaun? Any info this 
esteemed group can provide--direct to me at: kb1gw at arrl.org would be 
appreciated. Thanks for the bandwidth!
73, Glenn, KB1GW 

>From Robert Penneys <radio at UDel.Edu>  Wed Apr 17 18:56:51 1996
From: Robert Penneys <radio at UDel.Edu> (Robert Penneys)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:56:51 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <199604171756.NAA20129 at copland.udel.edu>

Date for DEL QSO Party?
For some reason, this is going out without a subject line. Third try.

We intend to reactivate the Delaware QSO Party this fall and seek the least
conflicting date - Sept. is top choice, then Oct.

Any suggestions?   Please excuse repost but I am trying to get that
subject line on.

Tnx agn.   Bob WN3K   Frankford Radio Club     GO FRC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>From WX9E" <WX9E at sbbs.net   Wed Apr 17 13:41:58 1996
From: WX9E" <WX9E at sbbs.net  (WX9E)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 96 12:41:58
Subject: Mis-reported logs
Message-ID: <9603178297.AA829770118 at sbbs.SBBS.NET>

     I can't believe this has happened to me again.  Over the past 5 years 
     I have had around 7 or 8 logs either lost or mis-reported by the ARRL. 
     There was a thread about this last year the last time it happened to 
     me.  Well, it has happened again.   

     In the 160 conetst, I made a meager 5 or 6 QSOs with my 80m dipole and 
     Low Power.  I clearly noted Low Power on my log sheet / summary sheet. 
     I am listed as High Power in the results.

     And to top this, for some reason I am listed in WI for SS CW.  I have 
     no idea how that could have happened....  I did operate only a few 
     miles from the border, but I was in IL.  It is noted on my sum sheet, 
     my return address, and about 40 times on every single page of the log 
     about.  

     What is a person to do?   Anyone else have their logs lost or 
     misreported?

     Reply direct.

     Paul Gentry   WX9E

     WX9E at sbbs.net  or  WX9E at aol.com  

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