[CQ-Contest] A contest that is welcomed?

[Tree]

> I've been monitoring the NWWSVHF Digest just for grins, and just 
> fur a bit now. And what I see as my personal challenge to all this 
> fun & games is havin' to seemingly be "Extra"-smart to finger-out 
> how ta assemble all the exotic toys needed fur this V/UHF weak-
> signal stuff (and hey, from a purely laymans' / marketing 
> standpoint weak-or-not, the word "weak" ain't gonna attract folks 
> much ... needs some SPIN I'm thinkin'). And I'm just a lowly 
> Technician slowly plodding toward upgrades, one of these days, and 
> usin' an old boat anchor (Drake C-Line stuff) to LISTEN to those 
> "Indonesian fishing boats" on 20M and the standard-issue FM HT is 
> the only other gizmo in the shack so far ;-) Oh yeah, and that old 
> 2M mobile on the bench in the garage that I nearly forgot.
> 
> "Transverter"? Hey, speak the Queens English to the great unwashed 
> masses of Technicians out there and maybe we can ruin, errr, I 
> meant fill-up all those 5kc gaps in yer band spacing fur ya. ;-) 
> Can an old Drake C-Line be transverted??? If so, point me to the 
> granny-proof version of a How-To, K?

Well, yes - a Drake C-Line can be transverted - as can most any
HF radio...  although I am not sure I would suggest it for something
like a KWS-1.  

A quick way to see what a transverter is, would be to check out the
Ten-Tec web site at http://www.tentec.com/Xvertkit.HTM.

Essentially, these radios will take your 3 conversion R4-C and turn
it into a 4 conversion six meter radio.  It does this by converting
the 50 MHz input into a 20 meter signal.  It does the reverse in 
transmit.  So, you hook it up to the output of your transmitter, 
and push the button, and your radio becomes a six meter radio - or
two meters or most any band.  

Today, I am working on installing a 1296 MHz transverter that works
at 28 MHz.  Pure magic.  It hooks up just the same way.

You can also log into E-bay and enter transverter and see some other
choices.  www.downeastmicrowave.com has some very nice transveters
that a lot of the serious "weak" signal guys use.

Yes - "weak" is sort of a poor choice from a marketing perspective.
However, when six meters opens up for some e-skip, signals are anything
but weak.

73 Tree