[CQ-Contest] Remembering Ed Bissell W3AU

[Dallas Carter]

    So many have written such eloquent words reflecting on the contributions
that Ed made to contesting.  As a young, enthusiastic, new ham in the early
60's, I had the good fortune to have W4KFC as my mentor.  He was also
my boss, and the trustee of the Coast Guard club station K4CG.  As a new
ham, Vic gently brought me along, and as I got my feet wet and helped
organize the first multi-single entry into the Novice Roundup, I was invited
to join PVRC.  Under Vic's guidance, K4CG started to flourish and I was
hitting SS and the DX contests pretty hard.  The potential that this
military
rec station had yearned for multi-multi status.  Vic suggested that I do a
couple of stints at W3MSK just to find out what it was all about.  I had
sat in the chair at Vic's station in Clifton, Va. and was always amazed at
how quiet the bands sounded, with signals just jumping out of the 75A4.
I wondered how anything could be more effective.
    Bobby Cox lived in the next town from me, and I gave him a shout and
invited myself to operate at Ed's.  Wow, what an experience.  They sat me
down as second op on 10 meters with Don, W3AZD.  And here all this
time, I thought the signals we heard across the river were 20 meter
harmonics.
Gosh, there were really signals on that band, and that big yagi really
reeled
em in.  I did two stints at MSK, both on 10 meters with Don on phone.
I came back to K4CG armed with an abundance of ideas.  One was that
those skimpy dupe sheets that we were getting from the League were not
going to handle the job.  Ed's dupe sheets would cover the operating
position.
    Another idea that I came back with was how to set up multiple rigs on a
single band.  The twenty meter position was the model.  A pair of 32S-3s
and three collins receivers.  I think there were two 75S-3s and perhaps a
51S-1.  The Rx antenna port on Tx 1 was cabled to RF Out port on TX 2.
The Rx 2 port fed all three receivers and the RF Out port on Tx 1 fed the
Amp.  The PTT lines from each Tx were paralleled.  What a clever system,
and very effective.  I recall three ops on 20 with the third op spotting and
trying
to keep up the dupe sheet.
    K4CG went on to become a contributing Multi-op player in PVRC with
the inspiration from Ed and the guidance and support of Vic.  In my
retirement,
I have managed to recall some of the principles that made W3MSK/W3AU
such an effective station.  I have tried to apply these to my current
efforts.
I have a sign at each position which embodies one of the principles learned
at
Ed's, "Stay in the Chair, Call CQ".  The technology has changed and computer
logging and high tech rigs have taken contesting to a new level.  Where
would
we be though without the insights and inspiration that Ed gave so many.
    I remember, in those days, the fierce competition between PVRC and FRC.
I went to the FRC club site a few years ago and read some of the club
history.  You would find their reflections covering contesting in the 60's
very
interesting reading.  They credited Ed with developing the concept of
Multi-Multi.
Their take on his philosphy was that a number of ops at one station would
accrue a larger score than their individual efforts would produce in the
aggregate.
Thus a new contesting strategy was born.
    Ed and I had chatted about antennas for the low bands quite a bit.  He
had
encouraged me to put up an elevated GP on 40.  The base was at 40 feet.  On
one of his trips to India, we made a sked, and I managed to work VU2MSK.
This was a real thrill for me.  When Ed got back, he commented on the signal
and said that in Asia, the line noise is so ferocious that receiving is the
real problem.
Little did I know then that years later, while I was posted in Bangkok, that
the tables
would be reversed and his big Florida signal would come pounding through the
QRN.  He and K3ZO were about the only regular signals from the east coast
that
I could hear on 40 from the east coast.
    Here's to the one who must be remembered as the father of multi-op
contesting.


73  Dallas W3PP