[CQ-Contest] Remembering the BEST TIMES at Multi-Multi Operations.....

[Peter Chamalian]

Over the years, I've been most fortunate to have had the opportunity to
operate at some pretty great stations.  Back in the 60's K1ANV (aka W3ZZ)
recruited me to operate at W4BVV for CQWW CW.  Up to this point, I had not
used a beam for contesting (my home station consisted entirely of wires) so
trying to figure out which direction to point the antenna in was a
challenge.  Oh, speaking of challenges, the guys casually told me that the
goal was to beat W3MSK.  I was the 20 meter op, and my competition was Bob
Cox!  

Operating from the Caribbean is also fun.  In 1965, I and a few other
members of Connecticut Wireless Association operated as PJ5ME from PJ2ME's
QTH.  Vince had an 80 foot crank up tower but no working antenna so we sent
him a quad which he put up.  Vince ran separate feeds for each band but ran
out of coax so the tower had to remain nested at 40 feet!  We had hoped to
operate from both PJ and FS but since that wasn't possible, we resorted to a
two station multi, using the separate feeds on each band of the quad.  No
filters made for lots of inter-station QRM, but nothing we weren't used to
from our FD experiences.

Ever try an iron-main multi-multi?  In 1992, K1EA/K1AR had one -- 6 bands, 6
radio's 6 ops, 48 hours -- GO!  We set the record that year, too!

Pete, W1RM