[CQ-Contest] I Caused the NYC Blackout 40 Years Ago Today

[k2qmf@juno.com]

Ken,

I wouldn't feel like your off the hook just yet!!

They still are not sure what caused that black out!!!

73,  Ted  K2QMF

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:42:14 -0800 "Ken Widelitz" <widelitz at gte.net>
writes:
> November 9, 1965. I remember it well. It was my mother's birthday. I 
> was 15
> and a novice, WN2TFK. I couldn't wait to get home from school 
> because I was
> ready to put my coke bottle vertical on the air for the 1st time. It 
> was
> about 30' of aluminum pipe insulated with a big glass coke bottle at 
> the
> bottom, fed through an inductor wrapped around a cardboard popcorn
> container. By the time everything was ready, it was starting to get 
> dark. As
> I touched the feedline to the back of my Eico 720, the lights in my 
> bedroom
> flickered and dimmed. I pulled the wire away and the lights 
> brightened to
> normal. That is really WEIRD, I thought. How can that happen. I 
> touched the
> feedline to the back of the radio again. This time, the lights 
> flickered,
> went off, and stayed off. Uh oh. I looked outside. No lights in the 
> entire
> neighborhood. "Mom, I don't know why that happened. All I did way 
> touch the
> new antenna to the back of my transmitter. I'm sorry." We got out 
> the
> transistor AM radio and found that all of NYC was blacked out. 
> People were
> stuck on subways, in elevators - all because of me and my antenna.
> 
> I didn't find out it wasn't my fault until the next day. Whew!!!
> 
> 73, Ken, K6LA / VY2TT
> 
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