[CQ-Contest] A call to action (CAUTIOM: Tome Enclosed)

[Steve Harrison]

At 08:08 PM 3/26/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>I think it is just having the incentive to learn.  For me, I had to learn CW 
>at 10 WPM to complete my AT (Aviation Electronics Tech) school and then 
>later I had to pass 18 WPM before a RMC (Chief Radio Operator) at the USCG 
>Radio Station NMC to be able to be promoted.  As a young AT3 (Aviation Tech 
>3rd Class) just out of tech school I didn't enjoy washing C-130's with a big 
>long brush and flying in the old noisy HU16E amphips.  I wanted to get 2nd 
>Class as soon as I could and get out of washing planes and into flying in 
>the C-130's all over the world, including all the rare LORAN stations on 
>rare islands out in the Pacific.  Now that was incentive!  It helped that I 
>learned CW and got my ham license while in High School.
>
>Having the newbies watch a CW operation at work may give them the incentive 
>to learn so they can join the fun.

One of the major incentives to myself was, when I was a fresh Novice back
in '65, I heard K6 Beer, Pretzels & Cheese on 2m AM on my Heathkit Twoer,
operating FD only a few blocks away in a field. I grabbed my bicycle, rode
over there, found the big ole black box called an ARC-8 that I'd just
worked on 2m AM, then wandered around the whole site. I don't even rember
the SSB station at all; it held absolutely zero interest to me. It just
looked like a cupla guys yelling into a microphone; what was the point, a
telephone was better and you didn't have to yell to be heard??  ;o)

Instead, my attention was promptly grabbed by the tent housing what
appeared to be an entirely homebrew setup: receiver, exciter and power
amplifier, all rack mounted. And hot damb: was that a VFO??????? All this
homebrew equipment at Field Day????

It didn't take long before I was unwelcome in that 40 CW tent; having few
social graces and never having met any real, honest-God CW ops in person, I
had no idea such an ole codger (OC) would get so upset when this
pimply-faced barely-a-teenager would point out he'd copied the state
incorrectly  ;o))))))  After a few sharp and nasty glances from that OC, I
left and wandered around further. Eventually, the 2m AM tent welcomed me. I
must have ridden my bike back home and told my parents where I'd be the
rest of the night, because I still rember telling Mom they had hot dogs and
hamburgers and cold drinks and I'd go back up there for dinner instead of
our usual Saturday night supper. Yes, I'd wear my jacket  ;o)  And around 1
pm the next day on Sunday, they drove down to see where I was. I still have
the photo they took of me standing outside the 40 CW tent right after we'd
shut off all the generators  8-)))))

But throughout the nite, I was continually entranced by the beautiful CW
swing echoing from the 40 CW tent. The attitude of the OC and another OC
who showed up after dark kept me from the 40m tent and I spent most of my
time in the 2m AM tent; I still rember laying down to sleep on the bare,
cold canvas floor.

But I couldn't get to sleep.

Eventually, the OC quit like around 2 AM and I wandered back over with a
cup of coffee (yeah; in those days, barely-teenagers were drinking coffee).
I could easily tell the op was someone wholly different because the swing
of the bug was really different. A much younger op was now swinging the bug
and trying to manage the log and dupe sheet. After stepping into the tent
and pulling up a canvas chair, carefully, and slowly, I began my moves and
eventually, as he tuned in someone and I copied a call, I'd look it up on
the dupe sheet and give him a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Eventually, it got
to where he was looking sideways at my hand to see whether the station we
were listening to had been worked before. I kept hoping he'd get tired and
invite me to take over the bug.... but it never happened; gess he was
having too much fun  ;o)  That was in the days of Iron Men, rember; you'd
sit down in yer chair and if you moved for ANYTHING, it was to refuel the
generator  8-))))))))  He just stuck it out all nite until the OC showed up
again the next morning, long after sunrise, and shortly after breakfast. I
still rember the nasty look the OC gave me when he noticed me still hanging
around the 40 CW tent.

But my point is that what REALLY drew me out was not just the beautiful CW
issuing from the speaker of whatever homebrew receiver they were using; but
the very FACT that they were actually using HOMEBREW EQUIPMENT while
operating a CONTEST. I can't tell ya how I longed to get my fingers on that
VFO dial, press the spotting button, and zerobeat someone.

Late Sunday morn, someone let me finally operate that ole modified ARC-8 2m
AM radio but it just wasn't the same as actually doing 40 CW. When changing
frequencies, you'd have to push in a button and there'd be this huge whirl
and clanking as the thing retuned itself and selected the channel. To me,
that was appliance operating (having learned the term already through
mentions in QST editorial articles, it was immediately obvious to me that
was EXACTLY what was happening with that ARC-8: we were pressing a button
and essentially operating an appliance).

Don't discount the appeal of the radios, theirselves. It's really hard for
we ole codgers to look at our shack and try to see it through the eyes of
an awestruck teenager; but maybe that's what we need to think about in
addition to the psychology of getting them interested in communicating
through a radio instead of a computer.

BTW, I'd already been into contests before this FD came along. IIRC, there
was the Novice Roundup in May, '65, before I took my Novice test literally
at the feet of WB6CWN. I'd been listening to 40 CW, including the Novice
band, for about a year with an old Kaar KE-23A receiver. The calls of "CQ
NR" over a weekend entranced me, especially hearing WN0's and WN4's
answering the calls of obviously-local WN6's. I guess that's what finally
motivated me to seen off to the FCC for my Novice test paperwork. Would
have to look but guess I received that Novice ticket sometime in May, '65.

I was well aware of the ole-codger fears of the time that the fact that
Novices then had privileges on 2m AM was a reason for them to spend too
much time there, and not enough on the HF bands, to get their CW speed up
fast enough to at least pass their General. But that sure didn't worry me;
I'd picked up the Twoer long after I'd picked up enough CW capability to
copy anything I could hear on that old Kaar receiver. My main worry was I
wanted to pass the theory with 100%; I wanted to really impress my Elmer,
WB6CWN, Tom Gamble. That's why I procrastinated so long before finally
sending off to the FCC for the paperwork for him to give me the Novice test
 ;o\

Finally, my license arrived in the mail, sometime in late May, '65. That
night, I treated my brother to a pizza at the local shopping center. And
promised him that when I passed my General test, we'd do it again  ;=)))))))

A week or so before FD, there was the June VHF QSP Party and I hoped into
that with both feet and my lil Heathkit Twoer. I'll have to admit I was
REALLY disappinted not to win anything, even though I was the
highest-scoring LA section Novice. I rember sitting down at the kitchen
table, while my Dad was doing work at the other end, and writing to the
ARRL, asking why I'd not received a certificate as high-scoring Novice. A
couple weeks later, a reply came that while they didn't have such an
"official" category, they would happily send me a certificate stating that.
Dunno why, but I never responded to that letter. It's hard for me to
conceive that the ARRL would do such a thing today: issue a certificate for
a non-existant operating class.

Those were magical days for me. All I did throughout high school was draw
schematics of VFOs, exciters, receivers, and power amplifiers. During
lunchtime one day, thinking about the scrap wood laying around in the
garage, I designed, and then when I got home, built a Lecher line. My Dad
walked into my bedroom to call me to dinner, stared a moment, and said
"What's the Lecher Line for??" I think that's what clued me into the fact
that my Old Man actually had an idea what the heck I was doing. Later, I
discovered that except for the fact that my Mom was pregnant with me, and
having pre-delivery problems a few weeks before my birth, he had intended
to take his own license test at the FCC.

Do today's kids have those kinds of experiences while growing up??

Steve, K0XP