[CQ-Contest] 1978 Novice Roundup?

[Jim George]

My novice ticket came in March, 1958 and I recall vividly the NR of that 
year as KN8JPV in West Virginia. Without going back and checking, it seemed 
that it lasted one or two weeks. I remember working on it on and on and on. 
And I also must have done well since I won a Johnson (Ranger?) 50 Watt 
CW-only transmitter. Since it was CW only and I was infatuated with getting 
on SSB, I sold it.

Again, thorough a major fog, a guy in Rhode Island, KN1LPL, was active as 
well. He ended up as a "somewhat well known" ham in W3 land with the same 
suffix. We all competed in that NR.

Jim N3BB

At 08:45 PM 9/21/2017 -0400, Dave Thompson wrote:
>You guys are youngsters.  I got my novice in May 1957 after taking the 
>test in Feb 1957 and I upgraded to Conditional in Early 1958. My first rig 
>was a DX-35 and S-40B receiver. I realized the S-40B was Ok on 40 but 
>working stations on 15 you had to tune for them when you turned it over. I 
>found very early that my CW operating could not keep up with K5IIN and 
>K5QNF (now W2RF) so I concentrated on phone (AM phone that is).
>
>My first contest try was operating from a local who had a 3 el 15 meter beam
>at 45 feet, a Viking Ranger, and a 75A4.  Spent 2 hours and made a grand 
>total of 39 Q's in the 1958 CQ WW Phone. My station finally was complete 
>in early November and my first real effort was the ARRL Phone SS. Got 
>tired of flipping a switch to transmit and was far behind my competitor 
>after the first weekend with just over 380 QSO's,  The traditional wisdom 
>was 70% of the QSOs were made the first weekend. I ignored that wisdom and 
>finished with
>over 800 QSO's and 3rd Nationally on phone. My station was a HQ-110 
>receiver, home brew 6146 exciter, W6SAI audio driver, and a 4-400A amp cut 
>back to 150 watts INPUT (not output) and certified by two officers of the 
>local radio club with one being the ARRL Vice Director. I used a brand new 
>Gonset Tri-Bander on a 18 foot boom on a 50 foot telephone pole. I was 14 
>at the time.
>
>My dad and I figured out how to install a push to talk for the D-104 for 
>the 1959 ARRL Phone SS and I finished with 972 QSOs and Top phone score. 
>back then the SS was two weekends and you either operated CW or Phone but 
>not both.  I noticed several SSB stations doing well and when I had to 
>borrow a 32S1 to work ZM7DA for a new one we decided to add SSB so we 
>built the Heath SB-10. Finally went SSB on Jan 1st 1960.
>
>SSB with VOX was easy and adding the HC-10 to the receiver was another big 
>step. My dad liked CW so it helped him too.
>
>Health reasons stopped my active competitive operating in 2009.  I now 
>concentrate on being the DXAC for the Southeastern ARRL Division.  I do 
>get on to pass out a few QSOs so don't be surprised if I call in during a 
>contest. I hope more of the calls listed in the 1978 Novice Round up are 
>shown with the current calls. I work with NN1N on DXCC matters.
>
>73 es sorry for the band width  Dave K4JRB (K5MDX from 1957 to May 1973).
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
> >From: Steve London <n2icarrl at gmail.com>
> >Sent: Sep 19, 2017 11:12 PM
> >To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> >Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] 1978 Novice Roundup?
> >
> >WD9DCL == NN1N
> >WD4AHZ(SK)
> >
> >On 09/19/2017 05:06 PM, Dave Edmonds wrote:
> >> There were 700 players in the 1978 Novice Roundup. I finished first in
> >> South Carolina and 62nd place in the US. I'm curious to know if any y'all
> >> who beat me are still contesting....
> >>
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