[SECC] My First Sweepstakes - the continuing saga

[Dan/W4NTI]

My question is how did you remember all of that ?

Dan/W4NTI

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Thompson" <thompson at mindspring.com>
To: "SECC" <secc at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: [SECC] My First Sweepstakes - the continuing saga


> Since the phone SS is coming up I remember my first
> SS.  I was 14 years and 10 months old (young) and had my General for all 
> of
> 5 months.  In 1958 the Phone SS was nearly 100% AM not SSB.  I think I 
> knew
> my HQ-110 receiver quite well by then and my dad and I finally finished
> (with the help of master builder W5KHB) the 4-400 amp (class C not linear)
> modulated by a pair of 811A's.  W5IHP (my Elmer) loaned us a big Eldico
> plate transformer so we could complete the power supply.  This was all in 
> a
> 6 foot rack we made from angle iron and plywood which I painted what was
> called then radio green silk.  For TVI we glued aluminum foil inside each
> piece of plywood.
>
> I was all set for antennas with a Gonset 3 el tri-bander on a 50 foot
> telephone pole and two dipoles crossing for 40 and my homebrew all band 
> trap
> dipole for 80/75.  I found out quickly that my weakness was the switching.
> A big toggle switch switched the power and antenna relay and after a few
> hours my hands got tired.  I borrowed a weak (2 actually) 4-125A's from 
> Gus
> W5GRP so we could cut the power back to 150 watts input to get the power
> multiplier (you could not win with high power).  I had Gus and the local
> club president sign a statement that I was running 150 watts
> and I remember Ellen White at ARRL sent me a note saying she believed me 
> and
> this was not necessary HI.
>
> These were the days of hand logs and W5IHP gave me some of the ARRL dupe
> sheets (I am sure N4PN and K4BAI remember those).  After three hours it 
> was
> apparent that just using the dupe sheets was not enough.  Working a W4 and
> then a W8 meant turning over the dupe sheet.  My dad dug out an old swivel
> table and the dupe sheet for W1-5 was put on one side and W6 to 0 on the
> other.  It was impossible to keep track so you marked the log and used 
> your
> free time to bring the dupe sheet up to date.
>
> How was tome available to bring the dupe sheet up to date?  in 1958 the SS
> covered 2 weekends and you operated 40 (max) out of 73 hours.  This left
> enough time to bring it up to date but you still had to sharpen your 
> memory
> as you often had more than 100 calls to fill in from your log.
>
> The first weekend I made just over 400 QSO's and my then rival W5DQK was
> nearly 100 QSos ahead.  I got baptism by fire when I gave my #71 to K6EVR
> and Ron sent my #180 (this after just over 2 hours!).
> I was about ready to quit but my dad said keep on trucking as I was a
> contest newby.
>
> I did not realize that most made 75% of their contacts the first weekend 
> and
> mopped up sections the second.  I ran the second weekend (even then there
> was less activity late).  I finished ahead of W5DQK 821 to 777 QSos.  Ron
> K6EVR came in first with 970 QSos and I placed third and got my picture in
> QST.
>
> I had two changes to make for 1959... get push to talk and add a HC-10 
> rear
> end to the HQ-110.  I ran double paper routes to pay for the HC-10 and my
> dad
> wired the PTT out of his own pocket.
>
> Do I want to go back to the old days...not on your life!!
>
> 73 Dave K4JRB
>
>
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>
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