Topband: Re: Top Band DXing Long Ago (W9UCW)

[W9UCW at aol.com]

Hi Bob, 
As a 13 year old high school freshman in 1954, I found myself on 160 because 
the homebrew rig I had wouldn't oscillate above 75 meters and that band was 
full of AM kilowatts. Trouble was, my war surplus Super Pro was a version 
without 160, so I was using an old parlor console radio that had some "shortwave" 
bands on it. Boy, talk about lack of bandspread! Anyway, I got interested in 
what was on CW, so I borrowed my mothers AC/DC table radio from the kitchen and 
sat it on the old console. Then I tuned the table  radio so that its local 
oscillator would beat with incoming CW on the big old console. It took all I could 
do to keep up with the drift of those old radios during a QSO. Actually, I 
worked my first "DX" that way. It was VE2LI, and W1BB mentioned it in his 160 
Bulletin! I still have that card. The rest of the setup was a pair of 6L6's and 
a 100' longwire up 20'. 


>I wonder how many there are who qualified but never applied for ARRL >DXCC 
>(I could not bring myself to trust the cards to the postal system).

>Bob VE7BS


I hosted a 160 Hospitality Suite at Stouffer's in Dayton each year in the 
late 70's/early 80's. One year when we had a big crowd including lots of DX and 
W1BB, a  160 DXCC chart was posted on the wall. It had all known holders at the 
time, and as I remember, there were between 15 & 20 calls on it. A few of us 
brought our cards and found that we qualified. I have never submitted my 
cards. I guess I've always thought that working DX on 160 is sorta like making 
love......I enjoy the pursuit & seduction a lot more than proclaiming to the world 
how many times I've succeeded.
.
Good Hunting, Barry, W9UCW