Topband: The glory days of 160

[Juhan Põldvere]

Hi Bob,

I don't know what the "Old Wind Mill" was. The UK2RDX of the 80ies was 
in Viimsi, a suburb of Tallinn,
Estonia. UK were Soviet club stations, 2 were the Baltic  states & 
Kaliningrad. Ukrainian clubs were UK5.

 From Mart ES2NJ (then UR2NJ):
There really was a QSO with W7RM and the operator was Tom 2RJ [now SK]. 
The antenna was an INV-V,
feedpoint 40m [130'] high on a [central heating] chimney.
The XCVR was a homebrew (2NJ) monobander (20W) that drove a 200W tube, 
followed by  a "horned pair"
- 2X GU80.

The Beverages were about 200m [650'] long. Worked well on 80 but were a 
bit short for 160, the efficiency was not up to the task.
ES2NA and ES2QH may have some pictures.
======
The GU80 (GU81) are Russian glass pentodes of the 50ies which had the 
plate and g3 as 2 horns atop. A tad under 1' high, 2" dia. Graphite 
plate, 450W dissipation (600W max 3 minutes), 10.5A  12.6V heater. Very 
rugged. I guess the power (2 tubes) was about 1.5kW.
2xGU80 were used to drive a pair of GU5B  but  I  doubt  any of these 
were used from Estonia (UR2, UK2R..,
UK2T..).

>In the 80's W7RM was the Multi-multi station to operate in the NW in ARRL DX 
>or CQWW DX. Many fine operators, W7WA, K7WA, VE7CC, VE7SV, W7EJ, W7XR, N7ZZ, 
>K7JA, KB7G (VR2BG) and myself worked on and operated there. In one particular 
>CQ 160 I worked UK2RDX for a new country and first E. Europe station on 
>top-band. Rush Drake came down the stairs in his stocking hat wondering why 
>the old TL-250s were thumping the power supply... Rush had the card in one 
>week! A few years later Charlie (K7NW) and Jean Shaffer of Seattle traveled 
>to the Ukraine and Soviet Union. They paid a visit to the "Old Wind Mill" 
>club station. The brought back a photo copy of the station 20 Watt operating 
>license and a photo of the old Russian 20 KW PA! No wonder they were so loud!
>  
>
Yes, I remember W7RM and W2PV were te two. 
73!
-- 
Juhan ES5QX, one of ES5Q/ES6Q/ES2Q/ES0Q/ES4Q...