Topband: Seasonal Nostalgia

[Edward Swynar]

Good Day Everyone,

This being the Christmas season & all, I oft-times wax nostalgic about
"...the good ol' daze" (who doesn't...?!).

Anyway, with the latest running of the ARRL 160-meter contest now well under
our collective belts, I took a look back into the VE3CUI "archived" logbooks
at my initial  effort in this event: December 1974...

I was amazed to see that I made a grand total of 175 QSOs in that first-time
attempt! I say amazed, because at the time all I ran on topband was a 3rd
hand E.F. Johnson Ranger transmitter, & a Hallicrafters AC/DC S-77A receiver
of dubious repute. The antenna consisted of an 80-meter band dipole at 50',
fed with open-wire feedline, & tuned to operate on 1.8-MHz by way of a
homebrewed transmatch...

To top things off, OTs will recall that the band was dub-divided into 25-KHz
segments due to LORAN, with "day" and "night" power stipulations. Indeed, my
log pages meticulously detail exactly what power level I was using, and at
what band portion(!).

Most of the callsigns from then are unrecognizable to-day, save for at least
two---W0AIH & K3SEW. The preponderance of "WA" and "WB" prefixed calls makes
me suspect that most of these early troopers have long-since graduated into
shorter "AK", "N", etc. monikers.

Anyway, that's my story & I'm going to stick to it!

I sure felt like some leading-edge pioneer through my forays into the
netherworld of 160-meters back in the day...! Sweet memories...

Here's wishing all reading this sweet memories for the future, through what
might befall us to-day---and happy DX'ing in 2010 for everyone, backed by
good health, happiness, and prosperity...!

~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ