Topband: Stew Report

[Gary Smith]

HI OM,

I really appreciated your read and I'm 
sorry we didn't get to work in the 
contest. Looking at my log, we never have 
had a Q yet... but I look forward to it 
when we do.

73 & Merry Christmas,

Gary
KA1J


> I was playing on 160 back in the late 1950s with and S40B RX and a
> much modified ARC5 TX from our farm in Central KS as W0PSF.  Would
> work about 130 Qs in the CQ contest.  Took advantage of a trip to
> Boston to visit Stew in his attic shack and got to hit the key on his
> spark rig.  Life and work got in the way and my CW skills went way
> down (from the straight key level!).  Now at age 77 I saw the notice
> for the Stew.  
> 
> When we built my house I put in a large office/hamshack on the 2nd
> floor and totally covered the walls with aluminum foil and lots of
> spare wire all anchored in three places to ground.  Not sure why. 
> Anyway, I have some cables going to the tower base so lifted one, tied
> a 120 ft wire to it up to the flag pole and down again.  Checked the
> SWR against the screen in the room with the SARK-100.  Close.  Tied
> the Omni VII and loaded.  Couldn't run more than 20 watts or dumped
> the computer monitors.  Off to a Christmasconcert.
> 
> Back to the contest.  Found out the Bencher key didn't work.  Contacts
> corroded.  Fixed that.  Gave a call to a loud sig running about 25
> wpm.  Right back, but the report at 30wpm.  Now was that a R?  No an
> EM, by then I'd forgotten the #.  Either age or lack of practice, that
> was beyond my comprehension.  Sent a ? and my grid report.  Got an R
> back and away he went.  Oh well, I got the grid from his next QSO.  So
> I slowed my keyer  way down to 12 wpm.  Next guy slowed and OK.  Then
> back to the fast guys.  I'd call and they were back at way too fast
> for me.  Worked both coasts with 20 watts, but waiting for some of
> those guys calling CQ over and over at 30 wpm... and no replies...so I
> could fill their report was a pain.  So I stopped calling the fast and
> loud guys.  After 31 contacts in 2 hours decided this wasn't much fun
> so off to bed.
> 
> Kind of frustrating.  This morning I came up with a plan.  I'm not
> going to win anything anyway so:  If I'm around next year I'm going to
> put up the Titanex, now resting in the shed, get the the Orion and
> ACOM 2000 set.  Run the contest and not bother with copying the
> reports.  Will just send in a check log.  Won't sweat the...was that
> an EM or W, and EN or R, etc.  Will have a good time and get back to
> SSB.
> 
> Meanwhile I need to dig out the newsletters Stu used to send in red
> and black mimeo  with all of the personalized notes  as well as the
> SWL I got from him when he was on an European cruise....I guess it 
> was a bit of trouble to get a big tube type RX approved for use on the
> deck!  Thanks stu  for being the inspiration for all of the 160
> activity...even if the CW has moved faster than my skills.  See you
> guys next year.
> 
> N0UU
> _________________
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