Spring Update 2012

Sorry, my email has been temporarily removed from QRZ; I am getting too much SPAM. Until this settles out, and the spammers figure out the address is now invalid, this is the way it has to be.

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We are still looking for a Hawai'i AM or CW QSO/sked on 75/80 meters; really want to get down and "talk story". Any takers? Email me!

Operating notes:

We usually get on HF on 75 AM or 80 CW after 9-10PM local for a good reason: that's when most of the QRN/RFI/EMI from my high-density neighborhood's 10,501 lousy, unshielded, cheap-from-Who Knows-Where/FCC-ignored consumer devices finally shut up. Most, anyway. But I am finding out that the CW activity out there on 80 drops off after 9PM dramatically, and by 10 PM it's often zero from 3500 all the way to 3600. What's going on? Are there no more night owls on 80M CW? I can hear the US sidebanders, and the Japanese broadcasters come in at 9PM local, so the band's not dead. If anyone wants to have a QRS CW or AM sked with me after 10PM PST, drop me a line! Ideally, anyone in Hawai'i!

We currently configure for 80M CW in the late Spring, Summer and Early Fall; as the band "goes long" after 10PM, and we run barefoot 100W AM into a vertical (property lot config limits), we had to move to CW from AM in those times to get better results. High Summer is unusable on AM here, as the shack has no A/C. Can't make it on AM over the noise when noise on 75 is high with just a vertical. (One day I'll build an AM amplifier, it's just finding the time!) My CW fist is not the best in speed, but with my 30-year-old little Brass Racer, well, there may be hope for me yet. (Yes, it has the Curtis chip in it, no longer made that way, with the keyer in it. Still works.) We're using a Bilal Isotron 80 here due to landscape oddities (I live in a canyon on a perch), and our bandwidth is limited somewhat, so look for us around 3540 KHz CW and 3870 AM. We can tune under 2:1 SWR from 3525 to 3580 CW and about 3860 to 3890 AM.

Unfortunately, CW has it's problems too, as I am re-finding out after 25 years; I send with, and like to copy by "The Farnsworth Method": The characters are sent at a faster rate than the actual "word-per-minute" count, but it allows for cleaner sending, and allows the guy at the other end more synaptic time to convert the code character into a letter. Unfortunately, this ends up with the 30 WPM Brass Pounders not wanting to slow down, and the 8WPM guys not wanting to answer the call. I really do wish more guys sent and received with Farnsworth, but, this, too, evens out, as there are some BP guys out there who will QRS, and some 8WPM people who will answer back. Hey, I'll QRS too! I'm no speed demon I was just taught that clean sending was more important than speed, running your letters and words together to send more WPM, and having a "swing" to your fist, like the guy with the vintage Vibroplex that puts ten "dits" into the same space as one "dah". Oh, well.

BTW, am STILL looking for a junked FRG-7700 with the memory module that still might be working. If you have one, let me know. Can trade some vintage radio goodie for it.

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THE OLD, OLD STORY:

Got into radio as a SWL in 1966-67 in my "kid days".I was taking a "Geographic Health Cure", as they called it back then, living in the desert trying to heal up a pair of bad lungs. I had to lay around and rest a lot (just what a teenager does NOT want to do!); Mom saw I was getting pretty bored pretty quick, and asked what I'd like do around the house. I said, "Well, there was this old wooden short-wave set in the last house we lived in, and…"

The next week a brand new SX-130 showed up at the house; my single parent had to work hard for little money, and got it on what was called "the time plan" back then. and the rest, as they say, was mania. I logged and verified over 120 countries over the next 20 years. Worked as an Electronics Prototype Tech for a long time, finally wound up at UCSD working for the High Energy Physics Dept. in the mid-70's.

(So parents, lissen up: the amusements you provide your kids have a BIG effect on their futures.'nuff said.)

Stayed a SWL until 1980, when I got my 5WPM Novice…why so long? I _like_ SWL'ing…and it taught me a lot…about people, cultures, governments…"open minds learn more than open mouths"……anyway, was active on HF & VHF, happily Hamming away when the Vintage Radio Bug bit, about 1982.

My first old set was a 1947 Zenith Transoceanic. The second was a 1934 Philco Console. The 22nd was a…well, you get the idea. I live with a lot of classic BCB radios! I should say WE do, as the XYL is KB6VHN…yes, she came along for the trip! It sure helps to have a Ham XYL!

======THE STATION HISTORY======================

One day a long time ago a Ham friend of mine who worked for the Salvation Army, and ran it's emergency communication station, told me they'd been donated a brand-new, state of the art Ham station. Wow, was he pleased! And guess what no longer had a place to live?

The 1958 Heathkit Apache/Mohawk station, that's what. All 220 lbs. of it. Did I want it, he asked?

I lived an apartment at the time…so my HF hobby was limited…but I sure said "Yes!" Wrapped it, and all the Heath accessories up, crated it, stored it. Ten years went by. Rigs came and rigs went, but the Heath station stayed buttoned up. I never thought there was any interest in Hamdom for old rigs.

One night I heard the AMI net…man, there were people on there using AM BCB stuff from the late THIRTIES! I thought about the Heath station…I was now in a house…OK, you're 'way ahead of me. Over the next two years I field-stripped, cleaned, rebuilt, repainted and restored the whole shootin' match. We actually had to get a TX-1 parts chassis, and "squeeze two together to make one good one". The station went from dead, non-op rust-bucket to the steel cream puff it is now.

The find at the 6AM swap meet: a parts chassis! This thing is HEAVY! (The XYL, KB6VHN, agrees.)

A clean chassis is a happy chassis! C'mon, it says so, right in the manual!

I know, there are guys with Globe Kings, Collins collectors, and many a fine rig out there better than mine…but there's just something special about Heathkits for me: they're from an era when we built stuff with our own hands, right here in this country…and a time when Hams built their own rigs as well. Heathkits are kinda special that way, warts and all.

BUT: if anyone has a 1940's period Hallicrafters transmitter to go with the SX-28 I have, well: yipes! Hernias Ahoy! :)

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My other Ham activity is IRLP. The node I hang out on is 7870, the KA6UAI machine on Mt. Palomar, home of the 200" Hale telescope. I'm always looking for contact skeds in the Pacific, i.e. Hawai'i, and anyone out there in the South Pacific. Drop me some email and we'll set up a sked.

I also am the lead Net Control for the Palomar Ham Help Net, where we try and get OT's and Elmers and newbies together Thursday nights @ 9PM on W6NWG, also on Palomar Mtn. in SD County on 146.73- PL 107.2 Hz.

Keep 'em glowing!

73 DE Lin/KJ6EF AMI# 1517

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Some afterthoughts:

It always amazes me how little today's ops are aware of how many hours, weeks, months, and years, not to mention blood, (real) sweat, and tears it sometimes takes to get one of these old pieces of gear restored, on the air, and then keep it running. To this end, I have composed the below, while sitting on a floor 20 feet away from the 750 VDC final amp circuit I had been working on an instant earlier.

The Ten Commandments of Boat Anchordom

1. Beware of the Chained Lightning, DC, AC, or HV of either; trifle not with it except whilst having one hand in thy pocket, and standing on thick rubber mats while wearing rubber-soled shoes, that thy days be many and thou not wind up as a cardiac arrest case.

2. Scoff not at The Manuals; unbelievers charge into the works headfirst and in a state of unknowing; their lamentations and cries fill the land, but not the airwaves.

3. If thou scoffest at #2 above, RTFM, and learn what a fool thou art the easy way. There is a hard way, but the wise eschew it, and the Emergency Room thereby.

4. Trifle not with Emission Testers for thy Firebottles; a thing the unbelievers use, they are mostly unreliable as to near-shorts, gas, transconductance, plate, grid and filament current and other matters of importance. Seek the Shrine of Hickok.

5. Honor thy Elmers and other Boat Anchor users, especially those who have used them over one decade at least, and three or more is even better; for they know the ins and outs, hints and kinks, and will give thee much good advice. Yea, sometimes all of it be contradictory, and a good deal of it pure hokum and puffery. But let this not dismay thee. Just remember that sometime it betide that an Extra License may just mean that ye Hamme is just good at passing tests, period.

6. Treat Dirt, Dust, Rust, and Corrosion as thy mortal enemies. Yea, they are pervasive pests, and require constant vigilance, for these Devils seldom lie dead in a ditch. Be sure, though, to use the proper lubricants and cleaners in their proper places; much wailing and gnashing of teeth will result from a confusion of mind over these substances.

7. If thou are unfortunate enough to have thy Boat Anchors lodged in an outbuilding or banished to the garage, redouble thy watch against enemies named in #6.

8. Test thy tubes yearly, and check thy alignment in the same season. If thou art a Banishee (see #7), do both twice yearly.

9. Always allow 1 hour warm-up before operating any Mohawk RX-1, and of a certainty, before testing or aligning anything with Firebottles in it.

10. Allow not the pricks and pins of Moderne Appliance Operators to injure thee; for they are surely imbeciles who dote on anything new, whilst ignoring The Wisdom of The Ages, and knoweth not the untold hours, days, weeks, months and sometimes years it takes to get a BA station on the air and then keep it running. The True Master will embrace the Best of the New, and keep green and running the Best of The Old.

-All materials, text, and pictures (except emoticons) on this page copyright 2012 Lin Robertson/KJ6EF

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