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 > _________________ > Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband > _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
