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New Feature - 'Do you recall?'

from Contesting.com Staff on March 12, 2002
View comments about this article!

Contesting.Com News...

Today, Contesting.com launched a new feature called "Do you recall?"

Photos of contesters from the past and present will be featured in a "can you identify them?" format.

Comments and submissions are welcome!


Member Comments: Add A Comment
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by AN0NYM on March 12, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
This clearly shows Amateurradio is passing away... Instead better show how to be a good operator by telling the story of the now old kings of the bands in former times. Just my few cents.
 
RE: New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by N5NJ on March 12, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
Thanks for the "thoughtful" comment.
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by K0AD on March 15, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
I am suprised that there are not more comments here so maybe I'll start the ball rolling. From a contesting standpoint, here are some of the things I recall from the "good old days":

1) Paper Logs

2) Paper Dupe Sheets taped to the operating table. They were fairly simple to use because the only prefixes you had to worry about in domestic contests were W, K, and WA ( and a little later WB and WV)

3) Novice Roundup

4) CD Parties - 4 times a year

5) Keeping White Castle hamburgers warm at field day by sitting them on top of the HT37 or Viking Valiant.

6) Q Multipliers

7) Calls like W9IOP and W4KFC

8) W9TO Keyers


I'm sure there is lots more but this is what comes off the top of my head.

73,

Al, K0AD



 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by WN3VAW on March 17, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
I remember:

Novice Roundups -- with 75 W to a Crystal Controlled transmitter (ever wonder why so many of us old time Novice's know how to work split?) and an old National receiver

Field Day -- with generators that died every 2 hours (OK, ran out of gas), paper logging and duping (let's see, you underlined K's, circled WA's, double underlinded WB's... I think...)and military surplus tents that you anchored with your rigs

ARRL DX Tests that ran two weekends per mode.

The ARRL CD Parties.

Working the PA QSO Party (in September, not October) and CQ WW contest with an HT-37 and an SB-301

Working the ARRL VHF Contest from K3HKK with an SB-110 on 6, and working C6ACY on one call (of course a 6 element beam on top of a 100' tower on top of Pine Grove Mountain didn't hurt, either)

73, ron wn3vaw
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by W7VJ on March 21, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
November 1972. WA#PMI in front of a Yaesu FTDX560, FL2100B amp, 18HVQ..."CQ SS" Nothing "CQ SS" Nothing. S&P alot. Work a few. High school friends come over. "Why is he repeating those letters over and over?... huh.. let's go, this is lame." That Sunday night, 470+ Qs, sore throat, lost hang time with freinds, angry parents. Next spring go to multi-multi big gun W3TV (SK) at hill top station. I have reached Mecca. All Collins gear. "Wow... single band antennas?" (yup, monobanders). "Here, let's see how the bands sound...oh there is Vlad on Franz Joseph Land (where??? Franz who?) UA1XXX this is W3TV.. Hello Vlad nice to see you again, 59." Go home on cloud 9. ZF2 LOUD. I call. I call again (and again and again) nothing. Why can't he here me? (it's the other 100+ stations with beams and KWs) If only I my folks would let me put up a tribander (they never did). Someday... Ah the things that motivated us ....
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by N3ZR on March 23, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
Comments above got me reminiscing too, about...

...having to prove you could send and receive at 5wpm before your volunteer examiner could even send off to FCC to get your Novice test papers

...Ameco perforated paper code practice tapes

...working Novice Roundup with a Viking Adventurer, Gotham vertical with poor radials, Hallicrafters SX-16 Super Skyrider, and an antenna tuner made out of an ARC-5 -- and thinking Wisconsin was great 40-meter DX

...getting to be net control for Army MARS HF nets, even though I was only 17 and a Tech

...working ARRL VHF contests as a Novice on 2 meter AM with a Gonset Communicator III (my first rig, still have it) and a Hy-Gain 8-el beam at 28 feet

...working K5PTG near Houston, TX from Maryland with that setup in 1968 (the fact that he had 32 elements on an H-frame pointed at me may have helped a little)

...working SET and Field Day on VHF AM...straining to make a few contacts on 432 Mhz

...finding and marrying a gal who actually LIKES ham radio and contesting, and 30 years later still puts up with it
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by K3GW on March 28, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
How about W2OY calling CQ, "No kids, no lids."

Calling CQ on 10 meters with a Heath Tener "Modulated Lunchbox" and saying, "Listening the entire 10 meter band" when standing by for a call.

Connelrad (CD) monitoring requirements

Separate Station and Operator Licenses

Super-regen receivers for 2 meters

Using a neon bulb and a loop placed around your oscillator output coil for tuning

Lighting a florescent lamp with rf to impress your friends

Using the filament voltage switch on a tube that tested bad to see how long a 6.3 volt filament would operate at 115 volts

Using a Sideswiper Key made from a hacksaw blade (that is what I learned on!)

When Hertz was Cycles and Capacitors were Condensors

When Resistors were read Body-End-Dot (this was before color coded rings)

When you had to actually draw schematics to get your General License

When you had to SEND and Receive to get your License with the FCC Examiner watching

Waiting 6 to 8 weeks for your license to come after taking a test and not knowing if you passed or not

Visiting a fellow ham's shack that ran 990 watts AM on 75 meters and actually modulated the lady next door's electric oven.

Going to hamfests to meet and talk...and not buy and sell (look sometime - everybody walks with their eyes down looking at flea market items)

Charging and then discharging an 8 mfd oil filled capacitor (big spark)

Being "bit" with 750v DC....

Glowing Rectifier Tubes

Enough..... Hope you enjoy some of these remembrances....

 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by N4GG on April 9, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
The most discourteous CQ I recall went: "No kids, no lids, no Ks, no WAs." I had just become WA2QPW and was somewhat put off.

Heizing AM modulation. Worked well on my DX-20. Only required a choke rather than a plate transformer that I could not afford.

Running the Heizing modulated DX-20 into a pair of 1625s for an amp, in class C because I didn't know any better. [Icom and Kenwood have rigs out now with TX IMD -19 dB below two tone; at least I've learned something in the past 35 years]

Hornet yagis with eggbeater element ends.

Exploding electrolytic filter caps. 600 VDC on a 450 VDC can will do it every time.

The smell of a fried selenium rectifier. Something that can NEVER be forgotten.

'Used' coax. -10 dB/100 ft not uncommon.

Harvey Wells, Central Electronics, Meisner.

6E5 Green 'magic eye' tuning tubes. Replacing same with an S-meter in a Gonset. [sacrilege]

Wanting a 75A-4 so bad, for so many years. Getting one when I got out of college and finally had the money. It was worth the wait.

Becoming a QSL manager for DXpeditions without realizing that most of the cards would come through the bureau and clog up 'my' envelopes - what was I thinking?

Contesting on CW bands at least as crowed as today with 6 Kc receiver bandwidth.

Headphones without ear pads. A good strong headband and phenolic on the ears makes a man of you after about 24 hours.

Cathode keying with a J-38. My how those cathodes will float up to the plate voltage when you least expect it!

Dynamotor B+ for the mobile: 2E26 on 28 Mc AM phone, Gonset Super 6 into the BC receiver. I worked Sweepstakes from the car with this rig one year.

I could go on and on - I love this hobby.

For you really old old timers: Electret rectifiers: Canning jar with borax solution, a lead plate and a copper plate. Allow them to 'form' overnight by plugging into 115 VAC in series with a 40W light bulb. When working under load, they glow blue and burn rings into the linoleum.

Hal, N4GG










 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by N2MG on April 11, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
Bob,
These pictures are great... keep 'em coming!

73 Mike N2MG
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by VE4YU on October 5, 2002 Mail this to a friend!
W2OY - No kids no lids no whiskey willies I guess I
didn't offend him as he actually talked to me in the mid fifties
K2DS or King 2 Dead Silence and his QSL card edged in black with a coofin on the envelope (also edged in black)
Operating on 80 & 40M with my single 6AG7 transmitter (from the 1954 ARRL handbook) & then adding a cathode
6SL7 modulator to work with 3W AM. Those were fun times.
All Russian stations with homebrew transmitters &
receivers and some very unstable VFOs
P. O. Box 88 Moscow for all Russian QSLs
Heath AT-1 transmitter and Hallicrafters SC38C receiver
that I still have and working VKs and ZLs with them on
20M AM when the sun spot cycle peaks were really good.
Upgrade to 125W "Amplifier" with4-125A output whose
plates always seem to glow red hot. Enough!
 
New Feature - 'Do you recall?' Reply
by WA0EAJ on December 4, 2003 Mail this to a friend!
Ah, yes... waiting for THE TICKET, after passing the Novice - key up, before? Nahhh, the FCC would throw you into Leavenworth, you know

6L6's made great xmtrs. Johnson Adventurer - too nice, to expensive for me. Yeah, I finally got one when I was 50 - very cool, indeed.

Finally got another Heath AR-3 (Hey, I thought they were better than that!) 40m was about 1/16" wide on the scale. Trying to figure out if you were hearing your REAL signal, or just another overdriven IMAGE.

You called CQ, then tuned THE WHOLE BAND... nobody was on the SAME frequency - that many xtals would cost a fortune!

Trading my CentElec 20-A exciter, ARC-5 VFO,600-L linear (shoulda' called it the 600 lb), and 1941 Super Pro for a SWAN 500C... all that in that lil' box?

Sitting in Carl Bruns' (K0GOZ SK) basement, trying not to fill my drool cup, staring at his HT-32B & SX-101... and that PolyCom... whew! (My twoer was better than the P-C)

C me on K6NCG webpage - kid with the t-shirt & cans (60's group)

Tom Dailey - WA0EAJ - Denver
 
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