DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the |  |
DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the | |
“I first became interested in radio by accident in 1962; when, after replacing the antenna in a broadcast radio that I had been given, I ended up with a short wave receiver. After purchasing and building a Lafayette general coverage receiver kit and SWLing for a few months I discovered that ham radio existed, and I could do more than just listen and get QSL cards from foreign broadcast stations. The DX bug had bitten! I got the Novice study guide and a code practice oscillator and began studying, learning the code by sending the characters to myself from a table in the book and memorizing the questions and answers in the study guide. When I felt confident that I knew the code well enough, I took the mail- in exam through the local high school radio club. During the 6-week period waiting for my license to arrive, I continued my code practice while sitting in front of my Lafayette receiver and my recently completed Heathkit DX-60B, anxious to get on the air as soon as the license arrived in the mail. I received my Novice license, KN1ULI in February of 1963 about a month after my 16th birthday.
I met Gus, W1OG (then W1OGU) a few months later. He lived a short walk from my home and suggested that I should consider upgrading to General Class at the New England Convention at Swampscot, MA; a couple months away. With his help, I got my
Being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, and having heard all the DX stations on 20 meters at Gus’ station, being restricted to 21.120 MHz (I only had one crystal) was too much to bear for very long. Over the next several months, again with Gus’ help, the station was transformed. A Collins 75A-2A receiver (retrieved from under the bench of a Florida ham, former local, but still Gus’ friend), a Knightkit T-150 AM/CW transmitter with internal VFO, a 3-element Cushcraft 20m Yagi (fabricated and boxed while my mother and I waited at the Rohn facility), 30 feet of Rohn 25 and a Ham-M rotor (tower and rotor purchased with “industrial discount” applied by a dealer/friend of Gus’). In addition, I managed to buy a Vibroplex Original “Bug” which broke the 18 WPM barrier of my ability to send code with a straight key. This was followed shortly with a homebrew version of the W9TO keyer which used 4 12AU7A tubes for the flip-flops. A “modified” Lafayette “bug” served as a paddle for the W9TO keyer.
For many months I was inseparable from the shack, reveling in the ability to break pileups on 20m with my 150W input and becoming conversational at ~45 WPM with several of the 20m stalwarts such as KV4AA in the Canal Zone. Having a QTH near the top of Robin Hill in Chelmsford, MA did not hurt with the ability to break the pileups, but I was also taught the importance of timing and, above all, LISTENING to the DX station for patterns and instructions.
My interest in the hobby faded in the late 60's, and for about 20 years, I did not participate seriously in the hobby for any extended period. The station equipment stayed the same until I returned from overseas and set up the station in the Kansas City area where I was stationed with the Air Force. First, the Knight transmitter was replaced with a Heathkit SB 401. Then the Collins receiver and the Heath transmitter were traded for a Collins S-Line station (less linear). Lacking a CW filter, I never really got back to what remained my primary ham radio interest, CW DXing. While in the Kansas City area, I did make one of my better investments, by obtaining my Life Membership in the ARRL.
Colleen and I returned to the area in the summer of 1977. It was several years more before I got on the HF bands again, during which time the tower and rotor were sold. As the bug started to bite again around 1987, a Kenwood TS-440AT was added to the shack and a simple vertical was assembled from the remains of the old 20m beam and lashed to the support post for the basketball back board put up for our sons. It worked, but not very well. A Cushcraft R-5 worked better when installed on a telescoping mast.
I felt it appropriate that I take the plunge and upgrade to get back the spectrum at the lower ends of the CW bands that I had haunted as a youth and lost when “Incentive Licensing” was invoked. I picked up the Advanced and Extra class study guides and hit the books again. At the point that I felt comfortable with the Advanced Class material, I took my younger son with me to one of the area hamfests and found the VE test area. I took the 20 WPM code test rather than sitting around, doing nothing, waiting for the written sessions to start. At the beginning of the exam transmission I froze (right after the V’s). After a few seconds, I decided it was pretty stupid to get flustered about an exam I hadn’t planned to take! A few deep breathes and I settled down. The exam was the fill-in-the-blank style, and son- of-a-gun, all of the questions were from the portion of the transmission that I had copied after settling down. Ten-for-ten and a guaranteed CSCE to take home no matter what else happened. Then came the Advanced, written, and they included the areas that I still haven’t figured out. Oh well, two wrong, but I passed! “Since you’re here, why don’t you try the Extra written?” says the VE. I succumbed, with little expectation of passing since I had only skimmed through the guide once. After finishing and waiting what seemed to be an eternity, I was handed a CSCE indicating successful completion of all requirements for the Extra Class, and advised that I had missed only one question of the last test.
I started to become interested in the lower bands, so I added a 40m ground plane on the roof (again making use of the remains of the old 20m beam). To round out my interest in vertical antennas, I added a full-sized 1/4- wave vertical for 80m with a loading coil at the base so that I could switch to 160m by moving an alligator clip. Around this time, I was introduced to DX contesting as a means to increase my country total quickly.
With the yard bristling with verticals, and the shack now sporting an ICOM IC-781 transceiver in place of the Collins S-line, several of us in the club got together and participated in the 1990 ARRL DX CW Contest as a multi-operator, single transmitter entry. An Alpha 76A amplifier was added just prior to the contest to provide a little more muscle. We had fun, but the score was nothing to brag about.
By this time the bug had really bitten again, but with a twist. Contesting was FUN! One of my lifelong “want-to-dos” (mobile CW) was put on the back burner again. The Kenwood and accumulated gear to go mobile was sold to help finance a real upgrade in the antenna system. The verticals had done a good job of increasing my country count (including Bouvet on 80m), but simply were not going to be competitive enough for my new found interest.
The QTH is far from ideal for a contest station, located on what I believe to have been a portion of the Merrimack River flood plain at one time and surrounded by hills. The lot size, slightly less than ¼ acre, is a challenge in designing a competitive antenna system. Months of researching antennas, generating various layouts to see where I could locate a tower and how tall it could be based on guying and wind loading resulted in the system that exists today.
The installation of the last antenna (160m half sloper) was completed the day before the ARRL DX CW Contest in 1992 when the crew got together again to enter in the multi-operator, two-transmitter class, using a second IC-781 that had been recently acquired by one of the crew (NO1V). At the end of the contest, we had logged more than four times the QSOs of our prior effort and increased the score from 345k (1990) to over 2.3M points. Three things became clear as a result of the 1992 contest: 1) the use of an amplifier on a regular basis would require improvements in neighboring TV systems, 2) the antenna system performed as hoped and better than expected on 160m, and 3) I needed more time at the radio during contests to improve my own skills.
Shortly after the 1991 ARRL DX CW contest (entered as single-op, single band, 40m) I had begun thinking about whether or not I wanted to get one of those funny, 2x1 callsigns. About 6 weeks before the CQWW WPX CW contest, with the available 2x1 callsigns running out, I decided that a change to a call with a rare prefix would be a good idea for a “contester.” The week before the WPX contest the mail arrived with my new callsign, WS1E. Listening to it a few times at 40+ WPM and trying it out in a couple of pileups at high speed convinced me that I had not made a mistake!
With a new call and antenna system, and the sunspots at their peak made 1991-1993 very interesting years. In 1992 I received DXCC certificates for Mixed, CW, 40 meters and 10 meters. In 1993, 80 meter DXCC was added to the wall along with the 5 Band DXCC plaque. Since then, endorsement stickers have been added to: 10m - 175, 80m - 140, 40m - 230, CW - 310, and Mixed - 315.
Since the 1992 Multi-Two effort, I have participated in the ARRL and CQWW contests as a single operator, low power, with two exceptions; once when I entered as Assisted, high power (used in the wee hours) and in 1996 when I missed the ARRL contest due to work commitments. For the past 3 years, I also have participated in two of the annual RTTY contests, the CQWW (single- op, low power, all band) and the ARRL RTTY Roundup (multi-op, low power).
In 1993, the station placed #4 in the USA in the CQWW DX CW Contest; single operator, low power, all band category.
In 1994, certificates were received for:
In 1995:
In 1996:
Current Station Equipment:
Software:
Antennas currently installed:
As I said, quite a story and quite an evolution in thought. Next month we’ll feature Rex, K1HI.
73 de NE1V