Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The N1MM training on Thursday night will not be recorded. I will send you a link to the materials I use after the meeting.
Jon AC1EV
Most of you don’t know me, I am new to the club and a recycled Ham. I got my license originally in 1963. My neighbor was Karl Miles (K1KQJ). He got me interested in amateur radio. I was/am a local farm boy who spent my spare time tearing apart old tv’s and radios and building stuff. I started with a Knight Kit 60, I think that was the number. It was a novice transmitter with am capability. My receiver was a Hallocrafters (sp) S-20R which Karl actually designed when he worked for them. I was not very proficient in CW so as soon as I could I moved to Technician Class. Karl helped me build a 6 meter transmitter using a 6146 from a design in the then current ARRL Handbook. We used the screen grid am circuits in the Knight Kit to modulate it and a 50 MHz to 7 MHz converter with the S-20R to make up the system. Karl was my first contact with it. Soon after that Karl passed. He and my father convinced me to go into engineering and not farming. I let my license expire in the early 80’s because of both family commitments and the cost of building a SSB system. After a long career at Sanders/BAE I recently got interested in amateur radio again took the tests, partitioned for my old license and still miss Karl (K1KQJ). Note: I still play on the farm and collect tractors so some of that farm is still in my blood.
Ollie K1UIO
That’s a great story Jim! For sure, memorable contacts don’t have to be exotic DX contacts… local ones can mean the world too. It’s cool that you were able to make that first QSO on the radio you won! That likely made it even more memorable! Thanks for sharing!
Matt, WE1H
Neat story Tom. Thanks for sharing! Timing is everything on life… so true in Ham Radio too. I bet that guy in Darwin never expected you’d even heard of it let alone been there! It seems that we get a pipeline between New England and VK/ZL daily here lately.
73,
Matt, WE1H
Thanks for sharing that Mike! What a cool story and an awesome contact! I’d have loved to have worked them. It’s a neat QSL too… one that I would proudly hang in my shack. It is amazing what 5 watts will get you.
73,
Matt, WE1H
My most memorable contact was the third QSO I’d ever made. It was last summer and was only a brief exchange. What made it remarkable to me was my second ever DX contact, I was on a QRP radio running 5 watts, and the remote operator was “Her Majesty The Queen.”
Well it wasn’t the Queen of England herself (may she rest in peace), rather an operator from the Radio Society of Great Britain operating in the name of the Queen. A special event station was running from the grounds of Windsor Castle during the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
I had just gotten my Tech and General license at the NARS class last spring. Dave N1AI was super kind and loaned me his Flex-1500 QRP SDR and a 20 meter dipole. He helped me get the antenna strung up between some trees and get on the air.
As a real noob at this, I did a LOT of listening. I made my first QSO to a guy in Florida, and second to a guy in Northern Ireland. I was really impressed that I could make direct voice contact across the Atlantic on only 5 watts (the power of a household nightlight) and a wire antenna.
With the SDR interface, I liked that I could see the various activity around the 20-meter band and tuned into a frequency showing a bunch of activity. “So this must be what a pile-up sounds like”. It was the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee special event station, and it was a really massive pileup. I did a bunch of listening. Over time started sensing a style, pattern, and timing as to who he would call on. I started trying to call in a way that matched that pattern, but with only 5 watts compared to all the other more powerful stations worldwide, I had to be realistic that there was really no chance of getting thru.
The event was over multiple days, so I kept trying now and then in hopes of getting lucky and squeaking through. So I was stunned one time when the operator replied with my callsign! Just a short exchange, but I logged it and they confirmed. And from that I received my first (and only) paper QSL card. [QSL Card side A] [QSL card side B]
This experience, along with the camaraderie and helpfulness of other hams, have made amateur radio an activity that I hope to enjoy for a long time.
That’s a cool story Dave! It is wondrous how we can make contacts with such basic gear. That sparks my memory of my first “real” HF setup… a Henry Tempo One 10-80M 100W tube rig, a borrowed Heathkit tuner, and a random wire antenna that I had to hide in the line of shrubs outside the bedroom window of our apartment. I attached the wire with TV twin lead and alligator clips when I wanted to operate. Thanks for sharing!
Matt, WE1H
Hi Don and everyone,
Join our Tech Night presentation on Tuesday, December 13th, 7 pm Eastern. Our Tech Night will be about Getting the Most from your HF Transceiver – Fred, AB1OC. Online meeting. Our pre-meeting get-together begins at 6:45 pm. Click here to join Our Zoom Meeting.
Fred plans on using the IC-7300 as the radio for his presentation but many of the principles and features are common across other HF transceivers and his presentation combined with a scan of the manual for your particular radio should be very helpful.