Memories

I have no idea why this memory popped into my head while driving into work today. Maybe it was because I had the VHF/UHF on in the background and I was half listening to a Ham radio conversation.

As I was driving, my mind drifted back to all the trips I made to the Heathkit store back in the 80s. There was one on NJ State Route 35 down in the Eatontown area, about 25 miles or so from home. I would go there to get a "real life" look at all the stuff in the catalog. I spent a lot of time drooling there.

Eventually, I saved up enough money from my job to order a SB-104A transceiver I think what drew me to the rig most was that it had a feature, where at the push of a button, the power amplifier transistors were taken out of line and the unit became a 1 Watt transceiver. Shades of things to come, eh?

I spent a lot of hours building those circuit boards! After I got them done, I started inserting them, one by one, onto the main chassis as per the manual. When I got to about the third one, when I inserted it, the rig would go dead. It would just turn off. Take the board out, everything was fine.

I checked that board from ground to Heaven a million times. I couldn't detect any misplaced components, any solder bridges .......anything! I followed the troubleshooting procedures in the manual until I was blue in the face. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Back in those days, Heathkit's famous promise and tag line was "We will not let you fail!".  I admitted defeat, packed up everything into the shipping box and brought it down to the Heathkit store in Eatontown. I had built dozens of Heahtkits by this time with nary a problem. This was my first (and as it turned out, only) failure.  

I brought the box in, explained to the Tech what was going on. He gave me a receipt (back in those days, everything was still done on paper) and told me to call back in a few days. And so I did. He told me to come back the following week. I was working at the camera store at the time and I had to work Saturdays, so Monday was my day off - perfect day for another trip to Eatontown.

When I got there, of course my first question was, "So what did I do wrong?" and much to my surprise, the answer was "Nothing". The look on my face must have been one of astonishment, so the Tech explained to me that the fault was actually in one of the factory pre-built boards that were part of the kit - and that when I inserted my board in, the problem manifested itself.

Apparent to him, not to me!  This was before my deeper education into electronics that would come a few years down the road. My troubleshooting skills at the time were not up to snuff. I expected the Tech to bring out my box with the fixed board and all the rest, wish me good luck,  pat me on the back and send me off on the way back home. To my further surprise, he came out from the repair area with my SB-104A totally finished and aligned! He told me that since it was a factory fault, the least he could do was complete the assembly and alignment process - gratis!

Wow! Fast forward some 40 years, and I'm not sure if there are many companies that would stand behind their product like Heathkit used to. I went on to build many more kits, including some non-Amateur Radio ones, like their professional stereo system. When their Master Builder program began I had way more than enough kits under my belt to qualify.

A few years later, I think it was 1987, I had graduated from DeVry with a degree in digital electronics and was working at Sinar Bron doing electronics repairs on studio strobes. I wasn't getting paid what I thought my skills were worth, and I started looking for a better paying job. I found one at a DoD contractor, to build circuit boards for the guidance systems inside cruise missiles. 

After the interview, I had to undergo a "soldering test". I was given components and a schematic diagram and I had to sit down and assemble a circuit board under the watchful eye of an officer from the United States Navy.  After I finished, he looked at the circuit board and asked me, "Where did you learn to do work like this?" and of course, I answered (with a smile) "Heathkit!". 

I was offered the job on the spot, but there was a caveat. It was explained to me that since this was a DoD job, if there were any military budget cuts, as last one hired, I'd be the first to go. I was thinking that the Reagan years would not last forever, and add to that, the commute from home would be expensive and a traffic nightmare, and that ultimately, the job didn't offer that big of an increase in pay to make it worth my while to accept.

The bright side turned out to be that the HR person where I was working found out through the grapevine that I was looking for a better position. She went and told the boss, who in turn promoted me to Service Manager, along with the increase in pay to just around what I was hoping for. I would stay on at Sinar Bron for another 20 years.

Thank you, Heathkit!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Reminiscing

My daughter Cara got picked for Jury Duty. That means travelling to the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick, NJ. The other evening, I drove her there to show her where the Courthouse was, where to park and all that. She's somewhat familiar with New Brunswick as she's a graduate of Rutgers University, but the College Avenue campus is on the other side of town closer to the township of Somerset. Unless she's been downtown via Rutgers Campus Bus, I doubt she's ever been downtown on her own before.

I don't get into New Brunswick all that often myself, anymore. But for about 5 years, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was in the "Hub City" every day. I worked at and eventually became the manager of "The North Brunswick Camera Center Annex". Our main store was on Livingston Avenue in North Brunswick and we had this satellite store in New Brunswick on the corner of George Street and Bayard Street. Our biggest customers were Rutgers students (photography courses), Rutgers employees and the University itself had an account with us. Another big customer was Johnson & Johnson (the company) and some of their employees.

"Mr. Click" was our mascot and part of our logo.

I've told this story before. My apologies for repeating it, but the memories came flooding back so strongly while I was driving around the city.  It was while I was working at the Camera Center that I studied for my Novice license. The New Brunswick newspaper, "The Daily Home News" had a weekly column, "Calling CQ", on Sundays. about Amateur Radio and local Amateur Radio events which was written by Bob McGarvey. Bob is now an SK, and for the life of me I can't remember his call sign. Anyway, I never missed his column and one Sunday in late August he wrote about a Novice licensing course that was going to be given at North Brunswick High School as part of their Adult Continuing Education program. I think it was Tuesday nights, if memory serves me correctly.

It was to start in early September and run for eight weeks, and non-residents were welcome (for a slightly higher fee). The final week would be a review and the exam, which was given by a General Class op or higher. Our instructor was Ed O Donnell K2YJE (SK) and our text was the ARRL's "Tune In The World With Ham Radio" - I still have my copy!. Does that phrase ring a bell? It should - I believe that "Tune in the World" was the theme of this past Field Day. Our material for learning Morse Code was the ARRL cassette tapes. There were probably a dozen or a few more of us in the class.

Those eight weeks went by fast and they were fun! We had a good time and come November I'll never forget how anxious we all were about the code test. You had to solid copy one minute's worth of code (5 WPM) back then - there were no multiple choice tests like there were to be later on. Our instructor told us we'd get a few minutes of practice to "warm us up" for the actual exam, for which we were grateful.  After the five minutes of code were sent, he looked at our papers and we all passed! 

Unfortunately, back in those days, the exams were sent to the FCC to be graded. We had to wait 4 - 6 weeks before we got our results and our call signs. Mine came rather quickly, in Mid-December. I was at the camera store and it was near the end of the business day. About 4:00 PM or maybe 4:30 PM the phone rang and I was told it was for me. I picked up the receiver and it was my Mom on the phone. I thought maybe something bad had happened at home, but no ...... she informed me that an envelope had arrived from the FCC - did I want her to open it?  Are you kidding me? Please! Yes! Of course!

Not only had I passed the exam, but my callsign was KA2DOH. I was probably walking about 10 feet off the ground! After trying to get my license in High School and becoming totally disgusted with Morse Code, I had actually done it! I was a Ham. Little did I know that I was to embark on a life long love affair with that very same Morse Code that I had so thoroughly despised in High School.

That camera store is still there some 45 years later. North Brunswick Camera Center has long since gone out of business. It's now called George Street Camera. I actually went in there a few years ago when I had jury duty myself. It was achingly familiar, but not quite the same. I guess Thomas Wolfe was right - "You can't go home again.". But I'll always have fond memories of those days in New Brunswick and that one day in December 1978 in particular.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Taking things for granted

Before I start this post, I want to dispel any rumors that all W2LJ does at Field Day is take photographs. Here are two of yours truly actually pounding brass and adding points to the NJ2SP Field Day total - courtesy of Mario KD2HPF.

Field Day, or perhaps better said, the end of Field Day often causes me to wax nostalgic. That definitely happened this year, and a large part of it was seen in that video which I posted yesterday. Watching Marv K2VHW working ZL4TT in New Zealand brought back me back, in an instant, to something that happened to me, as a  newly licensed Amateur Radio operator so many years ago. 

A little context - Bill W2AOF, our Club President, spent a month with friends in New Zealand earlier this year. When he got back, he filled us in on the details of the trip. He had a great time, got to see a lot of wonderful sights, got to eat good food and spend quality time with good people. Yet, there was a price to pay, and I'm not referring to the monetary expense. Sure, there was that, but there was also an expenditure of time. 

With all the technological advancements we've witnessed over the last century, getting to New Zealand from New Jersey is comparatively easy compared to 100 years ago. Back then, the ocean voyage took weeks. Flying by air is a snap compared to that, but even that takes time. You don't often think about it, but even flying on a commercial aircraft, going at speeds never dreamt of by the seafaring ships of the old days, it still takes the better part of a day (around 18 hours) to get from New Jersey to New Zealand.  And in the middle of the overnight, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, with 5 Watts of power to a hunk of wire hanging in the air, we made that trip and back in seconds, the whole conversation taking a few minutes!

I was struck by that, once again. I wish Bill had been there. He had left a few hours earlier to make sure the A/C was working properly in his home as well as to get some much needed rest. Had he been there. Bill is the kind of guy who would have been taken aback and would have experienced that "Wow factor" of what had just been accomplished. We communicate with all parts of the world. There is really no place too far that our radio waves can't reach. But how often do we let that soak in? How often do we get annoyed when that DX contact isn't made. How often do we take our radios and our hobby and all the physics involved for granted?

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, as I had a similar experience happen to me back in 1979, and I'm sure it's been related somewhere earlier in this blog. But I like to think about it, it's an enjoyable memory and I'll re-tell it again.

I passed my Novice exam sometime back in October/November of 1978. The actual paper "ticket" came in the mail the last week of the year. I didn't even get on the air until the end of January of 1979, as I was busy putting my station together, and building my Heathkit Novice receiver kit that I had gotten as a Christmas gift. I upgraded to General in July and I worked my first DX contact with a Ham in Germany shortly thereafter.

Later that year in October of 1979, my best friend and I decided to take a trip up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to do some photography. We were two young budding photographers who were working together at a local camera shop and we both needed a road trip. We got our much needed time off and eventually made it all the way to Maine, specifically Bar Harbor. From there we decided that we would follow the coast as we made our way back to New Jersey. 

That meant a side trip to Cape Cod, and on the way out to Provincetown for some authentic New England clam chowder we came across a sign indicating that we were approaching the site of Marconi's Wellfleet Station.  I had to stop. We were in my car and I was the driver, so what I say goes .....goes. Right? What newly minted Amateur Radio operator would not want to visit a Marconi site? 

Not my image, but this is what you see when you visit. ^ This site is part of the National Park's Cape Cod National Seashore entity, so it is well maintained and there is a plethora of history to read about. This is what it looked like back in the day:

A few of the cement pylons that anchored the legs of the antenna towers were still there when I visited. Most had washed away into the sea as a result of beach erosion.

But it was the sea that struck me the most, which is a strange thing to say as I was born, bred and continue to live in New Jersey. I've seen the Atlantic Ocean and it bays hundreds, if not close to a thousand times in my time here on earth. But that time was different. 

I had not yet traveled to Switzerland, and would not experience air travel to Europe for another nine years, but standing there, for a VERY long time, where history had been made, just staring at the ocean, looking out upon all that water as far as my eye could see, was an experience unlike any other I had ever had. All I could think of was the radio waves from my Drake 2-NT and my MorGain multiband dipole, flying over all that water to another Ham in Germany. And her radio waves (she was an XYL) travelling back to my Heathkit HR-1680 receiver in a matter of seconds.

That water looked like it would never end. I knew that it did. I knew that on the other side of that vastness was Europe and the rest of the world. To contemplate my radio signals covering all that distance made me feel so tiny, but also filled me with awe at the immensity of Creation at the same time. 

We get so busy on Field Day and the rest of the year with making contacts, conducting ragchews, running nets, competing in contests, speaking into microphones, banging away on keys, typing away on keyboards that we forget to notice what is really happening. It's the magical part of Amateur Radio that never grows old for me and I hope I never take it for granted.

Long winded, I know, but thanks for staying with me!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Reminiscing

Last night, I installed the last of the capacitors onto the QCX 40 printed circuit board. I got those new magnifying glasses the other day and they really helped make things easier. I was able to read the capacitor nomenclature without resorting to the "microscope". The added light form the magnifying lamp helps tremendously.

A word to the wise (for what it's worth). I saw the magnifying headset in an ad on Facebook. Almost everything I view on Facebook is somehow Amateur Radio related outside of posts from friends, so the ads that pop up are mainly related to electronics. I liked them as soon as I saw the ad, but was not enamored with the price, so I did a search for the same type of headset on eBay. Got one for less than half of what the company on Facebook was charging. Moral of the story - always look around.

As I finished soldering in the last cap, i was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I got to thinking of my Heathkit "Glory Days" back in the 80s and early 90s. I built so many Heathkits, I was able to join their Master Builder Club which came into being very close to their demise. In no particular order, these are the Heathkits that I can remember building. There may have been a few more:

My very first Heathkit was one of their VTVMs.

Then came a flurry of Amateur Radio Kits:

The HR-1680 was my Novice receiver.

Who didn't have a Heathkit Cantenna Dummy Load (filled with toxic PCBs)?

The HW-8, my first QRP rig.

The Heathkit HD-1410 Keyer - VERY popular

My Amateur Radio coup de grace build. The SB-104A with macthing speaker/power supply and auxiliary VFO.

And there were also some non-Amateur Radio builds of neat stuff:

Had this alarm clock for many, many years.

The GR-70 scanner which had all the local repeaters programmed in.

And then, in my audiophile years - rack mounted stereo equipment:

Graphic equalizer

125 Watt per Channel Power Amplifier

Stereo Pre-amplifier

I spent a lot of money in those years - hey, I was working, single with no commitments at the time. I melted a lot of solder, got a lot of solder burns (along with the scars to prove it). But most of all, I had a blast building each and every kit.

There's a lot of great kits to be had today.  Some are questionable, some are downright excellent and come with instructions that actually outshine the Heathkit manuals - but there will never be an equal to what we knew as Heathkit.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Overwhelming!

The amount of e-mails that I have received requesting Skeeter Hunt numbers has been a bit overwhelming to say the least! And I could not be happier! Is this little Summer QRP Sprint beginning to become a favorite? I certainly hope so!

In the first 24 hours, since I started handing out numbers, I have received 136 requests.  In the past, that didn't happen until way closer to the event. Thank you all so much for your support and participation - does my heart good. And who knows? Maybe we'll actually have some sun spots this year. Could Ol' Sol finally be awakening from his slumber?

The Roster can be found at:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1quCECsmE_cgHexgQhpkHeltX2cIlveSqI_tVqK1z0GM/edit?usp=sharing

Keep those requests coming in, folks - plenty of Skeeter numbers to be had!

On another note,I have been reading a little book that I re-discovered on my kindle. I must have downloaded it a long time ago - I don't even remember when. It's titled "The Brasspounder" and the author is D.G. Sanders.

If you own a kindle, or have the kindle app on one of your devices, you can download this from Amazon for free. The time period the author tells of is the early 1900's - specifically around 1915 when he first started working for the railroad. It's not Amateur Radio related, but the word "ham" does make an appearance early on, in what I thought was, an unexpected way.

It's light reading and goes pretty quickly. In just a few evenings of pre-bedtime reading, I'm already half way through the book. Some of the language is railroad lingo, but it's easy enough to get through, and figure out what he's writing about.

If you get the chance, download it - it's free and is an interesting read of the life of a professional railroad telegrapher.

72 de Larry w2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

A pleasant surprise

My best friend since high school, Donald Jakubowski, posted the following photo on my Facebook timeline yesterday. It must have been from one of the many times when he came over to my parent's house to visit.

The lighting is what we would call in the photographic world as "low key". Usually a single light source and a lot of deep shadow and drama. The light source here is the desk lamp.

This was taken, in what I would guess to be 1980. It must have been in the late fall or winter, because if it's dark enough at 2222 UTC to have a desk light on, it must have been pretty dark outside at 5:22 PM local time. . I was working at the North Brunswick Camera Center at the time. I was wearing one our store's signature "Keep on Clickin"" t-shirts. I can make out that, at this point, I was beyond my initial Novice station. That's definitely my Heathkit HR-1680 receiver, but to the right of it would appear to be my Kenwood T599D, which had replaced my Drake 2NT as my transmitter. The R599D would come very shortly thereafter. I did not acquire them both at the same time. When you're a young kid, working at your first "real job", you're not exactly rolling in dough. Stations got built, a piece at a time.

To the left of the Heathkit was my MFJ VersaTuner with a speaker on top of it, and a clock on top of that. On the bottom shelf was my Realistic DX160, which was my SWL receiver. To the left was its speaker. To the right of that was open space for whichever Morse Code key I was happening too use at the time.

On the wall you can see some meager wallpaper. My RCC - Rag Chewers Club certificate, and my W1AW code proficiency certificate. Only 13 wpm at this point, but that's what is leading me to believe that I had upgraded to General by the time this photo was taken. I think that's a copy of a Gil cartoon the the left of the RCC Certificate, behind the clock. Phil Gildersleeve, always was and always will be my favorite. Attached to the dormer, over my left shoulder, was an ARRL world map. Above and to the left of the RCC Certificate was probably my ARRL Membership Certificate, then something in between, and then my license to the right of that.

I was so surprised to see this! As much as I was into photography at the time, I never thought of taking photos of myself, or of my pursuits. I was always taking photos of other things, and thus, I lack any documented personal history.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Happy Anniversary

to me!

January 28th, 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of my very first QSO as a Novice, way back in the Stone Age. We tapped out messages on rocks, you know! Well. actually .... we only used rocks when it was too wet to send smoke signals, or the drum skins were broken.

Seriously ..... although I passed the test back in November of 1978 and got my license the last week of  December 1978, it took a while for me to put my station together. My transmitter was a used Drake 2NT from Burghardt Electronics that my parents gave to me for Christmas that year. I had to build my Heathkit HR-1680 receiver, put up my antenna (or what I called and insisted was an antenna), and figure out how the whole mish-mosh went together. After the licensing class that I took was completed, I had no Elmer. I was on my own and learned by trying things, making mistakes, fixing them or trying something else. Looking back at it, it's a wonder I didn't fry myself, or the house.

I was working at the North Brunswick Camera Center Annex store in New Brunswick, NJ at the time. Since I had to work on Saturdays, Monday was my day off. That was kind of neat because having Sundays and Mondays off, it always felt like a long weekend, even though it wasn't.  So when I made this first QSO on a Sunday afternoon, I had the whole rest of the day AND Monday to keep at it and make some more. Those were the days!

To be honest with you, I don't remember if that first QSO was a result of me calling CQ or me answering a CQ. All I remember was how nervous I was, making that first solo flight all by my lonesome.

I certainly don't remember the QSO lasting 20 minutes, but exchanging the basics at 5 WPM probably took that long! After getting that first contact under my belt, the following QSOs got easier and easier.

A couple of things:

I see KA9CIH states he was running 90 Watts. I guess that was Watts input, because of memory serves me correctly, Novices were limited to 75 Watts output back in those days.

Look at that 10 cent stamp! I think the price of a 1st Class stamp either just went up to 55 cents; or it will be very soon. Paper QSLing is becoming way too expensive!

Adam was 14, I was 21 at the time. I wish I had started out when I was his age. Better late than never, I guess.

Here was my QSL card at the time:

That was homebrewed by yours truly, as well. The poor attempt at drawing was mine (Apologies, Mr. Schulz!), but the typesetting was done with Letraset. Letraset was letters on transfer sheets. You would line up the letter on your work surface (what the commercial art world calls a "comp") and you would rub the back of the Letraset page with a stylus and the letter would adhere to the comp. After you got all the lettering done and the "comp" was finished, you would take it to a print shop, where a lithographic negative would be shot and that would be used to make an offset printing plate.

It seems so primitive now in the day and age of computers and desktop publishing - but that was the process 40 years ago.

I looked up Adam's name on QRZ and it would appear that he's no longer licensed. KA2DOH eventually became N2ELW and later W2LJ. Still going strong, 40 years later with no intention on quitting anytime soon!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Reminiscing

As 2018 draws to a close, I can't help but sit here, with a broad smile on my face, and remember this day, two years ago. December 31st, 2016 - the very last day of National Parks on the Air.

NPOTA was such a wild success, I have said and will continue to say that when the bicentennial history papers are written for the ARRL so many years into the future, NPOTA will continue to stand out as one of the all time crown jewels of ARRL operating events. Over 20,000 NPOTA activations were completed and over 1,000,000 QSOs were logged on LotW.  I think it will be a very long time before we ever see its likes again.

So much fun was had, so many friendships were made, so many fledgling operators became grizzled veterans. So much good stuff happened that year. Even a book on portable operating by Stuart Thomas KB1HQS, came out as a result of NPOTA.

But that day, December 31st, 2016 still ranks in the top five of my personal "Best Days in Amateur Radio". I started the day at Morristown National Historical Park, making contacts. My goal for the day was to work Dave KD2FSI on SSB and I met that goal. We had worked the park together that January and that's where Dave's year long NPOTA adventure was launched. I wanted to end the year as it started and there was no better way to do that than to hook up with Dave on the radio.

The QSO was made and I was happy as a clam. However, the day got better when Dave showed up at the park in person a little while later and we got the chance to reminisce about our NPOTA experiences.. Even "better-er", we got the chance to put in some PR or Amateur Radio by explaining to some curious bystanders what NPOTA and our hobby were all about. In return, they shared their "glug" with us, which is a Norwegian concoction of warm red wine, raisins and almonds, It seems that small group of friends also gather at the park every New Year's Eve to share their own tradition; and they were kind enough to include us. So cool!

After Morristown, I headed back home to the Frazee House on the Washington-Rochambeau Trail which is not far from my house. 40 Meter CW was quite good, but pickings on 20 Meter CW were disappointing. Not wanting my end to NPOTA to come so early, I decided to switch from CW to SSB. To my amazement, I was occupied with a pileup on 20 Meters that lasted well over an hour! I was so glad that I had brought the microphone along, as that is something that I don't normally do. It proved to be a providential move for me, and an eye-opener, too.

It was a day of personal Amateur Radio accomplishment and a day of total fun. I met up with KD2FSI, made a slew of contacts at multiple NPOTA sites, and then finished the day in conversation with Bob W3BBO. It just doesn't get any better than that, and it sure seems that days like that don't come around often enough. The memories are cherished long after the event concludes.

I missed the days of "The Golden Days of Amateur Radio" from the 40s, 50, and 60s - but I was fortunate enough to live through and participate and be part of National Parks on the Air. For that, I am very, very grateful!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

49 years ago, today

It all started the year I was born. When I was a mere 5 months old. our friends in Russia launched Sputnik. I am told that Amateur Radio operators the world over listened to the "Beep, Beep" of its beacon on their shortwave receivers. The "space race" was born and little did I know, as a tiny infant, what a big role that both Amateur Radio and that space race would play in my life.

Some of the earliest and most vivid memories that I have were watching the televised launches of both Alan Shepard and John Glenn on their history making flights.  By the time I got to grade school, Program Mercury was ending and Project Gemini was taking its place. I was hooked! I followed each mission with the zeal that only a kid can muster.

And then, when I was 12 years old ....... 49 years ago on this very day, we sat glued to our TVs to watch these ghostly images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon for the very first time!

What a time to grow up in! Back then it was like we could do anything we put our minds to. I think in the 70s we lost a lot of that child like innocence and the reality of national budgets, changing national priorities and the "lack of will" came crashing down.

But, oh, what a time it was while it lasted! I've always been and will always be a "fanboy" of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. And I'll always be a "fanboy" of Amateur Radio. Some things WON'T change - for me at least!

Hmmmmmmm ........ I wonder how many Hams worked on/in/for the Space Program back in those days?  I'm willing to bet "a lot"!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Nasty OT Ham - Reality or Myth?

Every now and then I wander over to eHam. net. And sometimes I wonder why I bother to wander.

It's not uncommon for me to read the articles, and then inevitably, come across some comment by a self-proclaimed "newbie" wherein he or she begins to bemoan the treatment they've received from some "old fart", nasty, mean ol' Ham.

The common scenario seems to be:

"I'm new, bright-eyed, bushy tailed, full of exuberance and spit and vinegar -  but yet somewhat lacking in knowledge and experience. I've gone to WB#XYZ repeater or to the Amateur Radio Club of Greater Podunk, where my inquiries were met with laughter, ridicule, sarcasm and down right meanness from Joe Ham. I am now going to sell all my Amateur Radio equipment because I'm traumatized and I never even want to hear the words "Amateur Radio" again."

I've seen this retold several times, in several different instances. I hate to question the veracity of the people making these claims - but can they be true? This has become a pet peeve of mine.

I've mentioned many times now, that I've been licensed for over 35 years. In all that time, I have never, ever, not even once come across treatment like that from an older Ham. Don't get me wrong, I've had to withstand my share of newbie ribbing, and have received my share of friendly and gentle reprimanding when doing something wrong - but nothing like these guys are describing.

A case in point. Shortly after upgrading to General in 1979, I joined the Old Bridge Amateur Radio Association.  They owned and operated the KB2TX repeater at the time (well actually, it became the KB2TX repeater after Walt, the owner, changed his callsign to KB2TX - I forget what it was before that). Anyway, I had installed a used non-Icom microphone with a DTMF pad on my Icom 2 Meter mobile, so that I could make phone patches if the need came up.  Back in those days, (am I dating myself?) it was rare for a mobile microphone to come with a keypad pre-installed. Unbeknownst to me, the microphone's element wasn't working. The DTMF tones were making it through, but my voice wasn't. So Walt got on the air and in his usual gruff  and no-nosense manner announced, "Hey! Whoever's sending the tones - you've got no audio. Stop it and identify yourself".  I was saying "KA2DOH (my call at the time) testing.", but it wasn't coming through.  I had Walt's phone number and gave him a call, explaining the problem.  After listening to my profuse apology, he got quiet and thought for a few seconds. Instead of giving me a tongue lashing, as technically I was breaking the rules, he suggested that the impedance of the microphone element might not be the proper valuthat the rig was looking for - a mismatch. Sure enough, that's what it turned out to be.

I listened and I learned something (that had never occurred to me) and was able to remedy the situation by going to Radio Shack, where I purchased and soldered into my microphone an element with the proper impedance.  Walt could have dressed me down, and read me the riot act, but he didn't. He was that way to everybody. In fact, in dealing with all the Old Timers throughout my Amateur Radio career (there were many) - they were all like that.  I can't ever remember a time where I received a snotty, snarky or sarcastic reply to a question. In fact, in my dealing with experienced Hams, they have always been helpful, accommodating and educational. And I live in New Jersey, too - supposedly the home of unfriendly, sarcastic, snarky and just plain mean ol' human beings in general!

So where does this curmudgeon live?  DOES this curmudgeon live? Or have we become so hyper-sensitive to any kind of criticism that even helpful criticism is taken as an incidence of ego-shattering reprimand?

Maybe they do exist, and maybe I'm lucky that I've never come across one.  Maybe I just need to go down on bended knee and be grateful that I've never run across the "No kids, no lids, no space cadets" type of Ham.  I can tell you that I have become dear friends with several "Old Timer" Hams who did have very rough and gruff reputations, only to find out after spending some time talking with and listening to them, that they had hearts of pure gold. Sometimes that's all it takes, just listening for a bit instead of always chattering and insisting that we know everything, and that we're always right - when maybe, just perhaps, we're not.

Food for thought.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Still M.I.A.

I still need these two QSL cards to complete the 13 Colonies special event for 2015.

Of course, it's kind of ironic that one of the two QSL cards that I need would be from the state that I live in - and that my original QSL request was sent to a town just two over from home. I guess I will have to re-send QSL requests to both New Jersey and Delaware.  However, instead of mailing the NJ one, I might just drop it off at the manager's mail box. He lives not far off the route I take to get back and forth from work every day. That way I'd be 1000% sure that he received it.

I've been e-mailing back and forth with my good friend Bob W3BBO. At a recent hamfest, he picked up these:

Yes, this is a Heathkit DX-60 and the accompanying HG-10 VFO. Well actually, he picked up the DX-60 at the hamfest. A friend supplied the HG-10 and advised Bob that it needed some TLC, and that if he could get it working, that he could purchase it at a super reasonable price. Bob has succeeded in getting it to work and he e-mailed me this morning that he is in the process of homebrewing a cable to get the output of the VFO into the DX-60.

That reminded me of a much earlier time, when I had these in my Novice station.

My Novice transmitter was a Drake 2-NT that I had purchased through Burghardt Electronics. I had purchased the Globe V-10 VFO from John Kakstys W2FNT who lived in Linden, NJ which was not too terribly far from East Brunswick, where I was living at the time.  My receiver was the Heathkit HR-1680, which was my very first Heathkit build. That it worked without a hitch the very first time, upon firing it up, still amazes me to this day.

Anyway, I had the transmitter and I had the VFO. What do I do with them? That was the quandary for me at the time. This was 1979, after all. There was no Internet, no Google. I had no Elmer with whom I could speak, other than the instructor who taught the license class I had attended (and I never got his home telephone number). So it was either get the information I needed from a book, QST or go with my gut and improvise.

I improvised.  There was a two conductor cable coming from the output of the VFO.  The 2-NT's crystal socket had two holes for where you would plug in a crystal. I figured that the output from the VFO had to go there - it just seemed reasonable to me. So I took a junk crystal, pried the bottom part off, which left me with a base and pins. Then I soldered the two wires coming from the VFO output to the crystal base pins. I plugged it in, hoping the 2-NT wouldn't know the difference between a crystal and a VFO.  I took a deep breath, muttered a prayer and turned everything on.  I half expected it to blow up, taking me along with it, or to somehow electrocute me.

It didn't.

I connected the 2-NT to a dummy load and adjusted it for the lowest output power I could (see, QRP even way back then, I just didn't know it yet!).  Then I turned on the HR-1680 and keyed the 2-NT to see if I could hear anything.

It worked!

I had successfully hooked up my VFO to my transmitter and did not harm myself or anyone else in the process. Much to my parent's delight, I didn't burn down the house, either!  I used that setup for a lot of QSOs and enjoyed the heck out of it.  After I upgraded to General and bought some equipment capable of doing SSB (silly boy), instead of selling off my Novice station, I donated it to the Handi-Hams, who were pretty much a new organization back then. I guess they must have been desperate for equipment donations at the time, as they gratefully accepted it - homebrewed VFO cable patch job and all.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Every Ham's favorite? He is mine!

Gil Gildersleeve, W1CJD - the cartoonist whose work appeared for so many years in QST. When I was a young spud, it was Gil's cartoons that always caught my eye in the ARRL's license manuals and QST. They made me chuckle, they made me want to be a Ham. Gill Gildersleeve's cartoons were part and parcel of Amateur Radio to me!

 

 

So it was nice to see N2EST, Jim Massara post a new article about Gil on Facebook (for those Hams who avoid Facebook, calling it a waste ......... we'll go into THAT some other time!). You can read Jim's interesting article here.

 

 



While there will never be another Gil, it's comforting to know that we have excellent talent in our ranks, still today. Jim N2EST, and Jeff K1NSS are without a doubt, our generation's premier Amateur Radio illustrators. We're lucky to have them.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Feeling nostalgic this morning

While digging out a mug for this morning's cuppa, I found this all the way back in the cabinet, hiding amongst the bajillions of mugs we seem to have amassed over the years.

This mug as to be over 20 years old. I changed my call in 2000, and moved from East Brunswick to South Plainfield in 1998. I had this for a good number of years before then.

Seriously though, do you guys have the same problem? Between door prizes, company "gifts", and vacation souvenirs we have quite the coffee mug collection. Some are buried so far bag in the cabinet that they haven't seen the light of day in years, like ol' N2ELW above,

If coffee mugs were a rare commodity, "I'd be rich, socially secure - a happy miser!"*

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!


* - Apologies to Daffy Duck for stealing his line.

2014 In Review

2014 was a pretty eventful year - here are some of the highlights and lowlights, from a W2LJ point of view (in a somewhat chronological order).

1) Got published! 

My very first article to be published in a major Amateur Radio magazine occurred when a piece that I authored, entitled "QRP a la Carte" made it into the February 2014 edition of CQ Magazine - the yearly QRP Special. Unfortunately, this was just about the time that CQ was having severe troubles with the new firm that they had hired to do their hard copy printing, so I don't know that the printed version made it out to many of their subscribers. But it did make it out to all the digital subscribers (of which I am one).  Thanks to Rich Moseson W2VU who thought the article was worthy enough of some space in his fine publication.

2) Acquired a Begali Simplex Mono

This is by far, one of the best purchases that I have ever made in my Ham Radio career. Everything you have heard about Begali keys AND their customer service is true, and then some.  This is the only paddle that I use now, when I'm in my basement shack.

3) Acquired and built a KXPA100

 

Admittedly, I don't use this a lot. I've probably have made use of QRO power less than a dozen times this year.  But when I run across a new DXCC entity that I have never worked before, and QRP just doesn't seem to cut it, my KXPA100 goes online. I think I've worked about a half dozen new ones this year, thanks to the KXPA100. Some may say the little use I give it makes the price I paid a bit frivolous. But there's something to be said for the piece of mind that I have, knowing the "OOMPH" is there should the need arise.

4) WZ8C SK

 We lost a good friend and a valued CW advocate when we lost Nancy Kott this past March. There's a saying that only the good die young. I know for a fact that that's not true, but this is one of the times that it is.

5) Switch to Log4OM

Earlier this year, I switched from Ham Radio Deluxe to Log4OM, written by Daniele Pistollato IW3HMH, for all my QSO logging.  After using it for some months now, I am still happy with that decision, and would recommend it to anyone. It's full featured, intuitive and free.

6) G4KKI SK

The QRP community lost another friend this year with the passing of Bill Stevenson G4KKI. Bill was not only an active portable ops kind of guy, but he also did a lot of experimenting with homebrew construction of magnetic loop antennas.

7) SPARC is born

The South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club in South Plainfield, NJ was born.

This was something I had hoped to see occur in our town for a number of years. This year, the dream bore fruit - and the club is growing!

8) Amateur Radio Week and Field Day

This past June, our Mayor and Town Council proclaimed the week before Field Day to be "Amateur Radio Week" in South Plainfield.

 

Not only did they honor us with this proclamation; but they came to visit our Field Day site, too. They spent more than just a few obligatory minutes with us, and actually sat down to see what type of communications that we are capable of providing. Not that they didn't "know", but it's one thing to have the concept in your head, and it's another thing to see communications being done, real time!

7) Separated from AmateurRadio.com

After hearing that Matt W1MST was taking some flack regarding the content of some of my posts, I decided upon a halt to the automatic mirroring of all my blog posts on that site.  Now I choose what posts will get mirrored there. Some of my "humorous" posts and just about all of my posts of a religious nature (i.e. Christmas and Easter Holiday posts) were garnering Matt headaches.  Add to that some e-mails that I privately received from readers of AmateurRadio.com stating that they "were sick of QRP" - that kind of solidified my decision. To his credit, Matt never once complained, but I can't put anyone through that. It's one thing when someone comes here of their own volition, they know what to expect from me before they get here - it's another thing at an aggregator site.  I've probably have taken a big hit in readership, but that's OK. I'm in this for the fun of it and the love of the hobby, not because I'm trying to make money from it.

9) NJQRP Skeeter Hunt 2014

The third edition of this outdoor QRP operating event was another success!  159 Skeeter numbers were handed out and 64 log summaries were submitted. Look for the Skeeter Hunt to return on the second Sunday of August in 2015!

10) Radio classes

Through SPARC, Marv K2VHW and Drew W2OU and I ran an eight week Technician Class licensing course that ran from September to November of this year. We had an 80% success rate as some of the students dropped out about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through. On the whole, all the students were eager, perceptive and quick on the uptake. It was an honor and a privilege to bring over a dozen new Hams into the fold.

11) G4ILO SK

Another loss - another BIG loss as we watched the passing of Julian Moss G4ILO take place before our very eyes.  Julian was a talented Amateur Radio op, QRPer, software developer and blogger. Julian blogged throughout his ordeal, and he will be missed. Julian was a very gentle and courageous man, and he leaves a deep void behind.

12) New QSL cards

A picture is worth 1,000 words:

My hearty thanks to Jeff K1NSS for the concept and the fantastic artwork and KB3IFH for the gorgeous printing!

13) Lunchtime QSOs

Throughout the year, I had the pleasure of making many QSOs from the Jeep during lunchtime at work using my KX3 and Buddistick configuration - over 300 this year alone! And typical of these was the QSO I had with Ted N1WPU during lunch today on 20 Meters. Ted answered my CQ and I was delighted to engage him in a 2X QRP QSO. Actually Ted was QRPp, as he had an attenuator on the back of his Kenwood TS-570D  and was pushing out only 250 milliWatts to his G5RV. When there was no QRM, Ted was an honest 569 into NJ. According to QRZ, Ted is 392 miles from me, so for him that works out to be about 1,600 miles per Watt!

 

Thanks, Google Earth!

In closing out this post, I hope that Mr. Claus was generous to you this Christmas, and that you found a lot of Ham Radio goodies under your tree this year. Personally, I was graced with a new "QRP - When you care to send the very least!" hoodie from my lovely wife, Marianne.  These NJ winters can be brutal, but I'll be keeping warm, and this is perfect for my basement shack! A kind reader sent me a tip last winter, "The key to staying warm in a cold basement shack is to keep your head warm." This hoodie will fit that bill to a "T".

A very huge "Thank You!" to all the readers of this blog. You are the ones who keep me inspired and make this so much fun. Hoping you all have a wonderful, safe, healthy and prosperous 2015. AND ... my high hopes that I get to meet many of you on the air!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Tidings of the Season - the good ol' days!

Kudos to Jeff KE9V, for posting on Google+ This brings back so many fond and favored memories of special ads, special magazine covers, special holiday catalogs which became wrinkled, dog-eared, worn and drooled upon!



Special thanks to W4KTL for creating these videos - more to come throughout the week!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

100 years ago

Last night, I received an e-mail from Bob W3BBO about an item he saw in The County Hunter News.  The article was written by Bob Voss N4CD, and it concerned a book written 100 years ago, entitled  "Bert Wilson, Wireless Operator".  The book has been made available through Project Gutenberg.

The book was available in various formats, including kindle format.  Bob and I are both kindle owners and avid readers, especially (although not exclusively) when the topic is Amateur Radio.  I downloaded the book last night and began reading it today.  Even though the book is 100 years old, it is a fun and easy read. It's not terribly long, and I'm already a third of the way through.

You do have to keep in mind that this was written in 1913.  The author, J W Duffield makes an early mention of "the unfortunate accident and loss of life" that happened "last year". Of course, he's referring to the Titanic, without directly mentioning the ship by name.  The language is a bit different, with a lot of "By Jove"s, "Great Scott"s appearing throughout.  Friends are referred to as "fellows" and there's a lot of back slapping that occurs instead of the "high fives" that we have become so accustomed today.  Further examples - baseball teams are referred to as "nines" and ball fields as "diamonds", all fitting descriptions, but all very old-timey. There are also some very un-PC descriptions of things in there, so if you're offended by that kind of thing, please be aware. We are talking 1913, here.

But as I've mentioned before, it is a very entertaining little story. I can only imagine that the target audience back then was the same audience for which the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift books were written in my younger days.

In fact, if you go to Project Gutenburg and type in "wireless" into their search box, there are a couple dozen various books that you will be led to.  Some appear to be fiction, while others definitely are not.  But they are all free and readily available to be downloaded for your reading pleasure.

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that there's another unbuilt HW9 up for bid on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Unbuilt-Unassembled-Heathkit-HW-9-Deluxe-QRP-Transceiver-Kit-/321078183712?pt=US_Ham_Radio_Transceivers&hash=item4ac1c04720

A couple of weeks ago, John AE5X mentioned an auction for one of these.  That kit ended up selling for close to $2000.00.  This one is up to $305.00 with 5 days to go.  I am pretty certain that any unsuccessful bidders from the first auction learned a lesson about holding their cards closer to their vests.  I am predicting that bids will probably (and I mean probably, but I might be wrong) not move much until right before the end of the auction in an attempt to keep the winning bid lower than the $2000.00 neighborhood.  It will be interesting to see how much this unbuilt Heahtkit will end up selling for.

Almost makes me want to buy a K2 and just stash it away somewhere for my kids to sell in about 30 or 40 years.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Blast from the past!

circa 1979

My best friend since High School days plastered this on my Facebook page.  This was taken about a year or so after I was licensed.  Back in the days when I sported a beard and mustache, and professional photography was my trade.

OK fellow bloggers!  The challenge has been issued!  Care to post unflattering pictures of yourself from "the Olden Days"? Can't be any worse than the above!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Happy Anniversary !!!

I took the test for my Novice license in November of 1978.  I received my ticket in the mail at the very end of December 1978.  I remember that I was sitting, taking a break from my job at the camera store where I was working.  We were having a post-Christmas sale and it had been a frantic day. My Mom had called to tell me that I had received the vaunted envelope from the FCC and that my call was KA2DOH. Between that time and my very first QSO, I was occupied with putting my station together.

For some reason, in my mind, I always remember my first QSO as having taken place on January 29th, 1979.  But a look in Logbook Number One reveals the date as January 28th, 1979 - so the 34th anniversary of my very first QSO was yesterday!

As I recall, that was a Sunday afternoon and it was 2110 UTC, so that would have been 4:10 PM local time - yep, that's just about right.  And my victim ....... er, QSO partner was Adam KA9CIH.

As far as I can tell, Adam is no longer active or even licensed. KA9CIH doesn't come up at QRZ.com, nor does it come up at N4MC's Vanity Headquarters. A search on his name returns nothing, either.

From my log, I can see that was the only contact I made that day.  I guess I was so petrified from that initial 20 minute QSO, that I didn't go near the radio for the rest of the day!

The station in my bedroom at my parent's house consisted of a Drake 2NT transmitter attached to a Globe VFO (by 1978, Novices were no longer constricted to being crystal controlled.)  This used VFO had a cable coming out of it that had a crystal base soldered to it.  So not knowing any better, I just plugged that into the 2NT's crystal socket.  I didn't blow myself up and it worked!  The Drake 2NT was my parent's Christmas gift to me that year.  They purchased it (under my direction, as a result of several well placed hints) from the used equipment list from Burghardt Amateur Supply.

My receiver was a Heathkit HR-1680, which I had bought and built myself. My camera store salary was allowing me to make "OK" money at the time.  I wasn't getting rich; but I was able to afford a few hobby items here and there. (Still ain't rich to this day!) The purchase and construction of the HR-1680 was the reason for the month's delay between receiving my ticket and actually getting on the air.

My antenna was a wire that stretched from my bedroom window to our unattached garage, ran through an insulator there, bent at a sharp angle and was anchored at another second story window on a different side of the house (imagine a slightly sloping horizontal "V").  I soldered a piece of coax to the end of the wire - center conductor to the "long wire" and the shield I connected to the cast iron radiator in my room.  The radio end of the coax went to an MFJ tuner.  I switched between the transmitter and receiver using a double throw knife switch.  That this "Rube Goldberg" mash up worked was a miracle; and the fact that I made contacts at all was an even bigger miracle.

I worked all the Novice subbands available to me on 80, 40, 15 and 10 Meters.  There were times that the old MFJ tuner would spark and hiss at me on 80; but I had a ball, anyway.  To this day, I have the feeling that if I went back in time and saw that set up, knowing what I know now, I would probably shake my head and tell my younger self how crazy I was.

I look at my log and see how I logged EVERYTHING - unanswered CQs and all.  But that was good because looking at it now brings back so many vivid memories.  I upgraded from the 2NT a few months later to a Kenwood T599D after my Globe VFO crapped out.  I had the Heathkit and Kenwood setup until I ordered and built my Heathkit SB-104A. I distinctly remember soldering SB-104A boards while watching the 1980 Winter Olympics on TV.

I upgraded to General on June 2nd of 1979.  I'll never forget THAT day.  Somehow, the Morristown, NJ Club had gotten the FCC to come to their hamfest to give exams.  I wasn't about to miss the grand opportunity of taking my General test without having to travel to Manhattan, even though I was sick as a dog that day with about a 102 fever.  And it was sweltering outside that day to boot, and to make matters worse, the hamfest and exams took place in the UN-air conditioned Morristown Armory. I was in no condition to drive; and somehow I wangled my sister into driving me, waiting for me and driving me back home.  But in a strange way, I think being sick was a help, as I was feeling so lousy that I didn't have the normal pre-test "jitters". They graded the tests right then and there, and I was told I passed and was given the AG designator so that I could use my new privileges immediately.

I don't have a copy of my Novice license; but I still have my General license.

Looking further at my log, I see that I made very few A3 QSOs after upgrading.  I discovered the hard way, by the ire of my family, that SSB screwed up the TV - royally!  I pretty much stayed with CW with only occasional "very late hours" phone QSOs.  And I couldn't stay up too late as I was a working man - so the overwhelming majority of my QSOs (roughly 95 -97%) have been CW since that original one back on January 28th, 1979.

Ahh ..... the sweet, sweet memories!

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!