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Christmas Memories
25 December 2016 | by 
As the cold days of December dragged on, like most high school kids, I always looked forward to the arrival of the Christmas holidays ... even more so once I had discovered the magic of radio.
One particular Christmas holiday stands out above many others ... December '64. By then, I was licenced and on-the-air as VE7ANP. I was using a Heathkit DX-20 (30 watts out) along with the Heathkit VF-1 VFO ... the one with the mesmerizing green dial (it was the sight of one of these dials a few years earlier that tweaked my interest in amateur radio ... but that's another story!).
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| courtesy: http://www.transistor-repairs.com |
My receiver was an aging but lovely BC-779 Hammarlund Super-Pro.
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| courtesy: http://rigreference.com |
On the peaked porch roof just outside of my upstairs attic window, was the base of my new 40m antenna ... a full-sized 40m vertical groundplane. It was made from 33' of galvanized eavesdrop drain pipe, reinforced with an inner 2x2 and guyed in three places. The ground counterpoise system consisted of just three bell-wire radials, each a quarter-wavelength long ... one to the boulevard tree and the other two wrapped around the sides of the house, just under the eaves. The antenna was fed with about 10' of RG-58 coax. Switching was handled via a footswitch-controlled 'clunky' relay that also switched the VFO on for a better sounding note. The highly affordable VF-1 was not known for its great stability but by finding just the 'right' 6AU6, and keeping the switch contacts clean, it could do a pretty good impression of a real VFO.
This particular holiday stands out because I was intent on trying to work some JA stations on 40m, in the pre-dawn hours. I had worked several JA's on 20m CW earlier in the fall but working Japan on 7mc with my previous low wire antennas had proven to be very challenging. I hoped things would be different with my new 40m vertical.
I recall rising the first morning of the holidays to find that we had received a huge overnight snowfall, about a foot in total. This seemed to happen a lot more often back then than it does now. The peaked roof supporting the groundplane was piled high with fresh snow and completely covered the vertical's feedpoint and the radial wire junction. I pulled-up the wooden window's bottom sash and reached far enough out to clean all of the snow from the antenna's base while the rig, preparing itself for the impending assault of 40m's low end, warmed-up just beside me.
A careful tune across the band brought a plethora of signals sounding as clean and crisp as the morning air ... it was the perfect 'DX-morning'! I managed to work several JA's that morning and throughout the Christmas break. Several of the contacts stretched well past my local sunrise, as 40m revealed some of her DX secrets to me for the first time.
Like so many Christmases past, the memories of my Christmas '64 radio experiences are as vivid as if they had happened yesterday. I hope that your Christmas of 2016 is as joyous and memorable as well.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
Ham College 24
Antennas and more questions from the Technician pool.
1:01:01
George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].
ICQ Podcast Episode 227 – Operating Portable in Winter
In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Martin Rothwell M0SGL, Dan Romanchik KB6NU, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s features: Operating Portable in Winter.
We would like to thank Ralph Kuehn KD9HNU, Bill Seward and our monthly and annual donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate
- Germany Access 60m
- RSGB Yearbook 2017 Error
- Pilot for Online Advanced Exams
- HamRadioDeluxe Customer Service Failure
- End of Norwegian FM
- NASA X-Ray Potential Superfast Deep Space Comms
Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].
ICQ Podcast Episode 227 – Operating Portable in Winter
In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Martin Rothwell M0SGL, Dan Romanchik KB6NU, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episode’s features: Operating Portable in Winter.
We would like to thank Ralph Kuehn KD9HNU, Bill Seward and our monthly and annual donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate
- Germany Access 60m
- RSGB Yearbook 2017 Error
- Pilot for Online Advanced Exams
- HamRadioDeluxe Customer Service Failure
- End of Norwegian FM
- NASA X-Ray Potential Superfast Deep Space Comms
Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 139
Ham Radio Deluxe bricks user’s software after negative review
37 pages into into this forum’s discussion of HRD’s brutally inept handling of a customer complaint, the co-owner of the company wades into the fray and apologizes.
Techdirt
Amateur radio fans drop the ham-mer on HRD’s license key ‘blacklist’
Remotely killing one customer’s copy was not an isolated incident, say readers.
The Register
NPOTA contact tally tops 1 Million
Activators operating from National Park Service units across the US and Chasers around the world pushed the contact tally over its goal this week.
ARRL
EME In The ’80s
Unlike today’s widespread JT65B usage on eme, where signals can be many db into the noise and inaudible by ear, eme contacts could only be completed by actually copying signals that you could hear with your ears. This usually required big antennas and lots of power.
VE7SL
Keeping an NVIS antenna legal on 60 meters
To compute ERP, antenna gain must be relative to a half-wave dipole antenna. An NVIS antenna has a lot more gain than a dipole.
keep-nvis-legal-on-60m
A Cootie key
The “Cootie” key or “Sideswiper” is basically a double-sided straight key and has a reputation for being very hard to learn, possibly harder even than the Vibroplex Bug.
Ham Radio QRP
Using a GPS repeater antenna with the Yaesu FTM-400DR
My Yaesu FTM-400DR has had a difficult time ascertaining a GPS lock inside of my vehicle. Some others have also complained of this.
K5ACL
Video
Discovering secret “Numbers Stations”
Brian and Jason have been scanning the air waves for sstv signals for two months, but what they found was something else. An old standby from the Cold War.
The Modern Rogue
Icom-7300 spectrum scope band edge how-to
For those of you wanting to customize the band edges here’s a how-to.
K0PIR
DMR range test part 1 of 3: Baofeng DM-5R
In the series I am doing a range test of three different DMR radios from two locations. One location is 11km away and the other almost 19km away.
dmr-range-test
A diamond radio receiver
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have made the world’s smallest radio receiver.
Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering
Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
FX-9A Revisited
FX-9A Revisted
http://www.windcamp-gear.com
I was told by Frankie when it was shipped away and on the bench that there was a bad solder connection and a virtual switch issue, what-ever that might be in English.
I am happy to say that the radio came back new and working well on all bands. Receive is like many of the other videos I have watched on the internet.
I will have more updates and videos of the unit in action after the holidays.
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year one and all….
Fred
VE3FAL
Fred Lesnick, VE3FAL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Thunder Bay Ontario, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
EME In The ’80s
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| VE7SL - my original 2m EME antenna. |
Unlike today's widespread JT65B usage on eme, where signals can be many db into the noise and inaudible by ear, eme contacts could only be completed by actually copying signals that you could hear with your ears. This usually required big antennas and lots of power.
After a year and a half of evening work in my basement shop, my system was pretty much ready to go. I built a kilowatt amplifier, from the ARRL's VHF Handbook, along with its plate and screen power supplies.
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| 2m 'Plumbers Delight' handbook amp. |
My antennas (see above), as well as the large H-frame support, were also built in the basement and used all scrap aluminum from one of the numerous scrap yards that were in Vancouver at the time. The system consisted of sixteen separate 6 element NBS-styled yagis, all phased. Many of the two-dozen plus N connectors were bought at Boeing Surplus near Seattle, another interesting source of parts, also now long gone. Keeping water out of the phasing lines and connectors was a real challenge here in the rain forest and if one connector was not done exactly right, would create a lot of headaches.
The antenna took up a large portion of my small, 33'-wide suburban backyard. Pointing was all done by hand, using homemade scales to indicate elevation and azimuth angles, so that it could be pointed accurately even on cloud covered days and nights. A hand-cranked boat winch took care of elevation. I had a switch-box full of surplus VHF relays out at the antenna that protected my JFET preamp and also allowed me to compare sky and sun noise against a 50 ohm load.
Over the course of a few years, the system was employed to work many Europeans as well as North American VEs' and Ws'. The one contact that stands out memorable for me, was with UA3TCF, east of Moscow. This was because I had to aim the array directly into my two-story house, located about 20' away! The moon was very low as well, so that not much elevation was required.
I eventually found that trying to hold down a full-time high school teaching job and running sked requests at 0300 were not very compatible! It also became a lot of work just to maintain the system properly. I had met and completed my original goals and it became time to move on.
Eventually the array was broken down into smaller sections and sold to local 2m guys, along with the amplifier ... but it was a huge learning experience for me and the fact that I survived building and playing with a 2,000 volt power supply, still scares the heck out of me!
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| Plate & screen supply for the 2m amp. |
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| The VHF rack with xvrtrs and amps 50mHz-432mHz. |
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| My gal Sal adorning the 2m tower on a snowy Sunday morning. |
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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