AmateurRadio.com

Those who are familiar with me will know that I wasn't even born when this LA3ZA QSL-card was issued in 1949. This is because I am second generation LA3ZA after my father. When the callsign was reissued to me in 2001 it had been inactive for 40 years or so.

I still have the Hallicrafters S40A receiver which my father used with a 2 W input homemade tube transmitter. The S40A (image below) was what introduced me to shortwave listening during the good conditions of the solar peak in the late sixties, despite its mediocre performance I would say.
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This past Sunday, we decided to take a small trip north to St. Joseph, Missouri. St. Joe is full of history and one of my favorite places to go there is the Patee House Museum. Two parts of the museum I enjoy the most:

(1) A railroad telegraph office with a nice collection of telegraph keys

(2) An amazing display of vintage radios as well as an old amateur radio station

Julius B. Abercrombie, W0NH (ex 9NH) was a member of the Old Old Timers Club and first got on the air back in 1906! It looks like Julius was one of the original Midwestern Big Guns.

I really enjoyed his collection of convention pins (…open the image below to see the details of the pins)

43 years ago, this week, I was a 12 year old geek (of course) in love with the United State’s Manned Spaceflight program.  Some of my earliest TV memories were of watching the Mercury launches of Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

43 years ago, this week, the epitome, the apex, the goal was reached.  On Wednesday, July 16th we watched as Apollo 11 was launched from Pad 39A from Cape Kennedy.

Three days later, on July 20th, we listened (breathlessly) and Neil Armstrong broadcast, “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed”. As kids we were ready to go to bed as the EVA (moon walk) was scheduled for the next day. But Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin must have been on an adrenalin high, however, as they asked Houston for permission (and received it) to begin the moonwalk within hours of landing. Our parents suspended bed time rules and allowed my sister and I to stay up and watch all the history being made.

And watch,  we did! We watched the TV spellbound as ghostly images appeared on our screens. Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra were our guides as Neil Armstrong uttered those now famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.  I specifically remember the cameras cutting to Walter Cronkite as events unfolded. He understood the significance of the moment and was almost in tears.

Looking back on it, the accomplishment is even more amazing!  The Lunar Module landed on the moon with an on board computer that had less processing power than a scientific calculator or cell phone of today’s vintage.  Those were the days when the sky was the limit, we had the national will to do great things and the horizon looked endless.  I miss the enthusiasm, the attitude and the ambition of those heady days.

To this day, when I find myself outdoors at night and the moon is out – I still look up there and think to myself, “Wow! We actually went there!”.

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

236 years ago, a group of men from the 13 British Colonies of America gathered in Philadelphia.  It was an unusually hot and humid summer. These men were considered to be the “creme de la creme” of their colonies.  Some were lawyers, some were farmers, some were tradesmen such as cobblers, millers and carpenters.  One was even a minister. They were all held in esteem for their honesty and integrity.

They all had a vision and a dream.

They desired to break away from their Mother country, who they felt had grown to come unresponsive to their needs and wants.  Over time, the monarchy in England had become oppressive, contemptuous, and was on the verge of becoming tyrannical.

These men, 56 of them in all, signed a document known as The Declaration of Independence. It was a document that would become known as the finest expression of the American mind. It was a road map for the concept of “American Exceptional-ism”. By that term, it is not meant that the United States, as the new nation was to be called, was or is better than any other nation on the face of the Earth. What is meant by the term of “American Exceptional-ism” is the new form of government that was to eventually be embodied in the Constitution of the United States. You see, the Declaration and the Constitution are entwined. The seeds planted in the Declaration blossomed into the Constitution.

In those documents was the “exceptional” idea that men (and by that, we mean all people) were endowed by their Creator with certain “unalienable rights” including the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that because of these rights, endowed by God, the power of the government was to rest entirely in the hands of the governed. This was a radical new idea! The people would never be threatened again by a despotic power who could give or take away rights as the result of a whim.

This IS a grand and noble vision that has withstood the test of time for 236 years. It is up to US, the descendants (in fact and in spirit) of those original Americans to keep the dream and vision alive and to never let it perish.

Have a Happy 4th of July!

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

Field Day 2012 for W2LJ was not to be, so far.

I went down and helped my sister clean out my Mom’s apartment as scheduled.  That was planned and was no big deal – in fact, I enjoyed spending some “alone time” with my big sister.  As we both have our own families now, that just doesn’t happen often enough.

The plan to go down to the Sarnoff Radio Club Field Day site got “kiboshed”, however.  Actually, my sister drove me past the site at around 11:00 AM as we were driving to Princeton to donate some paperback books.  I didn’t see anyone setting up at that point and had planned to stop by later, on my way home.

Of course, shortly thereafter, while packing items in the apartment, my cell phone went off – work. They were looking for a Cisco 9513 switch and line cards for an emergency switch replacement and “could I stick around close, on standby” just in case they needed me to come in and help them locate components?

So after our cleaning session ended, I hurried home just to be available, if needed.  Luckily, I wasn’t needed; but it did put a damper on my plans.

But in the evening, during my weekly Echolink session with my good friend Bob W3BBO, he mentioned his visits to some Field Day sites today and that he might visit a few more tomorrow.  Then it hit me!  Tomorrow!  Maybe tomorrow, when I am back down there, I can hit the Sarnoff site for a half hour or so. And that is assuming they’re still set up.  I know Field Day runs until 2:00 PM; but I know some clubs like to call it quits early.

So for a bit, I lived Field Day vicariously through Matt W1MST’s AmateurRadio.com, where he’s running some UStream of a couple of Field Day sites.  I was watching KC2RA for a couple of minutes when one of the guys mentioned setting up his tent so that he could sleep tonight.

Sleep on Field Day?  What is that, he asked, smiling knowingly?

When I was an officer with the Piscataway club (and was still single, BTW), I did my best to be there for set up, the whole event, and a good part of tear down.  I remember quite a few years where sleep on Field Day was nothing more than a few minutes of cat napping in Rich W2PQ’s pop up camber or Bill W2WK’s trailer. C’mon, man!  We’re there to operate, not sleep!  Who can hit the sack when there’s CW contacts to be made on 80 and 40!

Of course, the end result was being rather bleary eyed and dysfunctional for work come Monday morning.  The other side effect was hearing Morse Code in your head for about 3 – 5 days later until that faded away.  But those were fun days and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for all the tea in China! (Ooops!  Am I still allowed to say that; or is that something the PC police are going to shut me down for?)

Hope you all are having a wonderful Field Day!

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

I was reading my good friend Kelly K4UPG’s blog; and my memory was quite neatly jogged by the video he posted for the old REMCO game, “Fascination”.  I remember the commercial like it was yesterday. My cousins had the game and I used to love to play it.

I was so taken by the video, that I went on over to YouTube and did a search on REMCO, looking for other commercials for toys of my youth.  I found this one, which I only vaguely, vaguely remember in the very recesses of my memory – but maybe it had something to do with becoming an Amateur Op in my later years?

On the same page, I saw a link to this video – and got a kick out of it as well.

If you were around for the 50s and 60s, you probably ran around with one of those in your pocket or school bag.  I remember sneaking a radio like that into school in 1969 so I could listen to the Mets beat the Orioles in the World Series.  Ah, yes – back when they actually played World Series games in daylight hours!

And all the nights spent spinning the dial, either listening to Jean Shepherd K2ORS on WWOR or looking for DX stations like KDKA out of Pittsburgh or KMOX out of St. Louis.  Good times!

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

But in the same vein as the last post, sort of, as we’ve recently passed another anniversary (April 14th) ………

I am currently finishing reading Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever”.

It is an extremely fast reading book.  I started it Monday, while visiting my Mom, who has been in the hospital this week (hence the pandemonium).  I should be finishing it very soon.  I wouldn’t consider it to be the definitive book on the subject, but it is definitely interesting. I would heartily recommend it.

Having it on the Kindle makes it that much easier to carry along.

I know this topic isn’t radio related in any way; but the authors do mention that Mr. Lincoln was addicted to the Internet of his day – the telegraph.  He spent much time bothering the Signal Corp for as much “from the front’ war news as he was able to get.  I’m willing to bet that were he alive today, President Lincoln would have been an Internet and cable news junkie – and who knows, maybe a Ham, too?

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