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The ’36 George Batterson CW QSO Party – Summary
11 October 2026 | by 
The third annual George Batterson Memorial CW QSO Party has concluded and the results are coming in! The "GB" was introduced to honor George Batterson (W2GB), who along with Bruce Kelley and Linc Cundall, formed the Antique Wireless Association (AWA) in 1952.
For those familiar with the AWA's popular '29 Bruce Kelley QSO Party (BK), the GB differs only by the style of transmitters permitted. Transmitter designs as well as the tubes used must have been available in 1936 or earlier, and unlike the BK, the use of crystal-controlled transmitters is not only permitted but highly encouraged! This year saw a LOT of crystal controlled activity and participants quickly experienced what operating challenges were encountered back in the mid 30's.
Although night time low band conditions were not great, 20m operators enjoyed several transcontinental QSOs during the daytime hours. Thanks to those that responded to my information request, some of the results, comments and rigs used are shown below.
Once again, one of the most enthusiastic and succesful participants was Jacob, KC7WXD, in Reno, Nevada. For the record, Jacob's 20m signal from his new Jones rig hit 20db over 9 on my S-meter.
I've attached a pic of my 6L6 Jones for your GB page. This year was so much
better. Made 17 Qs so far - the last 2 times we did this I got 6 and 5 Qs. I'm
sure it's mostly propagation, but I do have more power now plus better antennas
on 80 and 20.
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| KC7WXD - Jones P-P 6L6s |
And equally enthusiastic down in Virginia, Tom, KN4RRQ was armed with a plethora of rigs:
Historically, I seem to fizzle at the start of an AWA event and require
some time to get that first contact and some momentum going from here in
Virginia. This GB proved totally different. My first QSO was right out of the
gate within a few minutes of the start, and one that really put a smile on my
face--a 20m QSO with Steve VE7SL all the way across the continent (and
legitimate DX) using my humble 20m Hartley sporting a single Type 27 and fed
into a 160m Inverted-L up 80 feet to the horizontal between two trees and tuned
to 20m! Yes, I was off to a phenomenal start!
This new AWA event was different from the typical fare in other ways, too.
I made a dozen QSOs across the weekend ... it is a delight to see the west represented so strongly after years of
few stations out that way but also to see the level of interest from those hams
out there. Way to go y'all!
The bulk of the rest of my contacts were with old friends and a couple more
recent additions to the OT world running from OH to MD to SC and WV, and even
had the pleasure of logging two on 160m. I had a very good time with this event
and the interaction between rock bound stations and those who could slide around
was an interesting dynamic, and one that no-doubt would have been happening in
the mid to late 1930s. While I always have thought that the BK gives us the
authentic experience of what 1929 and earlier sounded like on the bands--the GB
does the same for a few years later. And it is very cool how the operators get
to try their hands at the radiomanship it took to get QSOs back in those days.
Tricky at times, even when we use our modern receivers!
All-in-all a very enjoyable event, with some very good and some more
difficult conditions at times, and certainly different from my collected past
AWA experiences. A great idea that created chatter before, during, and after
the event, which I think is a mark of growing interest and great success!
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| KN4RRQ - MOPA |
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| KN4RRQ - 20m 27 Hartley |
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| KN4RRQ - 160m Hartley |
Back in Maryland, Bruce, WK3A was the energizer bunny of the east with a huge effort on all bands.
His 3 watts 20m signal was an honest 579!
I found the GB Event for this year was quite different than in the past. The West Coast guys were heard and worked for the first time, the propagation was probably much better for us. Seems everyone had better rigs, better antennas and certainly better skills than past events. The clever group using Discord faired pretty well making contacts that would have been impossible to hear just hunting around, plus differences in time zones. More time was spent into the 20m operation and had great results, the Westies were probably thrilled! We still had some no tuner arounders (NTA'S) and contacts were lost. Thanks for the QSO's and see you BK!
Bruce brings up a good point. After all of the discussion previous to the GB about tuning up and down the frequency window after calling CQ, there were still stations that were obviously not doing that ... it's very frustrating for a crystal controlled answering station just a few kHz away!
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| WK3A - 20m Boosted Pierce |
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| WK3A - 80/40m 6A6 Jones |
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| WK3A - 160m P-P Hartley 45s |
Just to my south in Oregon, W7JMP filled the logs of all west coasters with his last-minute 2A5 saving the day.
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| W7JMP - 2A5 80 / 40m Grid-Plate Oscillator |
The GB was a good time for me.
Thanks again for the info on your website. I based my transmitter on the circuit
from the July 1933 issue of RADIO Magazine you had posted there.
I have intended to build a transmitter for the GB since summer of 2025,
when learned about it and came into possession of many pre-octal tubes. I also
like the radio technology distinction between 1929 BK and some of the other
classic rig QSO parties were post -1936 gear is more common. This is the first
time period in radio with crystal-control and many of the designs are based
around pre-octal tubes. I made
contacts on 40 and 80m throughout the Northwest with KC7WXD, VE7SL, VA7MM, and
VE7CNF. I hope to work the East coast next year.
A couple weeks before this years GB, I chose a 2A5 crystal Oscillator based
on July 1933 Radio magazine design for its simplicity. This radio ended up
being a 'junkbox special", with nearly all the parts coming from hamfests or
other local finds over the last few years prior to deciding to build it. I
always enjoy the process of collecting parts that way. If only I'd started a few
days sooner, I would have made a few more contacts! This rig won't win any
beauty contests, but I'm happy to say I tamed it into operation.
A couple hands-on learning experiences were that the impedance of the plate
tank circuit matters. For expediency I had started with a tapped Air-DUX coil
(not period correct!) and learned higher-L favored to isolate RF from the plate
supply. I finally wound four-pin plugin coils for 40m and 80m. Because I was
keying the cathode, rather than B minus as in the article, an RF bypass cap was
necessary so that the meter wasn't choking RF. My 40m antenna, a homebrew 30/40m
trap dipole, went intermittent and required me to climb onto the roof and
resolder at the connection to the coax. But my favorite foible of all was
with my 3550kHz crystal. In the middle of a QSO with KC7WXD the oscillator
wouldn't start and I quickly narrowed it down to the crystal losing activity. I
pulled it out and dropped it a few inches above the surface of the table! That
re-seated the contact to the quartz or knocked impurities off it and I completed
the QSO. I got a real kick out of that.
The power supply is the same as I'd built for last year's Bruce Kelley QSO
party, with a Type 80 rectifier. I modified the supply to capacitor input to
raise the B+ to 320V with the key down. I paired it my Hallicrafters SX-100
receiver, my most capable hollow-state receiver.
West Virginia saw GB contacts being made by Matt, KC8ZQS.
I had a good time during this year’s GB event. It’s always fun to be able to do
some real radio with the AWA group. I did however remember the date incorrectly,
so I thought I had another week to build and test a rig! Good thing I saw the
group posts! I put together the P-P 807 transmitter on Saturday morning and was
able to use it for a few contacts, despite having some issues getting it to
oscillate (note the twisted wires for feedback). It is really goofy but those
are the parts I had to quickly put something together HI. I did want to stick
with XTAL control as much as possible but just as last year I don’t have many
crystals, so I moved back to my Hartley in the interest of more contacts. I’m
still learning the ways of crystal transmitters, hopefully next year I will have
a transmitter that will give good results from 80m to 20m.
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| KC8ZQS - PP 807s Jones |
The ‘29 Hartley is the one I used in the BK last year, runs a 203A tube. I
consider it a ‘26 as its circuit and component values are taken from the first
edition Handbook, and the physical layout is more or less stolen from several
transmitters seen in QST around that time. I believe that style of transmitter
was a little behind the times in 1929 although I’m sure still in use.
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| KC8ZQS - '26 Hartley |
Across town from Jacob in Reno, is Howie, WB2AWQ, an AWA regular with an array of interesting homebrew gear.
I was active, on both Saturday and Sunday on 40M. I don't have any crystals for 20M and I have two for 80. Jake and I worked both 80 and 40M. I was using a TX I made specifically for the GB contest, a 42 followed by a pair of 10s in parallel. The receiver was built by Art Hale W4AWS (SK around 1991) was built after an article in QST 1932. Both are pictured here:
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| WB2AWQ - Parallel 10s MOPA |
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| WB2AWQ - 1932 QST Rx |
Bob, N9HAL, managed to hand out Wisconsin to four lucky GBers.
The rig that I used is a breadboard version of a transmitter from the ‘36
Jones Radio Handbook ( I think page 124). A push pull type 53 osc (xtal
controlled) and a neutralized final amp using a 2A3 triode makes roughly 10-15
watts out.
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| N9HAL - 53 / 2A3 MOPA |
I managed to operate maybe a total of 3-4 hours during the evenings.
Haven’t done much during the AWA events lately, they take more time than I have
available to turn in a decent showing, hi! But I certainly enjoyed the four
contacts that I made during GB.
Not sure if I’ll make the Bruce Kelly event but would be great to make a
contact with VE7SL!
From down in South Carolina, Sam, AE4GX, made a last minute effort to succesfully get in on the GB excitement with a homebrew 807 grid-plate oscillator.
This GB event was my first so don't have another GB event to compare it to
but I have done several BK events with a tunable MOPA.
First I had a personal goal for this GB was to build a xtal controlled
transmitter with 807 tetrode tube thinking this would be technically easy but
my very limited set of useable crystals would make is a serious challenge. The
GB event this year had the 1936 and earlier tetrodes available for the first
time.
I found several circuits in vintage QST issues and also found a series of
build posts by Mike WU2D in YouTube. He was using a 6L6 but I figured an 807 was
technically the same. It was. I built my Plate coil in a manner that I couldn't
easily change the link position relative to the primary but a series capacitor
in series helped get more power out to the antenna. I ran about 8 watts into
fairly low 80 ft endfed wire with manual tuner. Using a 27 year old ICOM on
receive.
Firday night at the start of the GB was busy on 40 meters. My two low
frequencies 7039 and 7056 were busy with non-event stations that I could hear so
started off with my two Novice xtals 7117 and 7125. The digi stations near 7117
were a problem but my three GB contacts managed to pull me out. Finding other GB
stations was a problem and I think without some type of spotting finding low
powered stations with heavy QRM would have been almost impossible for me.
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| AE4GX - 80/40m 807 Grid-Plate Oscillator |
Friday night I tried 80 meters with my two xtals 3556 and 3560 but no luck
on my receive. I have to add that my local 80 meter noise level is S9 so there
could have had replies that I couldn't hear.
BTW on both bands my RBN tests with these xtals and rig indicated that NE
and mid-west coverage should have been possible.
Friday at the beginning of the event most stations wanted to try 20 meters
since the time was right for them. Unfortunately I had NO 20 meter
capability.
On Saturday I did manage to work my third GB station, Tom KN4RRQ on 40
meters, and decided that my efforts were going to be in vane going forward
without more help.
I did monitor and use DISCORD for this event. It was instrumental in
keeping me in the loop on other GB folks that were active and on how conditions
were on the bands.
I have a suggestion that I have also hear from several participants on
DISCORD and the AWAgroup group.io channel, it is, that GB xtal participants post
somewhere their list of frequencies they could use. Not which one or when but
just the possible frequencies then I, as a xtal GB station, could manually
scan frequencies that others might be using and hear other non-xtal stations
calling CQ AWA/GB during my scan.
Non-xtal stations would not have the need to post their frequencies but
when responding to a GB xtal station CQ just tune near the xtal frequency. Xtal
CQers would start their scan +/- near their xtal frequencies and if nothing
heard nearby then start their manual scan of possible known GX xtal users or
other no-xtal CQers. This is by xtal stations need to extend their number of
CQ BG or CQ AWA and their responses with CQers station call to give the CQer
time to find the responder. Of course, non-xtal stations could CQ AWA/GB on
any frequency they could legally tune.
I know this would not solve the issue but it would give xtal GB stations a
fighting chance in these weekend events with lots of other ham activity going
on.
BTW in the BK events with my tunable MOPA I did not need any spotting to
get a much larger QSO tally in the same time frame with the same power ,
receiver and antenna. Yes, I realize their were more vfo based rigs. Definitely
easier.
I am converting my 807 xtal power oscillator to an 807 xtal TRI-TET {40
and 20) so I can get some of the 20 meter activity GB next year. You 20 meter
guys had some fun. You guys on 40/80 meters had some real staying power!
I did enjoy the GB with my new 807 rig and look forward to the next GB
too.
Can't wait for the next BK! Thanks to the group for firing up my interest
in vintage radio.
Fellow BC'er and AWA regular, was Mark, VA7MM managing 17 hard earned contacts with his TNT.
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| VA7MM - '29 10-Y TNT |
VA7MM has wrapped up the George Batterson QSO Party with a total of 17 QSOs.
Please find our log and a station photo attached.
Here is a summary of the equipment used:
- TX: 1929 TNT Transmitter, Type 10-Y triode, regulated power supply. RF power output per band: 20m: 2W, 40m: 5W, 80m: 5W, 160m: 1W
- RX: Yaesu FT-817 portable
- Peripherals: Power/SWR meter, antenna tuner, band filters, straight key, and electronic keyer
- Antennas:
- TX: Multi-band dipole at 100 feet AGL
- RX: Multiband inverted vee (apex at 65’), sloping dipole (apex at 130’), and a Wellbrook receiving loop
Operation took place on Friday evening and Saturday as time permitted. Band conditions were generally good, with the best DX QSOs including:
- KN4RRQ on 40m (3,653 km)
- W8PU on 20m and 40m (3,246 km)
- KB0HXL on 40m (2,140 km)
I was pleased to contact Jake (KC7WXD, NV) on three bands with a solid signal. Jim (W7JMP, OR) and Dave (WB7WHG, OR) also had strong signals at my QTH. Local stations Toby (VE7CNF) and Steve (VE7SL) filled in the rest of the log.
Thank you for organizing this vintage radio event in memory of George Batterson, W2GB.
And last is myself, VE7SL on Mayne Island.
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| VE7SL - RK-39 Grid-Plate Oscillator |
I managed 18 contacts with highlights being WK3A on both 40 and 20. Bruce's amazing 20m signal from his 3W Pierce oscillator was just hard to believe. For the low bands (80 and 40), I used my RK-39 grid-plate oscillator which with a very active crystal can generate 20W out. For 20m only, the 6L6 Tri-Tet was used where it can put out 11W.
Unfortunately there was not much worked on 80m other than the western crew and KB0HXL in Minnesotta.
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| VE7SL - 6L6 Tri-Tet |
It seems that this year's GB was enjoyed by all participants. Hopefully activity will continue to grow and there will be even more next year. If there is one common thread among several participants, it is not to leave building a GB rig until the last minute! If anyone needs a good winter project, there is lots of inspiring info available right here.
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