[ARC5] Despite Knuckledragger SSB Jammers, W5E AM Operation Successful.

[Brian Carling]

David how about next time we get W5E on 40 meter AM instead?

It would be SO much better!

David Stinson wrote:

> Back from the W5E Special Event,
> hosted by the Shreveport Amateur Radio Association and
> the Eighth Air Force Museum at Barksdale Airforce Base
> in North Louisiana.
> What a great time!  We ran the SCR-287 and SCR-274N
> stations on Friday evening to "work the kinks out,"
> and it's a good thing we did because there were
> bugs to be found.  The BC-375 didn't want to neutralize
> properly.  I didn't get that one fixed until
> Saturday afternoon, even though we did log some
> contacts on the 287 on Friday.  By the "official" time
> on Saturday, the rig was working and sounding good again.
>
> The big scare on Friday night was the unmistakable smell
> of roasted resistor coming from the BC-348-R,
> which then crashed, stone dead.
> I brought plenty of spares parts and started
> "resuscitation" right away.  This receiver had been running
> flawlessly for a month (as had the transmitter), but now
> *three* paper bypass caps failed, leaking to short.
> This toasted two dropping resistors, failing them *low-Z*.
> One 4.7 K-ohm was down to 200 ohms.  The real scare was
> that these were in the IF plate leads, right through
> the hair-fine wire in the IF transformer windings.
> The way the receiver suddenly died, I was sure one
> of the IFs had gone open, but there must have been an
> angel watching over us, because new caps and resistors
> plus re-alignment brought it back from the dead.
> We put the rig back together, warmed it up for a couple
> of hours and it worked flawlessly on Saturday night
> into the full-wave horizontal 80-meter loop at 40 feet.
>
> *Gripe mode on*
> Operation during the "official" time on 3880 KC
> was, ummmm, "challenging."  The AM ops from nearly
> everywhere were courteous and helpful and we're most
> grateful to them.  Nevertheless, the QRM was vile-
> absolutely horrible.  The biggest problem was a group
> down here in "5-Land" that, several years ago, decided
> that they were the judges of what modes can and cannot
> be used on 75 meters.  They camp each night within 2 KCs of
> 3880 with the specific intent of causing as much grief
> as possible for any operation in the AM window.
> They make remarks about "ancient equipment,"
> radios "so old that the knobs have frozen at 3880 KCs"
> and about AM operators who are "too old and feeble
> to reach up and spin their VFOs if they don't like it."
> These room-temperature-IQ knuckle draggers
> have been doing this for years.  There is another SSB group
> that does basically the same thing on 3898, but they're not
> quite as nasty about it.  I knew about them and that it
> might be a problem, but 3880 was the best of bad choices
> within the AM window down here on a Saturday night.
> I was hoping that the bad actors would give it a rest
> for one night for a veteran-connected special events station,
> but no such luck.  They performed their usual antics,
> a couple of times even coming directly on frequency to
> ask long and loud if "the frequency was in use."
> Sheesh.  To add insult to injury, at 9 PM, one hour before
> we were going to officially end the AM try, two "big gun"
> AM stations in the North East came down and plopped right on
> top of us, ignoring dozens of guys telling them the freq
> was in use.  Their action effectively ended the AM event,
> since nobody- even locals- could get past these guys.
> I got the station back up after midnight and moved to the
> then-clear 3890 KC and logged a few more before turning in.
> The result of all this was that if you didn't have a really
> good signal, you didn't get heard.  I'm very sorry, guys-
> I could hear dozens of stations calling, and I was able to
> work some of the weaker ones through persistence,
> but there was just no way to pull most of you more distant folks
> out from under the few selfish clowns
> who insisted on grinding their axes last night.
> And once those two northeast AM guys dropped on us, it was over.
> *Gripe mode off*
>
> Nevertheless, we did make 97 contacts with the WWII gear,
> including both coasts and Canada.
> The guys with the modern rigs worked over 300, IIRC.
> I've posted a picture of the WWII gear side of the
> operation tent on alt.binaries.pictures.radio.
> And in case the previous gave you the wrong impression,
> I had an absolute blast getting the old beasts running and
> working all of you I could hear.  The SCR-274N got in some phone
> and CW contacts as well, but our 40-meter CW effort with the
> 274N was hampered by the Michigan QSO party. The rig was getting out
> well into a vertical and worked several states.
> We even had two SCR-274N-to-SCR-274N contacts,
> as well as one with a fellow running a T-22/ARC-5.
> Next time we'll try to pick a less busy weekend.
>
> SARA did a wonderful job creating this event and
> I'm very grateful for the chance to contribute.
> Lots of good publicity, too.
> More later- I need some shut-eye ;-).
> 73 DE Dave Stinson AB5S
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