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

[Bob Macklin]

Last night when I was checking 40M I found that in my area 7285 to 7300 is
perfectly clear. I plan to check it every night for a while.

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ/7
Seattle, Wa.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Carling" <bcarling at cfl.rr.com>
To: "ARC5 List" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>; "glowbugs"
<glowbugs at piobaire.mines.uidaho.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 7:13 AM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Despite Knuckledragger SSB Jammers,W5E AM Operation
Successful.


> 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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