[ARC5] Field Day musings...

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <millerke6f at aol.com>
To: <ka1kaq at gmail.com>; <W9RAN at oneradio.net>
Cc: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 6:37 PM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Field Day musings...


> My most memorable FD was back in the early 60s up in 
> Humboldt Co.  Had a converted Command Set transmitter on 
> the bottom of 80 meters and a  DAQ navy receiver (nearly a 
> cubic yard of aluminum) and with a dipole hanging from a 
> couple of redwood trees on Kneeland Mountain I worked all 
> states and all of Canada with that set up.  The Command 
> set had been reduced to one 1625 in the PA and ran full 
> Break In with a decoupled VFO cathode and ran the final 
> with a 200 Ohm resistor in the cathode for a kinda pseudo 
> AB1 scheme.  Got about 10 watts or so out, but with a 
> great antenna I could work anything that I could hear on 
> the band.  Ah those were the days indeed.
>
>
> Bob. KE6F
>
    I love hearing these stories.  I never got to a field 
day until was an adult. I heard plenty of signals on 
Saturday and none at all on Sunday.
    I suppose the kids now find things to be fascinated with 
but I wonder if its anything like radio was for us. people 
don't seem to understand that ham radio works all on its 
own, while cell phones and computers need a vast system of 
equipment and networks to connect. We don't even need the 
power company and field day is one of the demonstrations of 
that. My antediluvian RCA receiver on 25 feet of wire hung 
over the rafters in the garage will hear Spain, Germany, 
England, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, all over South and 
Central America, not to mention all those non-DX stations 
(and I mean hams, not broadcast). I wonder what it would do 
with a decent antenna.  To me this is still absolute magic.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com