[ARC5] 1st QSO 55 years ago
Tom Bridgers
tarheel6 at msn.com
Tue Apr 13 09:26:58 EDT 2021
Great Story! Thanks for sharing!
My first QSO in 1954 (67 years ago) was also long delayed
but for a different reason.
My Hallicrafters S-38C was a good general coverage receiver,
but the only selectivity it had was my ability to separate signals
using the mostly empty space between my ears. As a result
I had no luck using my Heathkit AT-1 TX and AC-1 antenna
coupler connected to a long wire, about 75 feet long, and 35
feet off the ground, making contacts outside of my hometown
of Wilson, NC.
Every day after school back then, I would find the 80 meter
novice section of the band, 3.700 to 3.750 MC to be a very
dense thicket of ham signals. I could not hear anyone replying
to my CQ's and no one seemed to hear me, when I replied to
theirs. I was overwhelmed and after a while totally frustrated.
Then a friend loaned me an BC-348 receiver. Wow! My ham
world changed forever. I could now hear novice stations replying
to my CQ's and stations heard me when I replied to theirs..
So from that point on, ham radio was enjoyable and lots of fun.
Even better, after my Dad saw the success I was having
with the BC-348, he gave me a Hallicrafters SX-99. With an even
more selective and sensitive RX, I was motivated to get my general
license.
And then shortly after my ticket arrived, I built a Heathkit DX-100 TX
and connected it to a 3 element 15 meter Yagi antenna, directionally
rotated by a TV antenna rotator, And as they say, I was then able
to work the world.
To this day I vividly remember many, many QSO's with ZS1AB, in
Capetown, South Africa, We talked so often, it was like I had a new
friend in a far-away land. Barney Joel's signal would come rolling
in every afternoon after school, so loud, that he sounded like he
was a hometown station!
Chasing DX back then was fun, and productive. But none of us could
ever catch up with the large number of DX worked by John Anthony,
K4BFN, who so successfully used a National 183-D and a Johnson
Viking II and a 3 element 15 meter Yagi, up about 50 feet from the
ground..John worked thousands an thousands of DX stations. Sadly
after graduating from the University of Georgia, John
became a Army helicopter pilot, and was killed during the Vietnam War.
A great friend who I will always remember as a great brother from a
different mother.
Cheers to all us and our first QSO's!
Tom KE4RHH (first licensed as KN4ADR, and later K4ADR)
________________________________
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of arc5-request at mailman.qth.net <arc5-request at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2021 10:11 PM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: ARC5 Digest, Vol 207, Issue 27
Send ARC5 mailing list submissions to
arc5 at mailman.qth.net
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
arc5-request at mailman.qth.net
You can reach the person managing the list at
arc5-owner at mailman.qth.net
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of ARC5 digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: [MRCA] First QSO 55 Years Ago (W2HX)
2. Re: First QSO 55 Years Ago (kn7sfz)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2021 23:22:16 +0000
From: W2HX <w2hx at w2hx.com>
To: Gene Smar <ersmar at verizon.net>, "arc5 at mailman.qth.net"
<arc5 at mailman.qth.net>, "'milsurplus at mailman'"
<milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ARC5] [MRCA] First QSO 55 Years Ago
Message-ID:
<7bb5aeca31574c40b3e749f9706d921d at EXBE015SV3.NA02.MSEXCHANGEOUTLOOK.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Great story. Thanks for sharing!
73 de Eugene W2HX
-----Original Message-----
From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Gene Smar via MRCA
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2021 6:28 PM
To: mrca at mailman.qth.net; arc5 at mailman.qth.net; 'milsurplus at mailman' <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [MRCA] First QSO 55 Years Ago
Gents:
Today is the 55th anniversary of my first QSO. I was 14 at the time.
It was Easter Monday 1966 and I had spent all weekend trying to get a silly antenna from Pop Electronics working on 80 and 40 meters. The antenna was two sections of EMT mechanically coupled together (that was the first
problem) and then connecting to two sets of guy wires at the top that were supposed to bring the array into resonance on 80 and 40 M. I think I used a Coke bottle (remember them?) as a base insulator but used a heavy cardboard mailing tube to "insulate" the first couple of feet of EMT from the mounting bracket that was lag bolted into the back yard wooden fence. I tried to solder the coax center conductor to the base of the EMT (second big
problem.) I also bolted the twisted coax shield to an aluminum clothes line prop (not sure how many of you even know what that is) that I had "borrowed"
from my mother and driven into the dirt aside of the Coke bottle.
I won't bore you with details of my first two pages of logbook entries.
Suffice it so say that they were filled with identical entries of "CQ"
followed by "NO QSO," all on the same 7 MC freq of my sole 40M Novice band crystal.
On that Monday morning (a school holiday) I decided to reconfigure the antenna materials into a single 40M dipole. As our house lot was about 70 feet deep, it fit perfectly North-to-South. I used the EMT to support the "hot" end of the dipole but the shield-connected end of the insulated house wire had to touch the peak of the roof and lie on the asphalt shingles.
This is important.
I managed to jump the four feet off the roof onto the front porch roof and into my bedroom window safely and ran down to the kitchen where I had set up my Knight-Kit T-60/R55A station. I tuned up the T-60 (no SWR bridge yet so I was hoping I could get the thing to load properly) and started to call "CQ" again. In between transmit attempts I tuned around my crystal freq with the R-55A, listening for replies.
After the third "CQ" (I logged every one of them), I heard my callsign coming back to me. Due to my excitement I missed the callsign of the other station so I sent "QRZ?" (not bad for a Novice!) and heard my callsign coming back again. This time I heard ".DE VE2AOU K." I am quite sure I stopped breathing for a few seconds before I shouted, to anyone and to no one in particular, "I'M TALKING TO CANADA!"
I continued with the QSO, shakily copying what information I could from this obviously experienced and kind foreign Ham who deigned to talk with an American Novice and sent him my street address and town so I could make it easier for him to send his QSL card. (QRZ.COM was just a glimmer in N7IKQ's eyes at the time, I'm quite sure. And the Callbook was something I'd have to save up for for quite a long time.)
Remember that wire draped over our roof shingles? At this point in the QSO I heard my mother, who had been cleaning in our second floor bedrooms, yell down to me, "What are you doing down there?" Obviously, I couldn't disrupt my contact with a foreign Ham; I kept asking for his mailing address at about 5 WPM. That's when the power to my station failed and the equipment panels went dark. My mother had come into my shack (her kitchen) and literally pulled the plug on my first QSO. Apparently my 60 Watts of Novice-frequency RF was finding its way into the second floor light fixture from the antenna wire only feet away on the other side of the ceiling and causing the ten-Watt bulb to blink on and off with my Morse transmissions.
If I recall her words correctly, I believe she said something like, "You're gonna blow up the house."
I explained to her that it was just me sending signals to my first Ham contact - he was in CANADA, Mom! I told her I could fix the problem (I had
hoped.) I found a 25 Watt bulb and installed it in place of the 10-Watter.
I replugged my station into the wall outlet and did a quick "VVV VVV VVV DE WN3EWV" to prove to my mother - and to myself - that my theory of "the antenna wires are too close to the bulb" was correct.
A Happy Ending: About a week later I received a QSL card from Ron Trew VE2AOU. It included my full Novice callsign but misspelled first name, a "?" for the surname and no house number in the address. It took me only two seconds to realize that one of my Elmer's (and I've forgotten his callsign after all these years) had worked at the local post office (18218) and recognized me as the likely Novice. He made sure I got the card.
I added dipole wires for 80M and 20M to that initial 40M set and had a blast on the bands from home for a few years until I went away to college.
(My first DX was on that 20M wire - G3GHB.) Four years later I graduated from college with a BSEE and continued my Hamming with my first Drake station (TR-3CW.) Since then I've enjoyed many, but certainly not all, aspects that our fine hobby has to offer. I've made friends along the way and learned quite a bit of esoterica that has helped me professionally.
(Like sunspots can wreak havoc with the electric grid or that 900 MHz and
2.7 GHz signals ordinarily don't travel very far.)
73 de
Gene Smar AD3F
Rockville, MD
______________________________________________________________
MRCA mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/mrca
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:MRCA at mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2021 19:09:52 -0700
From: kn7sfz <kn7sfz at gmail.com>
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] First QSO 55 Years Ago
Message-ID: <474f0164-a6a0-a0db-b465-d56b0644c519 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
Great story Gene....similar to many of us.?
My first contact was during lunch hour at noon, as I'd just received my
license and was nervous as all get out.? My mom came into the room and
had a fit, as I was late back to school...ha!? I was 15.
Please fix the photobucket link on your qrz.com page so we can see you?
pics!
Richard kn7sfz
On 4/11/2021 3:27 PM, Gene Smar via ARC5 wrote:
> Gents:
>
> Today is the 55th anniversary of my first QSO. I was 14 at the time.
> It was Easter Monday 1966 and I had spent all weekend trying to get a silly
> antenna from Pop Electronics working on 80 and 40 meters. The antenna was
> two sections of EMT mechanically coupled together (that was the first
> problem) and then connecting to two sets of guy wires at the top that were
> supposed to bring the array into resonance on 80 and 40 M. I think I used a
> Coke bottle (remember them?) as a base insulator but used a heavy cardboard
> mailing tube to "insulate" the first couple of feet of EMT from the mounting
> bracket that was lag bolted into the back yard wooden fence. I tried to
> solder the coax center conductor to the base of the EMT (second big
> problem.) I also bolted the twisted coax shield to an aluminum clothes line
> prop (not sure how many of you even know what that is) that I had "borrowed"
> from my mother and driven into the dirt aside of the Coke bottle.
>
> I won't bore you with details of my first two pages of logbook entries.
> Suffice it so say that they were filled with identical entries of "CQ"
> followed by "NO QSO," all on the same 7 MC freq of my sole 40M Novice band
> crystal.
>
> On that Monday morning (a school holiday) I decided to reconfigure the
> antenna materials into a single 40M dipole. As our house lot was about 70
> feet deep, it fit perfectly North-to-South. I used the EMT to support the
> "hot" end of the dipole but the shield-connected end of the insulated house
> wire had to touch the peak of the roof and lie on the asphalt shingles.
> This is important.
>
> I managed to jump the four feet off the roof onto the front porch roof
> and into my bedroom window safely and ran down to the kitchen where I had
> set up my Knight-Kit T-60/R55A station. I tuned up the T-60 (no SWR bridge
> yet so I was hoping I could get the thing to load properly) and started to
> call "CQ" again. In between transmit attempts I tuned around my crystal
> freq with the R-55A, listening for replies.
>
> After the third "CQ" (I logged every one of them), I heard my callsign
> coming back to me. Due to my excitement I missed the callsign of the other
> station so I sent "QRZ?" (not bad for a Novice!) and heard my callsign
> coming back again. This time I heard ".DE VE2AOU K." I am quite sure I
> stopped breathing for a few seconds before I shouted, to anyone and to no
> one in particular, "I'M TALKING TO CANADA!"
>
> I continued with the QSO, shakily copying what information I could from
> this obviously experienced and kind foreign Ham who deigned to talk with an
> American Novice and sent him my street address and town so I could make it
> easier for him to send his QSL card. (QRZ.COM was just a glimmer in N7IKQ's
> eyes at the time, I'm quite sure. And the Callbook was something I'd have
> to save up for for quite a long time.)
>
> Remember that wire draped over our roof shingles? At this point in the
> QSO I heard my mother, who had been cleaning in our second floor bedrooms,
> yell down to me, "What are you doing down there?" Obviously, I couldn't
> disrupt my contact with a foreign Ham; I kept asking for his mailing address
> at about 5 WPM. That's when the power to my station failed and the
> equipment panels went dark. My mother had come into my shack (her kitchen)
> and literally pulled the plug on my first QSO. Apparently my 60 Watts of
> Novice-frequency RF was finding its way into the second floor light fixture
> from the antenna wire only feet away on the other side of the ceiling and
> causing the ten-Watt bulb to blink on and off with my Morse transmissions.
> If I recall her words correctly, I believe she said something like, "You're
> gonna blow up the house."
>
> I explained to her that it was just me sending signals to my first Ham
> contact - he was in CANADA, Mom! I told her I could fix the problem (I had
> hoped.) I found a 25 Watt bulb and installed it in place of the 10-Watter.
> I replugged my station into the wall outlet and did a quick "VVV VVV VVV DE
> WN3EWV" to prove to my mother - and to myself - that my theory of "the
> antenna wires are too close to the bulb" was correct.
>
> A Happy Ending: About a week later I received a QSL card from Ron Trew
> VE2AOU. It included my full Novice callsign but misspelled first name, a
> "?" for the surname and no house number in the address. It took me only two
> seconds to realize that one of my Elmer's (and I've forgotten his callsign
> after all these years) had worked at the local post office (18218) and
> recognized me as the likely Novice. He made sure I got the card.
>
> I added dipole wires for 80M and 20M to that initial 40M set and had a
> blast on the bands from home for a few years until I went away to college.
> (My first DX was on that 20M wire - G3GHB.) Four years later I graduated
> from college with a BSEE and continued my Hamming with my first Drake
> station (TR-3CW.) Since then I've enjoyed many, but certainly not all,
> aspects that our fine hobby has to offer. I've made friends along the way
> and learned quite a bit of esoterica that has helped me professionally.
> (Like sunspots can wreak havoc with the electric grid or that 900 MHz and
> 2.7 GHz signals ordinarily don't travel very far.)
>
>
> 73 de
> Gene Smar AD3F
> Rockville, MD
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home:http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help:http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post:mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by:http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list:https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20210411/b91f2d4a/attachment.html>
------------------------------
_______________________________________________
ARC5 mailing list
ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
End of ARC5 Digest, Vol 207, Issue 27
*************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20210413/7aea12d6/attachment-0001.html>
More information about the ARC5
mailing list