[CW] BRAZIL TO SCOTLAND ON A COLD WINTER’S NIGHT…

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

BRAZIL TO SCOTLAND ON A COLD WINTER’S NIGHT…

Bob Houf K7ZB
March 27, 2018

The air was cold – so very cold – the snow crunched under foot and the
moonlight reflected off the ice crystals along the sidewalk, sparkling like
diamonds as I came in from the garage.

The temperature was dropping toward zero and it would feel good to come in
to the kitchen through the back door and feel the warmth of the stove,
giving off the fragrant aroma of hot coffee.

It was close to bedtime for my parents and sister - my brother’s were off
to college and I was eager to get on the radio and search for DX on 80
meters in the CW portion of the band.

I stamped my feet on the back porch and the dry, powdery snow flew in all
directions as I stripped off my hat and gloves and hung my coat on the peg
on the wall.

Dad’s hunting mackinaw and his old Marine Corp utility jacket were on pegs
where they always hung, reminding me of his love of the field and his
service in the war.

Just the sight of them made me feel warm and happy.

I poured a steaming mug of the thick brew from the pot on the back of the
stove and flipped on the basement lights, dropping down to the landing then
turning into the radio shack.

I looked over the rig and up at the small window at ground level where the
ladder line came into the shack and connected to the balun coils mounted on
the wall.

The two large open coils mounted on the steel plate always mystified me as
to how they magically transformed the balanced line into a good match to
the coax cable that ran down the wall to my transmitter.

The old 6146 liked the match despite my inability to fathom how the
impedances worked their way around and through the coils but it didn’t work
based on my understanding and that was fine with me.

At age 16 I was a far better CW radio operator than I was electrical
engineer – my mentor, Charlie, recognized that bent early on and spent his
time helping me develop as a radio telegrapher rather than spending effort
on a lost cause in electronic theory.

I had memorized my way through the ARRL’s General Class License Manual for
1964 and that worked well enough to pass the General Class license exam
given by the FCC in the Federal Building in Columbus, Ohio the previous
summer.

Breezing through the 13 word per minute Morse code requirement I made a
passing score in the theory portion of the exam and was happily on my way
exploring the lower end of 80 meter CW – the only band my station covered.

Signals were coming in with unusual clarity that night – the noise level
had dropped way down and now the band was opening up for some long haul DX
even as the stations out a few hundred miles were pounding in.

The W8 up in northern Ohio running the kilowatt sounded louder than normal
with his distinctive signal and its signature slight rasp indicating
serious RF output was at work.

His fist was authoritative and he made no effort to impress the ether with
high code speed – he routinely worked at 25 words per minute, almost a
leisurely pace – and down in the DX window from 3.500 to 3.505 he was
running Europeans one after another.

I had 599 copy on him off the back of whatever antenna array he was using –
the Europeans were steadily working him as I tuned up the band and called
CQ.

CQ CQ CQ de WA8KEX WA8KEX K and I waited to see what the band would offer
up.

Ah, a W4 from North Carolina came back, nice signals and we rag chewed for
a while at 25 words per minute. He was an old-timer and had been a ham
since the early days of radio. A genuine OT and his fist was a pleasure to
copy as he effortlessly sent on his bug.

He gave me a solid 599 and was amazed when I told him I was only putting
out 75 Watts to a Windom antenna only up 20’ from southern Ohio. He thought
I must be running some high iron to put out a signal like he was copying
but it was the band condition not the 6146 that did the job.

We could tell the band was in amazing shape on that cold winter night – the
noise level was well under the usual S1-3 and you could almost feel the
magic in the ether.

On nights like this on 80 meters your senses seem to be on highest alert
and you carefully tune the DX window at the bottom of the band to see what
treasures are ripe for the plucking.

I turned off the overhead lights and left the desk lamp on and the glow of
the tubes gave me enough light to log stations across the country as the
clock ticked on.

Ah, there’s a PY down in Brazil now and with extreme focus, eyes closed, I
could just make out his signal as he called CQ DX at 15 words per minute.

He signed his call and I hesitated for a second to see who might have heard
him but there was dead silence – a gaping black hole in the ether where his
signal had been.

I quickly moved the two weights on my bug down a bit to match his speed and
gave him a long call and signed.

He came right back and we exchanged signal reports – nothing better than a
459 both ways but a solid contact in the log and a new country for me on 80
meter CW.

In fact, the PY was the first South American I had ever worked – oh, I had
a few DX countries from Central America, Mexico and even the CO2 from Cuba
with the wild bug fist and the chirpy signal, but now I was working serious
DX.

I slowly tuned across the band, moving down to the very lowest end of the
band, the richest vein of the DX golden window – perilously close to the
band edge at 3.500 and camped out, listening, listening, waiting patiently.

The clock passed midnight and I was having trouble staying awake – the
black coffee was wearing off and I occasionally nodded off – jerking my
head up and trying to listen for the weakest signals that would indicate
the best DX.

And then there he was, just barely readable above the noise floor of the
old World War II Army receiver I was using.

The only controls I had to pull him in were main tuning and volume – the
work would have to be done between my ears if I was to bag this DX.

As the sun rose in Scotland the signal from the GM just perceptibly
increased so I could copy his call sign.

He was calling CQ NA CQ NA over and over again and no one was replying.

At least no one I could hear now that the band had lengthened out so that
even the East Coast stations could not be heard.

I matched his code speed with my bug and called him with a long call –
willing my signal across the Atlantic and into Scotland - and signed K.

A few seconds passed and then he came back, faint but clear, calling me and
giving me a signal report and his name and handing it back with a HW CPI?
KN.

I sent my report and completed the exchange and sank into my chair – my
first European DX on 80 meter CW was in the log!

To this day I am not sure whether that night’s once-in-a-lifetime DX was
merely the result of CW from a 6146 through a balun coil to a Windom
antenna– or the added power of a strong will carrying the signal like
Pegasus through the ether…

CW mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
Unsubcribe send email to
cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/attachments/20220927/c5eed3d5/attachment-0001.html>