[Hallicrafters] DX Awards For Vintage RX Accomplishments

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Congratulations to WA0ZCW, Mike, in MN for working all fifty states with his 
Hallicrafters SR-2000 and a well worn wire strung over his river, through 
the woods and through his XYL's imported rose bed. Mike finally managed to 
work both Alaska and Hawaii on 160 meters, and in the same week! Not once, 
but multiple times! He was so excited that he kissed his wife seven times in 
one day, which made her instantly suspicious as to what her glow in the dark 
husband was guilty of! A peck on the cheek is far better then a scar on the 
forehead from a pet bird's beak!

Now you can also go to the HHI web site and take advantage of the super 
attractive certificate being offered to Hams using vintage gear to make X 
number of international contacts. Confirmed, of course. So from the home 
page, click on the link and go take a squint at what W5WP is offering you. I 
saw "squint", as due to server memory limitations, only low resolution 
images are to be found on web sites.

Then since you are already on the HHI web site, return to the home page, 
click on the SWL menu and go take an even closer squint at the absolutely 
beautiful certificate available for Short-Wave fans who have heard and 
confirmed, twenty-five or fifty or seventy-five or more international 
short-wave stations. This colorful certificate truly belongs framed and on 
the wall of your radio shack!

Around the edges are small images of actual SW QSL cards I received in the 
era of 1960-1962 using my Minerva Tropic Master WW2 morale receiver. The 
certificate has a sort of watermark background showing a SX-28. The text is 
bold and black, so even you guys with rock fragment chips in your bifocals 
from riding your motorcycle over the hill, through the trail in the woods 
and right into Grandma's dining room can still read the wonderous words! If 
not, call me and I will send you a copy of said text in Braille!

You can see the certificate on the HHI web site, so go look! Even a QSL from 
Radio Moscow showing a pencil sketch of Sputnik with something about being 
first in the world ... And it is also in five languages too! A QSL from RTF 
in S. Africa, one from Radio Roma (Italy), ORU in Belgium, JJY - time signal 
in Japan, BBC - have not issed cards since 1969 so here is your chance to 
see the real deal, Bulgaria and Romania and Switzerland and more. You can 
also see all of these fabulous moments of time captured on a QSL for all 
time, or until the ink fades out or the paper is eaten by insects or 
mischevous children during the night when they missed the cookie jar!

So get up off your Rumpus Buttacous Maximus and catch some waves!

What tales of countries worked on the Ham bands do you have to share? How 
about the 'real' number of countries worked? How many confirmed? Greatest 
number of QSL cards for MW, SW or Ham bands? Lowest power used and greatest 
distance on less than one watt?

I met W2BXA on the air earlier this year and wondered why his call sign was 
familiar? Turns out he filled out many of the QSL cards for the famous 
Hallicrafters sponsored 1947-1948 Mount Kilimanjaro DXpedition! He is now 95 
years young, sharp as a tack and has forgotten more radio facts then most of 
us will ever know! When he told me that he had worked, and confirmed, 393 
countries, I was momentarily stunned. Speechless. Like when you have the 
light from the sun hit you in the eyes a split second before you catch that 
long high fly ball to left center, and instead have it bounce off your left 
temple area, skid across the outfield facedown, get a mouthfull of dead bugs 
+ Super Green Astro Grass plastic clippings and several pull tabs!

But Ben knew what was going across my neuron synapse nets and quickly 
explained how he had worked more countries then happen to exist on the 
planet! You know: before Yugoslavia was Yugoslavia it was some other place. 
Then it became Yugoslavia about 1940 or so, then got changed to Serbia. Then 
somehow had Montenegro added to the Serbia. Then Serbia and Montenegro split 
up and are now sole entities. Some of these pieces of real estate change 
names faster then one of those famous French strippers can go from street 
cloths to a bikini so fast that there isn't even time for Nature to cast a 
shadow!

You think reading the Rand - MacNutty road atlas is difficult? Try the 
Braille version with added raised lines for your finger to get lost on! When 
you let your fingers do the walking with a Braille/raised line drawing 
representation of a map, better have a talking pocket GPS unit handy! But 
for the first person in need of an actual United States road atlas that 
talks without GPS, I have help handy! Known as "Atlas Speaks", and selling 
once upon a time for six hundred dollars on CD, you can be guided right to 
the front door of anyone anywhere in this country! All you need is a Guide 
Dog to keep you from kissing utility poles and getting a concussion, White 
Cane so whomever flattens you like a fluffy pancake that the circus fat lady 
sat upon or my personal invention - a LASER cane that helps with mobility, 
vaporizes snarling animals or soon to be former wives and when coupled with 
a high Q GPS receiver can tell you that you are twelve centimeters shy of 
falling down the open manhole before you! On the bright side: The White Cane 
gives you the absolute 'right of way', no matter if you are crossing a four 
lane highway while traffic is roaring by at seventy miles per hour, you are 
nowhere near a crosswalk or whatever! If they hit you, they are liable! Your 
next of kin will be richly rewarded and you can have your attorney set up a 
trust fund to be sure your most favorite flower is placed upon your grave 
site every year on your birthday for five hundred years!

So my talking atlas, plus the mobility tool, a belt computer, amplified 
speaker to hear what it is saying - or a pair of uncomfortable headphones if 
you so prefer - and I can can get you on the road. You can go visit family 
you have not seen in fifteen years, friends who just never manage to find 
time to come visit, a bathroom at a public place where curious sighted 
patrons have stolen the Braille signs on the bathroom doors that said "MEN" 
and "LADIES"! Why do sighted people steal Braille items when they can't even 
read Braille? Believe it or not, that is absolutely true about Braille signs 
and otherwise labelled items vanishing!

Need to get my map guys, sort of fell off track there. Sorry! Just go to the 
HHI web site and enjoy the wonderful certificate that W5WP, Dave Paperman, 
is offering, the gorgeous SW certificate being offered and all of the other 
way cool stuff there!



Duane Fischer, W8DBF - WPE8CXO
E-Mail: dfischer at usol.com
Hallicrafters web site: www.w9wze.net
HHRP web site: hhrp.w9wze.net