Category: history

Hampton, VA to Cleveland, OH

I left yesterday at about 10:20am, having done a poor job packing and generally having any semblance of organization. I ended up dumping a lot of extra stuff in a footlocker, piled everything in the backseat of the truck and headed out. Not more than a few feet out of the driveway I answered a CQ from Andy, W2QIQ. Andy has been a ham for 66 years (as opposed to my 6 years). He served in the Army during WWII in Europe, starting in Egland, making his way through France and ending up in Berlin.

My radio started acting up on 40M. I was using my Workman Hamstick tuned for the 40M phone band. The Icom AT-180 gets a good match right away bringing the SWR down to a 1:1. But then after I’m transmitting for about a minute, the Tune light flashes for about 10 or 15 seconds and then the Tune light shuts off and the power drops and SWR goes up. My first guess is that the radio and tuner need to have a better ground. But the matching impedance range for the AT-180 is only between 16 and 150 ohms, so that could be the problem. This is only a problem on 40M.

My TH-D7A APRS kludge seems to be working well when there is a digipeater. When I was on I-77N coming across the West Virginia/Ohio border, I accidentally pulled one of the power leads. I didn’t really notice it because all through the Smoky Mountains the APRS coverage was nonexistent. I got a few hits through Charleston, WV and then it (maybe) tapered off after Charleston or maybe I had pulled the power. When I was approaching Canton, OH, I knew something had to be wrong, because it was such a large area it would have to have a digipeater. That’s when I noticed the power was disconnected. I reattached the power and there was tons of APRS traffic.

Had some nice QSOs along the way: KL7GKY, EB7xx, YU1XA, and KB5YAY.

Morse Telegraph Key, 1844-45

Part of the Smithsonian collection…

The telegraph key Samuel Morse used on his first line in 1844 was very simple–a strip of spring steel that could be pressed against a metal contact. Alfred Vail, Morse’s partner, designed this key, in which the gap was more easily adjustable because of changes in its spring tension. It was used on the expanding telegraph system, perhaps as early as the fall of 1844 and certainly by 1845.

40M mobile

I played around with the Opek and Workman 40M antennas this morning. The Opek tuned from about 7.150 to 7.290 and the Workman tuned from 7.040 to 7.250. I noticed a difference in the receive – the Workman was doing a better job. I have an extra stinger for the Workman, so I’m going to shorten it a bit allowing me use of the upper phone band on 40M (good for lighthouse work on 7.270). I can then lengthen the existing one just a bit to allow me to cover all the CW area of 40M.

Had a nice QSO with Frank, AC9T, located up near Chicago. He served in the Navy aboard the battleship USS Iowa and told me what it was like sailing underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Able Archer 83

Fascinating article from Wikipedia on a major Cold War event:

Able Archer 83 was a ten-day NATO exercise starting on November 2, 1983 that spanned the continent of Europe and simulated a coordinated nuclear release. It incorporated a new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences, participation by heads of state, and a simulated DEFCON 1 nuclear alert. The realistic nature of the exercise, coupled with deteriorating relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of “super-stealth” Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some in the USSR to believe that Able Archer 83 was a genuine nuclear first strike. In response, the Soviets readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert. This relatively obscure incident is considered by many historians to be the closest the world has come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The immediate threat of nuclear war abruptly ended with the conclusion of the Able Archer 83 exercise on November 11, which, coincidentally, was also Remembrance Day.

Tom Mills – K6LHE – SK

Farewell to Tom Mills
by Ed Fong
Sept. 2002

This month we regret the lost of one of our long time member Tomas B. Mills (K6LHE). He was an avid admirer of the Motorola HT220 and had modified dozens in his life time. I officially met Tom in 1990 when I joined National Semiconductor but I had seen him previously at the Foothill swap. I also meant him at the Sunnyvale SARES meeting a few times in the early 80’s.

I would always meet Tom at the swap meet and he was always a joy to talk to. His knowledge of radios was unsurpass since he worked on the design of IC’s for radio and TV for 40 years. We would walk up and down the isles and he would see a radio and say “hey, I had one of those” and then would go through the technical details of the radio. He was the mastermind behind all the video driver chips using the VIP high voltage process at National Semiconductor. Chances are that your TV or computer monitor has a chip that Tom designed. I thought I had a passion for radios until I meant Tom. This guy knew his Collins R390’s and his HT220’s.

Tom lived in the neighborhood and I had talked to him just Wednesday August 28th when I was testing a radio with Ron Quan. He broke on in with his distinct voice “Hey, is that doctor Ed??” That was the last time I talked with him. He passed away Sunday evening September 1st.

He is survived by his wife Joyce. His daughter Jeni Johnstone and husband James, his son Robert Mills and wife Donna. They have two grand children Emma and Ian.

His widow Joyce had at the Sunday September 8 memorial service his HT220 and other memorabilia that made Tom so well loved by his friends.

So K6LHE, we say our final 73’s. It has been my privilege knowing you and you will be missed, but your influence on me will be with me for a lifetime.

Ed Fong WB6IQN

Hello World: A Life in Ham Radio by Danny Gregory and Paul Sahre

Author Danny Gregory went to a flea market and found a ring binder containing 369 colorful and cryptic-looking postcards. Intrigued, he bought the collection and did some investigating. These cards were ham radio QSL cards, which are postcards that hams send to one another after they make contact over the airwaves. This particular collection once belonged to a man named Jerry Powell, an aeronautical engineer who died at age 93 in 2000. Jerry was a lifelong ham radio enthusiast his earliest QSL card is from 1928. Hello World: A Life in Ham Radio won’t teach you how to become a ham, or show you new ham radio techniques. Its not a technical book at all. Instead, this book is about Jerry Powells life as seen through his lifelong hobby, and its a compelling and absorbing read, even for readers who aren’t hams. All QSL cards are unique. They feature the call sign for a radio station, and includes cryptic notes on the conversation, the kind of radio equipment used in this connection, and little personal touches that reflect the ham’s personality. Each QSL card is either made by or for the ham, and it’s very much like a picture postcard from that region. Some cards look like regular tourist postcards, and others are hand-drawn, or feature photos of the ham with family or, more commonly, in their radio shack.

Hello World was designed by Paul Sahre, a well-known illustrator. His design work in this book is amazing and carefully organized so both diehard ham radio operators and novices can appreciate Jerry Powell’s worldwide ham radio contacts over the course of his lifetime. All the pages are adorned with colorful QSL cards with detailed annotations for many of them. There’s a fold-out map of the world with little dots for all of the ham connections Powell made worldwide, so readers can cross-reference the QSL cards in his collection. There’s also a chart graphing the number of QSL cards that Powell received per decade. 1940-1949 was his most prolific period, with 98 contacts.

http://www.theconnection.org/photogallery/hamradios/default.asp?counter=1

Talk of the Nation, April 30, 2003 Join host Neal Conan for a discussion on
ham radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1248508

QSO with W2SY

I had my one and only Blue Ridge Mountains DXpedition contact with Jim, W2SY. After 30 minutes of calling CQ on 40M, trying to find space between all the nets, Jim came back to me with a nice 59 report and I gave him the same. I think we chatted for about 10 minutes or so. Jim, 82 years old, served in the Army during WWII, a veteran of battles in Africa, Italy and France. After the QSO, I packed up the ARSIB, antenna, and all the rest. The trip back to Hampton was safe and uneventful.

Smithsonian’s NN3SI to QRT during museum renovations

— submitted to ARRL.org by Murray Green, K3BEQ

NN3SI, the Amateur Radio station exhibit at the Smithsonian Institutes’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, will QRT in late August while the museum undergoes renovations that will include the ham station. The museum is scheduled to reopen by the summer of 2008. Inaugurated in 1976 and supported by a volunteer staff, NN3SI occupies a corner in the “Information Age” exhibit on the first floor of the National Museum of American History, and it’s been open daily for visiting radio amateurs to operate.

I was a guest op at NN3SI earlier this year.

Weekend wrap up

A pretty busy Sunday….

– The recon to Edenton, NC went well. I found the lighthouse without too much difficulty, although you would not run into this lighthouse unless you were specifically looking for it. It’s an old screwpile lighthouse (the only remaining screwpile in North Carolina) that used to be in active use near the town of Roper (across the Albemarle Sound from Edenton). It served as a beacon to guide ships up the Roanoke River towards the town for Plymouth. A former tugboat operator, Emmett Wiggins, purchased the lighthouse in 1955 and had it brought to Edenton, where it was used as a residence. There was an attempt to sell the lighthouse to the Port O’Plymouth Museum (http://www.livinghistoryweekend.com/port_o.htm), but the deal ended up falling through. The museum ended up building a reproduction instead (http://www.roanokeriver.com/news_features/lighthouse.htm). The Edenton Historical Commision is now going to purchase the lighthouse and have it moved near the waterfront/downtown area.

Edenton is a beautiful little town right on the Albemarle Sound. There are two viable locations to conduct an activation. The first is from the waterfront park – the lighthouse is about 400 yards away across the water. The second is in a small park directly across and a bit down stream from the lighthouse. The downtown area stores were closed on Sunday, but I was able to find a restaurant near the waterfront that was open.

– I finished most of my QSL cards from an activation of the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse back in May (http://shedberg.livejournal.com/2006/05/13/). I enjoy filling out the cards and remembering the QSOs that stand out.