I've been playing a little more radio lately and enjoying the hobby more since I stepped back from my club duties. Seemed like most of my hamming was participating in nets — not a bad part of the hobby, but there's much more to do than nets.
I've been working some casual CW contacts on 40 and 80 meters, and enjoying sliding back into some CW ragchews. One guy I worked was N4XRP, who was rare DX — about 20 miles north of me. Still had a good ragchew despite the fact we weren't that far apart.
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I spent yesterday at a HazMat Technician refresher course. I put in the time three years ago to earn my HazMat Technician certification, which was a 40-hour class. While any role I have on the local HazMat regional team is going to be as a volunteer in communications, I don't want to let my certification expire. Too much time invested in it to let it go.
This was the first training I've been part of for quite a while, and I got to play in the command trailer. As a non-firefighter and non-EMS type, I've long felt like a square peg in a round hole when it comes to the HazMat team. I didn't fit in anyone's clique. I was given the role of communications officer during the training, and there were three of us in the command trailer also serving as research.
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I've been cleaning up in the shack a bit, and I've been trying out one of my Yaesu FT-757GXs just for kicks. I recently picked up a QSY'er for the Yaesu, which is nothing more than a touchtone keypad for frequency entry. I've wanted one of these for years, ever since they were still being offered new many years ago.
The price was pretty high (at least it was for me at the time), and I never bought one. I don't know how many were sold, I've only seen a couple pass through eBay over the years, and the ones I've seen brought a healthy price. I saw one on eBay recently and picked it up for a reasonable price.
The QSY'er is in mint condition and works like a champ. Two simple connections, power and the data connector and its done. I'm betting this would have been a project covered as a kit by one of the magazines. I'll probably use the QSY'er on the Yaesu rig that I put in the library. I've got a small MFJ tuner and a wire to go with it, heck, maybe I need to put a key in there too and work a little QRP.
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Due to last month's vacation, I had not done much eBay'ing lately. I've picked up a few things that arrived this week — some NOS replacement bakelite Vibroplex thumb pieces (triangular old-style paddles for early keys) amd some rubber feet. This week I've caught up a bit, and been back in the hunt for some cw keys.
I picked up a Speed-X model 510 bug, which is a key similar in width to the Vibroplex Blue Racer. It appears to need paint, but I can manage that. I don't own this particular model Speed-X bug. I've got similar models which were produced during E.F. Johnson's ownership of the Speed-X line.
I also won an auction for a receiver I've wanted for years — a Gonset G-66. The Gonset G-66 and G-77 rx/tx combo were surprisingly compact for their day. I love the look with the chrome front panels and symmetrical styling. Very 50-ish.
I won an auction for a G-66 receiver a couple of years ago. The seller said it worked fine, but she was clearly blowing smoke — when I turned the receiver on, it hummed for about 15 seconds and the fuse blew. Fortunately for me, I had paid her via PayPal, and I filed a complaint that the item was not as it was listed. Her listing actually said it worked, and this was not true. I sent the receiver back to her and PayPal refunded my money — much to her chagrin. She then gave me negative feedback accusing me of being a scammer, having done a chargeback and kept the item — both of which were flat-out lies. The neg dinged my feedback score, but mine did more damage to her — 11 of her last 15 feedbacks were negs; mine was the second to last she received before she was booted off by eBay.
Anyway, the Gonset G-66/G-77 usually command a big price on eBay, particularly if they're working models. This receiver didn't go as high as most, so I sniped it. It comes with the universal power supply (6VDC/12VDC or 115VAC). I have another 1950s “micro receiver”, a Multi-Elmac PMR-8. For a tube receiver, its an amazingly little package, with coverage of BC through 10 meters. It's a little deaf on the higher frequencies, but nothing a good preamp couldn't cure. The little slide rule dial makes exact tuning wishful thinking. Still fun to use.
Getting back to CW keys, I picked up a handcrafted iambic key that I'm expecting to arrive this week. It's manufactured by W0LPR, Houston Taylor, and dates back to 1982, serial no. 20. The key bears a strong resemblance to the Brown Brother's iambic key. Later versions of this key have magnetic returns instead of springs, and the magnetic version has very good eHam reviews.
I don't really need a new iambic key, but it looked unique and interesting — and it was cheap enough, a very important part of shopping on eBay!
I'll have more to report later, I'm off to the shack. 73!