I'm a little melancholy this evening as I sit here pecking away at my computer. I'm listening to the gang on 3955 kHz talk about a variety of things, and everyone has aurora on their signals.
We've had a large flare hit the Earth today I guess, and I saw some aurora tonight outside. We're having some clouds off to the north, and that obscure a good bit of the aurora.
But I couldn't let the evening slide by without getting on the air; I had to mark the passing of my old friend, the 80-meter Novice band.
There was a great deal of activity on the CW band, particularly from 3650 up to 3725 kHz. I came back in the house after looking at the aurora about 11 p.m., and I immediately went to the rig and began scanning the band for someone calling CQ or a place where I could call CQ.
I tuned up and put out a couple of calls at 3695 kHz with no takers. Some Canadian stations were on the air up and down the band, which added to the QRM. The aurora effect was on nearly all the signals on the band, giving the evening a rather surreal tinge, like signals from the past coming back to life.
I tuned up the band and found W8TXT calling CQ. I had heard Mike a couple of nights ago, and he had a great signal then too. Tonight he was running a classic Novice station, a Heathkit DX-60 and a Hammarlund HQ-110 combo. It sounded fantastic, too. As busy as the band was, I was surprised he could copy me as well as he could — the old Hammarlund must have pretty good selectivity.
I told him about my old Heathkit HW-16, and he apparently had owned one, noting that the selectivity of the Icom 746PRO I was using was well appreciated on a night like tonight, hi hi!
He told me he had his old Novice station on the air for one last hurrah, and I told him that's why I was on the air tonight — to say good bye to the band.
I signed off with Mike about 12 minutes to midnight. He had a sked with another guy, who called him as soon as I finished my last shave-and-a-haircut dit. I think they had wanted to see the band out as well. I toyed with the idea of calling CQ, but with 10 minutes left I spent the time instead just copying the mail on the other CW QSOs.
And as you might expect, right on time — 12:01 a.m. Friday, December 15, 2006, the SSB stations fired up all across the band, from 3750 to 3600. It was bedlam for about a half an hour as stations jockeyed for position. There was a slew of AM'ers who were fighting for a clear frequency on the low end of the band; others were trying to figure out where they might fit it while bitching about the QRM.
I think I'll make a special QSL card for Mike; something to commemorate the passing of an era.
The ARRL has petitioned the FCC to move the low end of the band up 3635 to make room for General and Novice CW and also for the automatically controlled digital stations like Winlink. As the rules read now, Novices get the same CW spectrum as Generals do — 3525 to 3600.
I'm not sure they'll get a hearing from the FCC. The FCC ran with the idea of cutting down the CW subbands, and I doubt they'll much give a crap to tinker with it again. It's kind of sad because it seems that the ARRL doesn't have the clout with the FCC it once had.
That's it for this time, I've got more news coming. I'm awaiting delivery of that mint Vibroplex Lightning Bug De Luxe … due to Christmas priorities, I've not pursued any additional keys (darn it!). Always on the look out for a Mac Key though, hi hi!
73 es happy holidays … de KY4Z SK …. dit dit ….