Tuesday, 1:40 a.m. — Greetings from my humble hovel — er, shack — on my hill overlooking Cox’s Creek.
You know, as QTHs go, this isn’t a bad one. But I’ve always HATED sending my QTH on CW or phone. No one outside the county even knows where the hell Cox’s Creek is located; its a post office next to a minit mart, half a dozen houses or so, and a couple of peacocks … however its little post office serves a large swath of the northwestern quandrant of the county. But I digress …
But spelling the name out on CW is a little tiresome, but it doesn’t compare with telling someone on phone you’re in Coxs Creek. You would be surprised at the snickering you get … or, knowing my ham radio friends, I’m not terribly surprised. That’s why — especially on phone — I give my QTH as the county seat 7 miles to the south.
I did that once and the OM had looked up my call in the callbook (remember those??) and corrected me — I didn’t live in Bardstown, I lived in … “ca-ca cocks … (long pause, then) oh yeah, right, very good Old Man, near Bardstown.”
BIRTHDAY SURPRISE. With my birthday just about to arrive, last Friday night I decided to throw caution (common sense??) to the wind, and check in to the section CW traffic net.
I had been copying the mail on the net for several nights last week. Depending on the NCS, the net runs anywhere at 15 to 20 wpm — a little fast for my rusty fist in most instances.
The beauty of CW net operation is that they are very standard … you know what’s going to be sent. Because of the limited range of responses while the net is operating, its a great place to brush up on CW copying. If you lose your place copying in your head, you can pick it up pretty quick. It’s not like trying to copy a ragchew where Beauregard L. Smithentookis, N9ZQQ is telling Arkendale Q. Takerontooshus, ZL9QQM, about the individual parts of his homebrewed vertically polarized smegglerrompus pentaquad beam, or sharing the names of his 22 grandchildren and their birthdates.
All seriousness aside, I was delighted to find that an old friend was NCS — K4AVX. John has been Net Manager for many years, and he’s a first-class CW op. I think John just about fell out of his chair when the check in with the “Z” turned out to be the long-lost Zed Man.
I was QRU and the last check in. He thanked me and gave me an invite to return — and I will.
Our section CW net continues thanks largely to the dedication of a group of hardcore CW ops. God bless them, they are responsible for keeping the CW net active and alive. They handle traffic as they can, but the problem is that there aren’t enough outlets among those who check in. The major population centers are represented most nights; if you can get traffic close, most of the time you can take to VHF/UHF to get it to the right town.
I checked in using my 1938B McElroy Mac Key standard — after I cleaned the contacts with a dollar bill. I get stratchy dots on the key at times, but cleaning the contacts seems to have eliminated most of the problem. I used my homebrew “bug tamer” to slow the key down … I have made the mistake of sending faster than I can comfortably copy, and I routinely send slower than I can copy so I don’t wind up “surprised” hi hi.
I had hoped to check in again this evening, but I didn’t take time to do so. I was on the phone with my daughter who was calling to wish me happy birthday. I’m busy tomorrow, so maybe Wednesday night? We’ll see.
I’ve got to hit the shower … busy day tomorrow. CUL!
73 ES GL … de KY4Z SK …. dit dit