Good afternoon fellow CW key fans (and fantatics).
Seems as though the Ohio Valley bypasses the season of Spring and we’re well into the start of summer about six weeks early. The bands — particularly 80 and 40 — went from the nice, quiet winter conditions to July thunderstorm conditions in what seemed like an overnight shift.
If you read the ham magazines from the early period of Amateur Radio (say, pre-1940), you’ll find frequent reference to the fact that a great many hams took the summer months off from the hobby. Nets disbanded, traffic handling dropped off, and hams in general did not do a lot of summer operating.
Invariably, the radio magazines would refer to activity picking up in the fall once again due to the improving band conditions. Usually about July — when I find my headphones packed with lightning crashes — I find myself wondering if the practice isn’t worth reviving.
Despite the summer band conditions I have continued to participate in the Georgia CW net, though work has interrupted my participation as of late. I find myself wistfully remembering what the bands sounded like just a few short months ago.
Last night I was tuning 40 and heard a distinctive, vintage station calling CQ, a 5 call area station out of Oklahoma I believe. He sent a nice 3×3 CQ (does anyone remember those?) and said he was listening … another chap answered and they had a nice QSO. The 5 was running a DX-60B transmitter with an HR10 VFO. His signal had just a hint of chirp — enough to let you know you weren’t in QSO with a modern, computer-driven transceiver. I have the same transmitter in the attic, I really should get it out and put it on the air!
As far as my eBay activities, I continue to stalk most of the CW keys that come and go, but have only made a couple of purchases as of late. Below you’ll find the latest acquisitions … the names were not changed to protect the guilty (hi!).
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