Friday, Jan. 24, 2020
I like to listen a lot to QSOs on the 75 meter band in the evenings. Its an old habit, one that dates back to my teenage years as an SWL.
That was when I first discovered the guys on 3898 and the Radio War between those guys and Big Al who was down the band at about 3892.5 or so. So many of those guys are Silent Keys today, but 40 years ago, it was quite an entertaining group to listen to.
These days I can still find some interesting frequencies to listen to, though 3898 is generally dead these days. There’s a group on 3927 kHz and 3919 kHz that operate late into the early mornings. Also 3810 and other frequencies I don’t recall, but usually locate with a spin of the dial.
And its always interesting to hear new hams who are brand new to HF operating. It never fails to amaze me how many of today’s new hams BUY a wire antenna. And nothing says “ham newbie” like “I’m running a G5RV at 30 feet.”
And I don’t remember how long its been since I heard a new HF ham say that they homebrewed their antenna. Why the hell BUY a wire antenna??
Since I was licensed in 1987, I have run either dipoles or an all-band non-resonant doublet running to an antenna tuner. And feed my doublet with twinlead — either 450 ohm or 300 ohm TV twinlead — and my antennas have never failed to work on all HF bands.
Of course, antennas designed to be resonant on each band will most likely be more efficient, but for the average operator, an all-band doublet is a very workable solution that won’t junk up your backyard with too damn many antennas.
For the record, I have never purchased a wire antenna. I’ve used everything from bell wire to 12-2 house wiring for my dipoles. I use my own homebrew center insulator, and hang them up in an inverted vee configuration.
Yes, I’m the victim of Old Fart-itis that seems to creep up on most ham operators as they age. The irony is that I heard my share of it when I was a new ham.
A local ham whose name I won’t mention gave me tons of bullshit when I was licensed that I wasn’t “a real ham” because I only had a tech license (this guy had an Advanced Class license). Every conversation I had with the guy he was insulting and disrespectful. He spent a week trying to convince me to buy a Yaesu FT-ONE from him he owned. He wanted a mint for it, but was willing to let me trade all the ham gear I owned for it. No damn thanks.
The real irony is that while reading old issues of ham magainzes — I mean old, like the 1930s — hams of the day wrote letters to QST and other radio publications of the day, bemoaning the loss of technical skill among new ham operators.
What was the proof of this allegation? Why just look at the factory-made gear that was coming on the market in those days — hell, hams no longer were forced to build their receivers and transmitters. Because of the growing complexity of “single signal” receivers, more hams were buying receivers and pairing them with a homebrew transmitter.
CW transmitters were comparably simple to build. A new ham could “upgrade” his low-power CW transmitter by adding another stage of power amplification.
But the development of more and more manufactured gear worried Old Timers who worried that hams were becoming “appliance operators” … and this was 75-plus years ago!
NO CODE LICENSE … IN THE MID-1930s? Short Wave Craft magazines of the early to mid 1930s chronicled radio enthusiasts desires to get a ham ticket to work VHF frequencies without needing to take a Morse Code test.
The 5-Meter band in the early 1930s was new territory, and Short Wave Craft carried dozens of articles and projects to build 5-meter receivers, transmitters and transceivers. Their letters section carried letter after letter from radio would-be hams arguing that the code shouldn’t be required for the 5-meter ham band.
And as you might expect, there was a significant amount of activity — licensed and unlicensed — on the 5-meter band at that time. Short Wave Craft took a stance in favor of a no-code VHF ticket; unfortunately for the magazine readers, it was 60-some years before the no-code license became a reality.
And tuning across the bands, you still hear hams who gripe about the modern-day “appliance operators” … the truth is ham radio is something different to each of us — some hams still homebrew gear, many don’t. But we all enjoy the hobby, and I think its important we respect the variety of interests among us all …. even the newbies who think they’ll take the HF world by storm with 100 watts and a G5RV at 25 feet.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK SK …… (dit dit) ….