Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020
The CQ WW DX CW contest this weekend is probably one of a handful of contests that literally fill the CW portions of the active HF bands. I only checked 80 and 40, and both were jam-packed with contest stations.
Friday night at 9 p.m. local, I waited on frequency to catch my CW traffic net. I DID hear the NCS — between the 40-over-S9 “CQ TEST” being transmitted across the band every 500 Hz!
I was operating my Tempo 2020, and despite its effective CW filter, the crush of signals was too great for me to copy the NCS. Contest stations were everywhere; while the NCS called QRL?, the damn truth is that the spectrum was full and very, very busy, from stem to stern! After failing to copy more than a random character here and there, I spun the VFO and returns to the phone portion of the band so I could hear grown men debating if COVID-19 is a government plot to bring the population into submission via mind control incorporated into the upcoming vaccine. Well, the debates were either about COVID or how soon we’ll find that out that President Trump actually won re-election.
Speaking of the election, its been interesting to watch groups of hams who have been friends for years via 75-meter roundtables suddenly disperse due to arguments about the election. There are a lot of very butt-hurt hams out there who don’t believe that Joe Biden won the election fair and square. It wasn’t the outcome I personally wanted. I say that the president should be allowed to contest the outcomes as he wishes; I also believe — and have seen proof — that in some states, dead people DID cast votes. We don’t know who they voted for; for all we know, they could have voted for Donald Trump.
Voter fraud like this and other situations should be investigated. However, I don’t believe there will ever be enough voter fraud found that would overturn or reverse the outcome of the election.
I’ve enjoyed operating my 1936A McElroy MAC KEY with my Tempo 2020. I enjoy not having to much with an external keyer. I’m still working to improve my bug fist, but then, I’m always working on that.
SB-102 REPAIRS. I have an electrolytic cap to replace on the audio board on my current SB-102 project radio before I can test out the radio for receive and transmit. Before I button up the finals cage, I need to epoxy the shaft coupler; the original plastic coupler is split where the set screw is located, and the screw won’t tighten. It will tighten enough to be useable, but it slips a little in both directions.
73 es CUL de KY4Z …. SK …. SK …. (dit dit) ….