It feels like winter already in the Ohio Valley — though it's really not winter yet, only fall.
The sudden change in temperatures has taken everyone by surprise, and no one is used to cooler weather. We think 40 degrees is cold? Hell, that will feel like a Spring day by the time we hit the end of January!
We've had the kerosene heaters running to knock off the chill. The high temps this week will be going back to the 60s, so that will help. The QTH is warmed by propane, and we are hoping to use wood to supplement that to cut the high heating costs.
I've been listening to the 3898 gang tonight, which is my usual monitoring spot every evening. I'm usually working on the computer or reading, or whatever, so I listen to Bobby, Greg, Wrenford, Father Paul and the rest.
I actually began listening to 3898 long before I was licensed in 1986. I'm something of a night owl, and I used to go to bed with my bedside shortwave on with earphones and listening to the late night 3898 crowd — Robert Mercer, Jimmy and the others who came on late and stayed through the wee hours most nights.
I'll never forget with Robert was cited by the FCC — he had a habit of ID'ing in a style that mimicked the old Cosby Kids “Mush Mouth” character. He would turn KB4OEJ into Kay-Bee Four-Bee Oh-Bee E-Bee Jay-Bee.
Robert was quite a cut-up anyway, and when he and Jimmy and the group were fooling around, he would ID that way. I don't recall what started Robert on this kick, but he would just ID that way from time to time.
This wasn't an Official Observer card, but an actual citation from the FCC for improper identification.
This was in the period immediately after the 3898/3894.5 Radio Wars, I think. I'm surprised the FCC didn't go after some of the antics of the users of both frequencies back in that time period. I'm not sure who won the war, but it finally did settle down.
But today, 3898 is just a shadow of what it once was. Not to slight anyone there of course, but the days of the large roundtables full of the heavy hitter signals has died off on 3898 to just a handful. Bobby, WQ4E, is probably the only regular that I recall from the earlier days who still inhabits 3898.
Both Robert and Jimmy, the latenighters, are inactive. I hear reports that both are considering getting back on the air, but neither appears to have done so.
Some of the former 3898 regulars have moved to other spots on the band. Wilkie and Hugh Bronson both can be found around 3927. Many of the characters that made 3898 so interesting are now Silent Keys.
As Bobby and Father Paul will tell you, good QRM'ers are hard to find … the most interesting 3898 QRM'er I think I ever listened to was a guy they called “Fidel.”
Fidel reportedly was in Cuba, and with an obviously fake accent, he would give whoever he could crap about their signals, the U.S., etc., spouting the type of pseudo-propaganda the real Fidel Castro might. And Father Paul and the guys would give him the devil, and talk with him from time to time. I remember the night Fidel was giving the hell over something, and his amplifier went up in smoke. For an instant you could hear Fidel saying something that sounded like good old U.S. profanity — no accent in sight.
I first discovered 3898 on my Hammarlund RBG-2 receiver. I had gotten it from a guy who worked on CB gear for us; it was stashed under his bench. He said it worked, and I believed him — my first mistake!
The radio had some broken resistors and I fixed those the best I could. The thing would light up but no audio, no nothing — unless I touched a wire to the RF tuned circuits under the chassis. I found that if I connected my antenna to each band's RF input circuit, I could get the thing to work.
My best friend at the time had a brother-in-law who was a ham, and I had him look over my old receiver. He proclaimed it “the worst mess he had ever seen.” I took matters in my own hands.
From Radio Shack I bought a rotary switch and a project box. I wired the antenna to the box, then to the radio RF deck. I had to switch the antenna everytime I switched the band, but that was the best work-around I could come up with. What the hell, it worked!
I still have that receiver, too. Now that I have the schematic and manual, I'm sure I could figure out what the real problem was with the radio, and why it wasn't working when the antenna was attached to the proper input on the back.
I suspect that the radio — haven't not be powered up since 1992 — probably has more than its share of bad capacitors. I really would like to bring it up on a variac, anyway.
I've taken the Vibroplex Zephyr off the operating desk for the time being. I've switched to my 1925 Original that I need to buy some feet for. It's a sweet operating key, I swear it is smoother than the Zephyr. It arrived without rubber feet, so I installed some old non-stock ones that I saved from another bug.
On eBay there's a rather rare Vibroplex key selling … I entered a big (for me) bid on it, knowing full well that it will go for several hundred bucks. It was nice to have a winning bid, at least for a while!
I have gotten a couple of eBay goodies in the last couple of days. I recieved the year 1929 of QSt magazine, which is interesting reading. I received also a day or so ago 1950 and issues from 1952, and 53. Today I received a matching Hammarlund speaker to go with my HQ-110 (which arrived DOA). Grrr!
The HQ-110 probably doesn't need that much work. I just need to take time to tear into it. I need to check the tubes, etc. The thing has audio and static, but no RF. It may be simple … the good news is all the controls appear to work, there's just no RF being turned into audio. Lots of static, sounds like a thunderstorm.
I've got to shower and look over some QSTs, so for now I'll CU AGN. …
73 DE KY4Z SK …. dit .. dit …..