… and what a great Straight Key Night it was!
I turned on the rig about a half-hour into SKN's start (0000 Zulu), and boy howdy was 80 meters crowded. There were CW stations from above the old Novice band at 3.750 all the way through the area where the digital stations operate around 3.625 MHz, and then packed again from there on to the bottom of the band.
It was like turning back the clock 20-plus years! I have never heard such a racket!
I didn't work any stations until late Friday night. I spent most of my time monitoring QSOs. Several people commented on how good it sounded to have QRM in the Novice band; most everyone had something to say about using a straight key again. One fellow said his J-38 was “whipping my butt.”
And you have to give kudos to some of the J-38 operators who were really doing a fantastic job. There were several running smoothly at 20 wpm or better. I couldn't copy that fast, but I listened for them to mention “key”. I can pick up bits and pieces, phrases and prosigns at that speed.
I spent Friday afternoon cleaning keys and getting them ready for SKN.
I had a couple of straight keys I planned to operate — two different Speed-X straight keys, and an older unnamed chromed base rectangular base key. In addition to those, I also had several bugs I wanted to run, including a Speed-X bug (manufactured when Speed-X was owned by E.F. Johnson), a couple of Vibroplex bugs, including a Blue Racer and a Presentation model.
Well, I didn't use all those keys. I used the same key i started with — the rough-and-ready Speed-X bug. I'm used to it and it works so smooth I didn't see any reason to monkey with what worked.
Well, that's all for this trip. I'll have more to write about SKN.
73 de ky4z … dit dit …