Cq..cq..cq

Back at you. I can't match your gear, but here's my SWL corner. I've never been a ham, but enjoyed listening to them. The QSL cards and Collins receiver were a gift from a good friend. They were his Dad's.

Don

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​I have always had an interest in them. Have wanted to learn, but no one I know ever used them. I became interested when that movie Frequency came out.
 

​I have always had an interest in them. Have wanted to learn, but no one I know ever used them. I became interested when that movie Frequency came out.

I'm a Yaesu aficionado myself, and you may notice the FR7700 SW receiver at the top of my pile. When the propagation is poo....on it goes. Good ol' Radio Romania Intl , China Radio Intl. not forgetting VOA naturally !

Never too late to get into Radio operating, although I was only 17 when I first used a transceiver, but that was in the RAF after all.
 
I have been licensed for about 37 years now. I started as a SWL in 1946 but wasn't licensed until '80. I am no longer active however but I do renew my ticket as I worked too hard to get it to let it lapse. 73 de K0JAD
 
The Ham's Prayer

Our Marconi, who art in DX heaven,
Hallowed be thy carrier wave.
Thy propagation come.
Thy will be done in the radio room as it is in the manual.
Give us this day our daily Sproradic E.
And forgive us our pills politics and operation nets,
as we forgive those who transmit over us.
Lead us not into deregulation,
but deliver us from lightning strikes.
For thine is the electro, the magnetic
and radio frequency.
Forever and ever

Amen
 
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CQ, nice poem, however it is only partly correct. Marconi may have built the first spark gap radio but did not invent it. Nikola Tesla did!
 
1084682.jpg you won't mind if I leave... but I have some paint which is drying and REALLY should be observed very carefully
 
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Don't know how long you guys have been on the air but we may have spoken back in the late 60's - 70's when I was operational in Bahrain as MP4BHL, A9XT & A92T. I was one of just three allowed to operate from the Arab state and the only one allowed to use the Royal Crest on my QSL cards - Sheikh Issa was a friend of mine :cool:
 
Just found your posting/thread I wish there wasn't so many restrictions here at my apartment or neighbors that complain when I have a QSO. I miss the old days at my cabin in Alaska where one never noticed my antenna farm and no neighbors close enough to interfere with their TV and computers.

73 KL1HB

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...adding a new antenna (TA-33) to my stacked array

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I know what you mean Pete, some peeps aren't happy unless they have sumfin to gripe about, but you just try to complain about THEM and watch the sparks fly.

As a psychology graduate (1997) I know what spurs them on.... just google Adult ODD and you'll get an insight into their mindset....poor buggers !

I had a neighbour whinging about my GPA vertical swaying in the breeze, but I was damned to enter into a discourse on metallurgical elasticity with a lame brain who still thinks that sex is what posh people have their coal delivered in !


73 de Bill
 
I know what you mean Pete, some peeps aren't happy unless they have sumfin to gripe about,

The funny/sad thing about the neighbor was there was no attempt to ask me if there was a way to work around this problem.

I know being old sometimes has us set in our ways and I am no exception however when the need arises I am willing to look for a compromise.

...though it was in the middle of nowhere and nothing but an old cabin I do miss my old ham shack

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So what was your most exciting contact guys? Must admit, with the MP4 callsign I probably had a slight advantage and can count King Hussein of Jordan as a regular contact and even a friend at the time but the most exciting was my long chat with both Eugene Cernan and John Young aboard the Apollo 10 as she flew around the moon! Kept losing them as they went into the dead spot at the back of the moon.
I initially spoke with WA6VHD MMlll on board the prime recovery ship and he patched me through to the capsule!!

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So what was your most exciting contact guys?

'Cap'n Mike' your kidding right there would be few hams able to equal those QSO's you mentioned.

Yes I have had a couple 'not as famous or important' like Art Bell and Bob Heil but to me isolated like I was on the edge of nowhere in my shack it was a combination of new locations and just QSO's with other hams that filled my day and made amateur radio a fulfilling avocation. I might say that one highlight was a ham from Germany I spoke with on the radio who became a follower of my blog and eventually ended up knocking on my cabin door. But I think the greatest pleasure was just having a long satisfying conversation with other hams, and I feel this was the basis for my article "Why we are hams" published in QST and I invite you to read it reprinted on my blog at...

https://kl1hbalaska.wordpress.com/2017/02/01/cq-cq-cq-redux-why-we-are-hams/

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It's the memories Pete and there's plenty of them.

At the time I spoke with Apollo I only had an old AM DX100 transmitter and a B28 ex RN receiver. I had to off tune the TX as the MM was on SSB! It worked! My aerial was a huge, home made 10, 15 & 20M cubical quad made from bamboos mounted on a central spider I made in my workshop. Had a great F-B ratio!
 
N1594.jpg Jeez....that QSO lasted longer than I thought it would !
 


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