Interlude

As happens to all of us from time to time, I am currently dealing with a serious family matter. My usual pace of blogging will have to be reduced for the rest of March. What articles I write may be "lightweight" since my operating and station building activities are at a standstill. The previous article only got published because it was 95% complete and the final 5% served as a welcome distraction. 

I had to cancel my plan for the ARRL DX SSB contest. Upcoming contests will also be sidelined until at least CQ WPX SSB in late March.

On the positive side, this unfortunate event has given me an opportunity to peruse old photo albums that were kept by a deceased family member. It goes back more than 100 years, following my family from its roots in Romania, to my parents' move to the Canadian prairie, and eventually to my arrival into the world. I knew that somewhere among those dusty albums was a picture I had long since lost track of. It brings back pleasant memories and may be of interest to readers. The picture was taken by my father.

The year was 1972. I was newly licensed (VE4OY) and 15 years old. In the months after I earned my license I was thrilled to work anyone who could copy my weak signal. DX was difficult. It would be two more years before I seriously caught the contesting bug and then another year until I put up my first tower.

Those of you familiar with old equipment will recognize that the receiver was a Hammarlund HQ129X. I bought it from an older ham who no longer needed it. It was by far the most expensive component of the station. It was general coverage with band spread for the ham bands. Even with a new tube and replacement of select capacitors the local oscillator barely functioned on 15 meters and rarely on 10. Tuning on those bands was so touchy that it was difficult to receive CW and SSB. We were slipping into a solar minimum so it hardly mattered.

By the front panel design and colours, the transmitter is clearly a Johnson. I purchased it at a local flea market for very little. Originally a mobile AM crystal-controlled transmitter, a previous owner built an AC supply and added a Johnson VFO. Resolution of the VFO dial was so poor that the only way to get on frequency was to swish the VFO back and forth until it was heard in the receiver. The tubes on top of the VFO are merely for show.

I never did figure out a good way to remove the modulator tubes so all three of the 807's had to be lit. I stuck a flea market open frame 117 VAC relay on top of the power supply for T/R switching of the coax with the knob provided on the receiver. A short length of RG58 through the window frame connected to a 40 meter dipole up ~15' (4.5 m) that was used on all bands. I later added 20 meters to make it a fan dipole.

Without any metering (the one you see was not functional) I burned through a succession of 807 tubes due to high SWR and poor tuning. Used ones were cheap at local flea markets. The soft ones were plugged into the modulator tube sockets to keep the filaments of the others lit.

I used that equipment for a year. In 1973 we moved to a new house and with money from a summer job I upgraded to an HQ170 and HT32B. In 1975 I purchased a brand new FT101B and put up a tower with a TH3jr and 40 meter inverted vee. 

That kept me going until 1979 when I earned my M.Sc. and moved from Winnipeg to Ottawa. But that's enough woolgathering. If you want more, tune in to my 2023 interview on QSO Today.