Silent Carriers that Answer CQ

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Brought to you by Jack, K9ACT and made famous by Buddly WD8BIL.

[W1IA]

BITF???


Black Information Technology Forum (South Africa) 
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*** BITF Body Image Task Force (University of Idaho) 
** BITF Borneo International Trade Fair (Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia) 
* BITF Business Initiative Task Force (US DoD)

Waaa HAAA HAAA!

JJ you always tickle the funny bone!

B

[W1VD]

"The Weaker They Are, The Longer They Talk".

Truer words were never spoken ...

[The Slab Bacon]

"The Weaker They Are, The Longer They Talk".

Truer words were never spoken ...

Thatz when you just gotta do a "BANG, lookie here, squashed just like a bug!!"   

[KF1Z]

Yeah... there's no need to be courteous to someone who's signal doesn't measure up to the standards.

[The Slab Bacon]

If you are piss-weak, or your audio sounds like szht, most often someone WILL tell you about it. Then its up to you to act / adjust accordingly, or ...........................

Bang, lookie here!!   

If you have "ear bleeding" audio no one wants to listen to you anyway. Even in a structured roundtable, if you are extreemly piss-weak, the roundtable will usually just go on right over top of you just as if you werent even there.

That should be your incentive to put out the best signal you can.

                                                                The Slab Bacon

[ke7trp]

A prime example of bring in competition to anything and everything.       Next up,  75 meter Key downs.


Heaven forbid you be courtious to anyone 

[K1JJ]

If you have "ear bleeding" audio no one wants to listen to you anyway.

    That's quite a message....  


You're killing me Slab!

[WD8BIL]

Courtesy runs both ways.

If you're a PWer and have had BFS on a regular basis don't try to horn in on a qso that'll implode with your 10 minute diatribe on how nobody can hear ya.

TOM: BFS = Blue Face Syndrome

[The Slab Bacon]

A prime example of bring in competition to anything and everything.       Next up,  75 meter Key downs.
Heaven forbid you be courtious to anyone  

Geeeeeezzzzeee..................... I guess you've never heard of a Strap Party!!      



STRAP!

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yes, there's a reason they call us 'Amateurs' after all. 

Been a while since I heard a good strapfest, but maybe 10 years back it was a regular occurrence. Yep, sometimes it got to be a bit much to where no one could get a word in without one or two individuals always trying to strap them, but every group has its attention whores. For some of us, it was helpful in judging out coverage for receiving as well as transmitting. And results were never a given, though you always had the few powerhouses with huge, clean signals. It's not like it was constant, just more prevalent than now.

STRAP! (strap)

Overall I remember it being a pretty entertaining and informative time, in more ways than one. The late 80s/early 90s even moreso. During the early 90s I was relegated to pissweak status and learned early on that the 'respect' part is indeed a two way street. 'JJ was my teacher, so the lesson was at least gentle. 

[WA3VJB]

Moreover, these things were spontaneous.  Someone would just drop a "STRAAP!?" in there, and then everyone else would be commenting when the poor victim would turn it over.

"Have I been strapped?"  Was often the meek query that followed.

Thus began a more formal challenge and test of manhood.  Neutral arbiter, usually someone who could not strap, would provide the judging, and all would be invited to strap for the next 20-30 seconds or so to determine a winner.

Great fun and any number can play.

Yes, there's a reason they call us 'Amateurs' after all. 

Been a while since I heard a good strapfest, but maybe 10 years back it was a regular occurrence. Yep, sometimes it got to be a bit much to where no one could get a word in without one or two individuals always trying to strap them, but every group has its attention whores. For some of us, it was helpful in judging out coverage for receiving as well as transmitting. And results were never a given, though you always had the few powerhouses with huge, clean signals. It's not like it was constant, just more prevalent than now.

STRAP! (strap)

Overall I remember it being a pretty entertaining and informative time, in more ways than one. The late 80s/early 90s even moreso. During the early 90s I was relegated to pissweak status and learned early on that the 'respect' part is indeed a two way street. 'JJ was my teacher, so the lesson was at least gentle. 

[K5UJ]

Seems to me that strapping boils down to antennas and real estate followed by clean positive peaks and compression followed by carrier.  the guy with the dipole on 75 m. at 150 feet, 350 watts, 150% positive with high average modulation wins.

You can probably gain 10 to 15 dB by taking your dipole up from 50 feet to 150 feet--pretty hard to get that kind of gain with power alone (if you already running a few hundred watts    )

[KX5JT]

Will a high dipole strap a low cloud burner dipole all other things equal at "local" distances of a couple hundred miles?

[K1JJ]

Will a high dipole strap a low cloud burner dipole all other things equal at "local" distances of a couple hundred miles?

Most strap corntests are local affairs within 300 miles or so on 75M.  As modeling will show, the best antenna, bar none, for local work is a dipole at about 65' or so, depending on location and cornditions.   A dipole at 1/2 wavelength high (130'-150' on 75M) will actually be down 15-20db locally because of the suppressed energy in the higher angles. And inversely, the high dipole will usually take the low dipole by 10db to even 15db for DX over 1500 to 2,000 miles away, again, depending on cornditions. It's all about the vertical take-off angle.

When I switch in the high loops at 190' for the west coast, sometimes the locals have trouble copying me when cornditions stretch out.

That's why, when possible, two antennas are needed for optimum coverage for local and DX. If only ONE antenna is available, then a dipole at 90' is hard to beat - the best of both whirls.


So guys with dipoles at ~60' high can rest assured that they have made the very best effort possible for local 75M strap work...

T

[Opcom]

Yeah... there's no need to be courteous to someone who's signal doesn't measure up to the standards.

I take that as macabre humor. If I had  nickel for every time I got run over because of the antennaless station, I'd just retire. I can get FB results with psk31 using only 100W PEP but ssb is difficult at best and AM gets me nothing. AM is my dummy load mode, for lab measurement pleasure only. I take this all as a challenge and a fun part of the hobby.

Of note, one more section of tower is up and all 4 10FT guy deadmen are now concreted, as well as one of the dipole deadmen. It is 103 degrees here.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

So guys with dipoles at ~60' high can rest assured that they have made the very best effort possible for local 75M strap work...

Even with my somewhat-lower dipole, A couple nights I was the channel master. Rich-a-roni would insist I was parked nearby. And I was by no means the strongest rig or best ant on the band. Some nights it just depended which way the wind blew, apparently.  

Of course, the other 99.9% of the time, the real signals ruled.  For me at least, listening to the guys over the years provided incentive to build the 'perfect' station. An unrealistic goal I still strive for today.

[K1JJ]

For me at least, listening to the guys over the years provided incentive to build the 'perfect' station. An unrealistic goal I still strive for today.

Well, you've certainly assembled some impressive AM hardware, OM...    The alligators down your way will certainly know who you are soon.

I'll bet the guys here would love to see a listing of the stuff you have that is about to go online and even what you sold off recently....  drool time.

T

[K5UJ]

<<<Of course, the other 99.9% of the time, the real signals ruled.  For me at least, listening to the guys over the years provided incentive to build the 'perfect' station. An unrealistic goal I still strive for today. >>>

Well I think we all do the best we can with what we got, put the dipole up as high as we can even if it's only 50 feet, make all the feedline and wire with low resistance stuff, link coupled tuner, lotsa audio, lotsa density (en den we bring da power grid to its knees wid da juice haw haw haw

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I'll bet the guys here would love to see a listing of the stuff you have that is about to go online and even what you sold off recently.... 

Sorry for the delay in responding, T. Busy with the BA tractor.

I've posted some shots of the current radio room and equipment to be used, so folks are probably sick of seeing it.

The stuff that has gone down the road is another matter. Makes me take a look in the mirror and think 'WTF were you thinking?' Not so much for getting rid of it, but for getting it in the first place. I mean, all that work just to send it down the road later? The big rigs that left include:

- Johnson Viking 'Desk' KW (went to CA)

- BC-610E (went to Maine)

- Wilcox 99A (went to NY)    http://jptronics.org/radios/Military/JANAP161/an.frt/an.frt-type.99a.pdf

- RA-1000 (went to Maine)

- Johnson Viking 'Desk' KW (went to PA)

Also had one of those big-ass GE low band VHF repeaters (included with the 610, had to take it as part of the deal). Ironically, it went to the buyer of the 610. And a 6' homebrew transmitter than was given to Brian W1LYD (then N1HUT) when he was first building up his station. It was loaded with great parts but looked like it was built by Stevie Wonder.

Some will recall most of the gear being listed here, including the RA-1000 with 20 spare 833s and 20 spare 845s. This is the rig I went to Elizabeth City NC to save from the bulldozer, then ended up parting with it when the move became reality. It ended up in Gray, Maine at the QTH of John N1MMD 'Mystery Meat Dinnah'.

Skip K7YOO had a good dissertation here on the Wilcox. That was another interesting rig that is seldom seen. He described my listing by saying "It amazes me how much "round tuit" stuff is starting to see daylight!!"

That's the key. If you're not going to get to it in the near future, send it to someone who (hopefully) will get to it. It lifts a lot of weight (literally and figuratively) off your shoulders and frees you up to focus in the gear you really want to use now. Not sure if I should be pleased with myself for having saved the stuff or ashamed for letting it sit around, but the end result is less stuff here. 

[k4kyv]

If you're not going to get to it in the near future, send it to someone who (hopefully) will get to it.

And, of course, there are the $30,000 KW-1s sitting in somebody's trophy room as museum pieces, probably never to see lighted filaments again.  When the owner goes SK, who knows what will happen when his survivors dispose of the radio "junk" that had cluttered up the house all those years...

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

That is pretty sad, Don. Especially when you consider all but 20 or so of the original 152 have been accounted for and all but a couple of those survive. Mine gets used regularly, between zorch outs, of course.

Of course, the other possibility is that as the trophy collectors kick off, at least a few are bound to surface and become available for short money. Trophy collectors tend to brag and show of regularly, so someone around them will likely have some idea of value. But the users out there who have just had the transmitter around for years either in use or collecting dust, well...that's another matter.

The question is - will anyone be left to pick them up? It's not like amateur radio was ever a large segment of the population.

[K5UJ]

One thing I can safely predict is that the KW-1s ain't gg to get any $30K again.

Anyone else notice that BA gear on eBay lately isn't even meeting the reserve prices?

[K9PNP]

Anyone else notice that BA gear on eBay lately isn't even meeting the reserve prices?

Probably because of the current 'recession' and/or the fact that most of the people in the hobby for the last 20 years don't understand or want to mess with tubes.  May be an 'age' thing, but probably an education and backgound thing.  Add to these the shipping problems and you have a decrease in purchasing.

[K1JJ]

As far as AM commercial gear and boatanchors, looks like the baby boomers may have gotten their fill, and the acccumulation trend has peaked out. Most are complacent with what they have now - I know I am. The next phase is selling some off to lighten the load.

Usually the best stuff goes last, so maybe the rare, high priced, quality AM stuff will hold out a little longer, though this recession/deflation and internet age is like the perfect ham-economic-storm when combined with the generation age peak.

It will eventually get to the point where Valiants and Rangers are selling for $50 each (or the equivalent inflation/deflation adjusted $50) like in the 70's - but still nobody wants them. It must go that way when we OT's die off, cuz who will be there to lug the stuff away? The supply will greatly outstrip the small demand.  Plus, when less AMers are on the air, the remaining ones will start to get bored and go away too. That's what happens to OB's when their friends all die off. They just stop coming around.

Bottom line? The good news:  ENJOY what we have now, cuz these ARE the good old days of AM.   How many days of action, flea markets and ham fun do we have left, anyway?  Party like it's 1999!

T