Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party Dec 1&2 and 8&9 - Any One Planning?

[W1UJR]

Knowing that many of us here are both AWA members and also really, really, really old radio fans, I'm
wondering who else might be planning on joining in?

Info at http://www.antiquewireless.org/otb/awanews.htm or just ask away.


73 Bruce W1UJR


Details follow:

The Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party Dec 1&2 and 8&9

Member or not, old time rig or not, pse call participating stations
with a sig report. For example: Ur RST 452 RAC.

Objective: Work as many AWA members as possible using pre-1930
transmitters. Contact exchange consists of: RST, Name, QTH (State or
Province such as ME, CA or BC), last two digits of the year of the
transmitters design or publication, type of transmitter (such as
Hartley, TNT, TPTG, MOPA & Colpitts), and power INPUT.

Dates and Times: Saturday December 1 through Sunday Dec. 2, and
Saturday Dec. 8 through Sunday Dec 9. Starts at 2300Z (6:00 PM EST)
Saturday night and finishes at 2300Z (6:00 PM EST) Sunday night both
weekends.

Rules: Transmitters must be or have a 1929 or earlier self-excited
self-controlled oscillator. Tubes must have been available during or
before 1929. Participants are encouraged but not required to use
straight keys. Please work any AWA member, but the contact will only
count for scoring if made with another 1929 or earlier station.

Input Power: Transmitters are limited to a power INPUT of 10 watts
or less. However, to help make East-West contacts, power may be
increased to 20 watts INPUT between the hours of 0500Z (12 Midnight
EST) and 1300Z (8 AM EST).

Frequencies: The QSO Party operates on both the 80 meter and 40
meter CW bands. The QSO Party tends to operate around 3550 to 3580
Kc.s and 7030 to 7060 Kc.s.

Logs: AWA members mail your log to: Scott Freeberg WA9WFA, 327
Wildwood Avenue, White Bear Lake MN 55110 USA. If you wish to send a
log via e-mail, please write to: wa9wfa at comcast dot net
requesting either a PDF or Microsoft WORD format. Please send in your
log by January 15th.

[Carl WA1KPD]

I rejoined about a week ago.
I plan to log sometime on the air with the TGTP rig

[WU2D]

I am looking forward to it!

I will be on with a Meissner on 80M running a UX-201A for a while and then I will switch over to old reliable, the Aero TPTG which is a 245. For 40M I will run the MOPA which is a 27 Collpitts into a Neutralized 45.

The 80M TPTG is the same as last year but the 40M MOPA got a new feed system from the oscillator. I went from simple cap coupling off the tank to the grid of the final to a center tapped coil arrangement that sits inside the OSC tank (like an ARC-5). This increased the efficiency and allowed excellent grid neutralization. It was a worthwhile improvement. 

73's Mike Wu2D

[W1UJR]

Pretty rig Carl, nothing like those beehive insulators and that green DSS wire!

Mike, I hope that I have the pleasure of working you as well.
By the way, what is the black rack unit on the top?
It almost looks like an transmatch with metering for each leg of the balanced line?

At W1UJR it's a Hartley with a single 210 tube, based on a 1928 Ross Hull design.
http://www.w1ujr.net/Overhauling%20the%20Transmitter%20for%201929.pdf.


73 Bruce W1UJR

[w1zb]

I plan to be in the contest with my TNT transmitter which I put together over the Thanksgiving weekend. It uses a type 45 tube running 7 watts input power.
Jerry W1ZB

[Carl WA1KPD]

Very nice. What is the Hallicrafters radio next to it?

[w1zb]

The SX-25 is the receiver I plan to use in the contest.

[kf6pqt]

What year did the 811 come out? The 811a? would anybody pay attention to the difference?

[k4kyv]

I think about 1937 or 38.  Unless you are running them right at the maximum, I don't think there would be much difference.  Not sure if the A  version came out before the War or not.  I could check my RCA tube handbooks with the ring bound data sheets.  Those are dated.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

I'd have to look at my old QST's, but late 30's maybe 1940. The 811 and 811A are the same tube except the plate has fins for extra dissipation (45 vs 65 watts).

Neither the 811 or 811A would be eligible for the 1929 QSO Pharty.

What year did the 811 come out? The 811a? would anybody pay attention to the difference?

[WU2D]

But a 211 might. I think that thing came out in 1929!

That black thing up top is my TPTG for 80M - see pics. This transmitter is technically a radiophone but I have not added the Hiesing modulator. Also it is supposed to run a 210 not a 45.

Lots of knobs and meters and you need them! or you will sound like like a quartet of flute players underwater...

Mike WU2D

[W3FJJ]

This is a fun event, I'll be on with my 45 hartley.  Im hoping to get
a National SW-5 Receiver going with it...
CU on the airwaves. Chirp... Chirp....   Chuck-W3FJJ



 

[kf6pqt]

Hmmm, what else is in the junkbox... What about a type 10? Thats pre 1929, correct?

Thanks,
Jason kf6pqt

[Carl WA1KPD]

Hmmm, what else is in the junkbox... What about a type 10? Thats pre 1929, correct?

Thanks,
Jason kf6pqt

01A
45
46

[WU2D]

Well the first weekend is in the bag. Conditions were pretty soft Saturday night for these peanut whistles. I worked W5MO in TX did hear W7LNG in OR running his Hartley with a couple of Watts at 7:30 PM but did not get a shot at working him! That means the band was LONG. 

It perked up Saturday morning on 80M and 40M was actually working through noon. Very few station were operating on 40M. Where are all of the 40M stations? Finally some new stations came up at the end of the day and I did work a few locals in New England.

Strangely Big Guns Not Heard: W2ZM, K1TG, K2LP, WA4IAM, KB0MM, K3DZ, K1GDH, K2KK, N9OO, NV1X, KB2PLW, W1FPZ, VA3AWA, W1UJR

The experimental 80M transmitter, the Meissner, with 1 Watt out worked just as well as the 3 Watt out TPTG I think because of the buzzing sound that it makes.

73's Mike WU2D
 

[WU2D]

Well the AWA 1929 QSO Party 2007 is now history.

This was a blast - I had a great time with the contest and my station worked great even if the op made a few mistakes like forgetting to check that power was actually escaping into the coax.

I now have three years of data and I can report that participation was down this year which made it even tougher than the already tough propagation.

40M participation was way down.

I have not totaled my log but it would be lucky if I hit the the 50's. I did 70 the first year I participated in 2005 and 56 last year.

Mike WU2D

[NE1S]

History, indeed.

I made a total of 27 QSOs - last year the total was around 32, IIRC. 21 were on 80M, 6 on 40M. It was great to hear and work W1ZB (for the 1st time, this year), WU2D, W3FJJ, who have all posted above. As usual I was running the TNT using PP 45s on 80M, and a Hartley using a type 10 (which, BTW, IS 1929-legal, Jason) on 40M.

Unfortunately I never heard WA1KPD.

The second weekend it's a real challenge to find stations that aren't already in the log.

-Larry/NE1S

[W1UJR]

Sorry I missed you guys, I didn't have a 40 meter rig, but missed 75 as well.
Unfortunately 1UJR was off air and on pain killer meds from the previous Sunday until yesterday.

Seems I had developed a cracked tooth, #31 as the dental professionals like to say.
Health care being what it is, and after visiting no less than one dentist, two endo guys, two oral surgeons, and a phone and image consult with another in Ohio, an extraction was ordered.
Rear lower molar, so not bad from a cosmetic viewpoint, but will have to get  it fixed if I am going to continue the modeling career. 
Later developed an infection from a bone chip left in the socket, taken care of last night with another visit to the oral surgeon.
I hope to be fully functional by this weekend.

In the meantime, the best I could do was lay on the couch, warmed by a roaring fire in the wood-stove, irrigate my wounded tooth with water, and try to stay conscious, I'd given up on coherent days ago.
Worse two weeks of my life in recall.

On the plus side, I was very heartened by the kind phone calls and inquires good folks made on my behalf. Thanks!
Even Walt Maxwell W2DU, paid me the honor of a phone call on Sunday evening! (abet about a book review and things of a technical bent, but still, to speak with Walt Maxwell, wow!)
Yet, most perversely, I am now somewhat inundated with sweet things which do nothing good for recent dental work. 


On a more pleasant note, did anyone get an OO cards or interesting reports?
I've got to imagine that someone out there must have been amused, or perhaps horrified, by the notes.
Also, any digital audio files to listen to?