KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Operating Notes: Heathkits on the air, 1929 rig, DX QRM

Posted: 21 Dec 2020 01:35 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email

Heathkits still on the air
VE3AIHs vintage Heathkit station.

About a week ago, I worked KA7U, who was operating a set of Heathkit Twins,
a combination of the SB-300 receiver and the SB-400 transmitter. It sounded
pretty good, too!

My very next contact was with VE3AIA. He was running the DX-60B transmitter
(with HG-10 VFO) and an HR-10 receiver, shown at right.

These old Heathkits keep plugging along. Maybe one day Ill get my HW-101
back on the air.
Chirp, chirp chirp

On Saturday, I heard a guy calling CQ whose signal had some serious chirp.
As you can see from the screenshot at right, instead of a nice straight
display on the waterfall, his transmit frequency varied by several hundred
Hz.

At first, I wasnt going to work him, but I thought that he might want to
know about his signal, so I gave him a call. As it turns out, he was using
a homebrew transmitter that consisted of a couple of Type 27 tubes. The
circuit was basically a Hartley oscillator, with the two tubes connected in
parallel for increased power output. My contact was guessing that he was
running about 5 W output.

I hope he does get his chirp problem under control, but he should get
points for homebrewing the thing in the first place, shouldnt he?
DX QRM

Yesterday, I called CQ on 7028 kHz, a fellow returned my call, and we
proceeded to have a chat. Shortly after, an LZ1 station pops up on
frequency and begins to call CQ himself. No problem, my friend says, and
suggests we QSY to 7024 kHz.

So, we get down there and start chatting again, when another DX station
pops up on frequency and starts calling CQ, completely oblivious to our
complaints that the frequency was already in use. It was about time to end
the contact, anyway, and weve since corresponded by email, but it was a
little annoying. I guess, though, that I should be glad that propagation
was good enough to hear the DX stations at all.



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