"Kim" wrote in message .com...
I sure do wish we could have seen this thread stay alive without all the
trash that got wrapped up in it!

How about another story, then?

Back in the early 1970s I was active in the section and region NTS
nets. CW of course! We handled all sorts of traffic in all sorts of
conditions. Even my modest homebrew setup was effective on 80 meters
EPA and 3RN. Being a regular scheduled NCS and region rep for EPA
while still in high school is an experience I'm gald I didn't miss.

Now of course in such net operations one becomes very familiar with
the other regulars - to the point that all you need is to hear a few
letters of their signal to know who it is. Net members helped each
other in various ways, such as locating inexpensive parts, antenna
parties, etc.

One year I was looking for something different to do on FD, so I asked
around if anybody needed operators. Two hams who weren't that far away
offered to let me join their group. Turned out they were into QRP CW,
back when such operations usually meant homebrew, because the
manufacturers hadn't caught up yet.

So I wound up on the banks of the Schuylkill with "The Schuylkill
River Rats". The four of us put up a simple parallel dipole between
two trees, set up a surplus tent, table and chairs, and ran a pair of
cables over to the battery in someone's car. Hooked up the rig and we
were ready to go.

Now the rig we used was something unique. It was homebrew, of course,
covering 80 and 40 meters. It was a transceiver, with all solid state
devices except for the driver (12AU6) and final (1625) tubes. With a
small external power supply for high voltage, it could run as low as 5
watts for the QRP class or as high as 75 watts for home use. We ran
QRP, of course.

The receiver part was direct-conversion, with a phasing-type system to
eliminate the unwanted sideband. It worked pretty well, particularly
since it only had to deal with a relatively small audio range, since
CW needed only a small audio pass band.

It was built in the chassis of an old early-1930s-vintage National
FB-7 receiver, using only the case, tuning capacitor and dial. That
FB-7 would be worth a lot more today in its original condition, but
back then "old stuff" was all over the place for rock-bottom prices.

We made quite a few QSOs with that setup. IIRC something like 330 QSOs
with just 80/40 QRP CW and the dipole. I learned a lot about rig
design, QRP operating and Field Daying with a small group.

When it was done, taking the setup down was a breeze - we were on our
way home in an hour. I was skeptical about whether the engine in the
battery-supply-car would start, but it turned over and caught first
time. Maybe cars had bigger batteries then, or perhaps it was the old
Dodge Slant 6...

In any event, that started my interest in serious QRP and small-group
FDing.

(fast forward more than three decades)

A few months ago, a local ham gave me a pile of stuff he just wanted
to be rid of. Among the pile were a bunch of old copies of the
magazine "ham radio" (they didn't use capitals - trying to emulate
e.e.cummings or k.d.lang or some such). They were all early issues,
from 1968 to about 1975. I'd never been a subscriber but I had read a
few of them, back in the day.

Once they were properly stored, I pulled out a copy at random to read
- July, 1969. Flipped through it and suddenly got chills - there, on
page 14, was the FD rig we'd used so long ago! Article was by the
leader of our group, Cliff, W3NNL, who had designed and built it. Boy,
did that bring back memories!

73 de Jim, N2EY