"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
Dave Heil wrote:
KØHB wrote:

"Mike Coslo" wrote


Who do ya want - a impatient knob twiddler with a FTDX 9000 and an
antenna farm of (insert your favorite antenna here), or a good capable
contester with say a dipole and an IC-746.



Your example is specious, Mike. Generally the contester who builds a
competition grade station has also invested in building the skills and
techniques to take advantage of the capabilities they have sought in
their station design.

73, de Hans, K0HB


Generally but not always, Hans. Here's an example: Joe Moneybags has
always admired the photos which Hans Brakob takes. He notes that Hans
always uses a top of the line Nikon. Joe sells his Canon and buys the
expensive Nikon. His photos are still not up to the Brakob standard. Joe
fails to realize that the skill of the photographer is more important
than the price or model of the camera. You have to have seen something
similar a dozen times in DXing or contesting.

And that is my basic point. If people want to claim it is specious, then I
guess they mean that the equipment is much more important than the
operators skills.

All you have to do is pump money into the contest station, and assuming
you pump the most money into it, you will win.

Sounds ridiculous to me. Perhaps my with my setup, I should just give up.
I don't stand a chance of even doing well, much less winning, eh?

Or perhaps a person can hone their skills using a modest setup, then move
on to a hot station and start doing very well.

I wonder how many Ops have started at the top?

I think I'll buy an Indy car. If I buy the mostest expensivist one, I'll
surely win all the races, eh?

- Mike KB3EIA -


Your on the right track Mike. Work on your skills. Best way to do that is
to operate at a, shall we say, less than competitive setup. Makes you
appreciate the improvements as they come.

That is why the loss of the Novice license is such a disaster to Amateur
Radio.

We used to have to dig em out of the noise, hand on rx and follow them
up/down the band. Not much for filters, just your ears and brain. But
that's another subject.

Dan/W4NTI

That is why the loss of the Novice license is such a disaster to Amateur
Radio.

All in the name of pushing a mike button there Dan ....pure and simple ....




We used to have to dig em out of the noise, hand on rx and follow them
up/down the band. Not much for filters, just your ears and brain. But
that's another subject.

Dan/W4NTI

Boy Dan that is right ..... did that with the old HA-230 ..... like I said
before ....it drifted more than my uncle coming out of the Legion on a
Saturday night .....

Take care Dan . et al see you on the air for FD ...W3CSL Monessen ARC
.....

garigue wrote:
That is why the loss of the Novice license is such a disaster to Amateur
Radio.


All in the name of pushing a mike button there Dan ....pure and simple ....





We used to have to dig em out of the noise, hand on rx and follow them
up/down the band. Not much for filters, just your ears and brain. But
that's another subject.

Dan/W4NTI


Boy Dan that is right ..... did that with the old HA-230 ..... like I said
before ....it drifted more than my uncle coming out of the Legion on a
Saturday night .....

Take care Dan . et al see you on the air for FD ...W3CSL Monessen ARC
....



And Novices were required to be crystal controlled, which meant that a
Novice might own 1 or 2 crystals, or maybe a rich kid would own 3
crystals. So you first checked to see if the frequency of your crystal
was in use, if not then call CQ, three by three, CQ three times, your
call three times, and that repeated three times. Then you scanned the
band because chances are some other novice answering you would not have
the same crystal frequency you did. As Dan says, one learned to dig em'
out, and the drifty receivers made it even more challenging.

"Cmd Buzz Corey" wrote in message
...
garigue wrote:
That is why the loss of the Novice license is such a disaster to Amateur
Radio.


All in the name of pushing a mike button there Dan ....pure and simple
....





We used to have to dig em out of the noise, hand on rx and follow them
up/down the band. Not much for filters, just your ears and brain. But
that's another subject.

Dan/W4NTI


Boy Dan that is right ..... did that with the old HA-230 ..... like I
said
before ....it drifted more than my uncle coming out of the Legion on a
Saturday night .....

Take care Dan . et al see you on the air for FD ...W3CSL Monessen ARC
....



And Novices were required to be crystal controlled, which meant that a
Novice might own 1 or 2 crystals, or maybe a rich kid would own 3
crystals. So you first checked to see if the frequency of your crystal was
in use, if not then call CQ, three by three, CQ three times, your call
three times, and that repeated three times. Then you scanned the band
because chances are some other novice answering you would not have the
same crystal frequency you did. As Dan says, one learned to dig em' out,
and the drifty receivers made it even more challenging.

Oh yes indeed......remember how you could change the frequency of those
FT-243 rocks? Carefully take them apart and apply a thin layer of pencil
lead. Don't remember....did that raise or lower the freq? Another
technique was to drilll a hole in the face of the rock. Put a metal screw
in it and adjust the tension on the quartz via the spring that was inside.

Ah the good ole days.

Yeah right.

Dan/W4NTI

Oh yes indeed......remember how you could change the frequency of those
FT-243 rocks? Carefully take them apart and apply a thin layer of pencil
lead. Don't remember....did that raise or lower the freq? Another
technique was to drilll a hole in the face of the rock. Put a metal screw
in it and adjust the tension on the quartz via the spring that was inside.

Ah the good ole days.

Yeah right.

Dan/W4NTI


Remember Meshna surplus had I think 4 Xtals for a buck at 7.150 which, by
using some window glass and some toothpaste, one could knock off a few
microns and shift the freq up ....only problem is that only 2 of the 4
worked after the grind ....... and that one I think was out of band ....

Definitely a second on the yeah right .....

73 Tom KI3R

garigue wrote:
Oh yes indeed......remember how you could change the frequency of those
FT-243 rocks? Carefully take them apart and apply a thin layer of pencil
lead. Don't remember....did that raise or lower the freq?

All "suspended" masses have natural frequencies and harmonics thereof.
Add mass and the freq goes down. Remove mass and the freq goes up.

Another
technique was to drilll a hole in the face of the rock. Put a metal screw
in it and adjust the tension on the quartz via the spring that was inside.

Ah the good ole days.

Yeah right.

Dan/W4NTI


Remember Meshna surplus had I think 4 Xtals for a buck at 7.150 which, by
using some window glass and some toothpaste, one could knock off a few
microns and shift the freq up

In these parts us N-Band crawlers lapped our xtal freqs up with Bon-Ami
and lowered 'em by rubbing 'em with sodder. Had pretty good success
rates both ways.

....only problem is that only 2 of the 4
worked after the grind ....... and that one I think was out of band ....

Definitely a second on the yeah right .....

Yeah, but it was an awful lotta fun.


73 Tom KI3R

w3rv

Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Oh yes indeed......remember how you could change the frequency of those
FT-243 rocks? Carefully take them apart and apply a thin layer of pencil
lead. Don't remember....did that raise or lower the freq? Another
technique was to drilll a hole in the face of the rock. Put a metal screw
in it and adjust the tension on the quartz via the spring that was inside.

Ah the good ole days.

Yeah right.

But I'll bet you had a blast, didn't ya?

- Mike KB3EIA -

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
Dan/W4NTI wrote:

Oh yes indeed......remember how you could change the frequency of those
FT-243 rocks? Carefully take them apart and apply a thin layer of pencil
lead. Don't remember....did that raise or lower the freq? Another
technique was to drilll a hole in the face of the rock. Put a metal
screw in it and adjust the tension on the quartz via the spring that was
inside.

Ah the good ole days.

Yeah right.

But I'll bet you had a blast, didn't ya?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Yeah I did.

Dan/W4NTI