K2AS Ham Radio

In recent months, I have enjoyed working on some vintage ham radio gear. Three Hammarlund receivers, a Heathkit shortwave, Eico VFO, and my homebrew novice transmitter. I have used them all on the air (except Heath rcvr). I guess my efforts would be classified as minor refurbishment, rather than restorations. I have joined the Novice Rig Roundup Group , and though I haven’t taken part in any activities as of yet, I plan to, as well as some Straight Key events. Though I enjoy operating my homebrew rig and Hammarlund receivers, in 1971, my ideal novice station would have been a Drake 2C receiver and a Drake 2-NT transmitter. I saw them at Rochester Radio when I was buying parts for my transmitter and various antenna and shack accessories. I did not ask my Dad if he would buy the Drake pair, as I knew that would be stretching my luck. For novice rigs, they were not cheap. So my used Hammarlund and homebrew rig would have to do. For some reason, 52 years later, I had a hankeri...

Many things in life take precedence over ham radio. But I’m not sure how many more sunspot maximums I will see, so I am trying to get in a good amount of operating while I can. Cycle 25 may not have peaked yet, theoretically it will in 2024-25. It is pretty darn good right now. I believe it has already beat the last couple of solar maximums. 20 meters has been open at night lately, still going strong when I’m not. 17 and 15 meters has also had activity (FT8) past my bedtime (midnight or so). Also, while summertime may not be the most popular time to be on the radio, the grey line is optimum for certain parts of the world, like central Asia around our sunset times. My last 9 contacts have been: Uzbekistan – FT8 (new for me) Kyrgyzstan – CW (new for me) Sweden – FT8 Germany – FT8 Kyrgyzstan – FT8 Georgia (the country) – FT8 Pakistan – FT8 (new for me) Australia – FT8 Hong Kong – FT8 (new for me) All worked with a wir...

I did some operating in the ARRL DX Phone Contest this past March. A few hours both on Saturday and Sunday. I did use my Ameritron AL-800 amp for a good part of it (600 Watts PEP), and my only antennas were a DX Commander for 40-10 (1/4 wave vertical) and a EFHW for 80 meters. I only did search and pounce, no CQ-ing. See my post about it back in March here . I thought since it was the most effort I had ever put into a DX contest, I would submit my scores, a first for me. With somewhere around 300 contacts and 137,256 points, it seemed respectable. Pretty sure i operated less than a quarter of the contest period. Even with that, after a while I just kept hearing stations I had already worked. Since QST doesn’t publish complete scores anymore in the printed magazine, I had to go to their online contest portal to see my results. They are still listed as RAW scores, not sure why as some scores published in QST already. For my category (single operator, high power) this is how...

You probably thought that I bought a fancy Begali paddle. Actually, what I got was a Begali straight key, the Camelback. Though fancier than my standard Nye-Viking rectangular, and my Chinese military reproduction, it is one of the most affordable Begali keys. The base is rather plain, but heavy, phosphatized cast iron. Just a flat black color, but the important bits are gold plated. Still, it is an upgrade visually from what I have. Begali was a pleasure to order with. They ask you to fill out a contact form or email them with inquires of what you are interested in. They have quite a number of products and likely produce in batches and need to check supply and maybe schedules. I was looking at either the Camelback or Spark. They had the Camelback in stock in the USA (Nils W8IJN), so I ordered that. The Spark model has an unusually shaped base, which I wasn’t sure if I liked it, so easy decision. It showed up at my door 3 days later. Very simple setup, just adjustments ...

This is interesting, though somewhat weird Army film on Morse Code. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waIFtVodHHM

Many older hams were forced to learn CW as a requirement to be licensed. Though there are many reasons why it is no longer required, it is still a popular mode used by many hams. Hams who were not required to learn CW are taking it up, and enjoying it because it can be quite fun and challenging. But many hams who decide to try and learn CW, often tend to gradually give up, for various reasons. Certainly the motivation factor is lower if not required to pass a Morse code sending and receiving test. Several factors are discussed in this video . Before I discuss how I would learn it today if I wanted to operate CW, I’ll talk about how I actually did it. In the summer of 1971, I was committed to getting a ham radio license. I needed to learn the code. I figured I need 4 things: A radio capable of receiving CW A code practice oscillator A CW key A book about learning CW This was 1971, so there weren’t many other ways. I suppose maybe cassette tapes or 33 rpm vinyl records ...