BC-DX 841 04 Jan 2008 Private Verwendung der Meldun

pattern with a lobe directed toward Cuba would have produced a null to the
NW toward Mexico and most of the western US and another null to the SE
toward Venezuela. Off the back of the array it would have also placed a
huge signal into Honduras which is the country that laid claim to the
island. This is probably the pattern that was used since the installation
was described as "quick and dirty".
From a technical standpoint they would have done a much better job of
covering Cuba by using two towers to produce a cardioid pattern. This
would have put much more power toward all of Cuba and placed a null toward
most of Central America. But that pattern would have placed much more
signal over the US and Mexico.
As it was they were heard pretty much everywhere. To test their
listenership and coverage they announced that they would send a free
ballpoint pen to listeners who wrote in. They were reportedly prepared to
mail out 250 pens. They were apparently besieged with 3,000 letters from
26 countries.
I don't remember ever hearing anything about KSL getting interference from
Radio Swan or it's later incarnation which was called Radio Americas. The
interference was from the Cuban jammer. It was presumed that the jammer's
primary target was Havana and it was suspected that the jammer transmitter
may have been located southeast of the city using a directional antenna
resulting in a huge signal coincidentally aimed right at KSL. I don't
think that I ever heard mention of KSL being an intentional target.
(Patrick Griffith-CO-USA, CBT CBNT CRO, ibid.)
And we end our bulletin of American DX news on a sad note. Word has just
come in that Tom Kneitel, the long time editor of the radio magazine,
"Popular Communications", has died at the age of 75. His wife of 54 years
states that he officially retired in 2004, and that he was fighting a
variety of health issues over the past year. Tom Kneitel is survived by
his wife Judy, and by seven children and ten grandchildren.
(AWR "Wavescan" - DX Program, by Adrian M. Peterson, Aug 27)
Tom Kneitel, W4XAA, better known to hams by his previous call sign K2AES,
died August 22 at age 75. He lived in DeLand, Florida, where he and his
wife Judy had moved in 2004.
At the time of his death, he was editor emeritus of Popular
Communications. Aside from serving as editor of Popular Communications, he
had written for CB Horizons, S9 and Popular Electronics, and was the
author of a number of radio hobbyist books on such subjects as scanning,
CB radio and building electronics projects.
Dick Ross, K2MGA, publisher of CQ Magazine, who had worked with Kneitel on
a number of publishing projects since 1961, told the ARRL he was "one of
the most creative people I've known in my life_.He came up with the name
S9 and created the whole editorial package." Ross added: "His
contributions were enormous. He kind of defined the personal
communications hobby he brought together the whole range of disparate
subcultures if you will it's all hobby radio. He was the one who brought
them together. He saw the fun in the whole thing. He had a way of giving
you a chuckle he had an enormous sense of humor. He was a terrific,
terrific person."
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933, Kneitel first started writing about
the radio hobby in the 1950s, and continued writing until recently. He was
a 2004 inductee into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. He was the
grandson of cartoon pioneer Max Fleischer, whose studio created the Popeye
and Betty Boop cartoons.