Gift to

fro m p age 12
LOOKING WEST
o
swer, the same answer we used
to protect the 220·MHz band:
Use it ! Keep six mete rs alive
with activity t he sa me way 220 is
th ese da ys. What about equ ipment?
Except for some highpriced
mu lti-mode transceivers,
there is little around, and yo u do
not want to front a bundle of
green sta mps fo r a band that
may not payoff in co ntacts.
Well, I am wi lli ng to bet th at
many of yo u have a remnant of
the old days lying in the c lose t
or ce llar. Maybe it 's an old Gonset
I, II, III, or IV. Perhaps a vintage
Clegg sse r, 66er, or Po lycomm
6. How abou t a venerable
Bent on Harbor Lunch Box? Dig
it out, pl ug it in, and see if it still
works. I'll bet it does. What
about an antenna? Well , a simple
dipo le is more th an adequate
fo r local work. " But AM is
dead . Nobody uses it anymore."
True. AM on VHF is dead, but only
becau se mo st of tho se who
used to operate 6-meter AM
went to 2-meter FM and deserte
d 6 meters ent irely. Wh ile
AM would not be we lcome these
days on most ba nds, six is definit
ely th e exception to the rule.
Why? Because there is a lot of
spectrum and very little ut ili zati
on above 50.25. Most six-meter
SSB ent husiasts han g aro und
50.110 o r thereabouts. Stay
above 50.25 and you wo n't be
bot herin g a soul. If enough of
you di g out the se relics of an era
gone by and make use of them,
you ca n literally have you r own
privat e cha nnels to use as yo u
see fit. Your expense? Tha t of a
few feet of coax , so me zip co rd,
and a few hours of work.
"But I don't want to go on AM .
It's so old-fashioned." True, AM
is ou t-dated by today's st andards,
but most o ld tube-type
AM rigs can be easi ly converted
for FM use. The sim plest way is
to use the existing AM modu ­
lator as an FM modulator by reco
nnec ting it to modu late the
tr ansmit osc illato r. Careful .
cut th e gain co ntro l dow n it
does not take very much audio
to get eno ug h deviatio n fo r
plu s/mi nus 5 kHz. Most cryst al
man ufact urers can supply a
tr ansmit rock for 52.525 which is
the place most FMers on 6 meters
monitor. As far as th e receiver
goe s, you can simp ly
slope detect or co nvert the receiver
to FM operat ion wi th the
add iti on of a si mpl e integrated
ci rcuit qu ad detector mounted
on a small PC board. Many quad
detecto r c hi ps have bu ilt-in
squelch and limiting.
Th ink such a conve rsion cannot
be done? My new s-meter
FM rig is nothing but a 1960s
Lafa yett e HE-45B wit h a qu ad
detect o r powered wit h vol tage
st olen from the cathode of the
aud io outpu t/modu lat or tube,
wit h th e receive r osc illato r now
crystal controlled. To FM the
tr ansm itter, I s im ply reco n­
nected the modu lator t o supply
mod ulated B plus to the origi nal
crystal oscillat or and tied the
2E26 fina l plate directl y to the
unm odu lated B supply. r picked
up 4 ext ra Watts o ut in th e bargain.
Audio report s are good,
and th ose I a s o seem shocked
when I tell th em what I am running.
Even better, this unit looks
nicer than some old boat anchor,
espe cia lly sitt ing on my desk.
The antenna is a simple coax ial
verti cal made from a lengt h of
RG-59/U. Nothing exotic, and a
total investme nt of under $14,
incl uding crystals. Not sta te of
the art , but more tha n sufficient.
I also have a vintage Polycomm
6 which I restored to perf ect
op erat ing conditio n and left
unmodified fo r other uses. Thus
far I have had about a half dozen
AM asos si nce ret urni ng to the
band . The ant enna on the Polyco
mm is also a dipole, but this
o ne a t raditional ho rizontal
centerfed type.
Six meters seems dead because
most people w ho operat e
the band listen rather than talk.
They're waiting for th e other guy
to call ca. Well, if everyone
wait s, the re will be very few
asos, wo n't there? It's up to
peo ple like you and me to wake
up the ba nd. Old equipment
works, is plentiful, and is Inexpensive.
Even wit h the most rudimenta
ry eq uip ment, alq ni f­
icant OX is po ssib le during spo r­
adic E and F2 openings. Wo rking
extended groundwave, mete
or scatter, tropo, and the like
take s far more exotic equipment.
But you wo uld be amazed
at what can be worked with the
oldies but goodi es. On July 25th ,
1961, using a Clegg aaer 7-Watt
AM transceiver and an indoor dipole,
I QSOed KP4AXC in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, from Brooklyn,
New York. On May 19th,
1965, wh ile st ill in Brook lyn, I
csoee WA8 BTR in Cinci nnati ,
Oh io. He was running a Halli ­
crafters HT-40/SX·140 co mbo
and I was using the same HE-45
Lafayett e rig that has now become
an FM bas e station. My
.antenna at the ti me was a halo
at op a e-storv apartment hou se.
Or how abo ut 5 1. Lou is, Mis ­
souri, on May 30th, 1961? I
Osoed W'lJrN KG using my indoor
di pole and a 15-Watl homebrew
transmitter. Shall I go on?
In all, so me 42 sta tes plus Puerto
Rico worked and 38 confi
rmed prior to my going to SSB
in the late 6Os_ It can be don e,
and I have th e aSL ca rds to
prove it. Many of you reading
this probably do, too. Those
we re great days. Six-meter OXers
cooperat ed with o ne another,
rag chew ing in a OX round
table was co mmon when th e
band was open , and there were
none of those time-out timers,
ja mmers, or po liticians to con ­
cern oneself abo ut . If yo u are as
tired of the latter as I am and
happen to have a relic of th at era
lying around , then why not fire it
up? You migh t not hear mu ch at
first, but try calli ng a ca. Who
knows, if enoug h of us do this,
we co uld repopulate the band
and then move it towa rd bigger
and better things. Mo st im portant
of all , we can secure this
band from potential invasion by
ill egals. If enou gh of us are
there, they are not going to try
anything. But if we leave the
band vaca nt awa iting furt her
FM deregulati on for expanded
repeat er operation, we are invit
ing di sas ter . CU on 6. _.as we
used to say . .. AM , FM, or SSB.
One final note to those of yo u
w ho think that ITF is playing
alarmi st and w ho think that six
mete rs will always be safe because
of th e TVI prob lem. In toda
y's day and age, there is no
suc h thi ng as safe amateur ·
spectrum. Every kHz has a spec
ific do llar va lue. There are
th ose wh o look upon the spectrum
devot ed to amateu r radio
as pot entia l incom e if the y ca n
stea l it from us. At this mom ent,
there is no more vulnerable amateur
spectrum than that which
lies bet ween 50 and 54 MHz. It is
in the same pos it ion that 220
was some 5 years ago . I fi rmly
b elieve that w e have two
c hoices. Eit her we utilize th is
spectrum or it will be lost t o another
service. " Six meters- Use
It or Lose It "
JAMMER LOSES LICENSE
DEPARTMENT
In late 1978, there appeared
o n the two-me ter amateur band
in Los Ang eles a rather fou l­
mo uth ed individ ual usi ng a
phoney callsign. Usi ng the call
W6 J AM, this in dividual tormented
the users of the then
W R6ABN repeater for ma ny
month s. During this time, many
letters were sent to the FCC and
other go vernment agen cies in
an attempt to obta in so me form
of relief from this menace, but in
the end it was his peers who loca
ted him . Unfortu natel y ,
W6JAM was found to be a Ii·
c e nsed a m a teu r ope ra to r
na med Sco tt Lookho lder, w hose
real call sig n wa s W B6LHB.
Lookho lde r w as eve nt ua l ly
brought to tr ial, g iven a year's
sus pended sent ence, and fined.
All this was reported here in LW
a nd in o ther amat eur publicati
on s.
In September of 1979, afte r an
. Inord inat e amo unt of pressure
fro m th e amateur co mmunity,
th e Commlsssion acte d to suspend
Lookholder's license.They
also issued a Show Cause Order .
as to why his license sho uld not
be revoked. In my possession is
a copy of th e fi nal Revocat io n
and Suspension Orde r issued
aga inst Lo ok hol der o n May
16th, 1980, wi th an eff ec tive da te
of Jun e 16th , 1980. Fro m it I have
learned many th ings, includ ing
the fact that Lookho lder never
responded to the Show Cause
Order.
What I fo und most interesting
, however, we re the "Conclusions
of Law" upon w hic h the
revocati on orde r was based. I
got man y cl ues into the thinki ng
of th e FCC, as well as a hi nt as
to how similar ma tt ers might be
hand led by them in the future.
After noting tha t Lookholder
had been co nvicted in a Cou rt of
Law for rep eated violations
under 47 U.S.C_502, and sta ti ng
that they, the Commissio n, had
a mandat e to regulate radio
co mmunica tio ns based upo n
the Communications Act itself,
th ey went on to cite so me rath er
interesti ng legal interpretations
that by this order have become
possib le legal precedent.
240 73 Magazine. Oct ober, 1980