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"Y3?* S* **x$xzr*&rz {s{ *x**r*rz* r;xxzy*€**** -,iIr.?lr -t'"."- -'-l* -* ^."-,",3 *.^)-* *!* l4tqr t ft?rtq.r;%: :1i..-,iil{nii,j "Ai 1-;1,:1.1., ;iijL r:lJ;; r? yr*rr*, ** f9x* *s"{ey'f,r*c?: g*a&}r'r}t r*r?*it
: :l .': li .:r l: ' l..r i. I i ir:, mercial power for the rest of the time. The generator repair cost me $300, but it has run flawlessly ever since, including the se(ond year at Fred's. My goal was simple: 200 contacts minimum in the 10O-watt class. The first year, on commercial power, I did close to 300 contacts, the second year just over my 200 minimum. Operation was relatively low key, I wasn't trying to win. My concentration was frequently broken by invasion from Fred's two young children, necessitating an occasional kid break " Fred's wife, Linda, supplied meals. One year I went on a nostalgic FD with lohn Lindholm, W1XX, at Dennis Hill, just the two of us, using my 1200-watt generator and lohn's 500-watt Honda generator. We operated the full 24 hours from my trailer, John doing the antenna work, most of the setting up and all of the phone operating. In my late 70's, I was in a pre-operative stage for quintuple open-heart surgery. I felt guilty at letting John do most of the work and was a little surprised when a few years later he proposed we do lt again. This time I declined, not feeling up to it. AIso during this period (80 s and early 90's) lattended several FD s with the Newington (NARL) group at Churchill Park in Newington, with my trusty Co;rchmen trailer and 1200-watt generator. I was amused to be considered NARL's top CW operator (of a total of 20 or more who participated), whereas I had been low on the totem pole among the CWA crew. Later, NARL moved its FD to a site atop Cedar Mountain adjacent to the former state TB sanitarium which had been transformed mostly into state offices of one kind or another. The area we occupied consisted of former residences of the medical staff of the hospital, now also mostly converted to offices or used for storage. The NARL FD operations bore little resemblance to the CWA FD s. The atmosphere was more relaxed, non-competitive, with considerable family participation. I kept telling myself that this was a better type of FD operation than CWA s hightension competitive endeavor, but in truth I mrssed the close camaraderie of the CWA that the competitive spirit had engendered and often wished that more of it existed in NARL. I still participate to a very minor extent in NARL Field Day operation. Last June (2000) I operated rn a tent with an assistant who kept the computer log for me, made about 50 contacts. This year l'll probably do the same or maybe, for the first time since 1946, nol participate at all. Many things that happened on FD are quite amusing to remember. One year at Dennis Hill, when Jay Pilbin was the ranger, he volunteered to bring us fresh water from his house, QCWA Journal . Winter 2aa-7 'w\ ,rv,qcwa,org because the water line up to the lodge had been turned off . He brought the water in his plckup in brand new sterilized Gl cans, 50 gallons at a time, keeping us so well supplied with fresh water that at any given time several full cans were sitting unused. One of our members, Harold McKean, W1CEG, was suffering from a head cold. In passing a partially-used Glcan of water, thinkrng it was a trash can, he lifted the lid and threw in a used Kleenex tissue. Several dippings of the water had been used before someone found a piece of tissue floating around in his coffee. When the source of the tissue was revealed, coffee cups clanked all around. No one but McKean thought the incident was amusing as the can of thus-polluted water was unceremoniously dumped and other cans thoroughly inspected. Another year, at Churchill Park with NARL, I was operating from my trailer in the parking area ad]acent to the athletic field where a softball game was in progress when it started to rain hard. The awning was down, so the softball players gathered under it to take shelter until the raln passed, lwas annoyed at the loud babble of conversation but made no protest until one of them, apparently unable to make himself heard over the noise of the generator, reached over and switched it off. I came storming out demanding to know who turned the generator off, One very large softball player confessed, saying he didn t see any sense in running it in broad daylight, whereupon I told him that it was none of his business and they were trespassing. "Oh, you want it on?" he asked. He lifted the 100-pound machine with one hand, pulled the starting rope with the other, then set it down. "There you go.' I decided not to give him further argument. I have all the records of past CWA Field Days in my possessron, a couple of large boxfuls. Going through them will probably recall many other FD stories and incidents. lf so, I ll include them in the appendlxes to this narrative. Hiqh Speed Code Practice Being an accomplished operator of "Morse" code, I have always feLt that more attention should be paid to grving higherspeed operators more practice, in the same way that W1AW, since i940, has provided code practice at speeds up to 35 WPM. I fully understood why the League did not provide such a service: the number of amateurs interested in speeds above 35 WPM was a very small minority. In fact, there was some talk that speeds over 20 WPM should be eliminated from the daily WlAW sessions, this being the highest speed required for the highest grade of amateur license Some time in 1957 | was entertaining a couple of MARS visitors from Washington. I don't remember their names or whether they were Air Force or Army MARS, but when I was showing them WIAW I especially pointed out the new McElroy perforator and sending machine we had acquired after the 1953 fire. I said lwished I had something like this for my own personal use. They looked at each other and grinned. "shallwe let him have it?" one of them asked the other."Why not? " the other replied. "What would you do with it if you had one?" lwas asked. lreplied that lwould start a high-speed code practice program to supplement the WlAW code practice. Whereupon, they took me out to their car, opened the 47
Page 1 and 2: 1 t (' (.,1,t'-'l .,'-. / / J'! -Jd
Page 3 and 4: ;nu.ir:i:!riiti::,'::!:t:rr:lijr::r
Page 5 and 6: Winter 2OO7 Greetings membersl lt's
Page 7 and 8: Winter 2007 GENERAT Chuck Walbridge
Page 9 and 10: The Foundation lor Amateur Radio, l
Page 11 and 12: -.1:.r.r ..:.:.r'.,rr,:r:-raa::r.ra
Page 13 and 14: Allison Dryer, KDSIVO Deanna Tucker
Page 15 and 16: position. tn this context, good ama
Page 17 and 18: QCWA Journa o Winter 2aa7 . w\ \ /,
Page 19 and 20: Choprer lO, Michigqn (Ml) As 2OO7 d
Page 21 and 22: Dallas Chapter 41 member Ken Norvel
Page 23 and 24: Bob discussed the modestly priced K
Page 25 and 26: FLoyd Martin seated Bill Leavitt la
Page 27 and 28: .:.: not knowing onyone there. I mu
Page 29 and 30: feei. The poylood contoined hod o c
Page 31 and 32: .3t1, t@ ?8ry K. ' -'aa., :*;t{t ;i
Page 33 and 34: ls their permonent home now, trovel
Page 35 and 36: Three new members, Bill Becks, WASW
Page 37 and 38: Your Antenna RF and Safety Ground _
Page 39 and 40: ligure 2 Antenna System .. Simple G
Page 41 and 42: Figure 4 Single Point Grornd Protec
Page 43 and 44: SO CALIF CW SUN FL SSB SAT OCWA SSB
Page 45 and 46: New Members continued Bt24t2A07 812
Page 47: ,rt3 a- ,*r, ?, *.8 **..*-*,. t3, >
Page 51 and 52: '::. ::1' Back home, lfinally got t
Page 53 and 54: December of 1978, was intended to l
Page 55 and 56: Your Officlal QCtllrA Badge DON JO+
Page 57 and 58: ' JOIN THE AWA ANTlOUE WIRELESS ASS
Page 59 and 60: I CERTIFICATES Membership Certifica

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