Thanks to those who replied with comments about part one of this series about QSL cards. The consensus seems to be that broadcast stations initiated the practice of sending post cards that hams eventually emulated. That’s a good enough explanation for me, though I prefer to believe it was more magical than that. What got me thinking about all this was coming across a lonely box in the attic that contained stacks of old QSL cards. These go all the way back for me…

I was licensed in 1977 near the end of my high school days. It took me a few months to assemble a Heath HW-16 and get it on the air. My Novice call was WD9GCT, an abomination for a CW operator. When I upgraded to General I asked the FCC to issue me a new call, anything would be better, and they handed me N9AVG out of the pool, a big improvement. I held that call for 25 years until a crazy notion about a shorter call sign that started with a “K” stirred and I picked up the vanity call KE9V which I’ve now held for more than 20 years.

The very first QSL card I ever received was from WB4AKY of Tampa, Florida confirming our 15 meter CW chat on August 4, 1977. This was during the summer I graduated high school and just before I was off to college. Several of the cards received during this period included “good luck in college” notes so I guess that transition loomed large enough in my head that I was pounding brass about it with random strangers. I have about a hundred cards from my Novice days and these are a historic treasure for me and indicate what would lie ahead.

After upgrading to General I began exploring the world of QRP and nearly all of the QSLs received during that period were for low-power contacts. Many more than I remembered were apparently of the two-watt variety. All small kits, a dozen or more of them prior to the Elecraft era.

Some of my favorites include one from W6ZH/QRP “Pete” Herbert Hoover, III. Pete was a prolific low-power enthusiast using his K2 (#0043) who also happened to be the grandson of President Herbert Hoover. Another from the father of the modern QRP movement, Ade Weiss, W0RSP/QRP who was running a home-brew concoction when I snagged him. Another from Ken, N2CQ a legend. My first QSL card for a 2x2 QRP contact with AL7FS in Alaska and KH6B in Hawaii remain special to me too.

Then there was this improvised, but priceless “card” from K7MOS in Billings, Montana (back). Charles was 70 at the time and had been using CW since 1953 - 49 years of CW only for this gentleman!

Another somewhat less traditional, letter and card confirmation came from my friend Carter Craigie, N3AO who only recently became a Silent Key. Back in 2002 he was on the Appalachian Trail when his few watts of RF tickled my galena.

There are so many others, all treasures that persuade me that QSL cards are much more than just confirmation of a contact, they’re historical markers in the slipstream of our radio lives. Electronic confirmations, like LoTW and others, are about as boring as watching paint dry. It’s only become preferable due to ever increasing postage costs that has made traditional QSLing unaffordable.

This needs to be remedied…

Just a few years after CW displaced King ‘spark’ as the radio amateur’s mode of choice, Mac Anderson began to build his first radio station. Having just turned 15 years of age money was tight and it wasn’t easy collecting the parts required for such an endeavor, but he finally did it. After an agonizing period of study and assembly, his station in the barn attic was ready for testing. He clamped the old cans on his head, powered the thing to life, and began tuning around. To his amazement he heard other stations in QSO. Eureka! A few days later came time to test the transmitter. With a shaky hand he called CQ and signed with his call sign. No one was more surprised then he when suddenly, his own call sign was coming back to him through his makeshift headset. He let out such a yell that his mother nearly had a heart attack and ran to the barn to see what had happened.

The other station was located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota and the operator’s name was Fred. They chatted for a brief moment until Mac’s Mom burst into the chilly radio shack and demanded to know the reason for the yelling. He tried to explain to her that he was communicating, wirelessly, with another radio experimenter nearly 600 miles away. She didn’t believe him. He took the headphones off his own head and put one of them to her ear as he tapped out a quick message and sure enough, Fred came right back. She didn’t look impressed, she looked annoyed and demanded he shut things down for the night and come into the house.

They discussed the incident over dinner as he tried, to no avail, no explain what had happened and how amazing this truly was. She was adamant that all she heard were ‘beeps’ in the headset, certainly nothing that could be understood by humans. Basically, she told him he was spending too much time in the barn in a way that let him know she thought he might be crazy. Sleep didn’t come easy that night as he agonized over how he could prove to his Mom that he really did communicate with someone in another state, via wireless that he had built with his own two hands.

His outlook changed over night as he dreamed up the solution to this situation. He got a postcard and wrote all of the details of his QSO with Fred on the card. He explained his station as best he could in the limited space. And he asked Fred if he wouldn’t do something similar and return the card to him by post.

A few days later, the card arrived and Mac ran with it to his Mom to show her. Upon seeing it, she nearly fainted. There it was, in black and white, and with a Minnesota postmark no less, proof that her boy was a wireless operator.

That’s the story of how QSL cards entered the world of radio. Except that it isn’t. I made the whole thing up. I don’t know how or why the tradition of trading QSL cards became a “thing” in amateur radio, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t happen something like that. Young folks, flushed with excitement from their radio conquests, running into those who didn’t know Morse code and didn’t believe what they were being told, it was all simply too amazing.

The QSL card became “proof” that a distant contact had indeed been made. The timeline for my fiction pre-dates any sort of awards or competition requiring a QSL card so why did hams take this up prior to DXCC, etc.? I believe that in the beginning these were just for fun and to prove to the doubters they weren’t just talking to themselves and concocting stories about their wireless set. I’m also willing to bet that over time these cards became more artistic as a means to coax others to return the favor. Speculation on my part, but it makes some sense.

Have a better story about how this unusual practice began? Drop me a note as we continue to discuss QSLing this week.

It’s been raining all morning, nice and gentle, so far. Made sleeping-in an extra hour too easy. The parched lawn is soaking every bit of it up right now. I’ve got a couple of windows open here in the shack and the sound of falling rain is better than music to my ears. While writing this I received a text message from my son who is taking one his daughters to school this morning that said, “People who cut in school drop off line deserve the death penalty” so I have an idea how his morning is going and I’m grateful to be home, near the coffee pot, with no particular place to go.

When I received shipping confirmation for the new Elecraft K4 a few days ago I started reconfiguring the shack as it will arrive on Monday. The first thing was to remove all the big iron to make way for the new equipment. While waiting, I’ve put the KX3 into service and have powered it these last few days with a battery. I logged more than thirty POTA activators using QRP CW this week. I’m up to 745 unique parks worked on my way to a thousand which is where I’ll stop POTA hunting.

Sprat 200 arrived in the Heartland mail yesterday, another good edition that will give me a few weeks of enjoyment as I like to do a quick scan on the first pass, then really hone in on several subsequent passes. I’ve ordered the latest and greatest Sprat on a stick from HQ in England. I buy one of these every three or four years as a “backup” for the printed versions. It’s not likely I’ll lose a Sprat magazine as these are highly valued around here, but you never know…

I ordered a 20 meter version of the Old Friend transceiver kit yesterday too. The first production run sold out in less than 24 hours, but now I’m on the list to get one, whenever it is again available. Funny note, support for that transceiver comes via the chat with the designers groups list where one fellow chimed in that the use of OF (Old Friend) might have been a poor choice as “OF” means something different and spam filters might snag these emails. I believe he will eventually come round to see the humor in it. Maybe. :-)

All of hamdom has by now seen the video (16:10) where one ARRL Director revealed a few additional details surrounding the cyber attack on the ARRL. The lack of competence at the IT level is shocking, the lack of management oversight even more so. I wrote a scathing post blaspheming the organization in a way that made my breath smell of brimstone then deleted it. Opinions don’t matter. ARRL is a product of the 20th century whose best days were 75 years ago.

Sadly, it never made the transition into the 21st century and never will.

The way this one Director opened up is curious and not typical behavior. We are much more used to obfuscation and stonewalling from Newington in the face of bad news. It makes me a little suspicious that this might be some sort of preemptive public relations move? Historically, a Director who speaks out like this ends up afoul of some obscure “ethics” rule and is quickly excommunicated.

We will see…

All this has taken my interest and subsequent focus off ARRL awards, including DXCC, and LoTW. I’m a Life Member so there won’t be any dramatic door slamming exit for me. With profuse apologies to The Old Man, I just don’t care anymore about the ARRL or the thick fog of incompetence that has settled over the entire organization. Life is too short.

A message popped up on the QRP-L mailing list yesterday from Dave Benson, K1SWL with news of a new offering from the former Small Wonder Labs alchemist. I’ve been wondering what Dave might be up to these days and it seems he’s been keeping the cobwebs at bay with another new transceiver kit along with George Heron, N2APB:

The OLD FRIEND Transceiver™ is a single-board, 6 Watt Direct-Conversion Transceiver specifically designed by Dave Benson, K1SWL for CW operation . The OLD FRIEND is capable of transmitting and receiving on the 80m, 40m, 30m, or 20m bands.

This project pays homage to our early days in QRP. For home brewers, a functioning D-C rig was a real accomplishment in those days. The Old Friend (“OF”) incorporates newer technology in the form of digitally-controlled tuning and an LCD readout and includes both Iambic Keyer and Straight Key functionality. The OF further features good audio quality by virtue of its ‘relaxed’ approach to audio filtering.

Dave said of it, “My last kit project after a long hiatus. There are always other projects here, but for my own enjoyment…” I don’t know if he meant this is his ‘last’ and final kit design or just his ‘latest’ kit project, but I’ve little doubt this will be yet another winner in a long line of K1SWL designs.

All the details here. The first run is sold out but another is on the way. An optional enclosure will soon be available. $63. How can you go wrong?

I remember not long after my Dad turned 80 he decided it was time for a new roof on his house and I recall him saying that given the 20-25 year expected service life, it would be the last roof he would ever have to deal with. That kinda stuck with me as I had never considered life in such finite numbers. When I was 30 it seemed Christmas just came every year and there would always be another Christmas. Now at 65 I think if I live to 75 there are only ten more.

That kind of thinking can be a sobering slap in the face so I try not to dwell on it too long, but I reached a similar inflection point last week when I decided to order a new Elecraft K4 and I expect it to be the “last” major amateur radio transceiver I ever purchase. That seems a little surreal considering this has been a lifelong hobby for me. I was licensed in 1977 while still in high school and nearly fifty years later I remain on the same course, there’s simply a lot more of it behind me than whatever remains.

Seasons change and I’m not just talking about the recent transition from summer to autumn, though that is always an exciting development! But the seasons of our lives change too and I’ve reached a point in my life where I want to downsize and simplify all aspects of it, including my hobby, while continuing to enjoy and appreciate it.

So I ordered the K4 on Saturday morning and received notice it had shipped on Monday afternoon. UPS will tote it and a few accessories around the country for a week before it crosses the transom here. I chose the K4 for this honor because, deep down, I’ve been an Elecraft fan since their beginning and the K4 seems an excellent transceiver as it has successfully survived infant mortality and the early bugs of brand new gear, yet looks to have at least another ten years of runway for additional development and continuous improvement.

Now begins a new adventure of learning and exploration and I find that exciting.

It also means it’s time to bid adieu to a lot of equipment and I don’t think that will be as much fun. I have the IC-7610, the IC-9700, the TX-500, the TR-45L to name just a few of the transceivers. And yes, I’m even planning to unload the IC-705. Oh, and I can’t forget the brand new and never used KM3KM Mercury IIIs amplifier and matching high-power auto-tuner. The TH-D72 and TH-D75 handheld transceivers. The never opened LEO-pack antennas with G-5500 azimuth and elevation rotors. And all the accessories. It’s a big cache of stuff to unload and I’ll start down that road soon enough.

Hopefully, in less than a year, the dust will have settled and my final station build will be complete, save for the occasional shiny radio toy because, what’s life without a little whimsy?

Based on the listed bios of most radio amateurs, chewing the rag is a favorite pastime. Or at least the desire for a good “rag-chew” session is a consistent hope. It’s nearly impossible to pin down exactly what that means as the actual definition is pretty fuzzy. I’ve listened to both ends of a CW QSO that included the exchange of names, signal reports, locations, equipment and antennas, followed by profuse 73s that was later referred to as “a great rag chew”. Perhaps that was based on QSO duration given that some CW QSOs with precious little information exchanged can take upwards of thirty minutes or more?

When I think about a good rag-chew session it’s almost always a phone contact where I sit down at the radio without a specific purpose. I’m not chasing anything. A casual CQ sometimes results in a contact with someone who is an interesting conversation partner. No DX, no contest, no nets, no special events, just casual chatter.

I’ve often recounted the best conversation I ever had was a long 20 meter chat with a retired NASA engineer who was living alone with his parrot on a fifty-acre “ranchette”, as he called it, somewhere far from civilization in New Mexico. I could have gone on for hours with this old timer, our QSO eventually ended only due to the band fading into the night. I looked for that guy many times after but never worked him again.

There are simply some who are better at conversation than others. Any ham can bore you into a coma with the excruciating minutia of their station equipment and antennas. Yet others can spin those details in a manner that is actually interesting. We should never take for granted the elusive art of conversation as a skill worth honing. Some hams spend years, decades even, practicing CW, yet mastery of that skill doesn’t equate to popularity at a cocktail party. A little work mastering the art and skill of good conversation could go a long way towards making ham radio a lot more interesting for everyone.

Consider it a recruiting tool.

No one cares about your politics, even if they are part of your tribe and agree with you about everything, it still doesn’t make for a good rag chew. On the other hand, I always enjoy hearing theories about the JFK assassination, Bigfoot, UFO’s you’ve seen, and assorted tales of the paranormal. Who would ever get bored listening to a good ghost story? I like to learn about different places and would be interested in hearing something unique about your home town. Or the story of how you built your own house or rebuilt that ‘59 Chevy. What was the last movie you saw at the theatre? Last concert you attended? What pipe tobacco do you prefer?

The list goes on, but do make a list!

Ham radio QSOs don’t HAVE to be all about ham radio. I want to live in a world where hanging out in my ham shack and chatting late into the night is more interesting than watching yet another NCIS re-run on the boob tube.

Having the KX3 out and in operation for a few days this week was a bad idea. Using it always reminds me of how good it is and how it could so easily anchor my ham shack. And it’s not even the best Elecraft radio I own. That title belongs to my old Elecraft K2, number 524 that I built and put into service in 1999. Yeah, it’s the finest receiver I own and I don’t mean to offend you and your new Yaesu, but I’ve found nothing that can carry its jock strap.

Let me qualify that a bit, it’s super power is as a simple CW transceiver.

It doesn’t have two-hundred knobs and buttons and a hundred selection deep menu system. The K2 doesn’t have multiple ways of connecting to a computer, and it doesn’t have a built-in sound card. Mine is the original 15 watt version. It no longer appears regularly in all the major contest stations and DXpeditions.

But for the CW purist without need of a million creature features, it contains the sweetest receiver this side of heaven. My family have strict instructions that I am to be buried with my K2 just in case heaven doesn’t yet have anything that sweet.

It doesn’t occupy the central position in my shack because of the desire for BRE (big rig energy), vanity, and knee-deep levels of marketing bullshit from various vendors compounded with amplified nonsense from Sherwood and as my buddy calls them, “these young guys with beards who look like they drink only craft beers with ham radio YouTube channels…”

I bring this up because using the KX3 created crazy notions of ordering a K4 and continuing the Elecraft tradition spinning in my head. I have owned and built everything they offered right up to the K3 and I’ve tried to own a few more, but grew weary waiting for them to deliver. Now I see they have the shipping time for the K4 down to around a week. I could order one today and be on the air sometime late next week. A recent announcement from Eric says prices are going up in October so no pressure, but a quick decision could save me some money.

That same announcement also said, “KX2 and KH1 wait times have also rapidly decreased and we hope to be shipping them within 1-10 business days after order in several weeks” which should make long-suffering fans happy.

If I buy anything new it will replace my IC-7610. That transceiver has performed well, but is getting a little long in the tooth especially now that ICOM has released an upgraded version of it making ‘right now’ the peak re-sale value season for the 7610. If I order anything I will be forced to unload at least $10k worth of other equipment or build onto the house. Unused gear is stacking up so high around here it will take a year or more to sell, box, and ship it all.

Is that a possibility? Maybe. A definite maybe.

I caught a message about the Run for the Bacon event being last night. I’m not a member of the Flying Pigs but I was looking for something to do after a lazy afternoon of football watching. I setup the long neglected KX3 powering it with a slowly failing battery. I used the 17-foot ground mounted vertical, set the power at five blistering watts of CW, and settled in to see if I could work a few piggies.

Never heard a single FP call. Not even one. But the time wasn’t wasted as there were POTA and special event stations available and I worked a few, including NA7DO who was activating a park in Washington State. His 20 meter signal was just a whisper at this end, practically ESP level. I figured he wouldn’t hear my peanut whistle, but he did, and the 1898 miles between us were breached.

Two other POTA stations are in the log, AK0A and N0FRC along with W6P, a Route 66 SE station in St. Louis - a cracking good time at the key!

QRP always makes radio more fun. I need a tattoo…

We have a lovely Farmer’s Market here in Yorktown every Friday evening during the summer months. An easy walk from my house. I thought last week was the final installment for the season, but we happened to be driving by the meadow where it takes place after dinner last night and stopped in when we saw it was open. Pity we didn’t know ahead of time it would be open or we would have enjoyed fish and chips for dinner there instead. Walked away with a loaf of pumpkin bread from an Amish vendor and the knowledge that the market continues until the end of September. Good to know. Hoosier living at it’s finest!

Here’s hoping you’re not superstitous on this Friday the 13th, the first of two Friday the 13ths (the other one is in December) in 2024. If you’re a little worried about it, here’s help. Good luck!

The next full Moon will occur on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 at 10:34 p.m. Eastern time (7:34 p.m. Pacific). September’s full Moon, the Full Harvest Moon, will be the second supermoon of four in a row.

Is it just me or have you too noticed the early proliferation of Halloween this year? Curmudgeons always complain about reatail stores putting the Christmas stuff out too early, but an awful lot of my neighbors got busy installing Halloween displays before the last July 4th firework hit the ground.

What’s up with that?

I’m not really surprised with the pumpkin spice being trotted out a few weeks ago. It’s everyone’s favorite flavor, at least for a season, and I’ve enjoyed several tasty lattes so far and will likely get another today. I did run into one coffee shop though that had already run out of the flavoring, and this early in the pumpkin season, yikes!

Happy weekend - see you in the SKCC Weekend Sprint!

I spent some time yesterday deleting every social media account I can recall ever having. That’s not really a big deal when you consider I haven’t expended much energy in that direction in a long time. Deleting those accounts was mostly symbolic and for my own benefit. It was about unplugging and rejecting the endless online systems promoted as ways to “share” with others, but which eventually demand your soul.

Those acts of deletion weren’t limited to social media. I also removed a lot of software on various computers, tablets, and even my phone. These included APRS, N1MM, WSJT, VARA, VARA-FM, VarAC, and a few others. I kept my logging software, for now, but it will eventually be removed too. I kept TQSL so I can still sign log files for upload to Logbook of the World though I’m considering dumping it too. My attitude concerning it has been undergoing rapid evolution as has my opinion about the value (to me) of ARRL awards.

I think it’s worth noting I postal mailed a short stack of paper QSL cards this week in response to those recently received. First “batch” of paper cards I’ve toted to the post office since 2015. I seem to be coming around to the notion that some things are better the old-fashioned way.

Hams are an inventive lot, always looking to enhance the game of radio. Often those efforts involve tying one-hand behind our back to up the ante and make things more challenging. For instance, my QRP friends enjoy lowering their power, purposely putting themselves at some disadvantage. I get that, especially as I now consider purging the computer entirely from my radio shack.

Of course that can be done, I spent the first decade of my ham radio life before personal computers even existed and I don’t recall it being a particularly dark or difficult to navigate period of time.

From chapter one of CALLING CQ, written by Clinton B. DeSoto and published in 1941:

Calling CQ! Calling CQ to any amateur radio station!” A thousand times a night that call goes ringing out over the crowded amateur air lanes. It is the general call to any station–an invitation to any other amateur operator who might be listening to step up and chew the rag about anything and everything under the sun.

It is the trademark of the radio hams–that adventurous crew who roam the world at will, a band of good fellows, happy convivial, carefree. This book is their story. In it are tales of their adventures on earth and in the air. Tales of amateur radio….

Then–the question may be heard–what is this amateur radio? What’s it all about? What is it like to be an amateur short-wave operator? Well, it’s like this….

According to the official definition, amateur radio is “radio communication between amateur stations solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.” A comparable definition might describe a diamond as a “carboniferous solid.” Yet, properly mounted, a diamond is a many-faceted gem of dazzling beauty. Amateur radio, too, has many facets.

This is one facet of amateur radio: it is a hobby. “The ordinary life of the ordinary man from whence spring the great majority of hams is a dull, drab and somewhat dreary struggle,” according to one amateur. “Psychologists tell us that periodically one should drop his work for awhile and try something else, that if it be interesting enough one will usually return with renewed interest and zest.” Then this amateur, a successful professional man, continues: “Amateur radio is my hobby. In its pursuit I find the balm of Gilead.”

“Being an amateur gives me the chance to meet people I would otherwise never meet,” says one. “That’s part of it. There’s more to it than that though. If I build a new amplifier or something and make it work I feel that I’m creating something. When I hook up a rig I’ve just finished and I push the key and a fellow in the next state answers me–all this with things I have made with my own hands–why, then I feel like I have accomplished something sort of worthwhile.”

He finds amateur radio “the means of communications with others on equal terms, of finding friendship, adventure and prestige while seated at one’s own fireside,” according to Dr Raymond V. Bowers. “In picking his human contacts out of the air, the amateur is not seen by them…. He is not known by the company he keeps nor by the clothes he wears, but by the signal he emits.

He enters a new world whose qualifications for success are within his reach. A good homemade set gives him more prestige than a commercially manufactured one. There are no century-old class prejudices to impede his progress. He enters a thoroughly democratic world where he rises or falls by his own efforts. When he is W9XYZ the beginner the radio elders help him willingly and when he becomes W9XYZ the record breaker and efficient traffic handler he willingly helps the younger generation. Without a pedigree, a chauffeur or an old master decorating his living room he can become a prince–of the air. At the close of the day, filled with the monotonous routine of the machine age, he can find adventure, vicarious travel, prestige and friendship by throwing in the switch and pounding his signals into the air…”

Imagine if you will…

In the year 2030, Forest Adams was in a car accident that left him comatose for an entire decade. To everyone’s surprise, he awoke in 2040 and proceeded to make an incredible recovery and soon returned to his old life. His hobby had been fishing, and he couldn’t wait to get back out on the lake where he lived. He had been told that there had been some changes in the fishing world that he first needed to catch up on.

People didn’t bait hooks and cast lines anymore. Robots did that sort of mundane work now. A fisherman need only buy an “anglers robot” package, make certain it’s batteries are charged, then turn it loose on the lake. The fisherman was then free to enjoy the day doing more important things while the robot did his fishing. The robot would catch a fish, weigh and measure it, snap a photo, upload the “catch” photo and stats to Facebook and Instagram before turning the fish loose and continuing the hunt. An online leaderboard kept track of the fish caught, size, type, weight, etc. Top fishermen often boasted more than 100,000 catches on the big board and fancy plaques were awarded to the top fishermen each year…

When Forest complained that he enjoyed sitting out on the lake and fishing for himself others laughed and told him, “you’ve got to get with the times, everything changes, change is the only constant, tech is the future, go with the flow man…”

Revisiting why hyperlinks are blue

I found myself enjoying my morning coffee, reading through hate mail from my first article, as one does. I sifted through this dung heap as a prospector pans for gold, scanning for the faintest hint of gold to help me continue my journey to the true origin of the blue hyperlink.

Moondance - experience the marvel that is night-blooming tobacco

“Amy, a hobbyist flower farmer, has invited me over for a one-on-one garden party. This evening, we’re determined to stake out night-blooming flowers so that we can see them open in real time. To some, this might seem as thrilling as watching grass grow, but we’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.”

Amelia Didn’t Know Radio

Almost certainly, Amelia Earhart could not get a bearing on the radio beacon on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Itasca (WPG-321), lying off the beach at Howland Island, because the frequency that she had designated—7.50 Mcs*—was so high that her direction-finder (DF) was inherently incapable of taking bearings on it. That Earhart and Fred Noonan failed to reach Howland Island on their 1937 around-the-world flight because of radio problems has been said before — but little has been written about the specifics.

From Segments To Pixels

Handheld calculators saw a massive amount of innovation in the 1970s—thanks in no small part to LCD screens and a primitive form of typography.

Nothin’ but blues and Elvis and somebody else’s favorite song…

The Beginnings of FM Radio Broadcasting

In the early and mid-1930s, radio communication was confined to the Low Waves (100-500 kHz), Medium Waves (500-1500 kHz), and the Short Waves (1,500 to 30,000 kHz). The frequencies above that, referred to as the “ultra-high frequencies”, were truly the “Wild West” of radio. It was a place for experimentation and a possible home to future radio services. Commercial broadcasting to the public took place entirely on the standard broadcast band (540-1600 kHz), but it was affected by a number of defects that annoyed the public – natural and man-made static, local and skip interference, atmospheric fading, and limited fidelity. Starting about 1932, a number of brave and daring broadcasters sought permission from the FCC to conduct experiments in the Ultra-Short Waves in an attempt to find solutions to these problems. In particular, these experimental stations wanted to transmit wideband, high fidelity audio. Amplitude modulation, the only known method of transmitting audio at the time, was the method utilized on these so-called “Apex” stations. Experimental licenses were being issued for up to 1,000 watts on frequencies at 25-26 MHz and 42 MHz. By 1939, these Apex stations were operating in 34 U.S. cities in 22 states They suffered less skip interference than standard AM stations, but static was still a problem.

At the same time that these Apex broadcasters were gaining a foothold in the upper frontiers of the radio spectrum, an entirely new type of radio service was also being demonstrated - one that was destined to cause Apex AM to become obsolete. That service was called Frequency Modulation, or FM.

The search for life in the cosmos has been an ongoing human interest for the ages, but since the advent of radio, the way we search the heavens has evolved. I found it interesting that just one hundred years ago, within the lifetime’s of many of our parents, something this unusual seemed perfectly reasonable.

The ‘Freakish Radio Writings’ of 1924

It occurred in 1924, when at another Martian opposition (an orbital alignment bringing Earth and Mars as close as they’ll get during its 26-month orbit), the U. S. Navy imposed radio silence nationwide for five minutes once an hour from August 21 to 24. The plan: Allow observatories worldwide to listen for Martians.

This was serious SETI for its day. A dirigible was launched from the U. S. Naval Observatory carrying radio equipment for these observations, with the capability of relaying its signals back to a laboratory on the ground. A military cryptographer was brought in to monitor the situation, as attested by a provocative New York Times headline from August 23 of that year: “Code Expert Ready for Message.; RADIO HEARS THINGS AS MARS NEARS US.”

The National Traffic System has been around for 75 years. From the current (September) NTS Letter, Bud Hippisley W2RU writes in the first of a two-part article on the history of the network:

October 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the National Traffic System®. When I peruse net bulletins and correspondence that accompanied the birth and infancy of NTS®, I am amazed the system even survived the early years! Of course, not only did it survive, it went on to thrive in subsequent decades! As George Hart, W1NJM, wrote later in the ’50s, it did so not because HQ attempted to force it on amateurs but, rather, because of the “dogged determination” of a majority of traffic handlers of the day. This month and next, I’m describing a few of the challenges NTS® faced at the beginning.

October 1st was the target date publicized in September 1949 QST, but — because traffic nets of the era generally only formally operated Monday through Friday local time — full-up system operation began on the evening of Monday, October 3rd (which, of course, was really October 4th UTC). That’s when the four newly appointed area net managers had agreed to hold their nets’ first sessions, and most region net managers were planning to start as well. Nearly all section nets were already in existence; all that becoming part of NTS® required of them was to assign representatives to take out-of-section traffic to the new region net each weekday evening and bring back incoming traffic later that evening.

The NTS® Letter is published monthly and is free of charge to ARRL members. An online archive is also available.

I haven’t been chasing the CY9C operation this time around. I already had St. Paul Island in the log on 40 CW from a previous operation. Perhaps a little indifference is a secret weapon because I heard them making noise on 30 meters last night with good signals running F/H and decided to give them a call. It would be a new one on digital and on 30 meters. The operation is drawing to a close, plus I keep seeing rumors that this might be the final DXpedition to the protected area so why not call?

As of 1000Z on Tuesday, CY9C had 91,828 contacts in the log and being practically a chip shot from here, I wasn’t surprised to get them in the log, though I was pleased it took only two calls.

Equipment is already being carried off the island as the operation is scheduled to conclude on September 5th.

White Whale...

I was in the shack a couple of hours before sunrise this morning and got to enjoy 20 meters in the pre-dawn darkness. Good signals from the South Pacific were observed and I quickly worked Eric, FK8HM on New Caledonia. We last swapped RF a few months ago and overall he’s in the log eight times.

And then I got stuck chasing an elusive wisp of RF being generated by ZL/VE6TC. According to his QRZ details, Michael began working on Stewart Island (IOTA OC-203) a couple days ago. I saw him calling CQ several times and even experienced the agony of watching him work a couple other US stations, without acknowledging my replies.

I became obsessed with working him and spent the rest of the pre-dawn morning trying to get his attention, but it was not to be. At least not this morning. His details indicate he operates “mainly from around sunrise in Eastern Europe to sunrise on the East coast of North America”. I’ll be listening again tomorrow morning and hope the aether will be a little more generous…