1
The Texan
Newsletter of the Texas NTS CW Net (TEX)
** See TSN Corner on Last Page **


Net Manager: Steve Phillips, K6JT, Plano TX
(k6jt@arrl.net, 214-208-8900)
TEX Web Site: http://k6jt.home.att.net/

Assistant Manager: Rodney Baker, W5DY, Goliad TX
(w5dy@arrl.net)

October 2007

Winter, Already??

It has started already. I have observed long skip on 80 meters at 10 PM several nights in the
last couple of weeks. The most recent, Monday the 1
st
(local), saw Charlie, W5GKH,
effectively talking to himself as net control. His signal was right at the noise level threshold up
here. Interestingly, Pat, KD5TXD, was S8 at my QTH. Charlie could not hear either of us. A
similar problem occurred on Sunday, but the band changed around 10:10 and Charlies signal
came up from just above the noise level to S9 plus. A week ago it was Rodney who was S9
here while Charlie was barely audible.

So what does that mean? From my trusty (and somewhat ragged from looking up all the
unfamiliar cities for which traffic is listed) auto club map of Texas, the line-of-sight from my
QTH to West Columbia is around 275 miles. To Pats QTH it is about 385 miles, and to
Rodneys is about 305 miles. That puts the calculated skip zone on 80 meters at
somewhere between 280 and 300 miles. No wonder Sam, W5CU, up near OK City is very
weak (or inaudible) here on late RN5! He is inside my skip zone radius. We can expect the
skip zone to possibly lengthen even further as winter approaches. Sigh.

Fortunately, it does not happen every night yet (actually, it might happen more often than I
can tell, but generally I can hear Floyd, N5EL, who is only about 140 miles line-of-sight from
here). So what do we do? There is not much we can do about the ionosphere. At least
conditions at 7 are now becoming better as each week passes. On the late session, all NCS
stations should be aware that long skip can occur and do not be surprised if you cannot hear
very many stations (if any) check in. If you as NCS do hear others, then please ask the one
farthest away to call for QNI (or ask them to make a net call as it is said on the voice nets).

For the rest of us net members, be patient. If you do not hear anything from the net control
station, listen for someone else to check in. When they finish sending, send your full callsign
(not just a hail-sign) ONCE, followed by QNP. If you hear someone else sending their call
and QNP, and you copy the NCS, please get the NCSs attention (with a hail sign) and then
tell him/her that another station is trying to check in. We will all need to be patient and also
alert in order to relay both traffic and check-ins during the coming months, particularly on the
late TEX session. Look at it as yet another fun operating challenge to keep things
interesting and help build our skills.
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Back to California

It is also that time again for me to make the trek to California to help out my parents. Seems
like just a short time ago, but it has been 3 months since I left for my last trip. I will be gone
from the 10
th
through the 21
st
. I will need fill-ins for my Wednesday early, and Thursday late
NCS slots. I will also need help with my TCC schedules on Thursday evenings for the 11
th

and 18
th
, but I will try to arrange those separately.

NCS stations please send your reports to Rodney, W5DY, in my absence. Please also try to
fill the RN5 liaison slots. Rodney and I have been filling in on Thursday and Friday (and also
Saturday) late sessions when we are home. Thanks to Scott, W5ESE, who has been taking
many of the early sessions to RN5. Since both Rodney and I will be gone on the weekends, it
is particularly important to have someone cover the late sessions, which are difficult for Scott.

Rodney will be gone Friday and Saturday for the first 3 weekends of October to take care of
family affairs. Just hold your reports until he checks in again, or you can E-Mail them directly
to me at the address given at the top of the newsletter. Note that I have also changed the
telephone number there to my cell phone number, which I will have with me even while
traveling.

RN5 / CAN on 80 Meters Now

As of this writing, both sessions of RN5 as well as all sessions of CAN (that I listened to) the
last couple weeks have been on 80 meters. RN5 has made it an official change, but I have
not received any official word about CAN. See the duty roster later in this newsletter for the
frequencies.

W1NJM Saga

Again, thanks to Sis, WD8DIN, the editor of the Traffic Call newsletter of the Hit and Bounce
Net (HBN 0730 CT, 7042 KHz), for passing along George Harts saga of the early days.
Here's Part 7 of George Hart's recollections. "Geo" and Bunch continue their discoveries on
and into the dregs of a world of "PHONE" and callsign advancement.

RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD HAM

A journalistic history of the life and times in Amateur Radio of George Hart, W1NJM, by
George Hart, W1NJM. Part 7.

Traffic Handling at 3NF in 1928, and other tales

(From last month)
I operated until daylight, managed to work a 7 in Montana and another one in Idaho, called
several 6's but got no answers. At 7 o'clock I had to quit to get ready for school. During the
day, in school, I bragged to several companions that I had talked by radio to stations in
Montana and Idaho, but no one believed me. I believe they thought I was a little cracked, and
some of them moved away from me. All day I walked on clouds. 3NF had an outstanding
signal, at last! I could hardly wait to get home and do some more operating.
3
(Continuing)

But when I got there, Bunch had dismantled the 210 and was reinstalling the 852. As usual,
he ignored my protests and when the work was done he sat and operated for hours while I
stood by. It amazed me that the plate of the big tube no longer glowed red and the big
transformer no longer groaned when the key was pressed. Not only did we receive answers
to all calls, but CQ brought several responses, and all reports were R-8 or R-9. Bunch had to
put a shunt on the RF meter to keep it from going off scale. The plate current milliammeter
deflected to 100 ma. It was a happy time. But our signal reports, although much improved in
strength, still were AC tone. I didn't care about it, but Bunch was never satisfied, and he lusted
for a "DC note." Back into operation went the rectifier tubes, filter choke and filter condenser.
And Lo and Behold! the first contact reported us R-9PDC (pure DC). The noise made by the
transmitter in our regenerative receiver was quieter, loud clicks instead of the roar that had
previously been produced. Bunch operated from the 1000 volt taps on the transformer to try
to save the poor overloaded rectifier tubes. This seemed to make little difference in signal
strength despite what must have been considerable voltage drop. We had an outstanding
signal with a DC note. I hoped now that Bunch would leave the rig alone for a while.

"PHONE" Such a hope was dashed, however, when he decided to go on phone. This was
accomplished by procuring an old upright telephone with the receiver removed and "loop
modulating" the signal. A coil of two or three turns was wrapped around the tank coil of the
transmitter with leads to the carbon telephone mike. This produced a combination of
amplitude and frequency modulation of questionable quality but none-the-less understandable
at the receiving end. We remained on phone for perhaps two weeks, at first basking in the
uniqueness of communicating by this method as contrasted to CW, but very soon growing
tired of the same old chatter and relative difficulty in establishing and maintaining contacts.
Besides, considerable RF voltage found its way into the microphone and if you accidentally
touched the mouthpiece with your lip, you got burned. The phone segment of the band,
incidentally, was only 50 kcs. wide at the extreme low end, 3500-3550 kcs. Most amateurs
used loop modulation, just as we did. Some of the more advanced types used grid, Heising
or plate modulation. The latter two methods produced higher quality but required equipment
that the typical amateur did not have and could not afford. FM was not unknown but not used
by amateurs, except when produced incidentally with loop modulation.

PRE-WWII CALL AREAS The call areas were different from today's configuration, too. Only
the first and fifth call areas were as they are today (2001). The 2nd call area was only
Metropolitan New York City, that is, Long Island, New York City itself, a piece of
southeastern New York State and a piece of Eastern New Jersey close to the City. The 3rd
call area was the rest of New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, D.C.
and Virginia. The fourth call area was as today except now adding Virginia. The 6th call area
then included Arizona, Utah and Nevada, which are now part of the 7th call area. The 8th call
area then included most of Pennsylvania, most of New York State, Ohio, West Virginia and
Michigan, except its upper peninsula. There was no 0 call area until after WW II. In Canada,
western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia were Canada's 5th call area, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan the 4th, Ontario the 3rd, Quebec the 2nd and the Maritime Provinces the 1st.
These were then the only Canadian call areas