Harvard Wireless Club Bulletin April 14, 1999

Hello HWC: A little follow-up on some discussion items from last evening:

1. I've located the W1AF DXCC records from 1958, 1975, and 1992. K1XQ has offered to dig into the records and QSLs to see if he can bring our totals up to date.

2. In digging for the these records, I came across the W1AF logs for past Mass QSO Parties. In 1990, W1AF won for MA, for Multi-operator, as well as 1st place overall. Six operators made 1,071 contacts for 124,764 points. We were a rugged bunch! In 1993, three W1AF operators made 706 contacts on SSB, CW, Packet and VHF FM for 43,297 points. Unfortunately, no award was forthcoming for this fine effort. In 1994, three more operators worked 78 contacts for 3,528 points and a 1st place, Multi-Single! Occasionally it's nice to be the only station in your category. The log that contest shows 13 different contacts with KO1O -- all bands, both modes + VHF!!

3. Tomorrow (April 15) is more than just tax day. On April 15, 1989, four HWC hams made the first-ever W1AF contacts from 6 Linden Street. Contact #1 was on 20 SSB with WB2KVC in North Carolina. The rig belonged to the HWC President at that time and the wire antenna was a jury-rigged homebrew affair about 4 feet off the roof and fed with some questionable RG-58U. We were surrounded by boxes of damp and moldy HWC paraphernalia that had been rescued from the basement of Lowell Lecture Hall several days prior. As there were no electrical outlets in the room, we ran an extension cord to the light socket in the ceiling. After NT1Y made that first contact, we all took turns at the mic and made 6 more contacts. We had great fun! And better yet, W1AF finally had a home. In HWC lore, we often talk about W1AF at 52 Dunster and then at 6 Linden without considering that for nearly two years prior to April 1989, W1AF was operated out of the Dunster House dorm room of Lisa Rees (NT1Y). Lisa had a long wire strung out the window and a HW-101. And that was W1AF. Meetings were held in her room and afterward we usually got on the air to make some contacts. As we found out some time later (in going through the boxes rescued from Lowell Hall) we were operating illegally as the W1AF license had actually lapsed sometime in 1988! Thank goodness we snuck in via the FCC grace period for renewal of W1AF. A couple more months and we would have lost it for good!

4. I just inventoried the new 6 meter beam replacement parts. All there! Now we're just waiting for the "Big Thunder" replacement parts. Cushcraft also sent us a review of the X-7 published in the Nov. '98 issue of RadCom (from the RSGB). I've posted this in the shack if you'd like to read about the new yagi. According to the article, Cushcraft claims a 12.5 db forward gain for the X-7 which the author feels is somewhat optimistic. However, the antenna is rated at 100 mph and is a reasonable performer on 12 & 17 with an ATU in addition to its triband coverage. We're all curious to see how it stacks up vs. the 10 element log. That'll be very interesting!

73, Mike
K3UOC