Howard,

Ray was a nice guy and I talked to him many times.  I heard him one evening
and his signal sounded louder than I had ever heard it.  In fact, the
loudest signal I ever heard on my Drake TR4 back then in Nebraska was a
mobile friend of mine that stopped just outside my house.  Now that was
loud.  But, one night, as I was saying, about 9 PM, I heard Ray.  He was so
loud, it was over loading my front end.  I heard my mom doing laundry in the
utility room on the other side of the basement, my bedroom and shack was in
a large room in the basement, so I asked her to come in to read the s meter.
She did and just as I thought, he was pinning my s meter which red 60 over
nine.  I called Ray and told him.  He said,"Phil, forgive me for doubting
your word, but how would you know I was that loud without being able to read
the meter yourself."  I laughed and told him my mom came over and read the s
meter for me.  Ray then confessed he was using a borrowed amplifier that
sort of ran lots of power output, haha.  I think the guy he talked to every
night on 3803 was a guy in Minnesota and I think his call was WA0PXQ or
something like that.  I can't remember where I heard it but someone else
said Ray was a silent key.  I heard him once 4 or 5 years ago on 75 meters
and his voice had changed and was very deep and rough sounding and I heard
him telling a couple of guys in Iowa he had voice problems.  He was a fun
guy to talk with.  He was also very loud.

Phil.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 3:03 PM
Subject: Re: It's my frequency


>I didn't know you knew Ray.
> I go back with him to our novice days.
> I think he is a silent key, hope I am wrong.
> Now he had a signal!!!
> There are a lot of high power guys here on 3913.  They wellcome anybody,
> but
> especially so if you run lots of watts.
> Anyway, Ed k9hss and I go back 40 years or more.
> He is putting the final adjustments to his 80 meter two element quad,
> which
> I assume will be on his 200 foot tower.
> Imagine what that takes to keep it up and turning!!!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 4:01 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: It's my frequency
>
> I've witness frequency wars for 50 years.  I even defended 3997, our
> teenage
> channel for much of the Midwest, back in the late sixties.  If, on the
> other
> hand, someone was on our frequency, we just went elsewhere till they left.
> This 3997 group of teens was a spin off of a group that befriended us on
> 3803 run by Ray, WA9SXJ.  This was before bands were expanded below 3800.
> Anyhow, there have been groups that held down a given frequency, such as
> the
> Patriot net I mentioned on 38 43 most nights, who will do almost anything
> to
> try and kick people off their frequency.  So there is nothing knew about
> what I am going to describe but apparently, some hams actually believe
> they
> alone command a frequency.  Last night took the cake.  There is a large
> group, and I do mean, large, that watch dog 7195 on forty meters.  Most
> are
> W5 stations but they have friends in Kansas, Colorado, and other Midwest
> and
> southern states.  It is true, you can tune 7195 almost 24 hours a day and
> there likely is a couple of guys from this group talking.  Many of them go
> mobile on that frequency as well.  I hear them, do to my location, around
> the clock.  There are no fewer than 30 hams on this frequency and many
> monitor the channel all day.  I enjoy listening to them because most of
> them
> to my location run 20 to 30 over S9.  Plus, a wide circle of hams rotate
> in
> and out during a period of a day so some guys are listening for hours.
> Many
> are retired guys, too.  Last night, I heard, on 7195, two guys, who were
> not
> very strong, and whose voices I did not recognize so figured they were
> guys
> I'd just never heard before on that frequency.  They were weaker signals
> and
> mostly at the static crash noise level from local area thunderstorms.  I
> wasn't doing much at the time and I wondered where all the big signal guys
> were from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas.  As I
> listened,
> the band began to lengthen and their signals crept up over the S9 noise
> level.  Within 20 minutes of listening, I could hear them both quite well.
> It turned out they were brothers.  The younger brother was in Florida and
> his brother was a K4 further north because they were discussing the
> younger
> brother's trip up to his older brothers house to do some tower and antenna
> work for him.  He said it would drive half way, spend the night, and drive
> the rest of the way the following morning.  They visited back and forth,
> discussing all they were going to do, and reminiscing of fun times they
> had
> over the years talking on the radio to each other, climbing towers, and
> stringing wire antennas together.  I actually enjoyed their QSO and
> thought
> it was cool they were brothers and still were helping each other in their
> later years.  The oldest brother can't climb any more but his younger
> brother was looking forward to getting together and getting the antenna
> and
> tower work finished up for his brother.  All the time they were talking,
> in
> the back of my mind I wondered what this 7195 group was thinking because I
> knew, at the time of the late evening, they definitely were there.  I
> figured one of them would break in and ask these brothers to move but
> nobody
> said a word to them while they were talking but after they signed, someone
> did comment which I'll get to in a second.  Anyhow, there was a microphone
> whistler toward the end of the brothers contact who continued whistling
> off
> and on for several minutes and the brothers commented on it.  You could
> tell
> that the brothers were not aware this frequency was privately held by
> about
> 40 or 50 hams the claimed it 24 hours a day as their own.  Then a carrier
> started dropping on to their QSO but again, it wasn't loud enough to
> bother
> their big signals between them.  They held the frequency for about an hour
> and by the time they signed, the band had lengthen to the point their
> signals were nice and strong and way over the thunderstorm noise level.
> As
> soon as they signed, a guy, whom shall remain nameless and callless,
> started
> transmitting and said, "To the guys using the frequency, I heard that
> whistler, too, and it wasn't me.  We have a group of guys, about 20 hams
> strong, who have been patiently waiting for you to finish your QSO so we
> could use this 7195 frequency which is busy 24 hours a day," and then when
> he took a breath, another station spoke up and a third and a fourth and
> then
> they started their regular rag chew.  I wouldn't have the nerve to
> actually
> tell someone we used this frequency because he had the tone to his voice
> that they should mind their manners and stay away from their channel.  I
> thought it was funny and sad at the same time.  Due to poor 80 and 75
> meter
> night time conditions, even local Colorado boys are starting to use 40
> meters so I've noticed a lot more activity on 40 the last few months.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>