Although I really don’t like using straight keys, I break down and use one on Straight Key Night (SKN). This year’s SKN did not start out very auspiciously. After spraying some contact cleaner on the phone plug of my J-45 (which is a J-37 mounted on a leg clamp) and plugging it into my rig, I discovered I had an open circuit.
Fixing it was no piece of cake. First of all, the cable on the key uses crimp-on terminals, so I first had to get that terminal off without destroying it so that I could re-use it. Then, I discovered that the cable used the type of wire that used cotton thread interlaced with the copper wire. So, before I could solder things back together, I had to pick out as much of that thread as I could. Overall, it took me about 45 minutes to get it all back together.
It was worth it, though. The first thing I heard was some guy calling QLF? instead of QRL? QLF?, for those of you not familiar with some of the more exotic Q-signals, means, “Are you sending with your left foot”? Indeed, many of us, me included, sounded like we were sending with our left feet.
My first contact was with WU2D, who was also using a J-37 to key an ARC-5 transmitter. His signal was a bit chirpy, but fun to copy. After making a couple more short contacts, I ran into Paul, N8XMS, who is just down the road in Livonia.
After the QSO with N8XMS, I dialed down to the low end of the band. There, I worked LW3DG. Technically, this wasn’t an SKN QSO, but it was fun to work a little DX. After wishing Edgar a “Prospero Ano Nuevo,” I switched to 80m
There, I contacted W3EEK, who was running only 500 mW. Despite the low power, he was 579 here, with peaks at S9. According to QRZ.Com, he’s 417.4 miles away from me, nearly qualifying for the 1000 miles/W award.
Finally, I worked N8COO. This was a memorable contact for several reasons:
- he was also using a J-45 key,
- his callsign spells a word (coo), and I can add this to my collection, and
- this was QSO #8000 since I got back on the air six years ago.
That did it for me. I couldn’t have ended SKN on a better note.
Leave a Reply