20 Mtr Mobile - a 40 year dream

NV2A writes "The year was 1964 and I was about 17 years old and wearing the proud call of WV6ZXU. Yea, I know, for a kid who had the picture of a sexy girl on his QSL card there wasn't much sexy or proud about the call except that it was mine! I operated out of a small building my Dad brought home given to him by a home imporovement company. They used as an office by at the state fair grounds. My shack had aluminum siding when it was just getting popular and aluminum crank out windows with decorative glass. Life was great!


It only took Charley, K6YBS, about 30 hours to straighten out the mess I had made of a brand new Eico 720 transmitter kit. I had all the parts securely in the chassis in less than 24 hours tight enough that they wouldn't fall out if you shook the case! My used Electro Voice RME-4300 receiver tuned the band beautifully because of a tuning mechanism that depended on the viscosity of thick grease as it's clutching action. It felt extremely precise to my young and willing fingers.



Two meter mobile was gaining in popularity to the extent that neophytes such as I were aware that it existed. I remember everyone talking about Heath Kit 2 meter Lunch Boxes! My last name is Swan so it should come as no surprise that Swan transceivers were of particular interest to me. It was then that I heard the magic words. 20-Meter Mobile. Boy did that get the imagination going in high gear. How rich would you have to be to pull that off? Well, certainly more than I could scrape up.



The dream was kept alive for another year and half in Vietnam every time I saw one of the communication vehicles with their big antennas. I know now that they were 50mc gear but at the time, this 20 year old in Vietnam thought it could be connection out of the country and the madness of the war. It was a war to most of us; Police Action was somebody else's dream. I got home in one piece, hurting for those who didn't.



A marriage, two children and a career later did little to dampen the dream of 20 meter mobile. I never made the General Class ticket and felt it almost an impossible task. Then a friend, KA2WIM told me all the Amateur Radio Licensing requirements had been restructured to make it easier for people to pass the test. Now they gave you the question pool AND THE ANSWERS in plain language! If you could read your name you were smart enough to pass the test! I figured I would try to get back into ham radio before someone came to their senses and changed it all back!



I tried 3 times to pass the General in the early 1970's. Instead of getting dumber I evidentially got smarter 20 years later because I went from Novice to Extra in a year and two days, or, just about as fast as I could read the answers from their question pool!! I felt like it was cheating but have tried to rectify it all by being a considerate ham on the bands. I figure I give the really smart guys someone to impress!



Well, the house is out of way now, got that, been there. The kids are grown up and moved on. A homebrew electric winch has modified the crank up tower and the KT-34A on top does a nice job hooked up to the barefoot Kenwood TS-940. I have 285 countries worked. I don't worry about confirmations but have 125 mixed confirmed all thru the beauro, no direct! Life as a Ham was good! And then I saw it!



It was at the Icom table at the Rochester Hamfest that I fell in love with the Icom 746. Yea, it does it all, HF and 6 & 2 Meters. I had to have that radio! Besides that, the TS-940 was over 12 years old and I needed some fresh gear in the shack. Now it was starting to look like maybe the dream was chasing me instead of the other way around.



I work as a TV News Photographer. I have an assigned news cruiser and I spend 45 minutes driving into work and 45 minutes heading home. I wait hours for the Medical Examiner to clear a crime scene an pronounce, foul play or no foul play. Well, I asked the boss if I drilled a hole in the side of the van would it lessen it's trade in value when since routinely trade them in with 100,000 miles on them! He said no, I told him I could monitor hurricane progress on the disaster nets for the news departments. He said yes! I said I could listen in on world events. He still said yes. I said, "but we're in the communications business we should be able to........" "Yes!" came the reply. Not being overly stupid, I took it to mean he actually heard what I was asking and was saying yes!



I installed it in a hurry! Hoping no one would change his or her mind. I didn't even have a spare key for the keyer but it had the necessary CW DX contact information dialed into the radios CW memory buffer. And on that September day, the second day the radio was installed I had almost made it to the TV Station when I pulled into the parking lot next door, I had Antoine 3D2AG from the Figi Islands coming back to me! I didn't know for sure what it was but went by the adage of one of my many DX mentors, WB2ABD when he said, "it don't matter, if the call starts with a number you probably want to want or need it"!



Antoine, to you it was probably just a contact. To me you took my brand new mobile radio from curious toy status to real DX'ers tool in less than 10 seconds! It allows me to be on the air when others are not. I have worked several new countries including K5K all because I was there at a weird hour of the day to come back to their CQ. Mobiliers don't necessarily have to bust pileups. Being at the right placed at the right time can make up for an Alpha stacked mono banders!



My dream has been realized. But the funny thing is, I never dreamed it would be this much fun! If you would like to see my rig, type in NV2A at the QRZ.Com search engine. If you want to work me you will have to tail end me! I don’t call much. I start on 15 meter CW every morning, if it's open go right to 10 mtr CW to see if its open and maybe back to 15. The object is to be the first east coast station the DX station hears while all you other guys are getting ready for/or driving off to work!



73's


NV2A/M Have a nice day!

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