TONS O' FUN (For Under Fifty Bux!)

[Ed Swynar]

Hi All,

I just have to tell you guys about a little event that happened to me yesterday that has really warmed the cockles of my heart, & brought a BROAD smile to my face...

The XYL & I ventured forth to a Hamfest early in the morning --- one of the first things that caught my eye was a rather sad-looking 20-meter mono-bander HW-23A, which sat alongside a decent-looking HP-23B power supply, & complete inter-connecting cable with plugs. My wife (who knows how much I'm always looking at Heathkits!) told me to buy it...

It had a sticker on it of just $40.00 (that's CANADIAN dollars, too --- the U.S. equivalent is probably $30.00)...I thought about it, then said, "No, if it's still here when we leave, THEN I'll maybe make him an offer" (I just didn't feel like lugging that thing around with me, having just arrived).

Anyway, we finally made ready to go, with a small bag of misc. goodies in tow...and lo & behold, the Heath rig was still there. "Will you take 30...?" I asked. "No," came the reply from the vendor, "But I will take $35.00." Sold. What the heck...? The p.s. alone is probably worth more than that anyway...

"Does it work?" I queried. "I don't know," he answered. 

"Do you have a manual?"

"No, but a buddy of mine who's tail-gating here has one."

Five minutes --- and five bucks for the manual --- later, I walked out of the 'fest with my HW-32A, HP-23B p.s., & original maual. Total price: $40.00. Condition: Drake-style knobs on the rig, dirty, missing dial cursor, otherwise electrical condition unknown. I got it home, fired-up at the kitchen table into a 100-watt light bulb --- NO smoke, LOTSA RF output! Hmmm. I wonder how it actually plays on the air...?

I just got the rotator under my 3-element tri-bander fixed this past week. I turned it to central Europe, & seeing as how beautiful (88-F & LOTSA sun!) a day it was yesterday, I dragged the works outside --- along with the end of my antenna feeder & extension cord to a prch-mounted AC receptacle --- & hastily set-up on our patio table, 'neath a canopy-like overhead. Turned the rig on.

Wow...

The ITU contest was in FULL SWING, & it was wall-to-wall Europeans. What the heck, I had my Heil HC-5 cartridged mic plugged-in, & away I went, answering any & all CQ's that I heard. Well, some one & a half hours & four log sheets later, I was convinced the thing worked A-OK on the air, too. Managed to work practically EVERYTHING I could hear, too, including most all of Europe, Tanzania, & even the West / South-West U.S., with the beam set 45-degrees N/E! Even heard a "9K9" (Kuwait) calling CQ, but the QRM was intense, as you might well imagine,

Rare, indeed, are the times when I had THAT much fun for so very LITTLE an outlay in cash. Those old Heathkits continue to spread joy & happiness about the land, given the chance! As I told my XYL, whoever says Ham Radio is expensive must have a LOT more money in his / her pocket than brains in his head. You really CAN stilll have a blast in this wonderful hobby of ours, and with an absolute minimum budget --- proof of the pudding is the ol' green Heath machine here that made it all possible this weekend...

Sorry if my tale here bored you, but it was SUCH a "feel-good" day for me that I just had to unload...!

~73!~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ

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