01/04/2010 | K5BZH This was my fifth year to participate and the most SKN contacts I have ever made. For the record, this specific SKN happened on a Blue Moon. All of my contacts were made on 40 meters and it was probably the worst conditions I have experienced for SKN, a tremendous amount of QRN, some wicked QSB, and in many cases, some pretty weak signals, then at times some QRM. With all of that it still turned out to be my most fun year.

My biggest disappointment was my intentions to have a couple of Command Sets ready for the 2010 SKN didnt materialize as I simply procrastinated too long. An alternative plan was to use a homebrew 6AG7-2E26 rig that I built in the late sixties or early seventies. A broken 2E26 with no spares handy kept that from happening. There is a message here, take action sooner.

I ran my Icom IC-7000 with a German made Schurr handkey. The antenna was a recently erected ground mounted 14AVQ trap vertical. The only old thing in this picture was the operator who is over 65.

During SKN 2010 I worked a lot of folks that were running boat anchors. Without a doubt the vintage rig with the best sounding note that I worked came from a Collins 32V3 that belonged to K5LYT. He had it paired with a 75A4. Then there was N6EVs Viking Ranger, it had a bit of a signature to it, that was the reason I responded to his CQ, knew it was old. Not a bad note though, but one that had a little age on it. One fellow in Oklahoma was using a Harvey Wells Bandmaster with the matching VFO. Its note wasnt up to par, there was detectable chirp plus drift bad enough that I had to keep my left hand on the tuning control of my IC-7000 to keep it tuned to where I could copy the code. A friend here in Amarillo was running his vintage Heathkit DX-100, it had a slight chirp and a drift issue too, though not nearly as bad as the Harvey Wells. Another old transmitter I recall was a Hallicrafters HT-40. Does a Ten Tec Century 21 count as a vintage rig? I tend to think it now does. Ah the memories, sure brought forth a smile from an old geezer hitting the ether in 1955 with a novice ticket. As I type this, I realize that most of the operators running SKN were pretty seasoned too.

K5BZH worked the following 22 stations: K6RB, K4HPP, W9KMP, N0SAP, K0LWV, K5KW, K5JUC, WA5ETK, N6EV, XE2HUM, WF5W, K5LG, W0CCA, KD0AUN, WD5FOI, WA5BDU, K0APR, K5LYT, N5LUL, W5XW, W7MBR, and N4BBB. They QTHs included AR, CA, CO, IL, MO, NE, OK, TN, TX, UT, and Mexico.

I worked 6 Texas stations. Three of them were here in Amarillo. If I add myself to those 6, that makes 7. Some snooping and I have uncovered another 25 Texas stations that participated in SKN 2010. That brings the number to 32. There has to be more, when the dust settles there just might a new record established. -- K5BZH