For my fourth ever SKN, I finally got a vintage radio.  Even though my normal HF station is a 27 year old Yaesu FT-767GX, I wanted to get a Heathkit rig reminiscent of when I started out as a Novice in Chicago in 1966 at age 13.  Therefore I bought two HW-8s at different hamfests in 2014.  While the HW-8 is not the same as the DX60 I once had, at least I could fit these small QRP radios in my shack.  I did not get either of them on the air until this SKN.  My accessories were a J-38 key on a leg bracket and an old  pair of Trimm type L headphones.  I was pleasantly surprised when the first station I answered calling CQ was Howie WB2AWQ in Reno who gave me a 579.  We had a nice 17 minute QSO -  not bad for 1 watt!  However my QRP signal just could not be heard by any other stations so I needed to increase my power if I was going to be able to continue SKN.  I remembered an old solid state CB style amplifier I had purchased years ago at a hamfest.  I searched my garage and located the Palomar Skipper.  When I hooked it up to the HW-8, I was putting out 40 watts to my 40 meter dipole and 15 meter beam.  This made all the difference since I started working stations in NJ, ID, and HI.  My vote for the most interesting QSO was a one hour chat I had with Mike WA6ARA in Ridgecrest, CA who was running the Heathkit DX-60 HR-10 combo.  Mike and I had worked each other previously on SOTAs (summits-on-the-air) but never had a long QSO.  I found out we had a similar pattern of getting into ham radio at a young age.  So SKN 2015 brought back a lot of memories for me since now I am on par with the multitude of other SKN operators using old gear.

 CUAGN de Scott, Los Angeles