On 12 Apr 2004 12:28:46 -0700, (Mark Keith) wrote:

|Wes Stewart wrote in message . ..
| On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 14:03:29 GMT, "BJ" wrote:
|
| |Submit your photos for May's featu
| |
| |http://www.k2bj.com
|
| Don't consider this an "entry" and it IS NOT to become the property of
| k2bj.com but you might be interested in a real mobile rig, circa 1958.
|
| http://www.qsl.net/n7ws/w7uvr.jpg
|
| This was the qsl set from my "Elmer", Lee, W7UVR, SK.
|
| 4-1000A/parallel-pp 813 1KW high-level plate modulated AM in motion.
| Later SSB equipment added.
|
| 5KW generator. Later upgraded to 15KW
|
| Remotely tuned whip antennas with motorized vacuum caps and coils.
|
| 30' pneumatic mast with folded two-element beam (later upgraded to
| 3-el) for stationary operation.
|
|Those are some manly loading coils...Would hate to see the price of
|those in todays $$$$...I've seen that mobile somewhere before...Maybe
|in an old QST or something...But somewhere I think I have an article
|about that car. Was he into civil defense or something like that?
|Seems to ring a vaque bell...Seems like in the article, the car was
|mainly set up for emergency CD use...MK

Lee was shall we say, a little different. He was trained as an
engineer and I believe spent some time in the Coast Guard before his
dad died and left him a very substantial trust fund income. At this
point, he "retired" to pursue other interests, as they say.

He was a neighbor of ours (my parents and me), why I do not know,
since he was very well off and we definitely were not. The properties
were suburban and measured one acre, but his had a power line that was
very noisy. Instead of moving, he built the mobile. It wasn't for
emergency use so much as for DXing. I think it was on the cover of CQ
magazine, but I couldn't afford subscriptions in those days so I'm not
sure.

His home station was the classic setup of a master exciter, modulator
and power supply with individual amplifiers for each band. These were
p-p 304TLs, high level modulated. All of this stuff was in a series
of 6-foot rack cabinets built into a wall with access from the rear
and a huge horseshoe shaped operating console in the middle of the
room.

Receivers were always the latest of whatever was perceived as the
best. His castaways were always donated to the VA hospital radio club
so he could take a tax write-off. I tried to weasel things out of him
but he always said that until I became a non-profit charity I was SOL.
[g]

Since he couldn't hear anything, he became an ARRL Official Bulletin
Station and would relay ARRL messages on a published schedule. I
helped install his 80-40 meter vertical. This was fed with
nitrogen-filled rigid coax. I did the grunt work installing the
radial system; spending a couple of days driving ground rods at the
end of each of about 60 radials and stretching out the wire. These
were laid on the ground and then a landscaper was called in to cover
them with topsoil. My "pay" was a 30' aluminum tower that I picked up
and carried the block or so to my house. I was about 16 at the time.

When Collins came out with the noise blanker for the 75A-4, he could
finally hear from the home location. He had a Telrex "Christmas tree"
stack and a four-square for 40 meters, plus the other vertical. When
SSB got more popular he scrapped the AM amplifiers and bought five
Collins 32S-1's and five Gonset GSB-201 amplifiers for the OBS
station. Of course, he had the requisite KWS-1 as well.

The mobile went to SSB at an early date as well with a Technical
Material Corp SSB generator driving the 4-1000A.

There is another interesting story about the BOCAR sports car that he
bought but that will keep for another day.

Wes