J-38 Telegraph Key from the Hartford/Slocomb Railroad.
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I used this Key and radio in the 2019 Straight Key Night. The following are my comments and results. Not much of an effort but fun none the less. Hello and thanks for organizing the 2019 Straight Key Night.
Attached is my log, such as it is. The website did not indicated what format was required. So I have used the .txt format. If you need something else, please let me know.
I think that Steve/AI9IN was my most enjoyable QSO. We had a genuine conversation. Second most enjoyable was with Rich/N3III, we too had a nice QSO. The other were a bit more structured, but I appreciated the QSOs! I would share in this evaluation also, because I was probably pretty stiff on my side of the QSO.. hi hi
Even though I only made 9 QSOs, I am quite proud that I pulled it off. It had been 39+ years since I had use a straight key! I passed the General Exam in Atlanta FCC office Sep 1979. I was enroute to Germany for my next USAF assignment. I don't remember using my Straight Key after that,
although I have done many CW contests over the years using computer generate CW.
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I will say that I had a bit more motivation to give Straight Key Night a try this year. A few years ago, I acquired a 1953 vintage J-38 (see attached pic). It is a bit rustic looking these days, but still very functional. This key was one used with the Hartford Slocomb Railroad from 1954 to 1992. This was a shortline railroad that was about 22 miles long from Hartford, Alabama to Dothan, Alabama. The railroad use to transport commodities (cotton, peanuts and produce) from the farmers as well as a few passengers to Dothan.
I was honored to again create some dits and dahs with this J-38 and extend the useful purpose/life of it once again, albeit very slowly. I look forward to using it again in the future.
BTW on the left side of the radio is a Nye Viking Straight Key that my brother (Ed) N4JTP gave me for Christmas in 1978, both of us had just received our Novice tickets in Aug/Sep 1978--I don't remember exactly, perhaps I will use it next year in SKN. BTW my brother is still active in Ham Radio.
Once again, thanks for sponsoring this event.
73, Jim/KC4HW
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2019 SKN.txt (1 KB, text/plain)
Chronological Log
SEQ DATE TIME FREQ CALL 160 80 60 40 30 20 17 15 12 10 6 COUNTRY PREF SNT RCV PWR Name-QTH
1 2019-01-01 0104 3548 NI0R 1 United States K 599 599 Roger - St Joe MO
2 0151 7117 A19IN 1 United States K 599 599 steve - In
3 0202 7117 N9UUI United States K 599 599 bob - In
4 0212 7117 WD8BXH United States K 599 599 chuck - In
5 0249 7119 N5IXA United States K 599 599 randy - Ok
6 1228 3551 N3III United States K 599 599 rich - Freeland, MD
7 1555 7117 W5IA United States K 599 599 Bill - OK
8 2059 7117 W3ZWN United States K 599 599 JOHN - COLUMBIA SC
9 2108 7117 K0BOG United States K 599 599 CHUCK - GREATBEND KS
