K4CHE Delaware First's

I am proud to state that I have accomplished the following Amateur Radio related projects and tasks since residing in Dover,Delaware the Technical Black Hole of the East Coast.

 

     
     
     First Delaware UHF QSO on FM and CW.  
     One of the first active SSB and CW station on 6 and 2 meters and the first to utilized home-brew equipment on SSB on 6 and 2. This was BJRB*  
     First operational Fast Scan TV transmission.  
   First Delaware ham author to publish in all Major Ham magazines including 73,CQ, QST, World Radio, and Electric Radio.            




     First Delaware station to win the ARRL Sweepstakes CW and Phone single operator award in the same month in the A Precedence using less than 150 watts.		  
    


      First ARRL Volunteer Examiner to complete initial certification in Delaware.		  
      



         Installed and participated in design of the First Reverse auto patch in Delaware that was reliable.
     
      First ham club speaker to present semi-formal presentations at Radio clubs in all counties of the state.  
     First Delaware 2 meter station to actively use E skip to talk to the Mid-Western U.S. using SSB and CW.    
      



           First Delaware amateur non commercial-non funded station to access 9600 baud satellites. Equipment utilized was modified GE FM mobiles units (IOW Junk!). With this project I designed a stable oscillator tracking system so that the rock bound mobile unit receiver could be tuned for Doppler shift. The narrow band IF's of the receiver were re-aligned using sweep generators for wide band reception of the 9600 data. Budget for the receiver and transmitter project was under 70 dollars. 		 
       




            First Delaware station to use 220 and 432 Mcs CW. First station in Delaware to use a remotely keyed 432 CW station. I was using junk so I had to cut down the feed line loss.
    First fox hunt coordinator in Delaware to use self contained fox boxes with preset timers and hide portable self powered fox boxes for transmitter hunting. First to use real voice audio to ID the boxes and to entice the hunters. . .    
      First in Delaware to modify FM mobile receivers and install a Product Detector (BFO) to detect weak signals during transmitter hunts. This was before the Rice Boxes that we have today that can do anything and take all the fun out of radio and not to mention deplete our pocket books.  
     


          First Delaware Station in Central Delaware to transmit on 1296 Mcs. I used a highly modified APX-6. 		 
     






               First station in Delaware to operate VHF and UHF contests from the top of Dover Downs. There were no nearby hills. Also at this time and there were no elevators installed in the "Press Boxes" of Dover Downs. This made the project very physical. 		 
   First in Delaware to design and fabricate a fox box that would vary frequency, deviation, and output power. The unit was completely self contained and had a internal timer and drove the hunters nuts. 

 

 

 

 

  






      First UHF station in Delaware to use a four beam stacked array on UHF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    



       Assembled and installed the first repeater in Delaware to have programmable voice announcements.

    First amateur mobile station in Delaware to have a permanent installed VHF Doppler DF system in a vehicle and to use this for fox hunting and to track and located eliminate harmful interference and stuck microphones.The equipment was home brew. Same for UHF  





















  Built and installed the First repeater in Delaware to have a audible S- meter.
  First amateur station in the U.S. to bring to the attention of ARRL and the Board of Directors the problems and the stupidity of the LiTZ(Long Interval Touch-tone Zero) warning system and the reason it world not consistently work on "Amateur Repeaters" and that the LiTZ concept was a complete waste of the League’s and Amateur Radio Operators time. That's why you do not see LiTZ in consistent use today. See QST FM Columns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   First in Delaware to hide miniature 10 mw fox boxes and pioneer overland rough terrain fox hunts in Delaware so that some of these hams could work off some extra pounds.    




       First Successful field day station in Delaware that was powered by natural power using solar power and large banks of capacitor's .No batteries were needed.
     





        First Delaware station to earn 4 Band awards for 50,144, 220 and 432 in the VHF sweepstakes in a single contest.		  
   First amateur station in Delaware to detect Sun Noise on the UHF frequencies and use this for calibration of antennas and to check system performance. Again the equipment was modified GE mobile units(Junk) purchased at a hamfest for a mere pittance.       












              Designed and hid the first UHF fox boxes on 446 Mcs.
   



           		  
  First Delaware fox hunt coordinator to hide multiple boxes to keep the hams busy after finding the first transmitter and prevent them from making a mass exodus to the nearest diner for consumption of vast quantities.        First Delaware Field Day VHF 2 meter operator to talk to Cuba via E skip using CW.
 



      First in Delaware to recognize and use the Motorola M68HC11 8-bit MCU to control amateur equipment and fox boxes. The 68HCII was provided by LDG incorporated. Articles written and published in 73 Magazine 		 
First military collector to develop a working and stable RIT mod for the PRC-47 transceiver. See index.

 

 

 

 

    First in Delaware to use a programed PIC chip in fox box and as a CW Ider See 73 Magazine
     As a Delaware ARRL Field Day participant I was attending the local club’s morning breakfast at Hall's Family Restaurant in Wyoming , Delaware. It was the club’s tradition to have morning coffee and then head out to the field day site for an early start at setting up. However this tradition had degraded over the years and a good portion of the morning is now spent eating breakfast and not setting up. I was the first to observe and accurately forecast the following physical phenomena of one of the local hams. Narrative: The ham starting his consumption of the meal at approximately 0830 hours on a Field Day Saturday morning and ending the feeding at 0910. Since I was in close proximity at the same table I was able to observe and accurately forecast the later physical behavior of the ham whom I observed consuming vast quantities of scrapple, eggs, bacon, pancakes, biscuits, honey,toast, donuts, jelly and sausage. While I drank my orange juice and consumed one bagel my observations allowed me to accurately predict the time, location and even the size of chunks that were ejected from the ham's interior. This ejection occurred exactly two hours later at the morning antenna party which took place at the Field Day site. Ambient temperature at the time of the event was 95 degrees F with a very high humidity of 87 percent. However, undaunted the amateur consumed two hamburgers at 11: 15 and a ham and cheese sub just prior to the beginning of the contest.      First Successful field day station in Delaware that was powered by natural power using a hand crank generator and no batteries .First Delaware Field day picture to be published in QST.

  First Delaware operator in the Rover Class to operate from all counties of the state during the January VHF sweepstakes. See QST for photo

 

 

 

 

 

    First successful Delaware Field Day satellite station that was completely transportable and could be set up in 2 minutes and still earn full points. See AMSAT journal

    First Delaware amateur on the East Coast to construct and build a miniature 2 meter transmitter for Super Loki Rocket launches that could and did survive the G forces of the launch, Launch sponsored by The Aerospace Education Department and the Delaware AeroSpace Education      First in the nation to develop a spotting system for the           RS-6 spy radio. Have you tried operating the radio? .
    First in Delaware to set up an operational M151A-1 with military equipment on the amateur bands at a major Air Show.

 

   First Delaware Rover Station to participate in the January VHF Sweepstakes.

 

     First Delaware VHF simplex repeater on 146 Mcs.

First East Coast participant to take first place in the "on foot" UHF fox hunt at the Indianapolis hamfest and convention.

    First Delaware Amateur Radio Web page with substance.

First Delaware station to participate in the Antique Wireless Association "Bruce Kelly 1929 QSO Party" using home brew transmitter

 

First Delware Station to place in the top ten of the Classic Radio Exchange Contest.
Classic Radio Exchange Web Site

First and the Only Delaware station to receive the Grimeton Alternator SAQ on frequency 17.2 Kcs. see
        Grimeton SAQ


    First wideband FM simplex repeater on 50.1 Mcs in Delaware and Maryland. Repeater utilized the "military tone" of 150 cycles.

First Delaware ham to check into the Dayton Hamvention 3885 military net with a BC-611 and the 51.0 Mcs Cold War Net with a correct period PRC-6. Not some plastic rice box or PRC-68.

    First Delaware station to display and participate in the Military Radio Collectors Association annual meeting.
   First Delaware station to use the new 60 meter channel 5.375 Mcs. First Delaware station to use CW on 60 meters.    
      

         
        I have had enough- Return to Index.