2014 Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party

It was an interesting Bruce Kelley 1929 QSO Party this year. I learned a little more about using my own 1929 equipment and greater appreciation for the skill of those hams 85 years ago.

Getting my SW5 on the same frequency as my transmitter was the greatest challenge.

Fortunately I could tune my KX3 to my transmitter frequency using the KX3 as my code/signal monitor and then get the SW5 on frequency by tuning it and listening for the KX3 local oscillator.

I was never totally satisfied with the stability of my Hartley but, in reality, it may have been good enough of the BK. At the last minute I switched it out for my TNT. My TNT is a push-pull design with two tubes is push-pull across the tank circuit. Any inter-electrode capacitance change is cut in half so drift due to this capacitance change is also cut in half.

As mentioned earlier I tamed my SW5 considerably by converting the tuned RF stage to an untuned RF stage. This required only plugging a new "coil" consisting of an RF choke and capacitor.

All in all I made 16 contacts on 80 including Maine, British Columbia and North Carolina....not too bad for my 2-3 watts into a low endfed wire.

My friend W7BGO caught me on the air and recorded two of my QSOs, one with K0EOO and the other with KE0Z.

Listen to recording of my QSO with K0EOO and his 1926 Hartley:

Listen to recording of my QSO with KE0Z and his 1929 Hartley: