Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party

This past weekend I was able to put a 1929 transmitter on the air and participate in the AWA Bruce Kelley Memorial 1929 QSO Party.

I stayed on 80 meters making 18 contacts. Stations worked were as far west as VE7SL in British Columbia, as for east as N1BUG in Maine and even a little south to N4GJV in North Carolina.


This year I used a transmitter I acquired from Vance, K5CF (SK). Vance, my step father, gave me my novice test in 1966. He enjoyed ham radio for over 70 years. Several years ago Vance encouraged me to participate in the 1929 QSO Party. Vance's transmitter is a TNT (or Tuned plate Not Tuned grid) transmitter using a single type 210 tube. With 340 volts on the plate it runs 9 watts input and about 2 watts out. Vance built his transmitter based on the one Bill Orr described one in the January 1973 issue of CQ but the original design dates from the 20s. See the December 1929 issue of QST for George Grammer's version of the same transmitter. For an antenna I used a 105' end fed inverted L only about 15' off the ground.

A mid 30's Three Tube Regen

I aquired another radio last week. This one I "won" through ebay. The pictures posted on ebay showed a fairly ughly set with three mis-matched dials. The layout, though, suggested the "Three Tube Regenerative Receiver of Unusual Performance" by George Grammer and written up in the January 1933 issue of QST.











I bid and the gamble paid off. Underneath the flaking paint front panel and cabinet was a fairly nicely done version of George Grammer's design.







George grammer's original article was more than another construction project. He spent a large part of the article talking about features of good regen receiver design before describing "a practical receiver". This receiver includes a tuned RF stage and general coverage/bandspread tuning. Bandspread tuning is via the drum dial at the left after the detector and RF stage bandset capacitors are set. The receiver showed up in the ARRL handbooks through 1937.