By Martyn Seay ZL3CK
AM operation on 80 metres during H Night (8 December) went well again this year. It was the fourth one we have had in recent times.
I recall my first H Night about 15 years ago at Musick Point when I brought along my ZC1 – what a waste of time! It was, unsurprisingly, completely overloaded by the station’s 250-watt RCA 351 transmitter.
This year at Musick Point ZL1ZLD we made about 45 contacts during H Night.
In the Vintage class we operated the RCA 351 transmitter (known as NZPO #1301) with a Collier & Beale 941 receiver (a NZ version of the famous National HRO receiver).
After three years of failures in getting this setup working for H Night, it was a real pleasure to have a vintage station on the air at last – not without a lot of preparation and testing.
In the Modern class we used the IC-7700 and linear which was hooked up to the Vee beam and also worked very well. It did show that the C&B receiver was a bit deaf, so there’s more work to be done on it.