[Vwdiesel] Limping, cold and ham radio

[Mike & Coreen Smith]

Val,

Great story !  Wish I had one to match.........but I will agree.  Ham radio
has "mostly" gone the way of the Internet.  I just moved and even though I
am a DXer (6m & HF mostly) I do have 2m FM in all the cars.
>From my new ridgetop QTH I can key up 25-30 repeaters here in VE9 land (NB,
Canada)......you know what......it's rare to hear anyone on...........sad.

Some of my favorite driving times were back in the mid 80's.......driving my
Ford Escort Stationwagon.
One of the ways I kept warm in the the winter was with my screeching whiney,
switching powersupply powering a Hot Water -101 (Heathkit, full sized, tube
rig) mounted where the glove compartment normally resided.  Had to remember
not to shut the car off and run that rig key down (or SSB) for more than a
few minutes, or there would be no battery to crank it when it was time to go
again.  Once or twice I forgot, so I got into the habit of just parking on a
hill, nose down !

I worked 9N1MM (Father Moran in Nepal) late one night on 20m while in
motion.

Ahhhhhh, the days........if I only had a diesel I could've cured all that
nasty QRN.

Now back to some more stories.

73 de VE9AA Mike

Mike, Coreen & Corey Smith
699 Rte 616 Keswick Ridge
NB
Canada
E6L 1T1
----- Original Message -----
From: "Val Christian" <val at swamps.roc.ny.us>
To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:12 PM
Subject: [Vwdiesel] Limping, cold and ham radio


> Back in the early 80's, when Jet Fuel powered VWs were pretty common, and
> also got a bad rap, there were select groups of smarter and handsomer
folks
> who sought after these cars.  Included in that population were ham radio
> folks.  Without any ignition noise, and able to idle a full weekend on
> a tank of fuel, the diesel Rabbit was rather popular.
>
> In Western NY there were about a dozen of us, spread between Glens Falls
> and Buffalo, who would meet on various repeaters and other bands and
> swap car stories.  I got parts, gave parts, and sometimes lended a hand
> to some of the locals.  Waxing at 6am on a Saturday was not a beauty
> procedure.  Rather it would get a couple of other hams out of bed,
> heating up a load of fuel, and running out to meet you.  After several
> look-alike cars with antennas convened where the failed one was
struggling,
> the group would wander to a greasy spoon to park and idle.  (These days
> they'd probably feed more than their stomachs at a greasy spoon.)
>
> One of my cars had a bad fuel guage, and more than once, a local ham,
> W2XG left the girls at his dairy operation to run me a gallon or two
> of fuel.  There was a time when a transient ham, traveling I-90 ran out
> just a couple of miles short of the rest area where there was diesel.
> I jumped the fence, and gave him a gallon, and made sure he made it
> to the rest area, following him on the radio.
>
> Cellphones have cut the ranks of ham radio, and it seems like we
> all have less spare time to yack.  The networks were great.  I had a
> press, gas welding equipment and compression guages.  Carl, in Rose,
> had an injector tester made from a 2 ton bottle jack.  Otto, in
> Chili, was a shop instructor, and was great at making special fixtures
> and tools.  Have a problem on the road?  It was better than AAA will
> ever be.
>
> Val
>
> ps: Still cold here.  Right now, 6:40PM, it's -4F outside.  According to
> my E6B (anyone know that computer?) it's -20C.
>
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