Completing the last page of my 32nd RSGB log book recently made me think of the information recorded within its pages and those of its predecessors.
I know that Sean EI7CV and I have completed 2033 weekend contacts over the past 45 years but what about the lunchtime net? What do my records show about that?
32 RSGB logbooks each containing 80 pages, with 26 lines per page. That's 66,560 entries, the first of mine being a top band AM contact with Eric Letts G3RXJ on the 13.10.1967.
My lunchtime net started on 1.9.1979, a 15m SSB contact with HO Townsend (then WA5MLT, later K5CX) when he was living in Norman Oklahoma. My eldest son David had just arrived at Oklahoma University to take his Masters Degree and HO promised to look after the 20yr old during his stay.
HO and I then started a daily sked, which developed into a net including MSARS members and others over the years. When David moved to Pensacola Florida, the net began to include local amateurs in the Serious Hams ARC (SHARC) including Mike N4MAD, and of course Bob, N4XAT who later moved to New Jersey and remains a very active member of the net today.
HO you may remember came over to Louis G5RV’s funeral as an official representative of the ARRL and met many MSARS members on that occasion. I’m still in touch with Anita N5AOK HO’s widow who is now living in Texas.
From 1.9.1979 to date is 43 years plus 2 months and another 10 days for leap years and at 5 contacts a week means that the lunchtime net has, so far, met on 11230 occasions with a few breaks for holidays etc. Think about that when you next log on to 21,345! There have been one or two forays onto 20m at the depth of some particularly bad cycles but in general the net has been on 15m for most of its life and I suppose you could say that we are very well known there.
My log books also contain records of contacts with many other long-term friends. Who remembers Dell Popplewell K4NBN (No Bad News) for example and how many of you have worked a King (JY1)?
Nowadays log keeping is digital and many amateurs don’t even keep them, but perhaps they are missing something in not being able to pick up an old logbook and remember contacts made many years ago.
Ken Gibson G3WYN
