As our 50th year comes to a close, our 80 CW station recreated a station that may have been used by a KWARC member in 1947. This World War II MARK III 19 Set tank radio was salvaged from the scrap heap and brought back to life by Gord, VE3EOS.

Gord has made numerous engineering changes to the original design replacing certain original life threatening design issues (such as B+ on both sides of the key jack). However, like the throaty roar of a Harley Davidson motorcycle engine, the raspy chirpy CW signal remains untouched.

Gords setup was the featured photo in Monday, June 30th's K-W Record article on this years Field Day.

Another piece of vintage CW equipment was this US Army portable Spy Set from the early Vietnam War era. Featuring crystal controlled operation, this little suitcase beauty is also owned by Gord and is shown here being operated by Dave Sullivan VE3RBA. This little rig produced a clean, albeit rockbound signal on 80 metre CW.

One major headache for Dave and Gord was the fact that people who call CQ these days do not tune up and down the band a few kHz from their calling frequency looking for someone calling them. Oh well.... such is progress??

Mark Schwindt, VE3THG had a real last minute emergency when his planned 40 feet of construction scaffolding failed to appear. Undaunted by this hiccup, he quickly borrowed an aluminum extension ladder, a few feet of sturdy rope and produced a 30 foot guyed tower for use on 6 and 2 metre SSB.

Here, Mark VE3THG, Andy VE3SXK and Dave VA3DGS do some last minute checks for tight hardware and ropes in preparation to erect the stacked array complete with rotator.

Our youngest licenced operator was Paul VA3VCI. Paul recently received his 5wpm upgrade allowing him to operate 80 metre phone and is the Grandson of Dex W2VCI.

Paul was assisting Dave Knight VE3PMT at the KWARC 80 phone position. At last count, they were moving towards 300 contacts using a vintage FT101ZD that used some electronic glass devices that Paul thought were called tubes :-).

Your editor and photog, Paul Cassel VE3SY, operated 40ssb using a dipole and a TS440 from the back seat of his car. Since I have yet to master self photography, there is no photo available. I also enjoyed making a CW contact with the CW Spy Radio. Gave one a feeling of what it must have been like during war time tapping out a message that could have involved life or death for our servicemen.

THANKS ONCE AGAIN TO EILEEN AND HUBBIE
No KWARC Field Day is ever complete without the famous Eileen and Hubbie Stumpf chilli feast. This couple has been preparing a steaming pot of chilli for as far back as one can remember. Eileen commented that she was disappointed to see the number of stations and participants drop each year. Eileen has attended most Field Day events and watched many of us grow from energetic young teen-age hams to our current Grey hair not so energetic form.

Thanks also to the following:

• Ron and Marlene Fretz, OM/OL of William VE3WLL our Field Day coordinator, for arranging dinner and breakfast
  
• Dave Knight VE3PMT and M&M Meat Shops for the burgers and hotdogs
  
• Frank Parsons VE3OFH for his tireless efforts at stringing what must have been a mile of 00 gauge power distribution cabling from CKCO-TV.
  
• Terry Taylor VE3NEJ and Bell Mobility for the supply of a 50kw generator.
  
• Dave Schwartz VA3DGS for arranging our publicity, preparing a Club sign and arranging for his wife Pat to bake some delicious sweets for Sunday's breakfast
  
• And whoever I may have overlooked.....THANK YOU.
  CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

  Ed.