I am constantly amazed at the things our talented members are doing behind the scenes.  Eric NO3M, who has become a major league contester in recent years, has another side of his personality that will surprise many:  he is a major ham radio nostalgia buff and has spent considerable time and energy in recreating the kind of amateur equipment that the first generation of American amateurs were using long before we were born.  Eric has occasionally put his 1920’s equipment on the air in 160 meters contests with good results and wondered what it would be like to put a 30s type station on the air in Field Day.  2016 proved to be the year this was accomplished.

For this year’s FD, Eric had to brew up a new transmitter for 40 meters and he invited a bunch of local ham friends to join him for this inaugural event.  The group was excited to see this brand-new old-time station rack up over 150 contacts on Saturday afternoon, all keyed with an old Vibroplex bug and all contacts logged on paper.  Participating in this most unique FD were:  Mike, WA3TTS; Mark from Pittsburgh; Bob, W3BBO; Gerry, W2FD; Dave, KD3EM; Steve, WA3JJT; Barry, WA3GSH; Bill, KB3PLS; Laura, KB3UIG; Larry, N3BWP; and Ted (callsign?) and Austin.

We have added some pictures of this amazing event to the photo gallery (who would have imagined such a thing back in the 1930s??) but there is much more on Eric’s website at http://no3m.net/2016/06/w8cdx-1930s-fd-setup-at-no3m/ including a couple of really fun Youtube videos created by WA3TTS.  There are links on Eric’s website to these videos as well as plenty of other interesting content on this website.  Don’t miss this!