K3IW & ECARS Early Years
I have had a long and fun history with ECARS.
The primary reason I did not check into ECARS
before May 1969 was I enlisted in the US Air Force in 1968. After basic training
and technical school my first duty station was Pope Air Force Base near Spring
Lake, NC. While on leave before packing for North Carolina, I traded my
venerable DX-60 and HQ-110AC for a little National NC-200 transceiver. I sought
permission from the base safety people to install a ground-mounted vertical
outside our enlisted troops' barracks, but was turned down. Undaunted, I
resubmitted an application to install a 40 meter dipole between two trees nearly
perfectly spaced outside our second-floor barracks window. That flew. I was on
the air.
My first ECARS log entry was on May 12, 1969 with K2AGZ as NCS. I hope some
old-timers recognize early occupants of 7255kHz in my log entries. Many of those
folks ran phone patches for me and some of my roommates. We had no convenient
telephones then. Notice I checked in a couple of times with "ECARS founding
member Jim Lightfoot, WA1KRN."
Through the years I always enjoyed trying to help service control pick signals
out of the mud--especially mobile operators. ECARS was always the best place to
check how a new or repaired antenna was working, too. During weather events that
closed schools or workplaces, there was no better place to hang out than 7255.
Rather than arranging skeds by picking a frequency, it was always much more
efficient to check into the net, say, "Contact!" and then find a clear spot. One
always had the anchor of ECARS if we lost the contact station or needed to try
another meet-up frequency.
Happy fiftieth anniversary, East Coast Amateur Radio Service. Thanks for what
indeed is a great "service."
73,
Robert A. "Rick" Barrow, K3IW (ex: KN3WPI; K3WPI)
ECARS #3533
First licensed: 1963