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United We Stand |
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Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club, Inc. |
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Fritz Bertelt
WØKO, Repeater Trustee, Sunshine Chairman, |
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Fritz
started in ham radio while in high school. His first call was KNØMAH.
Later it was KØMAH. During this time he was involved
with the Paul Bunyan Area Amateur Radio Club at the high school. After college he helped reorganize the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club while teaching at Washington High School in Brainerd. In 1968 Fritz started teaching German and English on the college level at Bemidji State University, then Worthington Community College, and since 1974 at the Brainerd Community College (now known as Central Lakes College). One of the charter members in the Club in the 1970's, Fritz now has the call WØKO. His brother Wil is W6SAL. His wife, Judy NØGFE, applied for and got Fritz's old call KØMAH. Fritz and Judy live north of Brainerd about 3 miles. Like a few others in the Club, Fritz is also a Volunteer Examiner. His daytime telephone number is 218-855-8162. E-mail: w0ko at arrl.net (replace the at with the familiar "@" sign.) This is called "munging" the e-mail address in the posting so that "spam harvesters" can't recognize it as an e-mail address. |
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From the October 2007
BAARCer Newsletter:
In junior high I started with building a fox-hole radio using a diagram I found in a book about radio and television. After also listening to a lot of shortwave broadcasts and Hams on AM on a tube-type radio, I slowly got into the hobby. I was licensed in 1957. My brother Wil [formerly KØRJO and W6SAL (SK)] followed me into the hobby which he and I shared from our house in Baxter.
Before I got my first call sign KNØMAH, I had already purchased a Hallicrafters SX-99 receiver. While I was waiting for the license to arrive, I built a Heathkit DX-40. On the day the ticket arrived, I remember my first contact was with WN6NGB on 15 meters. I used a 40-meter dipole strung between two poles. No antenna tuner was used—the pi-network did all the necessary matching and I never knew what the SWR was, nor did I care. If the transmitter loaded up, it worked. I just wanted to make CW QSO’s.
For Novices like me, it meant we were power restricted (75 watts) and had to have crystal control of the transmitter. Thus, it was common for new Hams to get an ARRL Official Observer notice for out-of-band operation because the operator forgot to check the fundamental of the crystal against the band that was to be used. For instance, a Novice would use a 7050 KHz crystal and triple it for 15-meters on 21,150 KHz----legal. However, if he forgot the band switch position and left it on 40, he would be transmitting in an illegal portion of 40 meters, out of band for his license class. Of course, that never happened to me. Ha!
During these years I have had a lot of fun in the hobby—even being Emergency Coordinator (ARRL) for Crow Wing County while I was in high school. As far as I know, I was the first at that age in MN, and I worked with Joe Nolan, former city police officer, judge, and county emergency/civil defense director.
There is so much to share. Some other material about this Club and our high school club and early years can be found on our website. Some of that I wrote previously. Still, my most humorous memory from the past (one I have shared with a few after the statute of limitations had run out on my “crime”) is the following and concerned my brother--then KØRJO. You see, we were always competing in the hobby and he let me take the lead always hoping he would benefit later. His bedroom was upstairs in our house and mine was downstairs. I offered to let him use my station, but he would have to contribute money and in that way we would have one good station instead of two average ones. His response was that we probably could never agree on who would get to operate when, so he thought it was best to set up our own separate stations in the same house. Mom and Dad never interfered and saw ham radio as a hobby to keep us both out of trouble. So whenever I got a “new” piece of gear, I pawned the old off on my brother. He always thought he was getting a good deal. After he got his station on the air with a separate antenna and my “old” equipment, he wanted to make a contact on 80 CW in the afternoon. This was my chance to pull a good one on my younger brother. While he was calling CQ and not getting an answer, I was listening to him with earphones on my receiver from my downstairs station. While listening, I had my VFO ready to transmit a weak signal. After a few minutes of hearing his endless CQ’s and when no one would answer him, I pretended to be a German station and replied to his CQ. I could hardly contain myself downstairs as I had him royally fooled.
After signing off with the “German” ham after a not-so-brief QSO, he flew downstairs and yelled excitedly that he had just worked Germany. By then my rig was quickly turned off and I was doing my ”homework.” I told him that I doubted the QSO since it was on 80 meters and in the afternoon. Even though it was during a good portion of the sunspot cycle, you could not work DX like that on that band at that time of the day. Besides, he was only running 75 watts on a wire antenna. As I recall, he tried to convince me of the validity of that DX QSO by giving me the German call sign, QTH as Berlin, and that the operator’s name was Hans—and, finally, he showed me his important log entry. Managing with great difficulty to keep a straight face I let him enjoy his “DX” contact for a short time. Needless to say, all good things had to come to an end—so later I told him the facts of my prank.
Of course, he was “ticked” and probably threatened to call the FCC for my using an illegal call sign—a false signal. Often, in the years before his death, we both fondly recalled that event—or, rather, I reminded him of his fabulous DX contact that afternoon.
Another reminiscence I wanted to share was related to my beginnings with Judy (ex-KAØTMZ, ex-NØGFE, now KØMAH). Judy and I grew up as high school sweethearts. When we were dating, her mom was concerned about all the time we were spending together in the car. However, Judy reassured her that we were just “hamming.” She explained that I had a rig in the front seat, and the date consisted of a lot of hamming— but that is not what her mom was worried about. At that time I had a Gonset AF 67 transmitter and converter under the dash of a 1951 Ford sedan. Besides, there was not much more room in the ”front” seat of the car. HI. For those technically interested at this point in the narrative, the antenna was a whip with an EF Johnson base-loaded coil that was switchable for 80-10 meters. Of course, we were using AM in those days. The converter changed the broadcast radio to shortwave and included the Ham frequencies.
Perhaps I should also mention two other events: both public service opportunities for Ham Radio. The first occurred when I was in high school. It was the fall of 1958 as I recall. The weather could change quickly—and it did when a massive ice storm blanketed the North Shore. There were power outages and the only reliable communication was with Ham Radio. After doing some home work, I turned on the rig on 75 meters and heard the discussion about the need for someone to copy messages from a weak CW station (W
ØBBN—Doc Smith from Grand Marais). He had a low-power station on CW, and news of the outages needed to reach Duluth. I volunteered to copy the messages from him and others on CW and relayed them on the phone net. Later, I was sent a public service commendation from the ARRL.However, the most memorable for me was message handling during the first Gulf War. The neat thing was that Judy was able to participate in it and it still leaves a warm spot in our hearts when we talk about it today. Here is how it came about—completely out of the blue—just like the MN incident I described here. One March afternoon after arriving home from the college, I turned on the rig and listened to some Europeans. Obviously the band was open, so I made a few contacts with them. After finishing the last DX QSO, I had the best one—one that would stretch over several days from March 1-6 of 1991. An American voice broke in and said:”Break! Break! “ Not knowing exactly what kind of a contact I had, I said, “Go ahead.” Then the voice replied phonetically: “This is TAUS1 and we are 75 miles inside southern Iraq.” I was amazed but still skeptical, so I asked what I could do for him. He said that he and his mobile hospital group were in the middle of a dust storm and he had been listening to me—just bored and probably homesick, I thought. They were in a truck with a 15-foot whip antenna. Since I follow the news, I knew that many soldiers had not received actual mail from home for weeks, so Judy and I offered our services—make phone calls to family and get replies. Tim, the guy operating from Iraq said no to our offer because it would cost us too much money. We insisted and after gaining their trust, they allowed us to provide a human link to some of their families in the San Antonio area. Judy made several phone calls and got replies which we sent back to the guys in the truck. Then propagation changed, so Tim and I agreed to try each day at the same time. Fortunately we connected for several more days and were at least able to make some stateside families happy while keeping the soldiers’ spirits up. We still have the records in a folder: I re-read thank-you notes from grateful families. Needless to say, yes—we did something any Ham would do---but those soldiers and their families allowed us to enjoy this hobby to the fullest.
As an afterthought—when Tim got back to San Antonio, we talked by phone and I asked him why he called me that day. He said I was the only American station he could copy at the time. Then regarding that weird call sign, he said that they were issued expired US call signs, but he had forgotten his. So since they were allowed to use the equipment when not in military use, he made up the TAUS1—which stood for Tim and next letter A began his last name, which I will not reveal here. The US1 became a suffix. He would say, “This is Tango Alpha Uniform Sierra 1.” As he told me, it meant Tim A. United States #1. Of course, he made all of us proud with that.
A postscript: After making a few of these contacts, technically illegally, I contacted the FCC—out of guilt. I told them what I had done and that I probably would do it again because of the unique circumstances. The FCC official said that he had not received any violation notices on me. Could I have special dispensation from the rules? Rather than answering directly, he hinted that I was asking too many question and that under these circumstances the FCC would look the other way. Fritz WØKO
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This page was last updated 02/16/2009
