Can Loren Windom's Feat be done Today?

Loren Windom 8GZ worked VK, ZL, PY, and ZS running only 300 mW to a 201-A tube on 40 Meters, while he was using this tube in a Hartley Oscillator. He also did these contacts using a ''199 at 375 mW but we will dwell on the 201-A for this time. Can this be redone today? The answer is probably YES. But the following requirements must be met:

1: Noise: Not any higher than when he did it in 1925/1926. He did the QSO's in December, January, and February, to these southern hemisphere stations ( VK, ZL, PY, FK, ZS ). Thus the hams who heard him did so in their SUMMER, with correspondingly high noise ! Better results would have been acheived during the Equinox-- March and or September-October. Note the PY station ! Amazon region generates much static ! This requirement will be able to be met, with some adjustment. Today urban noise is higher, so may need rural receiving sites.

2: Antenna: Nothing special was used at 8GZ : basically a dipole at 70 feet... a Windom fed by singlewire tapped 9 feet off centre. The Windom was incidentally only 56 feet long! A 135 foot Windom at 80 or 90 feet ought to give a few Db gain over his from 1925. Also easy to meet.

3: Receiver: 1 or 2 tube regen receivers were used, low loss type. Low loss probably means nothing, due to the external atmospheric noise, although Loren insisted on it. A two tube job... he built it on a glass plate. On 40 meters atmospheric noise is the limiting factor. Any loss can be made up for by amplification. So there was less QRM in those days? But regen receivers, although capable of razor sharp selectivity, suffered from "bleedthrough" if a strong signal was nearby. This could mask any very weak signal. Spark signals were still in use then!!Even with todays QRM, modern receivers probably more than make up for this handicap. 40 Meters is now quite empty late at night on the CW subband, during weekday nights, so someone could find a good frequency. Probably still easy to meet.

4: Conditions: So variable that the only argument valid here is "wait for it". The sunspot number was 61 at the time, so go figure ! No super-high conditions such as those in 1957/58 are needed. But we need some solar activity!! (right now, 2019-2020 its pathetically low!!)

5: The Tx.: Loren used a 201-A and "199 running 300 and 375 milliwatts DC input respectively, at 70 volts plate voltage. A parallel wired 6SN7 will give about 6 Db more power over Loren's tubes at the same plate voltage, if the grid leak resistor is lowered to a couple hundred ohms, in the Hartley oscillator. Loren worked MUCH DX using a tube running 105 volts at 12 Milliamps , for a plate DC input of 1.26 watts !

6: Psychological: Loren worked split frequency and the DX he worked tuned the entire band looking for his signals, usually, although the calls listed above probably knew where to find him, except for the PY perhaps, who may not have had a regular schedule with him. If you pre-arrange time and frequency, better confidence and reliability is had.

CONCLUSION: If you can meet and better the 6 requirements, as much as 10 Db gain over Loren's situation can be had. If his monthly reliability was 3 %, then you will have about 25 % reliability, with 70 volts at 25 milliamps on your 6SN7. This means you can work comparable DX about 7 days per month, or more. 6SN7 is a dual triode, run in paralell for lower plate resistance, and lower plate voltage required then.

May-9-2020

Postscript:  Google Earth has shown that Loren Windom's QTH in Columbus Ohio is now a school.1375 Franklin Ave  is interrupted by this school, literally built right on top of where his house used to be. However, there is one documentation where his address is 1575 Franklin, which shows as still being built up with houses. So I do not know which one is correct.