How many "ACTIVE" Ham Radio Operators are here?

Hi Wdcx: I'm a  ham as well, But with so much interference at time and the lost of equipment because of interference damage and NO help from the factorys where i got the units i don't get on the band much anymore but my license is still good.

Station 8

KCØJEZ here. Got my Novice license when I was 11 years old (1969). Built my first transmitter then, a 25 watt 2 tube CW unit, paired with a Heathkit GR-81 regenerative receiver! Talked my folks into buying me a used Hammarlund HQ-110 a few months later, used from a local ham. 

Mostly on 20 meters these days, simply because I don't have room for a lot of antenna real estate -- use a Hygain vertical for 20-15-10 meters. I have two helically wound dipoles in the attic (one N/s one E/W) but they don't work nearly as well as the vertical, and besides they knock my Part 15 off the air when I use them, probably because they're right next to the cable that goes from the studio to the Procaster! Have the usual 2 meter stuff as well, as we've got a couple killer repeaters here -- in fact they're located on the tower, on the "mountain" where the FM station I work for is located, so we've got a lot of height working for the clubs 2 meter repeater.  I'm a Skywarn spotter (lots of tornados and severe thunderstorms around here in the summer) and I restore an awful lot of boat anchors. Got a couple 50's era Johnsons in the basement all restored and working beautifully but I don't use them because I don't have a table big enough to put them on and I can hardly lift them!

A long long time ago when the interweb was a pretty new thing I had a website that included a section for ham radio -- it's a very archaic site, and none of the email addresses are valid anymore, and some links may not work, but it's still up in cyberspace!  My shack has changed a LOT since the site was made but it's still up at:  

http://edselmotors.com/hammain.html

There's a photo of the transmitter I built when I was a kid (I used to sell the plans for it) and some other random stuff. My wife, BTW is KCØSBC and my Son is KCØLUA.

73's

TIB

Tim in Bovey is by far one of the most totally involved persons ever encountered with broadcasting in all its aspects as well as life and self confidence.

Self confidence in knowing that small-town Bovey living is far and away smarter than trying to be "upwardly mobile" moving into bigger and bigger markets.

Involved in professional radio, HAM amateur radio and Part 15 low power radio.

Family, all of them HAMS in their own right!

Roller Derby Broadcasting Network, everything!

But about me.

I am NOT a HAM precisely because I would enjoy it so much it would consume all my time, drain my bank account, put me in dispute with the neighborhood because of the 100-foot towers, and take all day blabbing on the air with fellow HAMs.

That's the same reason I have never sampled drugs. I might like it!

I consider myself semi-active at this time.  VE7DLC.

Currently, I am antenna challenged.  I live in a townhouse complex which doesn't allow any outside antennas.  So when I want to operate, I run a long coax cable through the garage to my parked car and connect to that antenna (luckily, they can't stop you from having one there).  I use Hustler single band antennas on the car.

It is such a pain to set everything up, and I usually have little time, so I quite often just choose a single band for an operating session.  During the day I'll be on 20 or 10 meters.  During the evening, usually 40, sometimes 80.  However, my setup isn't really condusive to long distance communications.

Believe it or not, 10 meters is my DX band.  It doesn't seem to matter how much power you're running, or what kind of antenna you're using when the band is open.

I'm currently looking at other antenna options, one of them being a magnetic (i.e., very small compared to the wavelength) loop.  Or even a somewhat larger wire loop inside the garage.

Part 15 AM operator in 1962 starting with a Remco Caravelle.  Moving on to a Lafayette KT-195.  Then a homebrew 1 transistor transmitter which outperformed the others.

Then came CB in 1964 starting with a 3 transistor Essex walkie-talkie.

Ham Radio was the goal and in 1974 I got it as WN8RWJ, Novice Class.  A few years later I obtained the Advance Class license as KA8FVW.  My first station was a homebrew 40 watt, 40 meter CW transmitter and a Hammarlund HQ-129X receiver.

And today I'm still active with all of these as well as holding a General Class Radiotelephone FCC Commercial license.  I built and operate our City Owned AM TIS and LPFM stations.

As a kid I always wanting to get into broadcasting it just took awhile to get there.

Since 1971.

Because of property moves, I was active

a couple of years back, and then had to stop.

But that doesn't mean it's over. 

A lot of stories to tell here, too.

My last fun set-up just a few years ago

was a Heathkit GR-81 (like our friend above)

paired with a one tube 6AQ5 5 watt 80 meter

transmitter.  What a blast!  I talked from my

QTH here in CT to NJ every Friday night.  

I'd like to get that going again.  

Meantime, I'm on the local 440 repeater.

I've been on most of the ham bands from

160 meters up through 1296 MHz (what a story

THAT is.)

Like Part 15, I like low power, vacuum tubes, and

vintage equipment.  I also like transmitting and

receiving with simple gear.

Not too long ago, I was using a 300 mW 2 transistor

transmitter on 40 meters.  This transmitter was/still is

NOTHING compared to the SS-Tran AMT-3000.

Actually, the 440 MHz FM repeater is moving to another

location - so I'm off the air now.  But not for long.  

Brooce 

Oh Carl, says so many nice things about me I'm blushing 🙂

I'm just a radio geek, I guess.

I think it started when I was in about 2nd grade.  We had a TV repairman come to the house and I was quite impressed with his bog case of parts and tubes, and his tools.  I'm sure I pestered the heck out of him.

My Mom kept one of those baby books.  Something like "Our Baby's first 12 yeas" or whatever.  Where she would paste in my school photo, write about my likes and dislikes, save my report cards, all that stuff.  From the earliest years when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up most years I answered a "TV or Radio fixer" LOL.  It's right there in the book!

As I got older I realized I didn't have the face for TV but I look fabulous on the radio!

TIB

@ Micro: Wasn't that 6AQ5 transmitter out of Electronics Illustrated?

Thanks for stopping by.

I have been involved with electronics in one fashion or another since I was a child. I got my Novice ticket when I was 16 when I lived in Michigan. My first rig consisted of a home-brew transmitter made from parts from a junk TV set and a tube swiped from my mother's Hi-Fi. It had a whopping 9 watts out! The receiver was a Knight Ocean Hopper. The antenna was an end-fed wire about 150 feet long. No SWR meters. I tuned it with a #47 lamp I also swiped from my mother's Hi-Fi.

We then moved to Waukegan, Illinois where I upgraded to General. The rigs also upgraded too. My transmitter was a Heathkit AT-1 with the VF-1 VFO and AC-1 Antenna Coupler given to me by W9CLI-Ted Mason who now a silent key.Again no SWR meter. The AC-1 had a neon lamp you tuned for max brilliance. The antenna was a 80 meter dipole 15 feet high and fed with 75 ohm coax. I attached the center conductor of the coax to the stand-off and the shield to the case of the tuner. This was a L-Tuner by the way, and I still managed to make contacts! The receiver was a Hammarlund HQ-140X given to me by a neighbor who was not a ham. I wish I still had it. Shortwave sounds best with tubes.

While still in Waukegan I was introduced to Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee. I rode up with a young sailor K1RZ and his wife. He was buying a brand new Swan 500C and me, I bought a reconditioned Heathkit Cheyenne. Now we're talking real power as it had a 6146 for a final!

Over the years I've run a Knight T60, Knight T150, Globe Scout, Swan 240, SBE,HW-100, SB-100, Ten-Tec Century 21, Omni-D, Kenwood TS-520, TS-440SAT, Drake T4, Heath Apache and probably some I've forgotten.

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY:

In the house I run a Tec-Tec Jupiter with a Heil PR-40 microphone. My key is hand-made by Jerry KR8A. The antenna system consists of 135' dipole fed with twin-lead and a 4BTV vertical. The dipole is interfaced to the rig with a Palstar AT4K tuner. When QRO is required, I use a low-power Alpha 86 thanks to my pal Kim - KU4OT.

My Grab n'Go station consists of the wife's (KD4NLE) Ten-Tec Argonaut V, LDG Z718 auto-tuner and various wire antennas. I also have the Ten-Tec 4020 two band QRP CW transciever. Runs on AA batteries, lots of fun.

I am a member of ARRL, East Pasco Amateur Radio Society, Flying Pigs QRP International, Southcars and SATERN.  I am also an ARRL Technical Specialist which translates into helping others and making technical presentations from time to time.

Southcars Number 2497

As I mentioned earlier, I been involved with electronics basically my entire young adult and adult life. After high school I joined the US Navy and attended Aviation Electronics Technician School A & B in Millington, TN. I was in the first class of the Advanced First Term Avionics program known as AFTA. From there I was attached to RVAH-3 and RVAH-11 at NAS Albany, Ga supporting the electronics on the RA5C Vigilante. I made two cruises, one to the Med and the other to the South China Sea. I was in the South China Sea when Haiphong Harbor was mined and John McCain was in prison.

After the Navy I fixed TV's and stereo equipment for about 10 years. Then I was hired as Jr. Quality Assurance Engineer at AT&T Paradyne where I performed FCC and ESD compliance testing and consultation and my boss was Jerry Robbins who holds the call of W9OEM. Later I was the Military Production Test Manager at Group Technologies in charge of 65 technicians and 6 test support engineers. I've since landed at a local university as the Classroom Technology Manager.

Besides ham radio, I operate a Part 15 low power AM radio transmitter known as the Rangemaster 1000. This is a high quality FCC Certified rig operating at a whopping 1/10 of a watt! The antenna is 3 meters in height and the programming is generally Old Time Radio from ABN also operated by a fellow ham.

Life is good.

73, John 

P.S.  We have a loaded hand gun in the house.  You have been warned.

John admitted: "We have a loaded hand gun in the house.  You have been warned."

I don't see what you have against hands.

Maybe I should buy a foot gun to compliment the hand gun?

I would never surrender my Advanced License for an Extra for two reasons. First I could never look at a "real" Extra in the eye, and two, it proves that I at least passed the 13 word per minute code test.

Ham since mid-90's.  10m propagation my passion, particularly beacons and especially those mysterious 26 MHz-28 MHz "driftnet" beacons that are elusive as to location (conventional yagi rotors turn much to slowly to aquire a "fix" on the short transmissions).  Have a 10m beacon on 28.222 MHz, 24/7.  Also, a 6m beacon, 50.063 MHz, temporarily off the air until I troubleshoot the antenna.  73!

Jeff KP3FT

The incredibly famous W5LET

Bare Essentials Transmitter???

That was built on a wooden board???

That used a neon bulb to tell you that

the AC outlet was plugged in the wrong

way (zap)??  That used a 50C5 or 50L6

beam power tube?

That is not the transmtter I have now, but

I almost blew myself to smittereens with

the B.E.T. from Electronics Illustrated in 1971.

But that was sort of a normal initiation into

ham radio back then.

The one tube transmitter I have now is very

safe and very well designed. 

But back then:

There were all sort of one tube

transmitters in ham magazines.

I think I remember one that was

60 watts!!!  Can you imagine?   

I do remember a 35 watt one tube

transmitter that was in the 1969 ARRL

handbook.  It used a single 6146.

What was the voltage on the telegraph

key?  (ZORCH)

Of course, getting zapped by the key or

getting a burn off the antenna or feed line

was a badge of honor then.

Brooce,

and my first callsign was:

WN1POI

and proud of it, too.