Took my Novice test in April of 1959. It took the FCC until June to issue it. By then I had a Hallicrafters S-85 receiver....a gift from my mom. I built a 6L6/807 crystal controlled transmitter with junk tv parts donated by a family relative who owned a tv repair shop....using an Elmer donated power supply that had 866 Jr. mercury vapor rectifiers. My first contact on 80 meters using my one borrowed crystal....3.727.9 megacycles was with W1LLN in Ellsworth, Maine. I was 11 years old...and all this made me believe in magic. At that time a Novice license was only good for one year. Upgrade....or lose it. Had to go to the 16th floor of the Customs House in Boston.....a 60 mile train trip.... to take my General exam in early 1960. I had to get my paperwork notarized so I wandered around the building until I found a lawyer's office. It was F. Lee Bailey. He notarized it...and didn't charge me. I passed it...and got to drop the "N" behind the K in my call sign. I still hold my original call sign...never let it expire....and I still think it's magic. 73.
My grandma was KN2ZDE and my mom was WA2ARE. Dad was K2PTS and I became WA2LKV in 1977. Just stumbled upon this video. It warms my heart. Thank you for this.
I had a Novice ticket too. Wn9 prefix. My dad was a ham so I inherited Heathkit AR receiver either Q multiplier, a DX 60 transmitter, a few xtals and an antenna tuner Heathkit, with a neon bulb to tune to. Still got a General class. Also have a GROL. Great memories, thank you. My ham club had a modified military aircraft receiver like in your video. We held bake sakes and got an HW-16. Great memories.
Thanks for sharing! I first became a "Johnny novice" in 1993, so in another month I'll have 30 years under my belt and my ham radio hobby is reaching new levels of greatness thanks to this and other UA-cam channels.
I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane. Radios, HealthKit catalogs, visits by the TV repairman, even just the look of radio and TV tubes were fascinating for me when I was in Junior High school in the late-60s. My parents had an absolute rule that I could never take the back off any radio (and especially the TV) in the house. I was a diagnosed Hyperactive child and nothing I ever took apart could I ever put back together. Thank you for sharing this story. Going to part two now.
The 6146 was the crown jewel of tubes. My Viking Ranger has a single 6146, my Kenwood TS-830S uses two in the final and so does my Collins S-Line and many others. The 6146 has a long and distinguished past, and I have old QST's from the 40's and 50's that advertise the 6146. RCA and GE made them, and I'm sure other companies did too.
I first got on the air as a novice in 1962. I built a two tube transmitter from an article in the January issue of Popular Electronics magazine. It was crude and simple but it worked and I made contacts. My Lafayette HE-30 receiver rounded out my simple station. ...jim, WA7VVV
I was WN8GBK, and got my novice in March 1970. I used to SWL in the late 1960s and would listen to the beacons on LW between 200-400 kHz. I slowly picked up on the code by listening to all those beacons. As I got better I started tuning the ham bands until I was ready to take my novice exam. I used to hear WA8BLL on 20m and he only lived half a mile away, so I wrote him a letter and he agreed to help me and he gave me my novice test. I had a new Allied A-2515 general coverage receiver, that had band spreads for 80-10. It was unique that it split 40 into two bands, 7000-7150 and 7150-7300, so you could tune right down to the kHz with it, and all the foreign broadcast at night, made it easy to check calibration and make sure the main tuner was set correctly. I picked up a used Knight T-60 for my transmitter. It was only 60 watts input, didn’t have a watt meter, but probably only put out 35-40 watts. My antenna was simply about 60 feet of wire strung between two tv masts, on the house and the garage. It was center fed with a single conductor wire (in reality it was a top loaded vertical) which went to a knife switch, and then just simply jammed into the center of the SO-239 on the T-60. SWR? what was that? I didn’t know how bad it was, but it worked. I just tuned for maximum output and I was on the air. I burned my fingers more than once on that knife switch antenna changeover! My first QSO was on 15 was only about 10 miles away, but my second and third QSOs were with California, and then many station out west and in the southeast after that. Late afternoon and evenings I was fighting the foreign broadcasters on 40. I was on 7167 and 7192 and usually could be heard on one of them. I did very little on 80, the antenna was really inefficient for that. I eventually got a HyGain 18V base loaded vertical and mounted that on the backyard fence and had some success with that on 80. It was very basic, but it was a lot of fun, just a few weeks from now is my 49th anniversary in amateur radio. 73 Dave - K7DR (ex WN8GBK/WB8GBK)
Dave - K7DR G3NBY late 1958...just out of school. Loved. your remark "SWR. What's that?" In my case "Co-ax..What's that" They had only just stopped tapping the random wire, up and down the PA Tank coil. "DC blocking capacitor? .. Aw Shucks. Nobody's going to touch it! I was about 12 years earlier but it looks like you were telling much the same tale. Perhaps my little rider about pre- licence 'dabbling' with a co conspirator school pal might be a bit different. I got a battery, a very sparky electric buzzer, a long piece of wire which was connected to neg.on the battery, wrapping as much as poss. around the buzzer. and battery. It was then connected to about 20' of wire dangling from my bedroom window. I then scuttled off about a mile to my 15 year old schoolboy partner in crime. "YES" He could also hear the Interference I was making on the medium waves. Yes Sgnr Marconi.. It does work! You were right! Ya Boo Sucks British GPO...Too late.. Ya can't get me now I'm 80! 73,...Good Old Days.. As in many other things..we lived through the best. G3NBY. By the way Cycle 19 was in full bloom when I got my ticket at 18..3 years later.(1958) DX would come right in through an open window, straight into my logbook!!!
My grandfather, K0GHD, gave me the Hammarlund receiver shown at 0:31when I was kid. I haven't fired it up in maybe 40 years, but it's here in my shack nonetheless. Among my Father's effects, I found a box of gear from my Grandfather's shack including an Atlas-180 which I have managed to get on the air (sort of) and the very same Lafayette SWR meter shown at 14:12. Great video, Mike!
I had a Gonset Communicator I on two meters. Dirt cheap flea market find. I used it to copy FM repeaters. My Novice RX was an HQ110, TX was an Elmac AF67, $15 at Harrisons NYC. They had a pile of them from the floor to the ceiling for Washington:s birthday sale. All had BO modulation transformers! I built my on AC supply using parts from on TV sets found left on the curb for the trashmen. Only parts I had to buy were the chassis and some 1N4007 diodes. Every now and then the transformer would start to arc over inside, a smack on the top of it with a 2x4 and it was good to go for another few hours!
Fair Radio is in Lima, Ohio. They were well known for selling military surplus. I think they are still in business. At one time they sold tons of Collins KWM-2's they got from the military.
I really enjoyed this! These are all the things I missed out on when I was younger. Unfortunately I always had a tough time with Morse code. I still love seeing all this gear and learning about the history behind it. Thank you!
I must say, this is an excellent video with tons of personal and historical background. There's a lot to learn here. A big potential this series has with all the experience that you have. I look forward to see more and hopefully to view these radios on the air in your series. You gotta hook them up and put them in the air man! At least for receive :)
thank you, this was fun to watch! I was a novice back then (wn3pbt) for two years. I used my father's SX128a Hallicrafters receiver and I had some kind of a Eico transmitter but something was wrong with it. I had a sloper antenna on 40m but I only got about 15 watts out and the final tube was blue. So somehow the matching or something was really off. I also had a bad chirp. With no one to help, I slowly dropped out of ham radio.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...DX-40 and Hammarlund HQ-100A was my Novice station in '69. The combination SWR/field strength meter you displayed was my first SWR device; I still have it and used it to demo field strength meters to our General class upgrade students during our recent class. Matter of fact five of them took their tests today and they all passed, to include my XYL! Look forward to the next video. 73 - Dino KL0S
This actually took me back to when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s when my dad was in his Ham heyday. The AM day with Gelosos and 807's and as you mentioned the 6L6s. A 75 Watt AM transmitter using a Geloso oscillator and a Hammarlund HQ-120 as the receiver. The antenna was a G5RV. Some memories. Thank you. 73s ZS6AYS.
Thank you so much! I was licensed in the spring of 1971. I saw my Johnson Adventure transmitter and later built a wonderful Heathkit HW-16. What a wonderful Novice CW rig. Most contacts were made with the Johnson Adventure and a Hallicrafter SX-99 receiver operating on forty and fifteen meters. The Novice bands were very crowded in those days. When you mentioned the Novice bands I had three xtals for forty meters however I seemed to make lots of contacts with some very nice operators. Looking forward to your next video! Jim, W5JCS former WN5ENS.
Nice video. Brought back many memories before I became a ham. See this equipment that my friends possessed and used. My first try at the hobby was 1973. I passed the 5 wpm but missed the written by one question. I didn't get into the hobby until 1987.
My novice station was a 32s1, 75s1 Collins S Line for CW, and a KWm2 for SSB. I got my lic Feb 9th, 1987. My antenna a TH6 DX beam, two dipoles, and an AV3 Verticale
Was a novice in 1962 . . . WN6DKV . . . god, this channel brings back some great memories . . . I've just got relicensed as an extra after being out of the hobby for some 50 years, but boy, those old radios were the good old days.
Great job! As a new, "old" ham, my goal has been to take up this great hobby where I left off as a teenager in the early 70's, and start from scratch, as if I was just getting my novice ticket. I learned CW over this past year, built my single tube 6T9 transmitter from parts I started collecting in 1974, and it worked! I made my first ever QSO with it 1-1-2018, using my Hammarlund HQ 110A receiver, and a random wire! (I never made a QSO when I first had my Novice ticket in the 70's). Now I feel like I can consider myself a "real" Ham! Not feel guilty going out and buying a commercial rig. Next step is to build the receiver and figure out an antenna switchover system.....therefore, can't wait to see your next video for ideas on how to actually operate a novice station with older homebrew gear.. Very pleased with the timeliness of your videos for me! Thanks again for taking the time to make theses videos! 73 Pete KD2OMV
Peter Van Eenenaam What a nice comment to read. Restore's my faith in human nature and Oh Boy did it need it! In my estimation you ARE a real Ham. 73 G3NBY 80 turns on the tank coil!
Wow! We actually built our own equipment! What a novel concept. I built my Knight R-55 and T-60 (still have it) at age 15 and operated WN4CZD with one 40 meter crystal in the mid 60s. The start of a slippery slope of equipment that I've owned..but MAN what a blast I've had. Thanks for taking the time to post these videos. 73s..KB4GO
Great job W2UD! Got my Novice license in January ‘74. First QSOs were from a friend’s house (oops, I mean QTH) who had DX-60B/HR-10B. The Novice Dream Station! ;-)
I didn't get my ticket till 81 but, he actually had a picture of my first station. The Conar twins. 400 xmitter and 500 rcvr. Had a blast with that station. It's possible I may have single handedly driven the price of crystals up at the time. So many fun times back then!!!
I worked WN7NHQ Mary from Snowflake, Arizona as a novice. I didn't have her qsl card, but I remember the "Snowflake Az". I have her in my 1969 to 1970 Ameco logbook on 15 meters. My call was WN8FMA and now WB8FMA.
This brings back many memories, some of them bitter. I used my lunch money to buy parts to build a single tube transmitter. Hung wire in trees in our trailer park. Had my station in the hallway of our trailer house. I had a general coverage receiver, a Lafayette HE-30. I has sixteen years old in 1962 and had nearly no one to advise me. I had one 40 meter crystal on a frequency shared with an international broadcaster. However, I made CW contacts! Dang, that was exciting! Some months later, I got a DX-60 and a general class license. Life was good. 73s...WA7VVV
The swr meter you showed, had several different brand names. There was Lafayette as the one you showed, Swan had one with their name on it, and also Midland had one too and there are probably many others. It also had a built in field strength meter with that little antenna that had a threaded end, so you could screw it into the meter case to measure field strength.
Most of the 80M command transmitters were pretty good on chirp. The 40M - well sometimes you need to key just the finals and keep the oscillator running on TX. Wonderful compact designs.
good stuff,Mike... In 1962 is used a 2 rocks, a 6ag7 and 1625 ( 5 for a buck from Burstein-Applebee in KC)) The rest was salvaged from old TV sets and received the whole 40m band on my Heathkit AR3. Thanks Frank KN3SQP and still K3SQP
WV6KJK, 1960-61, then WN6EPZ, 1974-76. Still have all my "Novice Crystals" and the original ticket signed by C. B. Plummer. My station was the best of times and the worst of times: a self-built DX-40 and an S-38E. Loved the DX-40 but the S-38E was THE WORST ham receiver devised. Maybe a 6L6 transmitter and a regen receiver in the future? Why not? Thanks for the videos, Mike. 72 de k6whp dit dit
I lived on the farm,1962 my grand parents gave me a dead philco model 16x console. I repaired it with parts scavenged from old tv sets. put in ago defeat, manual gain control. bfo, q multiplier. built transmitter from scavenged tv parts. 6ag7 osc. with 1625 output.texas xtal for 3711khz(most costly part) got war surplus coax and put up an 80 meter dipole at 20 feet. best daytime qso 175 miles away. night time was tough with all the stations. used typewriter for copy. station call wn0bzs Minnesota. man with axe and acme liquidate were the surplus stores. lots of fun.
14:18 Has this SWR Meter also an Option to work as a simple (relative) Field Strength Meter too? It is a little Whole / Slot on the Top in it in which You can put a little bit of Wire so the SWR Meter can pick up the EM Field Strength of an Antenna too (at least the Near Field) ? And how did You know with all that analogue Meters and Scales, that You are on Frequency / in the Band and which Frequency it actually is.. ? I heard, that some Receivers had Crystal Calibrators / Marker Generators build in for this Purpose. Was something like that also Part of a Novice Station? Or did they simply rely completely on the Crystals that they used for the Transmitters?
I was first licensed in February 1974 as wn8rnt bought me an Heathkit hw-16 as my first rig never did get it on the air then later on what I became Ka8gov that's my call sign now I had a ten Tec Century 21
Code on CB Band ? I thought that was illegal. I'm old school. I'm 57. I even had a CB license in the 70's. I was KSBD- 2905. My handle was "Blue Diamond". My Dad was a Ham operator and a licenced CB operator. " KWD-5384". How i remember these things, I do not know. Thinking about getting into Ham.
I made a homebrew tx in the UK,osc/output valves,transmiting on the old trawler band at the top end of the MW band,the GPO(officials),caught me and took away all the gear,went to court was fined £25 +£7 costs,this was in 1974,I was earning £9 a week! From that point on I just listened🤔😕☠
I know you said on one of your screen text messages that VFO control was allowed for Novices in 1972 but what I remember was that when I got my novice in Feb of 1976 Novices were not allowed to use VFOs but had to use crystal control. Then durring my year of being a Novice before I passed the General the FCC changed it and we could use VFO control. de WB8YMV (novice: WN8YMV)
Success with DX is only partly a function of the input power. Some is from the antenna. So it is not right to say that low power is not good for the novice.
Part of your success at DX would be the condition of the solar cycle. I got my novice (WN8GBK) in March 1970, and we had just passed the peak of cycle 20. 15 meters was open every day to all parts of the US. My second and third QSOs were with California, I was in Michigan. My first DX was ZM3JC on 15. He was on SSB and I was on CW. I had a simple wire centered fed with a single conductor so it really was a top loaded vertical, strung between the garage and the house. It’s amazing I got out at all!
6 day queen 6. Was popular with the Ham's at the Sylvania tv crowd. The tecs would rarely let the test sets .run down past 75 percent. So we would "sneak" the tubes out for home use .12 au7 s, 6dq7 with 5u4 / tv power unit made a brute force rig for "free" first ham licence was n8odn elmered at w8ft findlay ohio. Fair radio was on East eureka in LIma ohio. "A small well kept"man sat on a tall stool and took my orders. Then they moved to the old wollhan lumber lot on south east LIma ohio my army reserve job gave me a chance to browse On lunch break. All ways rember that God was just a prayer away. The fiyer said so. 72 de kv4li
It's so nice to come across videos where people aren't trying to prove how "groovy cool" or "hip" they are by using a bunch of unnecessary fowl language in their presentations.
Took my Novice test in April of 1959. It took the FCC until June to issue it. By then I had a Hallicrafters S-85 receiver....a gift from my mom. I built a 6L6/807 crystal controlled transmitter with junk tv parts donated by a family relative who owned a tv repair shop....using an Elmer donated power supply that had 866 Jr. mercury vapor rectifiers. My first contact on 80 meters using my one borrowed crystal....3.727.9 megacycles was with W1LLN in Ellsworth, Maine. I was 11 years old...and all this made me believe in magic. At that time a Novice license was only good for one year. Upgrade....or lose it. Had to go to the 16th floor of the Customs House in Boston.....a 60 mile train trip.... to take my General exam in early 1960. I had to get my paperwork notarized so I wandered around the building until I found a lawyer's office. It was F. Lee Bailey. He notarized it...and didn't charge me. I passed it...and got to drop the "N" behind the K in my call sign. I still hold my original call sign...never let it expire....and I still think it's magic. 73.
My grandma was KN2ZDE and my mom was WA2ARE.
Dad was K2PTS and I became WA2LKV in 1977.
Just stumbled upon this video. It warms my heart. Thank you for this.
I had a Novice ticket too. Wn9 prefix. My dad was a ham so I inherited Heathkit AR receiver either Q multiplier, a DX 60 transmitter, a few xtals and an antenna tuner Heathkit, with a neon bulb to tune to. Still got a General class. Also have a GROL. Great memories, thank you. My ham club had a modified military aircraft receiver like in your video. We held bake sakes and got an HW-16. Great memories.
Thanks for sharing! I first became a "Johnny novice" in 1993, so in another month I'll have 30 years under my belt and my ham radio hobby is reaching new levels of greatness thanks to this and other UA-cam channels.
I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane. Radios, HealthKit catalogs, visits by the TV repairman, even just the look of radio and TV tubes were fascinating for me when I was in Junior High school in the late-60s. My parents had an absolute rule that I could never take the back off any radio (and especially the TV) in the house. I was a diagnosed Hyperactive child and nothing I ever took apart could I ever put back together.
Thank you for sharing this story. Going to part two now.
The 6146 was the crown jewel of tubes. My Viking Ranger has a single 6146, my Kenwood TS-830S uses two in the final and so does my Collins S-Line and many others. The 6146 has a long and distinguished past, and I have old QST's from the 40's and 50's that advertise the 6146. RCA and GE made them, and I'm sure other companies did too.
I first got on the air as a novice in 1962. I built a two tube transmitter from an article in the January issue of Popular Electronics magazine. It was crude and simple but it worked and I made contacts. My Lafayette HE-30 receiver rounded out my simple station. ...jim, WA7VVV
I was WN8GBK, and got my novice in March 1970. I used to SWL in the late 1960s and would listen to the beacons on LW between 200-400 kHz. I slowly picked up on the code by listening to all those beacons. As I got better I started tuning the ham bands until I was ready to take my novice exam. I used to hear WA8BLL on 20m and he only lived half a mile away, so I wrote him a letter and he agreed to help me and he gave me my novice test. I had a new Allied A-2515 general coverage receiver, that had band spreads for 80-10. It was unique that it split 40 into two bands, 7000-7150 and 7150-7300, so you could tune right down to the kHz with it, and all the foreign broadcast at night, made it easy to check calibration and make sure the main tuner was set correctly. I picked up a used Knight T-60 for my transmitter. It was only 60 watts input, didn’t have a watt meter, but probably only put out 35-40 watts. My antenna was simply about 60 feet of wire strung between two tv masts, on the house and the garage. It was center fed with a single conductor wire (in reality it was a top loaded vertical) which went to a knife switch, and then just simply jammed into the center of the SO-239 on the T-60. SWR? what was that? I didn’t know how bad it was, but it worked. I just tuned for maximum output and I was on the air. I burned my fingers more than once on that knife switch antenna changeover! My first QSO was on 15 was only about 10 miles away, but my second and third QSOs were with California, and then many station out west and in the southeast after that. Late afternoon and evenings I was fighting the foreign broadcasters on 40. I was on 7167 and 7192 and usually could be heard on one of them. I did very little on 80, the antenna was really inefficient for that. I eventually got a HyGain 18V base loaded vertical and mounted that on the backyard fence and had some success with that on 80.
It was very basic, but it was a lot of fun, just a few weeks from now is my 49th anniversary in amateur radio.
73
Dave - K7DR (ex WN8GBK/WB8GBK)
Dave - K7DR
G3NBY late 1958...just out of school.
Loved. your remark "SWR. What's that?" In my case "Co-ax..What's that"
They had only just stopped tapping the random wire, up and down the PA Tank coil.
"DC blocking capacitor? .. Aw Shucks. Nobody's going to touch it!
I was about 12 years earlier but it looks like you were telling much the same tale.
Perhaps my little rider about pre- licence 'dabbling' with a co conspirator school pal might be a bit different.
I got a battery, a very sparky electric buzzer, a long piece of wire which was connected to neg.on the battery, wrapping as much as poss. around the buzzer. and battery.
It was then connected to about 20' of wire dangling from my bedroom window.
I then scuttled off about a mile to my 15 year old schoolboy partner in crime.
"YES" He could also hear the Interference I was making on the medium waves.
Yes Sgnr Marconi.. It does work! You were right!
Ya Boo Sucks British GPO...Too late.. Ya can't get me now I'm 80!
73,...Good Old Days.. As in many other things..we lived through the best.
G3NBY. By the way Cycle 19 was in full bloom when I got my ticket at 18..3 years later.(1958)
DX would come right in through an open window, straight into my logbook!!!
Awesome, simply awesome story and remembering those fun years is what keeps us cheerful in the hobby.
The Hammarlund HQ-110C along with a Heathkit DX-60B/HG-10B Combo was my first Novice station. Great times back then for a teenager in 1974 :-D
My grandfather, K0GHD, gave me the Hammarlund receiver shown at 0:31when I was kid. I haven't fired it up in maybe 40 years, but it's here in my shack nonetheless. Among my Father's effects, I found a box of gear from my Grandfather's shack including an Atlas-180 which I have managed to get on the air (sort of) and the very same Lafayette SWR meter shown at 14:12. Great video, Mike!
I had a Gonset Communicator I on two meters. Dirt cheap flea market find. I used it to copy FM repeaters.
My Novice RX was an HQ110, TX was an Elmac AF67, $15 at Harrisons NYC. They had a pile of them from the floor to the ceiling for Washington:s birthday sale. All had BO modulation transformers! I built my on AC supply using parts from on TV sets found left on the curb for the trashmen. Only parts I had to buy were the chassis and some 1N4007 diodes. Every now and then the transformer would start to arc over inside, a smack on the top of it with a 2x4 and it was good to go for another few hours!
Great stuff! Thank you for that fantastic tour of the humble ham gear of the 60s and 70s.
Fair Radio is in Lima, Ohio. They were well known for selling military surplus. I think they are still in business. At one time they sold tons of Collins KWM-2's they got from the military.
another great video - thanks Mike, much appreciated - I used to love what you could get surplus in those days...
I really enjoyed this! These are all the things I missed out on when I was younger. Unfortunately I always had a tough time with Morse code. I still love seeing all this gear and learning about the history behind it. Thank you!
Wonderful job with the video Mike. A great subject for a video. 73,
Joe-W3GMS
I must say, this is an excellent video with tons of personal and historical background. There's a lot to learn here. A big potential this series has with all the experience that you have. I look forward to see more and hopefully to view these radios on the air in your series. You gotta hook them up and put them in the air man! At least for receive :)
So much fun to watch! I got licensed 40 years ago and I still remember some of the equipment! :-) 73, Stephan, DF6PA
thank you, this was fun to watch! I was a novice back then (wn3pbt) for two years. I used my father's SX128a Hallicrafters receiver and I had some kind of a Eico transmitter but something was wrong with it. I had a sloper antenna on 40m but I only got about 15 watts out and the final tube was blue. So somehow the matching or something was really off. I also had a bad chirp. With no one to help, I slowly dropped out of ham radio.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane...DX-40 and Hammarlund HQ-100A was my Novice station in '69. The combination SWR/field strength meter you displayed was my first SWR device; I still have it and used it to demo field strength meters to our General class upgrade students during our recent class. Matter of fact five of them took their tests today and they all passed, to include my XYL! Look forward to the next video. 73 - Dino KL0S
This actually took me back to when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s when my dad was in his Ham heyday. The AM day with Gelosos and 807's and as you mentioned the 6L6s. A 75 Watt AM transmitter using a Geloso oscillator and a Hammarlund HQ-120 as the receiver. The antenna was a G5RV. Some memories. Thank you. 73s ZS6AYS.
Got my old novice log books. Remember contacts I made the weekend of July 20, 1969 when Armstrong walked on the moon.
Woo. That is cool and I remember going to Expo67 as a 10 year old and being blown away by the space exhibitions.
Thank you so much! I was licensed in the spring of 1971. I saw my Johnson Adventure transmitter and later built a wonderful Heathkit HW-16. What a wonderful Novice CW rig. Most contacts were made with the Johnson Adventure and a Hallicrafter SX-99 receiver operating on forty and fifteen meters. The Novice bands were very crowded in those days. When you mentioned the Novice bands I had three xtals for forty meters however I seemed to make lots of contacts with some very nice operators. Looking forward to your next video! Jim, W5JCS former WN5ENS.
You have some of the best videos!
Glad to see other folks that can relate to crazy kid electronics!
Nice video. Brought back many memories before I became a ham. See this equipment that my friends possessed and used. My first try at the hobby was 1973. I passed the 5 wpm but missed the written by one question. I didn't get into the hobby until 1987.
My novice station was a 32s1, 75s1 Collins S Line for CW, and a KWm2 for SSB. I got my lic Feb 9th, 1987. My antenna a TH6 DX beam, two dipoles, and an AV3 Verticale
Wow. You were a premium Novice!
Was a novice in 1962 . . . WN6DKV . . . god, this channel brings back some great memories . . . I've just got relicensed as an extra after being out of the hobby for some 50 years, but boy, those old radios were the good old days.
Great job! As a new, "old" ham, my goal has been to take up this great hobby where I left off as a teenager in the early 70's, and start from scratch, as if I was just getting my novice ticket. I learned CW over this past year, built my single tube 6T9 transmitter from parts I started collecting in 1974, and it worked! I made my first ever QSO with it 1-1-2018, using my Hammarlund HQ 110A receiver, and a random wire! (I never made a QSO when I first had my Novice ticket in the 70's). Now I feel like I can consider myself a "real" Ham! Not feel guilty going out and buying a commercial rig.
Next step is to build the receiver and figure out an antenna switchover system.....therefore, can't wait to see your next video for ideas on how to actually operate a novice station with older homebrew gear..
Very pleased with the timeliness of your videos for me!
Thanks again for taking the time to make theses videos!
73
Pete
KD2OMV
Peter Van Eenenaam
What a nice comment to read. Restore's my faith in human nature and Oh Boy did it need it!
In my estimation you ARE a real Ham.
73 G3NBY 80 turns on the tank coil!
MauriatOttolink thanks for those kind words as well! 73!
Wow! We actually built our own equipment! What a novel concept. I built my Knight R-55 and T-60 (still have it) at age 15 and operated WN4CZD with one 40 meter crystal in the mid 60s. The start of a slippery slope of equipment that I've owned..but MAN what a blast I've had. Thanks for taking the time to post these videos. 73s..KB4GO
Great job W2UD! Got my Novice license in January ‘74. First QSOs were from a friend’s house (oops, I mean QTH) who had DX-60B/HR-10B. The Novice Dream Station! ;-)
I had a DX-150B and Johnson Adventurer back in those days. Wonderful memories.
I didn't get my ticket till 81 but, he actually had a picture of my first station. The Conar twins. 400 xmitter and 500 rcvr. Had a blast with that station. It's possible I may have single handedly driven the price of crystals up at the time. So many fun times back then!!!
I worked WN7NHQ Mary from Snowflake, Arizona as a novice. I didn't have her qsl card, but I remember the "Snowflake Az". I have her in my 1969 to 1970 Ameco logbook on 15 meters. My call was WN8FMA and now WB8FMA.
Very interesting Video!!
I've had all these rigs since 1963.
Lee, WA8QFE
This brings back many memories, some of them bitter. I used my lunch money to buy parts to build a single tube transmitter. Hung wire in trees in our trailer park. Had my station in the hallway of our trailer house. I had a general coverage receiver, a Lafayette HE-30. I has sixteen years old in 1962 and had nearly no one to advise me. I had one 40 meter crystal on a frequency shared with an international broadcaster. However, I made CW contacts! Dang, that was exciting! Some months later, I got a DX-60 and a general class license. Life was good. 73s...WA7VVV
The swr meter you showed, had several different brand names. There was Lafayette as the one you showed, Swan had one with their name on it, and also Midland had one too and there are probably many others. It also had a built in field strength meter with that little antenna that had a threaded end, so you could screw it into the meter case to measure field strength.
Brought back many memories
1626 osc tube in command set. the 80 meter command tx was very stable and did not chirp. I have one. Love your videos.
Most of the 80M command transmitters were pretty good on chirp. The 40M - well sometimes you need to key just the finals and keep the oscillator running on TX. Wonderful compact designs.
good stuff,Mike... In 1962 is used a 2 rocks, a 6ag7 and 1625 ( 5 for a buck from
Burstein-Applebee in KC)) The rest was salvaged from old TV sets and received
the whole 40m band on my Heathkit AR3.
Thanks
Frank KN3SQP and still K3SQP
that drake 2c was a dream receiver
You got that right! Magic sensitivity.
WV6KJK, 1960-61, then WN6EPZ, 1974-76. Still have all my "Novice Crystals" and the original ticket signed by C. B. Plummer. My station was the best of times and the worst of times: a self-built DX-40 and an S-38E. Loved the DX-40 but the S-38E was THE WORST ham receiver devised.
Maybe a 6L6 transmitter and a regen receiver in the future? Why not? Thanks for the videos, Mike.
72 de k6whp
dit dit
I lived on the farm,1962 my grand parents gave me a dead philco model 16x console. I repaired it with parts scavenged from old tv sets. put in ago defeat, manual gain control. bfo, q multiplier. built transmitter from scavenged tv parts. 6ag7 osc. with 1625 output.texas xtal for 3711khz(most costly part) got war surplus coax and put up an 80 meter dipole at 20 feet. best daytime qso 175 miles away. night time was tough with all the stations. used typewriter for copy. station call wn0bzs Minnesota. man with axe and acme liquidate were the surplus stores. lots of fun.
Wow that is a great story and boy those old TV transformers were heavy duty and perfect for building up a transmitter power supply!
Nice! Well done. 73 de WN3PMI (W7VJ) 1970
Very interesting.
Very well done. Attaboy! W9NET
14:18 Has this SWR Meter also an Option to work as a simple (relative) Field Strength Meter too?
It is a little Whole / Slot on the Top in it in which You can put a little bit of Wire so the SWR Meter can pick up the EM Field Strength of an Antenna too (at least the Near Field) ?
And how did You know with all that analogue Meters and Scales, that You are on Frequency / in the Band and which Frequency it actually is.. ?
I heard, that some Receivers had Crystal Calibrators / Marker Generators build in for this Purpose. Was something like that also Part of a Novice Station? Or did they simply rely completely on the Crystals that they used for the Transmitters?
Thank you from a super nerd KN9GAQ!
The Benton Harbor Gang made "The Twoer", "The Sixer" and the "Tener". All very popular and Heath sold a lot of that series.
I was first licensed in February 1974 as wn8rnt bought me an Heathkit hw-16 as my first rig never did get it on the air then later on what I became Ka8gov that's my call sign now I had a ten Tec Century 21
And the 40 and 80 meter novice bands were soooo crowded. I remember getting up at 5 am in order to get a qso using one of my half dozen crystals
Ah but they were busy because they were working so well! Do you remember real sunspot cycles?
Oh, you guys - what's limiting about 5, 10 or 15 W output? 73 M1GWZ
hahahah I remember wearing a dicky lol I love it !!! you made me laf when you showed the turtle neck sweater lol
Code on CB Band ? I thought that was illegal. I'm old school. I'm 57. I even had a CB license in the 70's. I was KSBD- 2905. My handle was "Blue Diamond". My Dad was a Ham operator and a licenced CB operator. " KWD-5384". How i remember these things, I do not know. Thinking about getting into Ham.
Ha yes! but we were using our Part 15 Sears Kids Base stations. To make matters worse the local husband and wife Taxi was on channel 14!
I made a homebrew tx in the UK,osc/output valves,transmiting on the old trawler band at the top end of the MW band,the GPO(officials),caught me and took away all the gear,went to court was fined £25 +£7 costs,this was in 1974,I was earning £9 a week!
From that point on I just listened🤔😕☠
I know you said on one of your screen text messages that VFO control was allowed for Novices in 1972 but what I remember was that when I got my novice in Feb of 1976 Novices were not allowed to use VFOs but had to use crystal control. Then durring my year of being a Novice before I passed the General the FCC changed it and we could use VFO control. de WB8YMV (novice: WN8YMV)
I was ready to correct this but came up with Nov. 22 1972 as the date the FCC allowed "Novices to use VFO Class A type" whatever that means.
Ive got one of those GE CB/AM/CPO rigs :) WA1YKL
YKL, nice to have an eyeball twice this year!
Success with DX is only partly a function of the input power. Some is from the antenna. So it is not right to say that low power is not good for the novice.
Part of your success at DX would be the condition of the solar cycle. I got my novice (WN8GBK) in March 1970, and we had just passed the peak of cycle 20. 15 meters was open every day to all parts of the US. My second and third QSOs were with California, I was in Michigan. My first DX was ZM3JC on 15. He was on SSB and I was on CW. I had a simple wire centered fed with a single conductor so it really was a top loaded vertical, strung between the garage and the house. It’s amazing I got out at all!
6 day queen 6. Was popular with the Ham's at the Sylvania tv crowd. The tecs would rarely let the test sets .run down past 75 percent. So we would "sneak" the tubes out for home use .12 au7 s, 6dq7 with 5u4 / tv power unit made a brute force rig for
"free" first ham licence was n8odn elmered at w8ft findlay ohio. Fair radio was on East eureka in LIma ohio. "A small well kept"man sat on a tall stool and took my orders. Then they moved to the old wollhan lumber lot on south east LIma ohio my army reserve job gave me a chance to browse
On lunch break. All ways rember that God was just a prayer away. The fiyer said so. 72 de kv4li
It's so nice to come across videos where people aren't trying to prove how "groovy cool" or "hip" they are by using a bunch of unnecessary fowl language in their presentations.
Michael Powell
'er.. Foul unless you area bit chicken!
Agree with you 100%...Just being a bit jokey.
No one said anything abt mary g nice shack