"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
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On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 18:31:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
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On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:47:14 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
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http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

Hmmmm....used to have one of those.

Bit of nostalgia...

My first, circa 1955

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S20R.html

Yeppers - never owned one, but one of my buddies did.

This was my very first shortwave radio I built in kit form.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/Hal_S119.htm

I remember when I built it, the detector diode was blown so my Dad and
I went to Radio Shack in Boston and got several. There must have been
a difference, because that radio was HOT even on the built in whip
antenna.

I outgrew that one and managed to save enough money to get the SW-500.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/S120.html

By that time, I had my ticket and was using it as a standby receiver.
I still have it (had it recently restored) - modified to receive SSB.

Man, those were the days. Staying up late at night "working" AM
stations around the country. In those days, the SWL could write the
station, send a signal report with a brief description of the
programming and how long you listened and the station's Chief Engineer
would return a QSL card verifying that your information was correct
and a thanks for listening.

My very first one was a station in Des Moines, Iowa - a small, 1kw
(night time) country western station. I'd have to go through the QSL
card file to remember the call sign. One of my best shortwave ones
ever was Thailand - AM no less on a rainy Saturday. Took five weeks,
but I got the QSL card. :)

My Dad was a ham from the 1930's. Never got active again after the forced
shut down during WWII. In the 50's when I was 12 he bought me a kit from
Allied Radio. Looked about the same as your Sky Buddy except had plug in
coils for various frequency ranges.

There were several like that - Lafayette and Allied made a few like it
in kit form. It wasn't a Space Spanner by any chance? Seems to me I
remember one of the guys in my Scout troop built one of those.

That got my Dad started again and I progressed up the ranks from novice,
general and amateur extra. I haven't been active for many years. Except
of
the CW banks it seemed that the rest of the frequency allocations turned
into a giant CB party.

I blame no-code. :)

Ahhh, the good ole days....

Tell me about it. We used to do some really cool stuff just
experimenting and what not. One of my most memorable QSOs was with a
guy in Chicago I worked off a 100 watt industrial light bulb as a
dummy load when I built my first Heathkit transmitter. Milwaukee to
Chicago from my basement "shack" at 50 watts off a light bulb.

Or the time I shunt loaded a steel rail road bridge on a bet and
worked a guy 300 miles away on CW. :)

Or the time I obtained a weather balloon and made a 2,500 vertical
complete with ground grid for 160 on Field Day. Man, was that antenna
loud. Only stayed calm enough for an hour, but I made a ton of Qs
during that hour. :)

Yep - the good old days.

What I played with:
http://www.navcom.com/tacan.pdf