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


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


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
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

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:00:35 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

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

Bit of nostalgia...

I had one of these as a kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWFPmG0ypo

http://www.antiqueradio.org/halli07.htm

My Dad bought it right after WWII in 1947 and it was built like a
battleship. It had continuous tuning from the bottom of the
broadcast band at .55 MHz all the way to the top of the FM band at 108
MHz.

When I was 12 years old I built of of these:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4093

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:44:31 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:00:35 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

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

Bit of nostalgia...

I had one of these as a kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWFPmG0ypo

http://www.antiqueradio.org/halli07.htm

Man they built some monsters back then didn't they? I remember "da
bomb" as the kids today say was the Hammerlund SP-210-LX even twenty
years after it's introduction.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/SP210bk.htm

You had one of those beasts, you were on top of the bragging rights
pile even twenty years after they were made. SWLs would literally
fight each other to get hold of one if they ever found one available.

One of our neighbors had one - big time SWL listener, had a wire
antenna array the envy of the US Navy. He used to let me listen
around from time-to-time - nice guy - a little light in the loafers if
you get my drift but he and his "friend" were great neighbors. He
knew his electronics and taught physics at MIT for a number of years -
taught a bunch of us guys about antenna theory when the high school
had a radio club.

My Dad bought it right after WWII in 1947 and it was built like a
battleship. It had continuous tuning from the bottom of the
broadcast band at .55 MHz all the way to the top of the FM band at 108
MHz.

When I was 12 years old I built of of these:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4093

Ah yes - the days of being crystal bound until you could get, beg,
borrow or build a VFO. :)

Probably my all time favorite story/radio was the Heath "Tener"
lunchbox. I had just got my General and it was a present from my Dad
for getting my "full" ticket. I spent two days straight building and
aligning it - then had to put it down. At the time, I was working
part-time at a local TV store as a super go-fer - meaning that I would
go out in the VW van and pick up and return TV sets and/or simple tube
replacement jobs.

So after school, I had a run up to my neighborhood, I stopped at my
house to get the Lunchbox to show the boss who was also a ham my new
toy. I got the idea to load up the CB whip on the way back to the
store and wonder of wonders I heard a DL6 calling CQ. I called back
and bingo - very first voice contact ever, on ten, from a Lunchbox
radio loaded into a CB antenna from a VW bus on West Shore Drive in
Marblehead. :)

WHOO HOO!!!

Now - eh - I can call Germany on my cell phone - big whoop. :)

Not to wander off on a philosophical rant here, but you know, I think
that the advance of technology has dumbed down a lot of things - we've
become isolated from the wonders that the universe provides - the
sense of adventure has left the building if you will if only because
the truly extraordinary has become the ordinary - even mundane. You
used to have to have a general coverage receiver in your car or at
home to catch the BBC World News, now you can get it on your Sirius
just by pushing a button. Everything has become interlinked to hell
and gone and there are no corners or mystery left.

And now I'm depressed.

And its your fault. :)

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:44:31 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:00:35 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

http://tinyurl.com/5hkot4

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

Bit of nostalgia...

I had one of these as a kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWFPmG0ypo

http://www.antiqueradio.org/halli07.htm

Man they built some monsters back then didn't they? I remember "da
bomb" as the kids today say was the Hammerlund SP-210-LX even twenty
years after it's introduction.

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/SP210bk.htm

You had one of those beasts, you were on top of the bragging rights
pile even twenty years after they were made. SWLs would literally
fight each other to get hold of one if they ever found one available.

One of our neighbors had one - big time SWL listener, had a wire
antenna array the envy of the US Navy. He used to let me listen
around from time-to-time - nice guy - a little light in the loafers if
you get my drift but he and his "friend" were great neighbors. He
knew his electronics and taught physics at MIT for a number of years -
taught a bunch of us guys about antenna theory when the high school
had a radio club.

My Dad bought it right after WWII in 1947 and it was built like a
battleship. It had continuous tuning from the bottom of the
broadcast band at .55 MHz all the way to the top of the FM band at 108
MHz.

When I was 12 years old I built of of these:

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4093

Ah yes - the days of being crystal bound until you could get, beg,
borrow or build a VFO. :)

Probably my all time favorite story/radio was the Heath "Tener"
lunchbox. I had just got my General and it was a present from my Dad
for getting my "full" ticket. I spent two days straight building and
aligning it - then had to put it down. At the time, I was working
part-time at a local TV store as a super go-fer - meaning that I would
go out in the VW van and pick up and return TV sets and/or simple tube
replacement jobs.

So after school, I had a run up to my neighborhood, I stopped at my
house to get the Lunchbox to show the boss who was also a ham my new
toy. I got the idea to load up the CB whip on the way back to the
store and wonder of wonders I heard a DL6 calling CQ. I called back
and bingo - very first voice contact ever, on ten, from a Lunchbox
radio loaded into a CB antenna from a VW bus on West Shore Drive in
Marblehead. :)

WHOO HOO!!!

Now - eh - I can call Germany on my cell phone - big whoop. :)

Not to wander off on a philosophical rant here, but you know, I think
that the advance of technology has dumbed down a lot of things - we've
become isolated from the wonders that the universe provides - the
sense of adventure has left the building if you will if only because
the truly extraordinary has become the ordinary - even mundane. You
used to have to have a general coverage receiver in your car or at
home to catch the BBC World News, now you can get it on your Sirius
just by pushing a button. Everything has become interlinked to hell
and gone and there are no corners or mystery left.

And now I'm depressed.

And its your fault. :)

You can always head to outer space! ;-)

On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:38:24 GMT, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

And now I'm depressed.

And its your fault. :)

Thanks, that's depressing. :-)

Actually I don't have time to be depressed now that I'm fully retired.
Working on the Grand Banks has become my full time job and the
maintenance chores wait for no man's depression. The reward is going
off cruising on it once in a while.

The big Hammerlund was certainly a fine piece of equipment but the
receiver I always lusted after as a kid was the Collins 75A4.