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Ham radio...

W ~A~....
a 'newbie' with a flair for the past... but it ain't lost on old "Anglophiles" with QSL cards. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
hehehe.. now that's just cool. Good thing they don't offer "vanity callsigns"
KC2BQW "73s"
 
Banjo said:
hehehe.. now that's just cool. Good thing they don't offer "vanity callsigns"
KC2BQW "73s"

Ah, but they do. I thought I read a bulletin saying they'd suspended the vanity callsign program, but I think it was just a temporary suspension because they were backlogged. As best I can tell they're still doing it..

I'd thought about coming up with a new callsign, but I've had the same 1x3 call for 25 years, don't see any need to change it now.

73 - sk
 
W3's taught me... never followed thru with anything past th' CW test.

Got caught up in CARS and photography.

Mia Culpa.

73's back "atcha'll!" /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif
 
DrEntropy said:
W3's taught me... never followed thru with anything past th' CW test.

...and then they took that away too. Not required at all now. Been a ham since I was 13, passed the 13wpm first time out - took me a weekend to learn the code, a couple of months working to get my speed up for the test, then I passed it. The written is a typical federal exam - they give you the questions AND the answers before you take the test. They've made it a really simple way to get into yet another hobby that takes up time and provides a money-pit /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
Hallicrapters 99 in my bedroom now. Passed the WPM "test" but didn't see a real reason to pursue it further. That was in 1967. W3*** had a 50K watt rig in his BASEMENT!!! Rivaled the broadcast AM stations in the area. Part of the first "net".

I'd listen to 'em on Sunday mornings, sitting in Virginia as they made sure all was in place.

Another of the examples of what Brokaw properly labeled "The Greatest Generation" IMO.
 
Passed my Novice test in 1965 when I was 15 yrs old. Haven't done anything with it in the past 30 years. Communications are so different now. It used to be amazing to work someone on the other side of the world, now we just call them on our cell or Vonage! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
...ain't it th' truth...

TPC is currently threading our subdivision with FiOS. Conduit went under my driveway yesterday as I sat watching. What a world.
 
Neat callsign, I wonder if he's got one /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I started out with the no-code tech in 1993, and passed the 13 wpm test to get to advanced. Stayed there for a while until the FCC waived the 20 wpm test and took the extra class exam. I've got a few CW QSLs collected using my IC-740 and straight key, and wouldn't mind getting back into it once I can put an antenna up again. Too many hobbies, I guess /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazyeyes.gif.


N8YQM
 
Is that a couple of Tempos By Henry Radio I see in the pic. Iv talked all over the world on a Tempo {Those were the days.}
Can you still buy tubes? {mine are flat!} Gave it up years back cause the tubes were so hard to find around here. Money Pit is right, nearly as bad as the TR I have is /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif
 
CraigFL said:
Communications are so different now. It used to be amazing to work someone on the other side of the world, now we just call them on our cell or Vonage! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

That's really true - but it hasn't diminished interest in radio that much. There are still massive pile-ups when a rare country gets on the air (not to mention the DX-peditions to islands and rare-locations). The digital modes have really taken off, and there's a surprising amount of teletype still on the air during contests.

The good news is my girlfriend thinks its great. She thinks the MG is great too - one in a million that girl is /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
sparkydave said:
Neat callsign, I wonder if he's got one

I don't think so... anyone in 2-land might be able to pick up his call as a vanity call though - he changed his to K2FDR! Can you imagine getting rid of the MGB callsign?! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif hehe
 
In 1966 I was WN7CWA then the army got me and I didn't pursue it any further. My transmitter was an converted aircraft ARC-5 the receiver and Navy RAL, both from WWII. The RAL was a TRF (tuned radio frequency) kinda between a regen and a super het. Still have them, I gotta get rid of this old stuff. Anybody interested? How about a RC model airplane receiver and rubber band powered escapement, if I look long enough I can probably find a model airplane xmitter and receiver using pulse. Ok lets go modern anybody need an Apple II+?
 
Acouple of pics of long ago attached, 1980 - when I was into this sort of thing. Polaroid wasn't the best thing, but all I had at the time.
D
 

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The last HAM in our area died recently. He was a wealthy, ok rich, eccentric that had the best of everything and about a zillion dollars tied up in his radios. His widow gave everything away to some out-of-towner; it had no value to her and she wanted it out.



<span style="color: #990000">...---...que es</span>
 
Dave Russell said:
Acouple of pics of long ago attached, 1980 - when I was into this sort of thing. Polaroid wasn't the best thing, but all I had at the time.
D

I don't dare post mine until I clean up around here /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Is that a Dentron amp on the left side? We used to have a Clipperton-L in the shack in Virginia.

-sk
 
Little radio update... In the past two weeks got Grand Cayman Island, Ukraine, Guadalupe, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary, Iceland, Ecuador, Northern Ireland, Sweden, and Germany - all on a pretty lousy wire antenna hidden in the trees (shhhhh don't tell the HOA!)

I put a collection of my DX QSL card online too. It's still fun /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Found this card in my collection on eQSL this morning... anybody here know him?

p216076366-2.jpg
 
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