Each of us has a story about how we became involved in ham radio. Here is mine.
I received my first crystal set at age 8.
My dad strung an antenna wire out to the clothesline pole and the ground
was connected to the hot water radiator in
my bedroom. I could receive the local radio station in North Bay,
Ont.,
one in Sudbury and sometimes the Toronto stations.
I marvelled at the wonders of radio with headphones and cat's
whisker. Like most kids given such a
toy, I would lie in bed at night moving the cat's whisker and slide tuner
to
see what new stations I could receive.
Of course, the next step was to try building one of the crystal sets described
in
Popular Mechanics, which my dad subscribed
to.
This is similar to my first crystal set except that mine was black and
had the word
"Philmore" across the top near the cat's whisker. Terminals are for
antenna, ground,
and headphones. "Ground" was to the hot water radiator, "antenna"
was about 50 feet
of wire, strung out through the window and draped along the back of the
house, and
the headphones were high impedence crystal, black phenolic ear pieces with
"silver"
backs and an unpadded steel headband. Brings back a lot of memories!!
This is an "advanced" crystal
set similar to one I built with
No, this isn't me! I probably looked
the help of a neighbour ham
. Plans were found in various
just as full of wonder as I tuned
magazines such as Popular Mechanics,
Radio/TV News,
the broadcast band! My dad smoked
Popular Science and other magazines
in the period 1930-55.
cigars so there was no shortage of
(Both pictures from Xtal Set
Society webpage)
boxes. I still have several of those
wooden boxes crammed with parts!
The gift of a 4 tube superhet receiver kit
for Christmas when I was age 12 "hooked" me on radio! This kit was
built
on a piece of wood for a base and all the
connections were via fahnstock clips. The radio was housed in a cardboard
box and I found out the hard way not to fall
asleep with the radio on at night....those batteries put a drain on the
savings from my newspaper route!!
I had the kit together in a day and working
in three after a neighbour ham and friend of the family,
Fred Reeves, VE3ALL (SK) found one wiring
error.
In my first year of high school I joined the
school's army cadet signal corps and got to play with REAL radios!
The WS# 19,
#58, #26 and #510 set were the mainstay of
both the cadet and the army reserve outfits in our home town of North Bay,
On
and tricks to make all of the sets work over
distances often greater than we bargained for! My first electrical
shock came
from the dynamotor of a WS# 19 set....my first
RF burn from the whip antenna. My first "DX" QSO was to California
on
a #26 set during a temperature inversion while
standing on the roof of the high school.
This is part of one of our Signal Corps platoons. That's me
kneeling in front, in my "tanker" suit and headset, all ready
to plug into the WS#19 control box. It's hard to believe that
they allowed kids as young as we were to play with all that
hardware!
Here are two of our guys set up on an exercise with a
Mk. III WS #19 set. The grins were missing more often
than not, as much of the equipment the WS #19 set was
supposed to net with simply did not work. But we had fun!
This is a beautiful
example of a WS#19 Mk III (British) ( from
WS#58 set used with the WS#19 set
the WS#19 web page).
The first one I acquired did not have
in cadet corps and army reserve
the mounting base,
variometer or whip antenna. In 1963 I took
units in the 1950s. Finicky, poor
5 of these to the
North Bay dump as I deemed them "junk"!!
range and unreliability marked the
This one is interesting
as it has no "B" set! Thanks to VE3CBK
sets we used. Photo from G4NCE's
for the detailed
information; for more on the WS #19 set check
military radio web page.
out the WS
#19 Set web page where Chris has some excellent
articles.
The WS#19 set had been built for rugged use in tanks and bren gun carriers, that much we knew. But just how rugged was it? On one field exercise we were instructed to set up a position at the top of the men's high ski jump at the local ski club. We lugged the radio, accessories plus two big batteries to the top, set up the equipment and ran the exercise. After we were done, one of the guys in the platoon decided that we needed to know how much abuse the old #19 set would REALLY take. So, he sent it on its journey down the ski jump where it bumped and crashed its way down the wooden chute, became airborne and landed about 300 feet further down the hill. We walked to the bottom, plugged everything in and the radio worked just fine! That's just the way things were built back then.
In my second year of high school, my parents,
who had rewarded me for academic performance in the past, again suggested
that if I attained a certain average on all my subjects they would buy
me my own radio set. So, in late June of that year my father and
I drove to Toronto and visited Hercules Sales on Yonge St, which had a
great selection of #19, #48, #58 and #46 radio sets for sale at very low
prices. We loaded a complete #19 set (less variometer, base and antenna)
into the car and came home. I proceeded to build an AC power supply
and make some modifications. My first ham station was on the air!
Of course, I didn't have a licence yet...that was to come several months
later. But that didn't prevent me from trying it out!
In my very first "shack"
built under the basement stairs, the #19
This is my third station, circa 1960, the second being an old
set with power supply
built from a transformer given to me by Fred
Hallicrafters S40 receiver and a TA12C transmitter borrowed for
Hammond VE3HC (SK) who
was always so generous. The receiver
about 6 months from friend and mentor Ron Saunders, VE3DGB
is a Hallicrafters S22R
which was certainly better than the receiver
(SK). This transmitter was the classic 6AG7/2E26/813 Handbook
in the #19 set.
With a centre-fed open wire dipole, this equipment
design with external VFO (beside receiver). The plate ran red-hot
comprised the first rig
at VE3CSK and provided months of enjoy-
when loaded up to about 300 ma at 2500V! The antenna coupler
able QSOs on 40 and 80
meters through 1959. I still have the
on top came from neighbour Fred Reeve, VE3ALL (SK). I had
plate transformer from
that power supply!
fun building this transmitter and using it before selling it to fellow
North Bay ham John Fudge, currently VA3JQ
The
WS#46 set which could also be used together with the #19 set and #58 set.
Another high school pal, Alan Standish, purchased one of these in 1957.
Hooked to an external antenna it would work over several miles but it "ate"
batteries unmercifully and he soon lost interest in trying to use it for
other than a receiver. Perhaps living right behind the Radio Inspector
deterred him somewhat from transmitting too often!! Unfortunately,
Alan never did obtain his ham licence.
Photo from G4NCE's web page.
On one such "test run" before being licensed,
my cousin, who was a real joker and living with us for a time, came down
to the basement while I was "testing" and said "Bill...there's a black
car out in the street with a funny round antenna on the roof. Wonder
what it's doing there?"
I just about had a fit! I dismantled
the #19 set and power supply and had them hidden in the coal bin in about
a minute. Of course, there was no car....but there might have been!
My cousin still laughs about that incident to this day.
We attended the meetings of the local amateur radio club even though we were not licensed. One evening in the fall of 1958 the radio inspector, who was a ham, came up beside me, twisted my ear and said quietly "I think it's about time you took your license exam so you can be on the air legally. Better make an appointment"!
With a lot of help from our mentor, Ron Saunders
(who was at that time VE3DGB and is now a silent key) we slowly acquired
the necessary technical knowledge. We practised CW like mad and during
Easter holidays 1959, my good friend John Dicker and I sat for the exam
at the old DOC office in North Bay. The code seemed way too fast
(was that a 12 WPM tape instead of the 10 WPM required for the first license??),
the diagrams we drew seemed awfully sparse, and the questions asked of
us seemed very hard. But after 2+ hours of agony the RI told us we
both passed and a few weeks later John received the call VE3CSJ (which
he still holds) and I became VE3CSK. Now we were legal! Now
I could put that #19 set with its bad CW note on the air and be a REAL
ham!
THE "OTHER AMIGO", VE3CSJ
My good friend John, VE3CSJ as an
Basement shack of VE3CSJ, late 1958
VE3CSJ, late 1959 with Trio
SWL in 1956 or '57...the flame had
with R1155 receiver and homebrew
9R4J receiver, RME 10-20
been kindled!
transmitter
converter and homebrew transmitter
John's original QSL card, 1959. My original
cards were
Home station and QSL, 1992. Katie, a purebred
similar but done in blue. Unfortunately, I never kept one
springer spaniel was laid to rest a few months
as a memento of those early years. If anyone reading this has
short of her 15th birthday in February, 2004.
one of my old QSL cards I would love to acquire it!
This is the FT-902 station with SB200
linear which I sold as it did not cover 160 meters.
This is me
in 1963 at a ham radio demonstration in North
This is another of our group of young hams in North
Bay.
The "portable" unit operated on 10M and belonged
Bay in the early '60s. Tom Hutchinson, VE3CWY
to
Ted Simola, VE3DXG. We had several of these crude
is working 40 meters at Field Day in which we were
transceivers
which we attempted to integrate into the local
regular participants. To this day I doubt that Tom
community
emergency communications plan. The DX35
owns a microphone! An excellent CW operator, he
and
VFO on top of the SX110 replaced the 813 homebrew
mastered the "bug" while the rest of us plodded
transmitter
(but it was not nearly as fun or exciting to
along with our hand keys, and regularly worked at
operate!!)
20+ wpm while most of us had trouble with 10wpm!!
Taken
in the mid-80s with Bill Stewart, VE3JER (SK)
"The basement shack" at our summer home on Lake Huron. I can
(in hard hat) at 150 feet, doing routine maintenance at
work 160M through 2M from here and chase DX and grid squares
one of the many repeater sites my company maintained.
in cool comfort! In 2002, I sold my communications business
and
Ham radio led me into a very rewarding career in the
am now fully retired. Life is good!!!
communications industry.
Last modified June 22, 2008