Dave:
Sounds like you grew up in an area near where I did. I was in the 3rd
graduating class at Culver City HS in 1955. In 59-60, I was working at Bill
Thompson Radio on Washington Blvd. His call was W6RRI. Bill was my Elmer. Mine
was WV6AJE then WA6AJE. Left Culver City for the Pacific Northwest in 1971 and
have been here since. Also a grad of Santa Monica CC. - John Owens - N7TK
> On 03/02/2023 11:08 PM Leeson <leeson@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> Ah the memories! I saw my first ham radio setup when I was 4 years old,
> and still recall the thrill of learning that those beeps and dits were
> from people all over the world. That led to a life in radio. Ten years
> later I got my first job fixing radios and TVs in a local radio shop.
>
> My first rig in 1952 (I was 15) was an NC-173 RX my dad bought me, with
> some homebuilt 6L6 TX rigs and then a couple of ARC-5 transmitters from
> what we called "Sam's Surminus" on Melrose in LA. I recall they had very
> a big box on the sidewalk that was full of prop pitches. Henry Radio, a
> bike trip away, was in its prime then, and I drooled over their
> showrooms full of Collins gear that was way beyond a high-school kids means.
>
> My first big antenna was a 4-el 10m Yagi from the W6SAI book, but made
> with a 2x4 wooden boom and copper tubing I lugged home from the junkyard
> on my bicycle (not driving yet then). The tower was made of wood 2x2s,
> nailed together; I didn't own a climbing belt, just used rope. 10m was
> hot in those days, and I assumed it would always be that way.
>
> The local library gave me a complete set of QST from 1927 to 1950's that
> they didn't want, and I devoured every article and ad. The local West LA
> club was full of helpful folks.
>
> Thanks to the ARRL Radio Amateur's Handbook, The Radio Handbook, and the
> local encouragement, by 1954 I had designed and built an all-band
> VFO/6146 exciter and a KW amp that used the 4E27A/5-125 tubes removed
> from a TV station transmitter (6,000 volts!). They were distributed to
> us kids in the Southern California DX Club by W6YY, and had to be baked
> in the kitchen oven to reactivate the cathodes. Chassis holes for tube
> sockets were made by drilling a bunch of small holes in a circle, then
> filing the edges. At first the amp had no cover, but somehow I never got
> zapped before neighborhood TVI complaints caused me to enclose it.
> Transmitting on my 40m rooftop ground plane still lit the light in my
> closet. By then I was using a surplus BC-779 receiver with the audio
> output tubes hanging out the back to keep it from drifting from their heat.
>
> Sadly, all that radio gear was later lost in my parents' moves while I
> was away, but I have treasured photos of the BC-779/VFO/KW rig from
> Pacifico Radio Club Field Days in 1954-56 (we had the high US score one
> year - it didn't occur to us then that older folks had to work while we
> spent 365 days a year concentrating on FD).
>
> Hard to believe that's some 70 years ago! Many satisfying radio
> adventures since, to this day.
>
> Dave Leeson, W6NL/HC8L
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>
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