[RFI] Odd broadcast radio reception.

[James Gordon Beattie Jr]

Hi Folks!
This is REALLY LONG... Sorry if it offends you.
If you are not interested, please calmly apply your Delete Key without offense being taken here.  :-)

Well, I took a different route at a somewhat later timeframe.  After being a shortwave listener with a Firestone Wings and National NC-33 receivers, I bought a used Heathkit Mohawk receiver and Marauder transmitter as my novice station in 1975.

Two weeks later, my Technician license arrived even though I passed each exam months apart.  These were the days of "single examiner/mail in twice" process.

1. After you passed the CW, your examiner would file for an exam by mail to the FCC in Gettysburg, PA.

2. After you took the written exam sent to your examiner, they would mail the completed exam package to Gettysburg for scoring.

If you passed, the FCC sent you your license.  In my case, WN2CAM, and then WB2CAM during the Summer of 1975.

The problem with the process was that the P.O. Box in Gettysburg was also used for other FCC licensing administration including the MILLIONS of CB license applications!  Needless to say the FCC's proceeses and staff were overrun and delays were EXTENSIVE.

Now, back to getting on the air.
My first QSO was with Jim Kearman WB2EDW, now KR1S.  He lived about two miles from Xavier High School where I had my gear on good wire antennas.  A call to school to get permission to come in the building on a Summer's day and a call to Jim from the school lobby pay phone to set up a sked on 80 meters and up the stairs I went!  I was SO NERVOUS and there was NO AIR CONDITIONING.  Well tapped out our calls and was absolutely TERRIFIED when I heard my call coming back.   I was on East 16th St in New York, and Jim was across town in "Alphabet City" ( Avenues A, B, C, and D) using his fire escape as an antenna, but his signal was strong.  We finished the QSO, and then I left the station and called Jim to thank him.  On the way home on the Lexington Avenue #6 IRT Subway, I was on top of the world!

I was interested in getting on VHF, UHF and the microwave bands as an expansion and maybe "liberation" from HF.  :-)
I wanted to explore proagation, antennas, receivers and transmitters for those  higher bands.  Tropo, meteors, aurora, moonbounce and satellites fascinated me.  I had read about W2AZL, K2RIW, W1JR, K2UYH and others.  W2NSD had interested me in repeaters and regulatory policy making; and W7ZOI in construction of high-performance solid state circuits.

When ham journals were small format, I would hide them inside my high school text books!  I bought and fixed a Knight Kit TR-108 2m AM radio and a TR-106 6m AM radio, each with a VFO.  I made wire colinear curtain antennas and strung them from the water tank on my apartment building and operated the January 1976 VHF Sweepstakes from the elevator tower staircase.  After my last senior exam at Xavier High School, I bought a used Drake TR-22C at Barry Electronics at 512 Broadway in Manhattan.  We charged it up in the store for about three hours and then went to the World Trade Center observation deck and worked Louis Pfeiffer W2EMY in Little Falls with one watt to the base of the opposite side of the mountain!

Locally, I was blessed with dozens of very skilled and tech-savvy operators who built, operated, rag-chewed, DX'd and contested awesome gear and shared what they did.  North Jersey and metro NY/NJ were hotbeds of communications technology.

Computers came from the need to point antennas at the Moon, send SLOW CW and to log contacts.  Then came RTTY, ASCII encoded as Baudot for regulatory reasons, repeater controls, bulletin boards and pre-AX.25 packet radio and ultimately AX.25, ROSE X.25, TCP/IP and other protocols.

Hilltopping and contesting took up lots of time and effort.   While I had a KW on 2m, I contested in the QRP Portable category that focused on more bands, with 10W of power,  good antennas, and automation of voice, CW and logging.  I also got involved in EMCOMM, FM reoeaters and building packet radio networks.  The first digipeater in New Jersey and one of the first ones in the US, was put up.  Doug Lockhart, VE7APU's Vancouver protocol and boards sparked Hank Magnuski KA6M, Dave Borden K8MMO, Terry Fox WB4JFI, Bill Ashby K2TKN and me to get on packet.  Later on Tom Moulton W2VY, Brian Riley N1BQ ( ex-KA2BQE) to collaborate on advancing networking of real-time and bulletin board message traffic via radio.  Over time there were conversations and debates over protocols with Eric Scace K3NA, Phil Karn KA9Q, Paul Newland AD7I, those mentioned above and many others.
Papers and code were written and run on live networks.  The characteristics of the propagation, modulation, system gain and loss were valued and often overlooked elements of the development of packet radio.  Those who had DX'd on VHF/UHF had insights and their systems reflected that experience.   Guys like Bob Anderson K2BJG and the WECA crew of WB2ZII put up awesome nodes.

I was fortunate to be noticed by folks at AT&T Bell Labs through my writings and ended up being recommended as a consultant, and then as a Member of Technical Staff.  So shortly after our oldest was born in 1986 until last year, I enjoyed a lovely career doing innovative and immediately useful things with simply awesome colleages!  Look at my QRZ page for that and more.

Many things learned through Amateur Radio found there way into advanced cellular, microwave, fiber and even copper technologies. Ham radio was the training ground, laboratory and post-graduate course for my technical life, but it was much more.  Friendships: beginning with introductions and access to people and experiences that one could never imagine were the basis for much of where life has taken me.  Most importantly, my friend Mike Friedman WB2WNX, with whom I played radio and from whom I learned much about computers, had a sister Sue, who had a friend Nancy, now N2FWI, who became my wife 38+ years ago.  At that time as part of a change of address I changed callsigns to N2DSY.  From early in our marriage when Nancy demonstrated her awesome soldering skills by assembling an original TNC-2 that worked the first time, to her calm net control duties at the NYC Marathon, she has embraced Amateur Radio.  Ask her about "Echosorb" and you'll understand how she's rolled well with her geeky husband!

EMCOMM is an aspect of Amateur Radio where we collaborate.  As part of the Passaic County Sheriff's Department's Volunteer Communications Team we have become part of a big family of communicators with high-tech, high-value talents appeciated by Sheriff's officers, and civilian leaders and employees across county government.  Initially led by Lt. Mike Hoeft K2MPH (SK), and now Cpl. Rob Scott KD2ION, the talents of Dave Henninger N3UXK, Aly Badawy AL0Y, Joe Pensca WX2UA, Frank Tucker K3GDX, Brian Hoeft KC2VYJ, Dave Pandoscak K2NEC, Ken Ng KC2UCU, Nancy and myself all come together at least once a year for the county fair which runs four days plus several weeks of planning, setup and demobilization.  Cross-training is essential as we manage and deploy three UHF radio caches, an AREDN mesh camera network, video management consoles for Sheriff's officers, volunteer radio operators and the technical team, batteries for HTs to mesh nodes, cellular modems, gateways, 3-4 on-site two way radio nets (Law Enforcement, Fair Admin, Amateur Radio, Command Staff), and off-site weather spotting and media situational awareness.

As our boys grew, we took long trips as a family and in the Scouting program.  Having HF radio proved invaluable as we went to Disney in Orlando while "Andrew" leveled Homestead.  Teaching Scouts about Ham Radio requires some exposure to HF... It just does!  So I upgraded to Advanced and remained there with only a callsign change to W2TTT for many years.  Then at the 2001 Scout Jamboree, I took the Extra on a lark with about fifteen minutes of studying and passed!  Eventually our boys got their licenses, mostly to "get Dad off their backs", but each has found it helpful to have a ham license in both personal and professional areas.  Nancy is a General and will some day pass the Extra.  Living in Florida opens one's eyes to the value of HF radio.

When we were shopping for a new home in Florida, Nancy knew intuitively what was needed for our home including space and facilities for all the radio stuff.  As we settle in since last Fall, her insights have really paid off with space for parts storage, operating,  building, testing, casual operating and intensive DX'ing and contesting.   Things aren't cluttered and easily accessed and organized.

Towers have been acquired and installation underway.  In the meantime, surge protected power, grounding and bonding are being completed.  The human factors of the ham shack, the household radio room, and the workshops are evolving comfortably.   Antennas for the household radio room are a 160-6m OCF dipole up 60 ft. and a few VHF/UHF omnis.  There is a VHF/UHF FM radio in one of the workshops and a 5 GHz AREDN mesh network to provide Internet across the property.  There is even an IP67 rated VHF/UHF FM radio on the tractor so that Nancy can call me in for meals or when there is dangerously bad weather.

This is a snapshot of the many rich gifts of God that were delivered via Amateur Radio through the Grace of the Holy Spirit. I lead a blessed life, and and for this I am eternally grateful!

73,
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
201.314.6964


Get On The Air!

________________________________
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+w2ttt=att.net at contesting.com> on behalf of D C _Mac_ Macdonald <k2gkk at hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 7, 2021 9:56:11 AM
To: David Eckhardt <davearea51a at gmail.com>; Bill Mader <billamader at gmail.com>
Cc: Rfi List <rfi at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Odd broadcast radio reception.

My novice rig was the Walter Ashe kit station.  Just under $50 plus postage.
One tube (6SN7GT dual triode) regen receiver, 6AG7 to 6L6 transmitter, and
matching power supply.  Built one solder joint at a time using kitchen gas stove
to heat a small soldering copper.  When the tube in the receiver went out, I
borrowed a Hallicrapper S-38 from a local who never could get even 5 WPM
Morse learned but finally got licensed when no-code came in decades later.
The one tube regen proved to be a far more effective receiver than the S-38!
If you set the regeneration just on the edge, the selectivity was much better.

When I went into USAF after college graduation, my mother pitched all of
my novice gear AND my first license.  She apparently did the same for my
Lionel trains!

I'm not sure what all this verbiage has to do with the original message, but
it has been interesting!

73 - Mac, K2GKK/5
Since 30 Nov 1953
Oklahoma City, OK
USAF (Retired) 61-81
FAA (Retired) 94-10



________________________________
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+k2gkk=hotmail.com at contesting.com> on behalf of David Eckhardt <davearea51a at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, July 5, 2021 22:24
To: Bill Mader <billamader at gmail.com>
Cc: Rfi List <rfi at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Odd broadcast radio reception.

I venture a guess that my novice receiver was worse:  the Heathkit AR-3.

Dave - WØLEV

On Mon, Jul 5, 2021 at 8:55 PM Bill Mader <billamader at gmail.com> wrote:

> ARRL has always been behind the power curve.  Remember how long it took
> them to recognize the lowly transistor and to start including it in
> their publications, especially QST and the Handbook?   W0LEV
>
> Perhaps not as long as you remember Dave.  The June 1953 issue of QST had
> an article on a  station that consisted of a two-transistor 10 meter AM
> transmitter and a two-transistor superregenerative receiver.
>
> That was nearly two years before I got my S-38D for Christmas.  It had only
> tubes inside, not even rectifier diodes.  I didn't go solid state until I
> built the Hallicrafters S-140K in the early 1960's after suffering with the
> S-38D as my Novice RX.
>
> 73, Bill Mader, K8TE
> New Mexico QSO Party 9 Apr 2022
> ARRL New Mexico Section Manager
> *ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio**™*
> Duke City Hamfest Chairman https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dukecityhamfest.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccc8be67144414c2a02cc08d9402d9ae6%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637611386886902674%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=6I6hCJQvpzAIZoajS%2FvM2AJWn9R3MGA5Ig4p7BVoTU8%3D&reserved=0 On-Line 18-19 Sep 2021
> Secretary/Treasurer and Past President, Albuquerque DX Association
> W6H NM Coordinator, Route 66 On-the-Air 11-19 Sep 2021
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--
*Dave - WØLEV*
*Just Let Darwin Work*
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