[SCCC] Novice memories - KN6LSG

[w6ph at aol.com]

The YCCC reflector started a thread about our starts in amateur radio.  This is the one I sent.  Maybe this could start a similar thread here.  Additionally I sent it to my kids.  They wrote back that they never knew how I got interested in the radio hobby and enjoyed learning.

73, Kurt W6PH (Lone Pine CA)  I was raised in Salinas CA.  At age 12 I had a morning paper route and would wake up at 6 am before the papers arrived at 6:20 am.  I would listen to all the big AM stations in the west on my Silvertone AA5.  Hearing these distant stations that I didn't hear during the day fascinated me.  One of my deliveries was to a house with a big antenna behind it (Gonset bow-tie 20m beam at 30 feet).  One Sunday morning I was late delivering papers because they were late getting to me.  W6WJM was waiting for his paper and I asked him about the antenna.  He told me about ham radio and offered to help.  He loaned me an Instructograph (I think that is what it was called) with perforated tape to make Morse code.  There was a lever to adjust the speed.  I got my speed up to 5 wpm and memorized the ARRL Novice license test.  Art proctored the Novice test and I got my license in June 1955 as KN6LSG.  I bought an AT-1 for $29.50 from Heathkit.  I couldn't afford the $54.95 for the Viking Adventurer.  My receiver was a 3-6 mc ARC-5 receiver from Sam's Surplus in Los Angeles.  I think it was $5.95.  A tuning knob was $4 and I couldn't afford that.  I tuned the receiver by varying the BFO screw on the side of the receiver. I had one crystal at 3739 kc.  My antenna was a random wire about 35 feet long and up about 15 feet.  It was thrilling to make contacts with stations outside your town.  No one called long distance back then because it was expensive.  So making these contacts was real neat.  When you called CQ, you logged it even if there was no answer because the FCC required it.  It was rare to have someone call on your frequency and you tuned across the band from 3700 to 3750.for an answer.  The QSO was RST, name, QTH, and address to exchange QSL's.  Walter Ashe and WRL had QSL cards available at very cheap prices.  Postage was 1 cent for the cards.  I worked stations up and down the west coast but couldn't get beyond the Rockies.  In March I took the Conditional exam from W6WJM (we were more than 100 miles from SF).  I passed and became K6LSG.  My next purchase was an SX-25 and VF-1.  I headed for 20 meters.  That extended my DX into Texas and Colorado.  One morning I heard KA2OZ (Tokyo) calling CQ and on a lark I called him.  I was stunned when he came back to me and that started my DXing.  The next project was doing the Lew McCoy "More Power from the AT-1" modification in Oct 55 QST.  Like everyone else I had  a DPDT knife switch to change the antenna from transmit to receive.  Before the modification I put a 25 watt light bulb across the contacts and got a dull glow.  After the modification the bulb was bright.  I had gone from less than 10 watts output to 25 watts output.  I built a Lew McCoy One element rotary dipole at 20 feet for 15 meters and started having a ball with DX.  One very memorable contact was 4S7GE.  One of the local hams was working him and I asked him (W6EFR) to ask the 4S7 to listen for me.  Ceylon (it was called that back then) is about as far as you can get from California and 4S7GE came back to me and gave me a 449 report.  (We gave real reports back then.)  I ended up with 70 countries before I went QRO with a DX-100 in 1957.  Those who are too young missed Cycle 19 which was absolutely fantastic in retrospect.  But we all thought it was always going to be this way working the world with simple antennas and 25 watts.  My first DX contest was CQWW CW in 1956 and my score made it into the results.  I went off to the USAF Academy in 1960 and operated the Cadet station as K0MIC until 1964.  After pilot training in Texas I ended up in southern NJ as W2BQF and hit a lot of contests winning several section awards with real simple antennas.  We moved to NH in 1975 and I became W1HMF for a short time before becoming W1PH.  I became W6PH in 1998 in contemplation of retiring to Lone Pine.  As others have said, there are a lot more stories to tell.  Thanks for reading mine. 73, Kurt W6PH