[SCCC] NE6I 1st Rig

[Dennis Younker NE6I]

Fun reading about everyone's first rig!  I've told my story before so my apologies if you have heard it before.

First licensed in 1972 as WN6OYV. I used all of my nickels and dimes to buy a Heathkit HW-16. There is a picture on my website showing me building it in our family room on a billiards table and another of my grandpa and I looking at it in my bedroom and pondering what was wrong with it. 

Unfortunately, I had made one critical error during assembly.  After finishing construction and putting the cabinet on it, I powered it up. There was a quick pop and a bit of smoke, and a whole lot of disappointment. I quickly turned it back off and opened it back up. I could see nothing wrong and no evidence of where the smoke had come from. 

I plugged it back in and turned it back on. No pop and no smoke this time. AND best of all, I was hearing signals in the Novice bands! I tried transmitting and the front panel meter was indicating full input power (spoiler alert: it wasn't telling the truth). I answered a zillion CQs over the next few weeks and got no answers. ZERO. NADA. No responses from anyone. And I couldn't figure out the problem. 

My uncle was a subscriber to Electronics Illustrated (the now defunct magazine) and I would read it whenever I was over at his house. In one old issue, I found an article on building a 15 watt one tube transmitter using a 50C5 audio tube and a piece of wood as the "chassis." The parts list was small and the coils could be built on empty prescription bottles. So...I gathered the parts (already had most of them) and got the prescription bottle I needed from my grandpa. I built it over the course of a few days and it actually worked "right out of the box." At least as far as the 60 watt light bulb I used as a dummy load was concerned. Disclaimer: I highly discourage others of as little experience as I had at the time from building this thing. No transformer and all voltages exposed! How I didn't electrocute myself, I'll never know! (Although I did get some healthy shocks now and then when I was careless!). 

Listening to myself transmitting on this Bare Essentials Transmitter while using the HW-16 receiver, I could hear that it was transmitting but I had no way of knowing how much output power it was actually producing since I didn't own (and couldn't afford) a wattmeter!

I don't recall what I used as a T/R switch to go between this new transmitter and the HW-16 acting as my receiver but I had something or another rigged up. Probably a knife switch! 

I'm happy to report that I made my first contacts from home using this Frankenstein setup and I was suddenly in Hog Heaven! Over the next couple of months, I even worked Indiana on 40 meters with this thing. I couldn't have been happier. Well, I could have if the darn HW-16 transmitter section was working!

Fortunately, I "met" a friendly and knowledgeable guy on 40m CW one afternoon and was telling him about my problem with the HW-16. We wound up exchanging letters (via U.S. Mail) for the next several weeks with him asking many questions and me providing my uninformed Novice answers. I had passed the test based on memorizing answers while not-so-much understanding electronics theory, obviously a hindrance when troubleshooting broken transmitters!

In the end, he got enough information from me to deduce that a screen choke must be open. Looking at the HW-16 schematic, he even pointed me to the exact component (well, there is only ONE screen choke in the HW-16 obviously). I opened the rig up and looked at it again and again. I could see no damage to it and it looked brand spanking new. He then told me to unsolder it and look underneath it. 

DOH! That was it. I had somehow managed to mount the choke touching the metal chassis and it had shorted to ground upon first powering the rig up, causing several windings to burn up and open. That wasn't visible on the top side but was plainly visible once I pulled the choke out.  

I ordered a replacement from Heath and put it in a few weeks later after it arrived, this time ensuring it had PLENTY of clearance from the metal chassis!

Still not having a wattmeter, I fired it up and used a light bulb as a dummy load. This time, it actually lit the bulb brightly whereas before it had been very, very dim. I put the cabinet back on the radio and started answering CQs. And NOW I was cooking with gas as they say! I went on to work WAS and a few VE's and XE's, and even the infamous LU5HFI, my first true DX! I entered the Novice Roundup in 1973 and the contest bug bit!

I still have the 50C5 15 watt Bare Essentials Transmitter and one of these days, I'll even light it up and connect a straight key and FT-243 crystal to try it out again. 

In case you want to read up on this highly dangerous but WN6OYV-saving transmitter, you can check it out here: https://www.qsl.net/kb7tbt/manuals/Ham%20Help%20Manuals/ElectronicsIllustrated%2010%20Basic%20Designs.pdf I use the term "saving" loosely. It saved my "ham career" but could have been my ending via electrocution!

Thanks go out to that ham that Elmered me through to successful repair of the HW-16, my Uncle for having that old magazine around in his room and Electronics Illustrated for publishing the article!

--Dennis NE6I