Hello to all. Thanks for stopping by to look at my web page
First let me share how I came to
become an amateur radio operator. At the age of 13, in 1953, my parents took me
to the house of a friend of theirs. I didn't want to go because I was building
this really neat model airplane and wanted to finish it.
My Dad asked me if I would
like to see what the man had in his basement. I guess I must have said yes
because we went down and there was all this stuff with racks and knobs and
meters and ,well you know, I was hooked. It was a 6 foot tall AM rig on 20
meters. All home brew and the receiver was a BC-348. Still have a QSL card from
him. His call was W8LCM and he was chief engineer for WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. I
got my license about 8 months later at the age of 14. My call was WN8PKU and
about a year later I got my general and became W8PKU. Since then I have been
N8BLB, NA8O, and now K4KWM. I used to look at all the new Collins gear in the
radio stores in Cincinnati at the time, but at 14 I could barely
afford a Heathkit
AT1 and a Hallicrafters S-40B. So my Dad came up with the extra money I needed
to buy them. Then he helped me build the AT-1. Still have it. But now that I am retired and have more time than
sense, I have managed to collect a few of the things I once could only dream
about owning. Below I have a few pictures of some of my toys. I hope you enjoy
seeing them. Many of them were piles of junk when I got them and I have had a
lot of fun restoring them to what they used to be.
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Heathkit Collection | More AM Stuff |
Finished the National NC-173 the other day. Complete with a new set of knobs. And all recapped with orange drop caps. Here it is all opened up along with a plain 32V (before the V1) which has taken almost 2 years to complete. It was a rusty, dirty pile of junk I found in someone's basement. It has been updated to a 32V2.
Then a shot of the two of them with their cloths on
Plus a Viking II that followed me home a couple of years ago
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Still have the following left to finish
SX-28A,S-40B
and a Ranger I transmitter
updated 04/12/02