When not occupied with the above, I am employed with Terasys, Incorporated,
a Systems Integration and Consulting firm, to which I attribute the ability
to afford this hobby, but also the lack of time to enjoy my radios!
If interested, here is a description of how I found my way on this path
at a rather young age.
I'm glad you have been able to visit my site, and please say hello if
we ever meet on the air or in person at a hamfest!
73! - Mark
Around 1964: I recall constructing
a "crystal set", actually a WW II classic foxhole radio receiver utilizing
a steel single edge razor blade and a piece of pencil lead held with a bent
paper clip as the rectifier "crystal". With the prequsite inductor wound
with bell wire on a round oatmeal box, and utilizing a clip to the home telephone
dial stop as an antenna (or maybe ground?), it was on possible, on occasion,
to hear WJR broadcasting Detroit Tigers games if the proper "hot spot" was
found for the pencil lead on the slightly rusty razor blade. Using
a high impedance crystal earphone garnered from an electronic experimenter's
kit, I'm surprised I heard anything! I don't recall where the inspiration
for this project came.
Some time later, I remember my Dad taking me to a local Radio/TV repair shop,
where I placed an order for a "IN34" diode. The shop owner was quick to point
out that the correct part was a 1N34, and was happy to help me replace that
razor blade/pencil lead rectifier with something a little more dependable
and sensitive!
Sometime in 1965 I was able to visit a local CB'er's
radio shack. I recall being impressed at the number of QSL cards from
all over the country that were on display. At this time, I still did not
know much about CB or Ham Radio, or the differences between the services.
This gentleman (a teenager, if my memory serves me right) gave me a few
Popular Electronics magazines, and the first of my dream books, the
Lafayette Radio and Allied Radio catalogs from that year.
This certainly caused some confusion. I recognized some of the popular
CB transceivers as similar to the ones used in the local operator's shack.
However, there were many pages devoted to gear that was much more elaborate,
and much more expensive! These were the Amateur Radio sections of those
catalogs. A trip to the local library and a couple of Robert Hertzberg's
books finally set me straight as to what Ham Radio really was all about!
Thanks to a paper route delivering the Detroit Free Press, I had a little
(very little) pocket change available. I discovered what turned out to
be a treasure trove at a local used bookstore. Dozens and dozens of copies
of old CQ and QST magazines, dating from 1958 through about 1965 were
available for 15 cents apiece. All that summer, I picked up at least
two or three new ones each week. In this fashion, I became familiar with
all of the vintage gear from Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Johnson, Heath,
National and others, three decades before I started using them in my
ham shack!
It soon became time to bite the bullet in 1966. With the purchase
of an Ameco code practice LP record from Allied Radio, I was able to learn
the morse code in a fairly short time. I concentrated on the ARRL study
guides for the theory, and welcomed the gift from my parents of the 1966
ARRL handbook.
I was ready, but still knew no "real" Ham operators. Finding one of General
class or higher was now necessary, as my Novice exam had to be administered
by a licensed ham. My parents knew of a possible ham in a neighboring
suburb of Detroit, and my Dad and I started driving around looking for
a Mosley tribander in the air somewhere in suburbia. We found the QTH,
and knocked on the door. I regret that I can no longer recall the name
or call of this ham, but I do remember that he was involved in the
broadcast industry, as he had archive shelves with what seemed like
thousands of LP records on a wall of his family room. I remember taking
the CW test and theory tests in different sessions at his dining room
table. He reviewed my theory exam, and let me know that I had passed. I
still had to wait for the FCC to verify the examination, and those long
weeks waiting for my license to arrive were spent getting some equipment
ready.
Several weekend bicycle trips to the garbage cans of a local TV repair shop with
my next-door buddy resulted in several TV chassis carcasses carried home.
These eventually created a single-tube 6DQ5 "Novice Special" transmitter
that, for some reason, seemed to generate quite a bit of RF power even
though I had no crystals to plug into the octal socket used to hold them.
I think my fascination with shorting out the high voltage capacitors made
my folks a bit nervous, as it wasn't long before I had my first piece of
test equipment, the Heathkit MM-1 VOM, and the real surprise, a Knight-Kit
T-60 transmitter to replace my TV chassis wonder.
My receiver
was a three transistor (CK-722's) regenerative set from one of those
50-in-one electronic experimenter's project kits. I could hear what might
have been ham CW, and maybe heard W1AW once or twice with that set!
My parents must have sensed my frustration with that receiver, as a
brand-new Hallicrafters S-120 appeared under the Christmas tree soon
afterwards! My license arrived in due time, and WN8YOQ was
on the air. Sort of.
I spent several weeks calling CQ, and trying to answer CQ's from other
Novice hams near my crystal controlled freqency of 7160 kc. (No hertzes
yet!). At the time, I had no way of knowing that my antenna, which
was the Hy-Gain 18V base loaded vertical, probably would not work out very
well from a suburban back yard, when ground-mounted next to a chain link
fence
only 10 feet from a 2-story aluminum sided home, with no ground system to speak of.
Finally, an answer to one of my endless after-school calls, from a novice
in the next town, maybe 10 miles away at most! He and two of his teenage
ham buddies made a bike trip to my QTH the next weekend. The eldest ham,
Gary, then WA8VOG, pointed out the inefficiencies of my little 18 foot
vertical on 40 meters, and suggested the classic inverted-V as a suitable
replacement. One weekend and three 10 foot TV mast sections later, I had
a full size 40 meter inverted V antenna up in our little 30 foot wide
suburban back yard. And the world opened up to me, particuarly on 15
meters, this being near the peak of a sunspot cycle.
Several crystals and several months later, I had managed to work all
but one of the states, and over 25 countries as a Novice. Everybody
was fascinated with the envelopes that would arrive from far-off lands
with the unusual postage stamps. Of course, I was more interested in the
QSL cards contained therein, which begain to cover the walls of my
bedroom.
Near the end of my one-year term as a Novice, I entered the ARRL
Novice Roundup contest in February, which I believe spanned two weeks time.
With 438 QSO's in 68 ARRL sections, I was
rewarded with a section award for the Michigan section, and my interest
in contesting was firmly established.
During my high school years, Ham Radio probably kept me out of many of
the troubles that teenagers in the late 60's could find themselves into.
And I still maintain that it was the reputation of the super station
W8UM that more led to my desire to attend the University of Michigan
than the excellent programs in Electrical Engineering offered in Ann Arbor!