Brian Kelly wrote:
Dave Heil wrote in message ...
Brian Kelly wrote:
(N2EY) wrote in message . com...
During the same year I built an AM BC rcvr which used five of the tiny
AG-1 flashbulb envelope subminiature tubes and stuffed the whole thing
into a small Band-Aid can which I carried in my shirt pocket. Walkman
Numero Uno. I went into biology class one day and strung the wire
antenna to an overhead lamp fixture, put on the earplug "speaker" and
started tuning around. The teacher, good 'ole Floyd Neff finally
noticed the antenna and stormed to the back of the room, "What are you
doing, what is that thing?" I cupped my ear, "Uh, it's my hearing aid,
could you speak up a bit please?" Tossed outta class again.
Young Don Newell was the crucifer one Sunday at St. Andrew's Episcopal
Church in Oak Hill. After the processional and after my father had
begun the service, Don fished a tiny crystal radio from his cassock,
stuffed the earphone into his ear and attached a wire with an alligator
clip to the cross. As the service ended, my dad whispered to him, "I'd
like a word after church".
You brought back a lot of hilarious memories of "electronerd
educations" gone awry David. Gawd we had fun . . !
The best I've ever heard was deliverd at the Dayton banquet one year by
Jean Shepherd.
For the first few weeks of my interest, my dad actively discouraged me
with talk of amateur radio being a passing fad for me.
He had visions
of mounds of equipment gathering dust in a closet.
He was right, I've seen it happen . . !
I can still get a laugh from him these days whenever I ask if he thinks
I'll tire of the stuff and let it sit in the closet.
My mother encouraged
me and was able to convince my father that some of the meager family
income should be spent on a transmitter for me if I earned the money for
the receiver from my paper route.
You got lucky, I got NOTTING in the way of economic support for
diddling with radios despite the volume of coin my parents had. Their
policy was that if some pursuit or another was important enough to
their kids we could bloody well work out how to pay for it on our own
or drop it. With the notable exception of cheerfully paying the
expenses related to Boy Scouting. I *really* needed radio gear so I
had a couple paper routes, peddled magazine subsciptions, painted
house numbers on curbs in December, etc. Got the equipment and some
early lessons on how much work hot buttons can actually cost.
Well, in my case it was a one-time Christmas deal--the one BIG present
and that was second-hand from Allied's big, used equipment list. The
receiver I saved for was also from the same list. More newspaper
deliveries, an after-school job at the local hobby shop several days
each week and the writing of a sports column for the local newspaper
provided coaxial cable and connectors, a key, antenna wire and the
like. Some of that money was also spent on a big U.S. call area map and
some (sorry, no choice of color) QSL cards from WRL.
I know Janie. Her father was Jesse Bieberman W3KT who is still a
legend. Honer Roll top-ender for decades, phone and cw dx contester,
25wpm with a straight key for 48 straight. Vice Director of the
Atlantic Division for decades and one of the most powerful voices in
Newington in those days. Ran the W3 buro single-handed also for
decades.
...and ran the W3KT outgoing QSL forwarding service for a number of
years.
I forgot all about that, tnx.
I used Jesse's outgoing card forwarding service in the days preceeding
the ARRL's outgoing bureau.
Speaking of QSL card handling Joe Arcure W3HNK is in this
neighborhood, I gotta look him up.
Joe used to be a regular at the DX hospitality suites at Dayton. I
haven't seen him in a number of years.
All of this nostalgia has me fired up to grab my collection of the West
Coast DX Bulletin to re-read some of Cass's gems.
Dave K8MN