Some stories from those days:

My first rig was a single 6V6GT in the grid-plate circuit, running
maybe 10 W with one xtal on 3726 kHz. Dummy load was a Christmas tree
bulb, the big 7-1/2 watt kind. Antenna was a wire out to the crabapple
tree. Ground was the radiator pipe. J-37 key and knife-switch TR.
Antenna-current indicator was a pilot lamp in series with the lead-
in.

But the power supply was from an old Philco TV. Big power transformer,
5U4, cap and chokes. Good for at least 400 mills and I wasn't drawing
even 40.

Only parts bought new were the knife switch, the xtal and the 6V6GT.
Everything else was scavenged from the trash or acquired second hand.

Still have the key and the 6V6GT.

---

Another mentioned the cost of exams and nervousness at the FCC office.
I was lucky in that the FCC office was just a subway ride away. But a
school kid had to wait for summer or the rare school holiday that
wasn't a Federal holiday, because FCC exams were only given Monday
through Wednesday mornings. And the $9 cost was a big deal, too.

The first time I went for the General, early summer 1968, I flunked
the code because the examiner couldn't read my "Palmer Method"
longhand well enough to find the required 65 consecutive correct
characters. But he did find 25, so he let me take the written exam and
I wound up with a simultaneous Novice/Tech, which was OK back then.
WN3 call on HF and WA3 on VHF.

So I went home and taught myself to block-print, and listened to W1AW
until I could copy the 18 wpm bulletins solid from one end to the
other. Also saved up every spare penny to get the $9 exam fee. Went
back to FCC in midsummer and passed 13 wpm no problem.

As I was about to leave, the FCC examiner said "why don't you try
Advanced while you're here?" Though I hadn't prepared for it, there
was no way a 14 year old kid would say no to The Man From FCC, so I
tried it - and passed.

Two years later I was back for the Extra. But that's another story..

Tomorrow it will be 40 years since the license arrived in the mail...

73 de Jim, N2EY