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September 10th 03, 11:12 PM

(Brian) wrote in message . com...
(Brian Kelly) wrote in message . com...
Mike Coslo wrote in message ...
Erich Voobner wrote:

Per qrz.com, N2EY d.o.b. April 24, 1954
N2EY, another in a long line of Bull****ters, who
"personally" experienced ham radio in the1950s.
One thing that has never changed in ham radio, the
hobby has no shortage of bull****ters and wannabes.

So he had to be a ham at that time to know what hams were using?
An interest in history could fit the bill here. He's only a couple
months older than me, and I also knew a lot of what he posted. And I
wasn't a Ham until 1999.

I *was* all over the bands in the early/mid '50s and I'm here to tell
all you newbies what this "Golden Age" BS was actually like in
comparison to the ham radio we have today in one quick broad-brush
capsulization: If I had turn the clock back and "do" ham radio like we
had in those days my ticket would have landed in the dumpster three
decades ago.

Brian, I hadn't expected you to say something like that. I've heard
Dick comment on being able (or having no choice but) to copy 7 QSOs
simultaneously because of the selectivity of those old rigs.

Believe it. The top gun rcvrs in those days with even half decent
selectivity were built by Collins and cost 7-8 weeks worth of an
average engineer's entire paychecks. Today much better rcvrs are
available for 10-12 *days* worth of his/her paychecks. Radio kids had
it really miserable, it took me a whole summer to earn enough money to
buy a monumental crapper S-40B rcvr from Sears. Seven QSOs at a time?
No problem! Had the same selectivity characteristics as one of today's
$10-20 throwaway pocket AM/FM broadcast rcvrs. Maybe worse. Ya could
hear a dozen or so stations when the band was really cooking, half
were real signals and the other half were images & intermod products.
Then came the drift . . "Golden Days" my ass . . !

I wish there had been that much activity when I was willing to go thru
the ordeal.

The Novice bands of those days are about the only aspect of 'wayback
radio I wish we still had.

73, Brian

w3rv