On Sun, 5 Jul 3904 03:52:26, Edward Knobloch wrote:


In a recent posting about Ham Radio History, "No Spam"
wrote that he wished there were still Accu-keyer kits,
using small-scale logic chips.

I have a bare, drilled, "accu-keyer" board made by by WB4VVF,
with a sheet of his corrections.
I bought the board in the mid 1970's, then gave up
keyers when I realized that my bug fist had gotten lousy.

Interested?

email to k4pf at juno dot com

73,
Ed Knobloch

will drop you an email. (the spam has gotten bad).

I'm thinking, I mail you some cash, you send the board and any
instructions... Then I figure out where I can find those SSI TTL
devices.

de ah6gi/4





In article , "jakdedert"
writes:

"JJ" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:


Unfortunately, I dropped out of Ham radio to work on S/360 OS/MVT
and then MVS systems so I didn't have the first hand experience of
seeing the dieoff.

Same hear, running around fixing 360 main frames and related I/O kept me
too busy to ham much.

Both of you (as well as myself) *WERE* the die off....

What "die off"? The US manufacturers died off but the number of hams just grew
and grew...

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , Aaron Jones
writes:

I think the present Extra test is much harder than that General was then as
far
a *technical questions* are concerned.

I disagree!

The old tests required some understanding of the material. The new ones are
like the Susquehanna River - a mile wide and a foot deep.

However the current ham tests are
easier
to memorize and pass without knowing anything. I will admit that as a high
school student I was able to pass the General test in 1958 without knowing
much...

About 1964, the years are blurring together, incentive licensing
degraded my general and I took the Advanced.

Late 1968.

Yep, did the same thing, although somewhat later than you. A guy by the name
of
Bash got me going. Seems he published a book with the *exact* questions and
answers for the exams. Everyone seemed to think that was cheating at the
time.
How things change...

It *was* cheating. Here's why:

At the time, the exams were secret. The exact Q&A were kept locked up by FCC.
"By mail" exams required that the volunteer examiner certify that s/he would
not copy or divulge the contents to anyone. The Advanced and Extra weren't
available by mail at all. You had to wait 30 days to retest because the
question pools weren't very big.

The FCC published a study guide of essay questions that gave a good indication
of the subject matter on the test, but not the exact Q&A.

What Dick Bash did was to ask people coming out of FCC exams what the exact
questions and answers on the test were. He paid for the information.

Some folks in the FCC wanted to prosecute him, but the top dogs said no. A few
years later, FCC turned the whole testing process over to the VECs, saving
themselves a lot of time and money.

But at the time Bash did his thing, it was clearly cheating.

73 de Jim, N2EY

3) The new stuff doesn't seem "better" than the old. The ergonomics
are bizarre. The old stuff was carefully designed, knobs were large
and either ribbed (Hallicrafters) or fluted (Heath and Collins).
The lettering was large and precise.

I agree 100%! The rigs got smaller but my hands didn't. And some things make
you wonder if the people who built the rigs actually ever used them!

The old man-machine interface made sense, clockwise to increase, up
is on. The physical knob orientation indicated the setting of the
control. The KWM-2A aux crystal bank shifted into position and
changed the lettering surrounding the knob.

One rig I used had the lettering for each control *under* the knob. So unless
you put your chin on the desk it was hard to see....

The new stuff is a cruel joke. The knobs are too small, like
toothpaste caps. Press a button here and something over there works
differently, the clue is on the LCD panel which is not in proximity
to either.

Need a good pinky finger.

Given the typical suburban antenna farm, a tribander and a wire
dipole for 40, any upgrade or downgrade in QTH or antenna counts
for more than the radios.

Heck yes. 100 W of clean CW gets through just as well if it comes from a pair
of 807s as if it comes from the latest wonderbox.

I managed to hang onto most of my old gear but then, I wasn't much
of a buyer or seller (until recently). Any of my old stations was
serviceable, even the HT-37, SX-101A. The problem with the
boatanchors was the frequency readout. Collins and Heathkit solved
that with mechanical indicators on linear tuneable oscillators.

Drake too.

I'd rather refurb my radios, figure out how to re-fill the metal can
3 section capacitor in the 75S-1, practice my CW to keep my fingers
flexible.

It might not happen, but I'm hoping that the boat anchor market
takes off and I can sell my SB-303's for "Antique Roadshow" kinda
money. Until then, I'm figuring out how to clean and restore them
which is fun.

If it happens... $10,000 for an SB-303, well, I can dream, can't I?

Yep.

Things like that do happen - some time back there was an unopened unbuilt AT-1
on eBay. Date code of 1956, one of the very last AT-1s, sat on a shelf for more
than 40 years.

Final bid price for that kit (original price $29.95) was $5100. That's not a
typo - five thousand one hundred US dollars.

73 de Jim, N2EY

N2EY wrote:
In article , "jakdedert"
writes:

"JJ" wrote in message
...
No Spam wrote:


Unfortunately, I dropped out of Ham radio to work on S/360 OS/MVT
and then MVS systems so I didn't have the first hand experience of
seeing the dieoff.

Same hear, running around fixing 360 main frames and related I/O
kept me too busy to ham much.

Both of you (as well as myself) *WERE* the die off....

What "die off"? The US manufacturers died off but the number of hams
just grew and grew...

Are they *still* growing? I think not....

jak

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , "jakdedert"
writes:

What "die off"? The US manufacturers died off but the number of hams
just grew and grew...

Are they *still* growing? I think not....

Actually the number of US hams is still growing, but very slowly. See

http://www.ah0a.org

The slowdown in growth started about 10 years ago - long after the time periods
we were discussing.

73 de Jim, N2EY

PAMNO (N2EY) wrote:
It [Bash] *was* cheating.

Someone always feels cheated:
Extras when Generals were given their frequencies in 1953.
Generals when their frequencies were later taken away.
The Government when Bash helped get em back with .
Fossil hams when the Government started using Bash test methods.
And you Jim when I have my Extra given to me for sitting on my butt...

In article , Aaron Jones
writes:

(N2EY) wrote:
It [Bash] *was* cheating.

Someone always feels cheated:
Extras when Generals were given their frequencies in 1953.

Advanceds too. "No kids, no lids, no space cadets, Class A operators only..."

Generals when their frequencies were later taken away.

I wuz there, I remember.

The Government when Bash helped get em back with .

With what?

FCC didn't do a thing.

Fossil hams when the Government started using Bash test methods.

I'm only 50 - not quite a fossil yet...

And you Jim when I have my Extra given to me for sitting on my butt...

When's that going to happen?

You have Advanced, right? Which means you've been waiting as much as 36
years.....

Good to hear from ya, "Aaron".

73 de Jim, N2EY

Nice shot Jim !

The advanced: When I sat in front of the FCC examiner way back when, I
thought that was the most technically difficult exam, and still think
so.

Bob
W1CNY

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The gold in the "Golden Years" is really rust !

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article , Aaron Jones
writes:

(N2EY) wrote:
It [Bash] *was* cheating.

Someone always feels cheated:
Extras when Generals were given their frequencies in 1953.

Advanceds too. "No kids, no lids, no space cadets, Class A operators
only..."

Generals when their frequencies were later taken away.

I wuz there, I remember.

The Government when Bash helped get em back with .

With what?

FCC didn't do a thing.

Fossil hams when the Government started using Bash test methods.

I'm only 50 - not quite a fossil yet...

And you Jim when I have my Extra given to me for sitting on my
butt...

When's that going to happen?

You have Advanced, right? Which means you've been waiting as much as
36
years.....

Good to hear from ya, "Aaron".

73 de Jim, N2EY

Bob Rinaldi wrote:

Nice shot Jim !

The advanced: When I sat in front of the FCC examiner way back when, I
thought that was the most technically difficult exam, and still think
so.

Bob
W1CNY

Anybody who had to go to Atlanta for their tests in the late 60s and
early 70s will remember the ill-tempered old biddy who dealt with exams.
She had a special place on her list from those of us from the
Charlotte area because we were 'supposed' to go to Norfolk instead of
bothering her.
Passing one of 'her' tests had a bit of added satisfaction.

-Bill M