Memory Lane Trip for OFs.

[wa9cwx]

Ok,
I saw the TV memory lane thread, great nostalgia.
Everything was perfect, just absolutely perfect in 1955.

NO ONE thought about war, everyone had enough to eat in every country, all people were treated with equal respect, all diseases had been eliminated and every news source reported only the truth, all the time.

There was no corruption, all food was prepared by someones grandmother, and grown by small farmers who never heard of chemicals. Big companies only wanted to help the little people have better lives and the Government was populated by underpaid willing public servants who had only OUR best interests at heart.

Hams were all engineers who respected eachother and built only their own gear, updating it monthly to keep it ahead of the general electronics industry.
They invented circuits in their garages that led to communications in space, and various other things, such as frequency hopping, digital voice encryption, cell phones and the internet.
The average code speed of HF operators was 75 WPM.
The only commercial equiptment were tubes (hard to keep a constant vacum in the garage) and transformers for high voltage.
All else was built with small bits of wire and scrap kitchen utensils.

Wonder IF your memory is a little different....

WHAT did you NOT like about tube / older gear that you NOW welcome in the new gear ?

What NEW things that you couldn't IMAGINE are now common, and you just can't live without ?

What, if anything, did you actually HATE about getting on the air, that is NOW a non-issue due to some new technology ?

What is now a non existant issue because of technology advances ?

And, other than the simple nostalgia of things glowing in the dark, what older technology would you wish were still here, that is basicly non-existant in new gear ?

This is NOT a thread about dumbing down tests, rule changes, attitudes on the air, club participation, etc. Rather, it is an overview of technology issues relating to changes in GEAR over the years.
Yea, we will see how long THAT lasts...

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[wa9cwx]

My OWN preference for older gear is the sound of what I would call a 'gentle' slope in most receivers in the narrow CW position.

The 6-60 DB points were usually about a full KC or more in the narrow position.

It seems that today, although I certtainly do not claim any technical knowledge, the selectivity slopes are literally "brick wall" steep.

I know SOME are variable, but the harshness of processed audio in a VERY sharp filter is not enjoyable to me. GREAT for DX pile-ups, but NOT for ragchewing.

What I DON'T miss is the drifting, and the jumping of the frequency every time I bump the table.

I ALSO love not throwing three or four switches on each transmission.

I miss tuning up. But not when QSYing during a contest.

[al7n]

Stuff I like now that wasn't around when I got started circa 1957....

HF Transceivers that run on 12-14 VDC
and will put out 80-100 watts RF

Excellent QSK No manual switching from transmit to receive

HF transceivers instead of separate transmitters and receivers

Digital frequency readout

DTMF touch tone telephones

Battery operated accurate clocks and watches

[K7JBQ]

Here's what I really miss: The serious CLACK of the DowKey relay.

Here's what I really don't: The B&W TV downstairs with the 21 Megacycle IF.

73,
Bill

[AG3Y]

I don't know about the original poster's world, but in 1955, I was taught to "duck and cover" ! Certainly not the care-free utopia that he remembers !

There was only one TV set on our block, and after school, all the kids gathered in the living room to sit in front of the little 8 inch BW screen and watch such classics as "Boston Blackie" and "The Lone Ranger" or "Hopalong Cassidy" , those "B" features from the movie houses of just a few years earlier.

TV dinners were just a few years around the corner, and finally when we did get out own set, we were treated to such magnificent productions as "Playhouse 90" and "The Hallmark Card Theater". I wish I had been old enough to really appreciate those shows, because there were some real classics on them, such as "Requiem For A Heavywight" and "Death Of A Salesman" ! They were just too deep for me to understand at that time of my life.

As far as equipment was concerned, I still wish that a solid-state version of the venerable Drake 2B receiver were available today. What a wonderful design! I still don't see anything wrong with the hybred transmitter designs of the pre-WARC days, either. Tubes could take a lot of abuse, load into impossible antennas for todays rigs, and put out sweet signals that rival anything that all the but the most expensive rigs being built today would never be able to equal! And give me KNOBS that I can get my fingers wrapped around ! None of these silly little pushbuttons, and "alt function" keys that you have to hold down in order to get through layers and layers of menus. I LOVE a separate switch or knob to control each individual function on a radio. And I LOVE a radio that takes up enough room on my desktop so that I don't have to put on my reading glasses to squint at the frequency readout, or function switch to see where I am on the band ( and even which band I am on ! ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif )

Well, that is enough to get you started. Actually, my "youth" and my ham career were about 15 years apart, since my fear of the code kept me from the amateur bands for so long, but that has been covered in other posts.

Someone elses turn, I yield the floor ! 73, Jim

[wa9cwx]

Gee, did I NEED to add a little http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif after each paragraph ?

[ke4nhp]

What I like:
I could heat the room with the Atlas or Drake Twins even on a cold winters night in Northern Indiana and I lived in the highest place in the county, had room for wire antennas cut to resonance (I didn't know what an antenna tuner was.) #NOBODY worried about my tower or antennas.

What I like now:
I can switch bands quickly and easily, I can fit more than one radio on a desk top and actually carry it to another location without the help of a fork lift or three healthy body builders. #

What I don't like:

It seemed that hams were a bit more friendly way back when. #I never remember anyone using colorful language on the air. #Now, I'm selective about who is in the room with me.

73 - ke4nhp

[W4HAY]

What I don't miss:
*That stupid CONELRAD monitor
*Having to walk home after (censored) with my date cuz we played the car radio too long.
*rigs that jumped frequency whenever the refrigerator compressor kicked in
*Dumont TV sets
*Q-multipliers
*Hash from Mercury vapor rectifiers
*Parasitics from 807s
*Out-of-band pink slip from FCC cuz the final was accidentally dipped on the 2nd harmonic
*IRCs

[wa4ilh]

I Don't miss the receiver that drifted 5 Kc ... errrr, ... I mean KHz after the first 30 minutes it was turned on and then SLOW drift after that.
I do't miss having to keep a mobile log and having to sign /mobile 2 after my call, even though I was two miles from home.
I don't miss having to get on the train to New York and then having to walk 12 blocks to the Federal building to take my test (TWICE)
I don't miss the (converted) two meter Motorola radio that only had two channels and 40 watts output which actually consumed SO much power from the vehicle battery that the headlights dimmed when I keyed the mic and the dynamotor spun up.
Tom WA4ILH

[W5HTW]

I kind of hate to say this, but I can't think of anything 'bad' about the "good old days" of ham radio -- except: I never had enough money to get what I wanted. That left me with military surplus and used rigs, for a very long time. When, for high school graduation, my parents bought a brand new Johnson Viking II and VFO, which cost them more than it would have cost them to replace my 1950 Ford, I was, for a short time, way above Hog Heaven! Then I went into the military and they sold my radio! (With my permission, of cours, as I couldn't take it overseas.)

I think my financially restricted youth ham-dom taught me things I would never have learned had I been rich. So that's a good thing. Interestingly, most of my ham friends seemed to also have money problems, except for one, and he had a new DX35 and SX-96.

It seemed I was always able to get up some kind of antenna, though often it was an end fed wire hung out my bedroom window. The old ARC5s tuned that wire with delight. But I am sure I would have embarrassed an SWR meter into running down the street screaming of abuse.

I don't miss 21 mc IFs on the TVs. I don't miss deep fringe Channel Two television, either. I don't really miss having my meager station set up beside my bed, due to space limitations. I don't miss getting across a 600 vdc power source. I don't miss 'kissin the microphone' and having it hotly kiss me back. I don't miss cathode keying, especially when I built a cathode modulator and had a metal microphone in my hand. That one cost me a few seconds of consciousness, and I awoke behind the bed.

I do miss the lack of switching power supplies everywhere.

I'd be much happier if there was no internet.

ed

[ai4ep]

...if there was no internet 9 out of 10 of us reading this post would actually be talking on the radio, on some band, some mode.

So based on that logic, when the HF bands open up again, does that mean fewer of us will be here on the internet and on the radio instead ?

THAT remains to be seen.

[AG3Y]

I certainly think so, Robert ! Right now, the bands are the PITS ! ! ! At least here in Western Maryland http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[K0RGR]

Yes, the biggest difference is the level of activity on the bands. If you weren't around in the 60's or 70's it is probably hard to imagine wall-to-wall signals on almost any open band. Lots of people calling CQ. Finding a QRM-free spot on 20 meters was impossible. That's all that I miss. There's still a lot of activity on HF, but it's not as obvious. PSK31 crams a lot of QSO's into a tiny space on the band, further making it seem quiet.

[KA4DPO]

I miss being able to make a contact on CW almost any day, or time of day on some band.

I miss the smell of bakelite in the shack.

I miss being able to put up antennas when there weren't a bunch of restrictions,

I don't miss the smell of burnt selenium rectifiers, or burnt transformer oil.

I don't miss having to re tune my receiver several times during a QSO and having to warm up the gear for an hour before even trying.

I don't miss getting the crap knocked out of me because I forgot that my key was hot, or stuck my hand too close to B+ while working on something.

I don't miss not having a notch filter, crystal lattice filters, or DSP. The phasing type of crystal filters weren't all that good.

Most of all, I don't miss getting yelled at by my neighbors and everyone in the house for TVI.

[ac3p]

How about those heterodynes from the competeing AM signals on HF. I don't miss those.

I miss transceivers that run more the 100 Watts.

The old Tempo One could put out 200 Watts and was affordable and that was just in the '70s.

I miss all the fellows I used to talk to who are now SK.

[WA5VQM]

Hmm. 1955. Let's see.

I miss being fed or hugged every time I cried.
I miss being able to poop in my drawers and it being considered normal.
I miss everyone thinking my every emission was "cute".
I miss drooling.
I don't miss those creamed peas.
I don't miss not being able to walk.
I don't miss those bars on the bed. What was I? A criminal?

Ah, but overall good times, good times. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

OK, I drug my feet and didn't become a ham until 1968. Many of the statements of others still fit then. It was fun. So from the perspective of the late 60's:

I miss the novice bands being full.
I miss Generals and above Elmering on the air by working newbies rather than complaining about them.
I miss that a large percentage of us were in the same boat: marginal/homebrew gear that shouldn't have worked, but did.
I miss not knowing any better.
I miss the sense of community in knowing that we all went through the same process and progression to get on the air.
I miss that most people didn't think they owned a frequency.
I miss call district numbers that actually told you where the station was.

But for all the things I miss about ham radio, there's still much to enjoy, like bagging DT8A last night on 30 meters with 100 watts and a crummy antenna. The beat goes on.... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

73, Mark

[ky5u]

Quote[/b] (WA5VQM @ Sep. 27 2006,08:34)]Hmm. 1955. Let's see.

I miss being fed or hugged every time I cried.
I miss being able to poop in my drawers and it being considered normal.
I miss everyone thinking my every emission was "cute".
I miss drooling.
I don't miss those creamed peas.
I don't miss not being able to walk.
I don't miss those bars on the bed. What was I? A criminal?

Ah, but overall good times, good times. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
Hang around for another 20 years. You'll get another chance.

[k0cmh]

Although new to Hamdom, I was a radio operator in the military in the early 70s, and much of our equipment was WWII/Korea vintage.

I miss:

- every function had a big knob with big letters printed by it.
- Everything could be fixed if all you had was a pliers, a screwdriver and a soldering iron.
- Radio equipment that you could actually fix yourself.
- Keeping my coffee warm for hours on top of the final amp.
- No menues to cursor through.
- One switch, one function.
- The sweet sound of tube audio (especially when listening to the RTTY coming through).
- The smell of warm, light oil on the TTY printers.
- Analog meters that accurately showed real numbers, not little squares that mean nothing.

What I don't miss:

- Drifing RX and TX
- Dipping and loading for ever, every time you move just a few KHzs.
- Over heated dummy loads.
- Constantly replacing tubes.
- 500 pounds of racked equipment for 500 watts output.
- RF burns because your buddy won't keep his fingers off the key while you are working on the antenna (because you don't shut down the rig because it is such a pain to get it warmed up again and get back on frequency).
-Frequency knobs and displays that never return to "dead on" and always need either adjusting or "kentucky windage".
- Bakelite knobs that always crack during the most important contact.
- Miles of cable/wire betwen the receiver, exciter, amp, etc. etc. that always get tangled up.

[kj3n]

Quote[/b] (AG3Y @ Sep. 26 2006,15:41)]I don't know about the original poster's world, but in 1955, I was taught to "duck and cover" !
And, as Lewis Black points out, you were told to hide under KINDLING!!!

# http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif # http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[ac3p]

I was thinking about "Duck and Cover" when I saw a clip from "Jericho" with boy standing on the roof looking at the mushroom cloud.

Since it was a clip I don't know if a shock wave knocks him off the roof or not but I immediately thought, "Duck and Cover".

I remember those air raid drills every Monday at 1 p.m. The siren would go off and we would crawl under the desks at school.

I used to think if the Ruskies wanted to attack 1 p.m. was a good time because everyone would think it was a drill.

[K3UD]

I miss Bert the turtle also.

We had nightly air raid testing and drills in school. Get under the desk. This lasted through the Cuban Missile crises but had stopped by 1963/64. During the Cuban situation we had it in the back of our minds that we could be toast. We had 3 Nike missile sites around Philadelphia to shoot down the Soviet bombers if they ever came. In the early 70s we used one of those sites as a field day location. Although the missiles had been removed, there was still a spooky quality to it.

As far as ham radio is concerned sometimes I think it was amazing that we were able to make QSO's on the Novice CW bands with the equipment we had to work with back then. However we did not know any better and used the tools we had, and it was a great time. I miss the 6 and 2 meter bands and the way they used to fill up with locals on any given evening. I miss the Gotham ads http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif and the Gotham antennas (I had a V-160). I am not sure that I miss crystal control though. I also miss all of the ham radio shops we had in the Philadelphia area and in South Jersey. All gone now.
I miss Gil and John Troster in QST and the 73 magazine of the period. I miss the field days when we would have 10-15 younger hams show up to operate. I miss the high school and college nets and the old 3880 AM gang with WA1HLR and the others. I used to use a carrier controlled Knight Kit T-60 to check in.

I don't miss the TVI and BCI problems, especially when using 6 meters and I don't miss the pot shots that some hams, even back then, would hurl at the newbies. I miss the feeling you get when you go down the the FCC office and pass an exam, but I don't miss the feeling you get when you fail the test. I miss the wide variety of hamfests. You could attend several a month within a 100 mile radius. Mostly gone now. I miss the VHF contest stations that I used to be a part of for a number of years.

It is hard to go back again.

73
George
K3UD

[K9ALT]

I was licensed in 1977 when I was 14 and as I am almost thirty years an amateur radio operator, I guess that qualifies me as an OF. #No, I wasn't alive in the fab fifties, so I don't know what it was like back then but things were pretty cool when I became a ham in the seventies.
#I miss the magic and excitement
#I miss my elmer( W5CIL now SK)
#I miss radios I can fix myself
#I miss the smell and warmth of tube type radios
#I miss having five license classes
#I miss #going to the FCC office for tests
#I miss getting on a local 2 meter repeater to say I
#was monitoring and actually get a response to my call.
#I miss older hams being decent and helpful to younger
#hams( especially all those who helped me)
#I miss generally things the way they were but as it is
#they aren't the way they were... even though it's still a
#great hobby...one I wouldn't trade for any. #http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
#73,
#K9ALT

[ac3p]

Quote[/b] ]During the Cuban situation we had it in the back of our minds that we could be toast. We had 3 Nike missile sites around Philadelphia to shoot down the Soviet bombers if they ever came.

Same in Baltimore. There was a map in the newpapers
showing the the expected damage area in Baltimore if a 10 megaton hit the city center. Needless to say, where I lived was considered a dead zone.

[K3UD]

Quote[/b] (ac3p @ Sep. 28 2006,07:42)]Quote[/b] ]During the Cuban situation we had it in the back of our minds that we could be toast. We had 3 Nike missile sites around Philadelphia to shoot down the Soviet bombers if they ever came.

Same in Baltimore. There was a map in the newpapers
showing the the expected damage area in Baltimore if a 10 megaton hit the city center. Needless to say, where I lived was considered a dead zone.
We also saw it in the papers but the most scary thing was the graphics that they were using on TV. They showed the ranges of the missiles and the rings of the potential destruction zones around Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and cities to the south.

I remember my parents talking about heading to somewhere west until this was either resolved or until we knew whether or not we could go back or if everything we knew was destroyed. I think the plan was to resettle if it came to that.

Although we had the anti aircraft defenses, those defenses were not capable of shooting down an IRBM. But I did not know that at the time and I don't think we heard much about it in the news media. Perhaps the defenses were just a false hope and nothing was said about them.

The Cuban Missile crisis was a defining moment for me at age 11 and I have read almost everything about it that has been accessable to me since that time.


73
George
K3UD

[w0aew]

Ah, the Cuban missile crisis.

My mom decided the hall closet was going to be our bomb shelter. Being the thrifty person she was, she went to the store to purchase the least expensive canned goods to stock it with.

Dad came home from work. Mom took him over to the closet, opened it, and proudly revealed the shelves piled high with miniature cans of Vienna sausages (and that was all).

Dad took one look and said that if the big one hit, he was going out onto the front lawn with his arms spread wide to greet the blast.

The local mall had displays of bomb shelters. In one was the reproduction of some newspaper from December 8, 1941, with large headlines announcing Pearl Harbor.

Some neighbors further down the block yielded to the hysteria and had a shelter installed. They gave us a tour. It was small, so we went in one by one while the owner talked about its various features. My Dad asked about the rifle mounted over the doorway (hatch, really). "Oh, that's to shoot anyone who tries to get in." That was the last time Dad spoke to them. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

Since I was a kid, I figured we'd live forever so it really didn't stress me any.

[WA5VQM]

One thing I recall from the Cuban Missile crisis is my second-grade teacher telling the class "we may all die this weekend". At first you might think how awful it was for her to say that but in hindsight it's obvious she was scared to death.

I also recall drills marching single file from the school to a bomb shelter a couple of doors down.

Later it was Duck and cover. In the hall, next to the lockers. Even at that tender age I thought "how is this gonna protect us from an A-Bomb?" I mean we were just a couple of miles from a SAC base (Barksdale). We were gonna be toast no matter what.

[KA4DPO]

I also remember the air raid drills. I was 11 or 12 when the Cuban Missile Crisis occured and I remember all of the adults being very frightened. Being a kid at that age has the advatage of a certain amount of blissful ignorance of danger. It wasn't until several years later that I actually realized just how serious that event really was. That's the closest the world has ever come to total annihilation.

I didn't get my Novice until three or four years later but I also remember the Connelrad monitoring rules for amateurs. If you're an OF like me you also remember the Connelrad markings all the receiver dials and the old monitor receivers. I still have two receivers that have those markings.

[ab9lz]

Not quite old enough for the missle crisis, but I do remember being glued to the TV to watch the moon launch stuff, to me the guys at mission control were the coolest, and looking like them became a local fashion amongst my older brothers friends (today we call them "dorks"). When I discovered that my neighbor had a mini version of mission control in his basement in the form of a ham station, and a glorious one at that with a large mix of Collins and Homebrew stuff, I was hooked. Mowed every lawn in the neighborhood to earn enough money (plus I think my dad kicked in a few) to buy a Heathkit HR10b. Front end was as wide as a barn door, as sensitive as a drunken sailor, drifted like the Exxon Valdez, hummed like a beehive, but still a great radio for a ten year old.

Moved away before getting my ticket tho, finally got around to it last year.

73 Mark.

[KI4PEQ]

I was in first grade when the Cuban Missle Crisis unfolded. Fort Lauderdale was well within the potential strke zone, and back then Homestead, McCoy, and MacDill AFB were all active duty bases. South and central Florida would have been nuked until they glowed.

When I was older, I read a book about what would have happened to Florida should the balloon have gone up. Anyone remember a book called "Alas, Babylon"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alas,_Babylon

[wa9cwx]

Alas,

Another thread mutates, from invisible fallout from the Cuban Missle crisis.. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Remember the Civil Defense nets on VHF ?

I always wondered just how LONG those rigs would last if they really HAD to use battery power...?

I used to check in with my trusty Polycomm 6&2.

You could run that off of a set of 'D' cells.

Yep, 'D' cells.....Any guesses as to how many and how long they wouild last......... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[ac3p]

We call them Commex's now.

Lot's of people had Gonset AM transceivers for CD back then. Rumor had it that you could get free gear if you volunteered for Civil Defense.

I remember the old Heathkit HW30 (Two'er) had a dial marker on the receiver for Civil Air Patrol.

[WA2ZDY]

Quote[/b] (KI4PEQ @ Sep. 28 2006,15:48)]When I was older, I read a book about what would have happened to Florida should the balloon have gone up. Anyone remember a book called "Alas, Babylon"?
Ah yes, the fictional Fort Repose, Florida and Colonel Randy . . . what a fantastic book that is.

I was 14 when my brother loaned his copy to me with dire instructions to guard it with my life. It finally disappeared after a move in September 2004.

It took some doing but I replaced his copy and got one for myself too. The new printing I now have has a short biography about the author, Pat Frank. That was very interesting. Sadly Pat Frank (not his real name) passed on in 1964. I wonder what he thought during the Cuban Missle Crisis.

Another fine post-nuclear war novel is "On The Beach" by Neville Shute.

I was a first grader in 1966-1967. I remember a few air raid drills but I think by then they'd realised that quaint little Westfield, NJ, all of 15 miles from Manhattan was doomed no matter what.

Memories indeed.